Hidden under a sweaty white hospital sheet, Khadga Bahadur Pun’s scarred left leg lies useless, four months after he was beaten by Maoist rebels determined to wipe out dissent in their rural strongholds.
The former shopkeeper in Nepal’s western Bardia district said his sole offence was support of the right-wing Rashtriya Prajatantra Party.
”A bunch of young Maoists approached me and clobbered me with wooden sticks. The doctors say I may never walk again,” said Pun, staring at the bare gray wall facing his bed.
Pun has plenty of company at the general hospital in dusty Nepalgunj, an Indian border town 520km southwest of the Nepali capital Kathmandu – the closest population centre to Maoist-controlled territory.
About 24 men are crammed into two rooms reserved for the Maoists’ victims, each bed only half a metre away from the next.
A handwritten sign at one of the entrances reads simply, ”The disaster room.”
Ram Bahadur BC, a teacher in the Surkhet district north of here, has bruises all over his stomach, back and thighs. He said he was abducted from his home late at night 11 days earlier and beaten senseless with clubs and the rebels’ boots.
”They did this to me because they know I back the Nepali Congress (ruling party). The Maoists want to finish off all support for the Congress,” he said.
The Maoists declared a ”people’s war” in 1996 to topple the constitutional monarchy and establish a republic they say would benefit the kingdom’s impoverished majority. With ruthless attacks on the army and police, the ragtag peasant army has captured areas in seven of Nepal’s 75 districts.
But while the rebels say they are fighting for freedom of thought, opponents say the Maoists have resorted to terror to eliminate any dissent. Teachers are a common target, as the Maoists view their government-paid salaries with suspicion.
Whatever their means, the Maoists seem to be successful. Of the Maoists’ victims languishing in Nepalgunj’s hospital, none said they would return home, even those who left behind families.
The government provides treatment to these casualties of the insurgency, but few of the displaced villagers know what they will do if and when they get up on their feet again.
”I have two children, one is 11 and the other nine. But I’m not going to go home. I’d be guaranteed death on arrival,” Pun said.
A school headmaster in the disaster room said he was abducted from his village 20 days ago by the Maoists, who dragged him to a deserted area far away.
”They beat me with huge sticks – some wooden, some iron. They asked me why I support democracy, why I’m against the revolution. I replied just that I disagreed with them.
”I cried loudly and between 70 and 80 women and children from the village came to rescue me. The Maoists ran away, but by the time people found me I was unconscious.”
The headmaster, who declined to give his name fearing the Maoists would harm his eight-year-old daughter and three-year-old son, was taken to local hospitals and then to Nepalgunj for treatment on his joints.
The government cites attacks like these as reasons why the Maoists are a terrorist force, like al-Qaida, that only understands force. After the Maoists broke a ceasefire in November, the government deployed the army and ruled out new peace talks until the rebels lay down their arms.
But the headmaster said if the Maoist rebellion is to be ended, the government must also work to eliminate the desperation that leads the poor to join the rebels’ ranks.
”In the context of Nepal, a poor country, poverty needs to be alleviated. So many people are sad and illiterate; there are so many socio-economic and political problems to be resolved.”
Few in the disaster room shared the headmaster’s philosophical approach.
”The Maoists are just a bunch of terrorists,” said Pun.
”If they had support they wouldn’t do things like this. The only people who can bring them under control are the army.” – Sapa-AFP