Maoist Strike is Crippling Kathmandu
I’m seeing a frustrating trend of political parties and other organizations to use demonstrations and organized civil unrest to unseat goverments and get their way. For the last several days the Maoists in Kathmandu have been striking and demonstrating. They’ve been forcing all shops and business owners to close and nearly all vehicles off the road.
Evidently, clearly marked tourist vehicles are allowed on the roads so that people can still be picked up at the airport and transferred to their hotels and taken on tours. That’s one of the advantages of being on a pre-arranged tour or trek like Red Lantern Journeys offers.
Here’s a good article in the New York Times describing the situation there.
The director of the Mitrata Nepal Foundation for Children, Dr. Christine Schutz, is currently in Nepal and reported to the Mitrata board members (of which I’m one) on the situation. Here are excerpts from her report:
Dear Friends,
Greetings again from Kathmandu! This is the 4th day of the bandh [strike] and there are demonstrations every day. In the mornings, the demonstrators come through and you can hear them all around the city from far away. It is strangely otherwise so much quieter and less polluted than usual. The air is clearer and it has rained several times. So the blessing of the bandh is better air and no noise pollution either! No cars and no traffic. Lots of riot police with big shields and army around though. I think this is actually reassuring to everyone at this point. The police were gearing up for this days before as we saw a lot of them as we came back into KTM form Bathali. Otherwise, during the day, in Thamel people walk around aimlessly. No shopping for the tourists! But it is easy to walk around now.
Everyone walks everywhere now or they stay home. The Maoists have banned the use of any vehicles except emergency ones and water trucks. We see lots more bicycles out. No shops are open as everyone closes since the Maoists go around and extort money or threaten shop owners if they stay open. All schools have been closed for days and the children are bored too. The Maoists allow 2 times per day of opening 6-8 in morning and at night only. At those times, everyone scrambles to buy food and other needed items. The restaurants are not even staying open. The only place to get food is in a hotel except during those short times of opening. Our food is mediocre at best so we are sampling some others.
All my friends are frustrated as they cannot do business. Tourists and other business people are glad to leave KTM since they can’t get out of the city to travel or do business normally. No transportation at all. There are some rickshaws around Thamel only. It is also hard to have meetings with the folks that we are supposed to be having. Anjoo lives in Baneshwor and this is a major area Maoists congregation and far away to walk. So she has not come in to work for days now. My meditation practice is coming in handy as patience and flexibility are needed. I never know what we are going to be doing each day. No planning is possible.
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This morning at 4 am there was a loud crashing noise and the electricity went out completely. It sounds like a transformer and not just the usual loss of power. So as I sit in early morning darkness and the strange silence of a city, I admit that I have considered trying to get an early flight out. The prime minister is not resigning and the Maoists are not quitting, so I am not sure what will give here. I have heard that the UN envoy is coming in later this week, so maybe that will help. The Maoists are also going to run out of food and supplies soon. They have usurped schools and other buildings to house their massive numbers of people that they brought in from outside the capital for the demonstrations. But with the water shortage and power outages, they will run out of supplies soon. Some I hear are walking back to their villages. Many of them did not understand why they were here in the first place!. Crazy!
So I will keep you informed on our situation. It is a political stalemate at present. For now, I think there is nothing to do as I don’t think we could get a flight out anyway (there are only a couple each week to Hongkong) and we are safe here. The biggest challenge may be getting to the airport on Saturday as there are no taxis running. I have heard the Maoists are letting through some tourist buses clearly marked for the airport and we may be able to get on one of those. I think it may be a bit of a walk with luggage to that point though. I may be leaving a couple of those extra suitcases behind!.
So I am going up on the roof to see the city and morning light as it is now 5 am. Peace and love to all of you,
Christine
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