Finding. Funding.Promoting.
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PEACEBUILDERS: 'YAPE' PROJECT: Rapid Response Fund (RRF) COUNTRY: Nepal RUNNING COSTS: £11,500 pa
“The district is hardly 60 kilometres east of the capital Kathmandu, but you could be forgiven for thinking that it is a million miles away from civilisation.”
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The 2006 peace agreement in Nepal ended a decade long conflict that claimed over 13000 lives and displaced thousands more– but politicians from all parties are still manipulating local disputes to build their power base. Stopping these conflicts from escalating, and protecting the vulnerable from abuses of human rights are YAPE’s (Youth Alliance for Peace and Environment) day to day work – and essential to building ‘peace on the ground’ in the districts around Kathmandu.
“While on a mission last year to settle a dispute between villagers and local Maoists in Dolakha, we had representatives from a big INGO. I spent almost three hours each day documenting and filling in the forms. A French national, who was in the delegation, commented later that the forms reminded him of Soviet Russia. I felt like I was given a sack full of money to ‘help people’ and my hands were tied. With YAPE, we devise our own plans and strategies, and we don’t bureaucratise much.”
Bhoraj Timilsina YAPE
In the 2008 elections the Maoists gained a majority in government and, after a 240-year reign, the monarchy was abolished. However although the election results were accepted by all parties, the new republic has not run smoothly. The situation in Nepal remains fragile, as groups who had previously united for democracy or under the banner of the Maoist insurgency, have begun to split and regroup around ethnic identities. There is growing anarchy in the countryside.
YAPE works by being on hand to intervene in a conflict situation before it escalates. They have created a network of contacts across civil and political leaders in Nepal and their first approach in any conflict is to mediate. Because YAPE knows who to contact and how best to calm a situation they are able to find non violent solutions before it gets out of hand. They call on high level contacts with the Maoist senior command to rein in local agitators, whilst persuading villagers to stand up to intimidation and report incidents to the local police. When disputes turn to violence they use the media to gain national and international attention, and they are quick to involve international bodies such as the United Nations Human Rights Commission.
Key achievements:
- During the elections Maoists tried to use violence and intimidation to stop people from voting. They barred people’s entry from the election booths and threatened to set off bombs in villager’s front yards if they voted. YAPE persuaded the police to intervene and detain the Maoists, and set up a reconciliation meeting to stop further violence.
- Local Maoists forcefully overran a local health centre, leaving three villages with no access to basic medical needs and defying the orders of senior Maoists. YAPE held three negotiation sessions, but the only response they got was threats to kill family members of those who protested. YAPE used its media connections to draw attention to the situation and a national story broke. The Maoists left quietly in the middle of the night.
- Local workers went on strike over conditions in the hotel industry and local Maoists backed the movement due to the potential for political gain. Within days they had drawn up a list of unreasonable demands and bought the 36 hotels in the area to a standstill. Tourists had deserted the area and tensions increased as political parties began to get involved and people took to the streets in protest. YAPE organised a resolution meeting and devised a solution which met everyone’s needs and allowed the hotel to open again.
- A dispute in Kavre between locals quickly spread to involve the police and all political parties. The Maoists’ named 12 people as the troublemakers and released orders to ‘break their bones’. YAPE raised the case with international human rights organisations and got the story into the local media. At the same time YAPE bought the different parties together to negotiate, and in the spotlight of national attention they came to a resolution.
How you can help
The cost of intervening before a dispute gets out of hand is nothing compared to the cost of picking up the pieces after a violent conflict. YAPE needs money to cover their communication and transport costs – most interventions cost less than £200. Your donation will get Bhoraj where he needs to be, and talking to the people he needs to.
YAPE were one of three Nepali organisations in Peace Direct’s Nepal Rapid Response Fund. We have now decided to concentrate funding for Nepal on YAPE alone.
We would like to thank our generous donor who is giving $10000 a year to fund this project, in memory of his wife who loved Nepal.
Jan 2010 A look back on 2009 – Nepal
The situation in Nepal is still very fragile, only last month a general strike called by the Maoists brought a part of the country to a halt. At the beginning of the peace process in 2006 the UN estimated there were 32,000 rebel fighters still armed, to date only 19,000 have given up their weapons. With 128 rebel groups still at large in the south, the task of building peace in Nepal is far from complete.
But, there is still hope for Nepal. Peace Direct funds the work of YAPE in the south of country, who intervene in conflicts before they are able to threaten this fragile peace process. YAPE works to bring justice to people who have suffered human rights abuses to challenge the culture of violence as well as responding to conflicts as they arise.
In October of this year Peace Direct’s Head of International programmes, Tom Ghilespy visited Nepal. YAPE’s representative Bhoraj Timilsina took Tom to meet the people who had suffered through Nepal’s years of conflict. Tom met a widow who talked painfully of her husband’s abduction by Maoists. The rebels extorted money and valuables from her through threats to her missing husband’s life. Only after two years did she find out he was already dead. Bhoraj has bought this case to court, and whilst the case remains ongoing, by demanding justice YAPE is taking the first steps to bringing an end to the cycle of violence.
YAPE in action
In September a disagreement between local people and Maoist affiliated trades unions threatened to enthrall a whole town in violent conflict. Local youths began gathering in the town centre armed with knives, spears and iron rods, whilst on the other side of town the union members were preparing for a fight. The police became involved and arrested some of the youths, which only provoked the situation further as townspeople swarmed the police station accusing the police of caving in to the Maoists by arresting people who were just looking to protect their communities from attack.
Bhoraj Timilsina from YAPE was invited to intervene. As a well known human rights activists the opposing parties were confident their side of the story would be heard without bias or vested interest. At the police station Bhoraj held mediation talks between the community and the transport workers that resulted in the opposing sides signing a pledge to live in harmony.
Oct 2009 Tom’s blog from Nepal
As soon as I arrived in Nepal I had to change my plans – what I had expected to be a time of cheer and celebration as I arrived at the end of Dehwali (festival of light) had become a source of ethnic tension. The argument was over the dates of the festival and as the level of contention rose the government had to concede and extend the festival.As my bag had decided to take a break somewhere in the Middle East, I was grateful for the extra day to allow it to catch up with me. With my bag in hand, and the new schedule for the Delhwali festival finalised we headed 2 hours out of Khatmandu to Kavre district where I met with Bhoraj Timilsina from the Youth Alliance for Peace and Environment (YAPE). Despite numerous death threats and offers of more lucrative INGO jobs in the capital, Bhoraj has stayed committed to Kavre district for over 12 years. He has earned himself respect across society; from the poorest communities up to the police and army chiefs. Mixing his attention between human rights abuses of the past and conflicts of the present as they emerge, Bhoraj and YAPE are working to bring stability to Kavre District.
YAPE has dealt with more conflict related issues that they can count and everywhere we go there is somebody who is grateful to Bhoraj. We met a number of victims of the conflict that he has helped, from a former child soldier to a more recent victim/perpetrator of the violent Tamasaling clashes last June. The story that sticks most in my mind is that of a father who was dragged from his home by security forces one night during the height of the conflict and shot 18 times. His body was found by his wife who died a few months later from heart failure. The consequent anger of one of the man’s daughters led her to disappear one day herself to join the Maoists. Tragically, whilst trying to revenge for her father’s death, she was also killed by security forces in combat. Her brother talked of the cycle of violence and his family’s loss certainly brings the point home.
Nepal is by no means at peace yet; it has yet to face the challenges of political differences, years of ideological indoctrination, unfulfilled promises and at least 13,000 of the 32,000 armed cadres still thought to be in the jungle. Combined with the inevitable anger that is the legacy of civil conflict, the challenge is huge, but as he’s already proven, Bhoraj is not a man to give up hope.
Tom Gillhespy
Head of International Programmes
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Sep 2009 YAPE curbs violence in Nepal
What happened?
Kavre is situatued in the central hilly regions of Nepal, and one of the dominant ethnic groups in the area is the Tamangs (adj: Tamasling). On Sunday 7 June 2009 a Maoist-affiliated Tamasling pressure group instigated a curfew across the district forcibly shutting down businesses. In the town of Banepa a local man chose to ignore the curfew and go out on his motorbike – leading to violent consequences. A small group attacked the man and set fire to his bike. Repercussions spread through out Banepa resulting in local people being assaulted by the Tamasling forces as they rampaged through the town, setting fire to vehicles. Banepa residents took to the streets in protest but what started out as a protest turned into an irate mob of over 1000 people, including party workers from the Nepali congress and United Marxist Leninists (UML). The mob attacked the Maoist regional office – pelting stones, kicking the doors and shouting anti Maoist slogans at the top of their lungs.
The Maoists retaliated by throwing stones and shouting threats. Within minutes a dozen locals and four policemen were injured and chaos ensued as people gave flight in all directions. By 2pm Banepa looked like a war zone and there was wide spread fear felt across the region.
The following day Maoist armed forces gathered from Kathmandu and led by Maoist regional leaders they descended upon the town. A local described their entrance as, ‘a victory parade of a warrior king on a chariot’. Police who tried to halt the offensive were beaten to the ground, the Constable suffering injuries from sticks and bricks. 6 other police officers were similarly beaten up, and over 20 locals were pelted to the ground as they tried to intervene. The violence culminated in the destruction of the UML office.
In the aftermath of the destruction, the Maoist followers gathered in front of their party office and a list of 12 names was read out, some from the Nepali congress, some from UML and some, members of the local community. The order was given ‘Don’t just break up their limbs, crack their backbones.’
Fearing for their lives 3 of the 12 named approached Bhojraj, YAPE’s local co-ordinator and asked him to help secure their safety.
Bhojraj immediately went into action, using his high level contacts and knowledge of the local situation to find a non violent solution to the conflict. He began by reporting the case to the National Human Rights Commission, UNCHR and the Nepal Bar Association, bringing the situation to the eyes of officials and ensuring any further violence would not go undocumented. He then began negotiations with the Maoists – not an easy task as the initial response from the Maoist local leaders suggested they were more concerned with saving face than maintaining peace in the region.
YAPE and other local rights organisations worked tirelessly to raise attention to the case amongst international rights organisations, and to use their position to apply pressure to the Maoist rulers in Kathmandu. The press began to pick up the story: http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/MYAI-7ST5H3?OpenDocument and finally Kathmandu was forced to take action to calm their district troops.
Through Bhojraj’s unrelenting negotiations and by working jointly with local and national rights organisations, this summer’s most violent conflict, escalating from a dispute between a local resident and a Tamasling cadre, was bought to a peaceful resolution.
Jul 2009 Rapid Response Funds – Lessons learnt
Independent evaluation of the RRF’s has now been completed and overall the RRF has been seen to be a positive intervention and the main criticism is not so much with the concept itself but the way it was managed and especially recorded. It has proven to be difficult in all cases to adequately identify the impacts of the RRF and information has been lost. As such, the true impact and activity of the RRF has not always been reflected in the evaluations and this needs to be addressed in the future.
To read the evaluation of Rapid Response Funds in full click http://www.peacedirect.org/wp-content/uploads/rrf-lessons-learnt.pdf
To read the evaluation of the Kenya Rapid Response Fund in full click http://www.peacedirect.org/wp-content/uploads/rrf-evaluation-kenya-02-06-09-final.pdf
To read the evaluation of the Nepal Rapid Response Fund in full click http://www.peacedirect.org/wp-content/uploads/nepal.pdf
Nov 2008 KIRDARC Case Studies
Supporting conflict victims
RRF provides KIRDARC with funds to respond immediately to the needs of conflict victims.
For Munakali, a 38 year old internally displaced woman, RRF has allowed her to change her life, “I am blind, displaced and had been raped. I had no shelter, clothes or food but I hoped to work hard if only someone could give me the means to do so.” KIRDARC responded immediately and after a community meeting to identify the greatest need helped Munakali start a small tea stall promoting peace. Munakali says, “I have found my lost family. KIRDARC have changed my life and now I am able to promote peace and earn through this small business.”
Peace Talks
RRF funding has helped set up peace forums and train peace talkers. There are now 823 grassroots peace talkers helping communities resolve conflict before they escalate. In Dharaphori people were violently beaten whenever they spoke out for peace. KIRDARC training helped 25 year old Maita Buda mediate in a recent dispute over firewood from the public forest. She said, “I never thought I could do something about peace but KIRDARC training helped me to settle our own conflict. The community can now see that collective cooperation can bring positive results. Now we do not need third parties to intervene in our own problems.” Communities now have a feeling of ownership and realize they must do something for peace.
Giving a voice to the voiceless
Gorkha Thapa was so inspired by RRF work that he now broadcasts KIRDARC initiatives through his show on community radio Karnali FM. The “Shanto Bhas” programme encourages others to work for peace, educates and informs. Approximately 432 individuals from the community have aired their voice and provided information about the violent conflict in their respective area.
Caste Conflict
RRF is used to intervene in conflict flashpoint. Violence was threatening in Jumla district after someone from a low caste drank water from a public tap for high caste people. KIRDARC peace workers spent two days with the community to convince both parties to respect human dignity and not use violence against each other.
KIRDARC initiatives through Peace Direct’s RRF have enabled conflicting groups to come closer to the peace without violence, increase willingness to dialogue to resolve the conflict, provide knowledge to bring change in their life. In purpose to promoting peace in the grassroots level it seeks long term RRF to motivate and empower the conflict affected community.
Min Shahi
Director
KIRDARC”
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TOOLS OF PEACE.
FROM EVERYDAY ITEMS.
TO CONFLICT RESOLUTION.
You might not think of your daily paper as a life saver but in Nepal, Bhoraj knows the power of the newspaper.
In the districts around Kathmandu politicians from all parties are using every small local conflict to build their power base. Bhoraj works for YAPE – the Youth Alliance for Peace and Environment, and stopping these conflicts from escalating, and protecting the vulnerable from abuses of human rights is their key objective. Bhoraj does this by mediating between groups, and if necessary using his contacts to get the stories into the press. Sometimes they use pressure from local and national media – at other times the threat of media exposure is sufficient.
Read how Bhoraj used a newspaper article to curb violence in this summer’s most violent conflict >>>
A busy Nepalese street
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