No Dashain high among displaced folks

BY GHANASHYAM OJHA

KATHMANDU, Oct 3 - Little children are frolicking around a pie bald goat tied to a wooden pole. Babies in mothers' arms are fidgeting to eye the goat while some other children are busy playing in the mud---scooping it up and making temples and houses. An ...

...of approaching Dashain, the greatest festival of the Hindus, is palpable among the young, and the sight of the goat has multiplied the euphoria. But the older folks wear a forlorn look. Their worry is how to pay the Rs. 7,000-cost of the goat. The internally displaced, who have been living at Bankaali temple on the banks of the Bagmati river, are caught between their dismal penury and the festive mood Dashain has brought among the children.

"Some folks have gone to the city to collect donations for a Dashain goat," says Bhojraj Timalsina, president of the National Struggle Committee of Maoist Victims (NSCMV), a loose network of people who were tortured and displaced by the Maoists during the decade-long armed conflict.

Some 500 displaced living at Bankaali temple are planning to celebrate this Dashain with a customary goat.

"If any generous souls listen to our plight, we may be able to purchase the food and other items for the festival," says Timalsina of Kuika VDC-2 in Achham district, who became displaced in 1998.

Each displaced individual has a poignant tale of losing a home or a loved one during the decade of armed conflict.

"The Maoists killed my husband and son, and they captured my property. But I haven't yet received a paisa in compensation," says Maghmali Budha, 52, of Kotgau VDC-3 in Rolpa district.

Meghmali was displaced in 2002 after the Maoists killed her husband Prasad Budha and son Hira Bahadur on the charge of spying against their party.

Hugely dismayed by the government's indifference to her pleas, she recently joined the struggle committee of Maoist victims, who have launched indefinite protests to get back their  property from the Maoists.

Dashain has hardly brought cheer to Meghmali's furrowed face. "How can I be happy over Dashain while I have yet to get justice for the killing of my husband and son," she asks, adding: "I think we will celebrate Dashain in the street.

Like Meghmali, Parbata Gharti, 32, of Jajarkot VDC-7 in Rolpa district, is much unsettled by the approach of Dashain.

She feels a little stung when her little daughters ask for new clothes. "I have nothing to give them. And I feel like crying when they ask me for new clothes," says Gharti, carrying a baby on her back.

She was displaced in 2004 when Maoist cadres beat her up and seized her house. Despite their repeated commitments, the Maoists haven't yet returned her property.

"Dashain or Tihar, I will not return home until the Maoists return my property and the government provides me compensation," Gharti says.

The sporadic bleating of the goat brings the children running toward it while the exhausted faces of the older folks manage a grin.

"We feel strange in Kathmandu and we're learning to live strangely," says NSCMV president Timalsina.

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