Nepal's armed groups

Nepal's armed groups
NARAYAN MANANDHAR

Based on evidences like threat notes, phone calls, fax copies and pamphlets collected from crime scenes, the Ministry of Home Affairs has recently released names of 109 armed groups and outfits assumed to be operating inside the country. Obviously, many of these are simply fake or criminal outfits masquerading as underground political groups. Recently, a group of extortionists were busted in the far-west operating in the name of Al-Qaeda. It is reported that the government is also studying these groups so that “criminal groups” can be isolated from “political groups” prior to launching the recently outlined special security measures.

Other than mere listing of the names, the report contains no details on the armed outfits. Therefore, it is difficult to generalize anything on their operational strengths and capacities. Yet, going by the listed names, some interesting observations can be made.

It will be interesting if somebody undertakes a full study of the origin and proliferation of armed groups and outfits in Nepal. What will be even more interesting to know is the reason why most of these groups are based in the Tarai plains.Tarai-Madhes concentration: Groups with Tarai/Madhes name tag seem to be the most popular. Simply counting the Tarai/Madhes/Tharu name tags, one can generalize that more than half of these outfits (58 out of 109) are based in the Tarai. A total of 38 groups have the Tarai word fixed to their titles, 15 groups have Madhes(i) word while another three groups have both the words in their names. There might be more groups whose titles do not contain words like Tarai, Madhes or Tharu but are still operating there. My conservative estimate will be that 70 to 75 percent of these armed groups must be based in the Tarai plains. With so many armed outfits operating in or from the Tarai, clearly the problems of public security must be high there. This is also evident from a recently released survey report on public security in Nepal (Saferworld April, 2009). The report found a significant level of insecurity in the Tarai plains. Why is the Tarai such an insecure place? I will leave it to the readers to find the answers themselves.

Ethnic and religious orientation: Again, going by their name tags, there are 11 groups formed with an ethnic cause – Limbuwan, Khambuwan, Kirat, Magar, Tamang, Mongol, etc. A total of six groups have Hindu and/or pro-monarchy orientation. As with Tarai-Madhes orientation, there may be more groups with ethnic and religion orientation but whose titles do not reflect that. Take for example Nepal Defence Army; this is definitely an outfit of Hindu fanatics. There are also groups with overlapping orientations. One can fairly generalize that four factors, namely region, religion, ethnicity and monarchy are the major planks for the operation of armed outfits. There are also groups like International Tigers and Nepal al-Qaeda World Terrorism, which seeks to give an impression that they have a global operation.

Mukti or Liberation/Revolution: After Tarai-Madhes, the second most popular word that goes with the name tag is the word Mukti, meaning liberation in Nepali. As many as 31 groups have mukti or liberation word suffixed to their titles. Krantikari or revolutionary is another popular word that goes with the title. Similarly, Janatantrik and Ganatantrik are two other popular words used by the armed groups. I cannot exactly figure out the difference between Jana and Gana but it must have something to do with the ongoing debate on “democratic” and “republic” concepts.

Inter-group factions & rivalry: Another distinguishing feature of these armed groups is the presence of inter-group rivalry and breakaway factions. Janatantrik Tarai Mukti Morcha goes by eight factions belonging to Ranavir, Himmat, Pawan, Tufan, Jwala Singh, Rajan, Prithivi and Bisfot. Similarly, Sanghiya Limbuwan Rajya Parishad has three factions belonging to Kumar Lingden, Sanjuhang and Misekhang. Since many of these groups are identified with the names of their leaders, personality cult must be a dominating factor in the operation of armed groups.

Army, Sena, Force and Military: After liberation, revolution and republicanism, other popular suffixes in the titles are army, sena, force, ladaku dal, or military. A total of 19 groups have name tags with words related to army. As for example, there is Terai Army, Madhes Special Force, or Rastriya Mukti Sena. Within these groups, army is the most popular suffix followed by sena, which also means army in Nepali. For example, Royal Defense Army, Nepal Defense Army, Royal Army Nepal, Tarai Army, Nepal Gorkha Army, Rastriya Liberation Army, etc.

Copycats: There are also groups with copycat titles like LTTE, which here means Liberation Tigers of Tarai Elam, or Nepal al-Qaida World Terrorism. These groups have nothing to do with their global counterparts other than to cash on their brand names.

Confusing Names: Some names are so confusing that they virtually look similar. There are so many groups having a title like Tarai Mukti Morcha that one can easily get confused and get lost with the name tags. There is Akhil Tarai Mukti Morcha, Janatantrik Tarai Mukti Morcha, Ganatantrik Tarai Mukti Morcha and Janabadi Ganatantrik Mukti Morcha. There is also a group called Tarai Ganatantrik Mukti Morcha.

Amazing Names, Bizarre Titles: There are some groups with amazing names and bizarre titles. Some of the names are: Tamang Cobra, Tarai Cobra, Nag Raj, Madhesi Virus Killers, Tarai Commando, Ajingar X, Dinosaurs and Bhishan Himali Bagh. Just hearing these names can scare you off. Tigers may be dead in Sri Lanka but it is very much live and kicking in Nepal. Out of 16 groups having titles with scary animal names, nine of them have “tiger” fixed to their titles – Tarai Tigers, Madhesi Tigers, Himali Tigers, International Tigers, etc.

It will be interesting if somebody undertakes a full study of the origin, growth, proliferation and operation of these armed groups and outfits in Nepal. What will be even more interesting to know is the reason why the majority of these groups are based in the Tarai plains. It would also be interesting to learn about their underlying motives. These groups can be both the cause and the consequences of general lawlessness in the society. They can also be the product of the decade-long Maoist conflict or the result of our own unregulated open border policy in the south


Published on 2009-08-29 07:50:48
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