After the theft of my rucksack at Kathmandu bus park I reported the incident to the tourist police. Their office is about a 15min taxi ride away from where I stay near Rata Park - a big dusty open area where demonstrations take place, circled by a one-way road and often very busy with traffic. The police were very friendly and told me to come back in a week when they had ‘conducted their investigation.’ So that I did on 8 March, which happens to be International Women’s Day. When I arrived no one had written up a ‘report’ on my case [this turned out to be a piece of paper listing what had been stolen, from where it was stolen - and nothing more. Call me a cynic but I think the 'investigation' may have been a fiction, though in truth I held out no hope of them actually recovering any of the stuff I had nicked, it just would have been nice if they actually went to the scene of the crime!]. Anyway, being International Women’s Day a big march was taking place in the centre of Kathmandu and was passing by the tourist police office when I was there. Ironically, as the hundreds of women filed past playing music and chanting, there I sat with six male policemen chatting away whilst the only woman officer typed up my report. As this took some time I wandered outside and noticed the police office had Panasonic air conditioners. I guess they have different authorised distributors based on the product – none for cameras, but some for ACs – that or the police have been importing AC units from the Gulf?
Anyway, report complete I rejoined my taxi [who had been patiently waiting] and off we shot. However, not long after setting off we abruptly stopped – in the middle of the road were 20-30 riot police having stones and bricks rained down on them by a group of 30-40 guys in Ratna Park. The stone throwers had also decided to set light to a large truck sat just inside the park railings – which from its colour I suspect belonged to the police. Using their shields like umbrellas, the police weathered the onslaught for a minute or two then retreated across the road out of range, lobbying a few tear gas grenades for good measure. By this time the traffic had built up into one massive jam, apparently posing an excellent target for further stone and brick throwing practice – though why these unidentified men had a grievance against those of us in the traffic jam remains a mystery. Suffice to say it started to rain stones. All things considered I think my taxi driver responded with a fair degree of calm – though the logic of what everyone tried to do next is open to question. All those at the front of the jam – including my taxi – decided to turn round and drive back along the one-way street. The only problem was there were about 200 cars now backed up making escape impossible. The stone throwers advanced – no doubt energised by their sitting duck targets – and three quick impacts followed as my taxi got hit, one of which took out the rear window, glass a flying. It was at this point I weighed up whether to remain in the relative shelter of the taxi and weather the storm or get out and try to make it across to the other side of the road. Escape won the day and off I shot, leaving my poor taxi driver with a big tip and a rather dented car. By the time I reached the other side of the road the police had rallied and pushed back the stone throwers, chasing them to the other side of the park. A crowd then gathered round the burning truck, which was really beginning to go up. This struck me as rather unwise as the flames were licking round the petrol tank – however, maybe they just had more faith in the incredibly under-resourced Nepal fire brigade who turned up not long afterwards and put the fire out.
Later I found out that the stone throwers were ex-policemen who had deserted the force during the 10 year conflict and now wanted to be reinstated. You can’t be too hard on them deserting as the police really got in hard during the conflict, especially at the beginning before the army was deployed as they were the primary target of the Maoists. But throwing stones at the public doesn’t really strike me as the most appropriate form of protest for a policeman! Unfortunately, this is an illustration of an all too common phenomenon in Nepal of late – immediately escalating the method of protest to an extreme level that disproportionately impacts on perfectly innocent members of the public, like the perpetual bandas [strikes] that force people to close their businesses and drive all traffic off the roads [and if you disobey your vehicle with be burnt!]. There is even now a ‘Banda Watch’ web site tracking when and where they are occuring so prevalent are they. Now in extreme cases this is arguably legitimate, like during Jana Andolan II [people power protests to bring down the autocratic rule of the King and army] but not because you didn’t get a pay rise or you want a new school built on your village. I even read about a banda to protest against bandas – I am not sure if there was supposed to be some deep irony in this. Not that the police cannot respond and ‘keep public order’ if minded to – take the suppression of Tibetan protests in Kathmandu last year or around the 50th anniversary of the failed uprising against Chinese rule. If not then we have surely entered the realm of the absurd – on the first day it rained stones, what next, frogs or locust? When the police fight their ex-colleagues then it has surely become a dog eat dog situation in Nepal – or may Nepal is just going to the dogs?
