Nepal is holding its first elections this week since 1999, for a constituent assembly that will create a new Constitution for the small landlocked country. The people have endured years of war and struggle, at the hands of the Maoist rebels, an often misguided and brutal communist group. I have encountered these rebels on my multiple trips to the country, and have found them extremely ideologically and morally vague. The root of their struggle seemed to stem from more a lack of viable options rather than true belief of the communist path (which I am sure is not an isolated event in history). In such an remote land, they also lacked current news about armed communist struggle, about how they were a a living vestige of the past, about fighting for an idea that was discredited decades before. I have also encountered the people in the middle; some of the warmest and irrepressible I have encountered in all my travels. I have listened to their horrific stories, brutality at the hands of both the government and the Maoists, both sides showing little regard for basic human rights and dignity. Fathers burned alive in homes; sons tied to trees and mutilated before the innocent eyes of their children; the explanations for such savagery continue to elude me. As in any armed struggle, it is these people, stuck in the middle, who are the true casualties of war; the many impoverished rural peasants in the country, affected most gravely by the Maoist rebellion and general instability. Lets hope these elections can give the country a fresh start to break the chains of both the feudal and Maoist past.
