I've just had a three day break in Pokhara - my first holiday since May last year. So that meant a break from blogging as well. Pokhara enjoys twice the precipitation of Kathmandu and my trip didn't quite coincide with the end of the monsoon. It poured incessantly for the first day and a half of the visit.
In my post of the 5th August I mentioned the trouble that was simmering beneath the surface on the Terai, the southern plains of Nepal. Essentially this stemmed from the culture clash between the ethnic Indian (Madhesi) population and the immigrant hill people (Pahadi) who have been there for the last couple of generations. The Madhesi have been discriminated against historically and the pahadi have dominated society nationally as well as locally in the south.
In the past week this tension erupted into sectarian violence in Kapilvastu district, one district along from Rupendehi where we conduct some of our project work. It seems that there has been some kind of a pogrom going on - the first of its kind in many years in Nepal. Looking at the press reports, it was hard to discern who the actual victims were; maybe this is something that the nation prefers to talk around and overlook in the hope that it will go away. But today I heard from Dilip Bhattarai, Chairman of our local partner organisation, that the victims had been for the most part Pahadi people. He had joined journalists and human rights workers on a trip into the troubled area. They had found 1,000 homes burned, 150 vehicles destroyed, 33 people murdered, 100 missing and a rampage of destruction conducted against business interests. Although the violence has subsided for now, uncertain times still lie ahead and this may be but a foretaste of what might recur after the coming elections
On a brighter note, we have now raised £24,000 towards our appeal for the £30,000 required for two art workshops for child trafficking victims. I am always overawed by the generosity of the general public who continue to back throughout difficult times when institutional support can be very limited.
