Trouble in a Bogus Paradise

It’s easy to regard Nepal as paradise, as long as you don’t live there. Heading for Mt. Everest base camp or trekking toward Annapurna, hikers and climbers can miss the abject poverty of villages far from Katmandu, the capital, and the incompetence of the government.

Last week’s constitutional coup by Nepal’s own King Gyanendra won’t improve matters. The king fired the Cabinet, declared a state of emergency and assumed power for at least three years. Gyanendra said the government had to be replaced because it had failed to defeat Maoist insurgents and had not held elections. But his action will not bring Nepal any closer to ending the 10-year insurgency that has depleted the government treasury and brought indiscriminate army attacks on villagers.

Gyanendra is widely unpopular, and his thuggish son, who could inherit the throne, is even more despised. He is also an accidental king. His brother, King Birendra, was assassinated in 2001 along with his wife by their son, Crown Prince Dipendra, who then is said to have killed himself.

The king has never had any use for elected politicians, who admittedly have done a woeful job of trying to run the country in the 15 years since Nepal was transformed from an absolute monarchy into a constitutional kingdom. But there’s no reason to think that Gyanendra, despite his belief that the army is the real source of his power, will do better on his own in fighting the Maoists. Over the years, they’ve become more unified and increased their support, or at least the toleration of their activities, in the villages where most of the country’s 21 million people live.

The Himalayan kingdom’s high peaks and hidden valleys offer ample shelter to the insurgents; a political, not military, solution is required to end the violence, which has killed about 11,000 people. The longer the attacks last, the stronger the links between the Maoists and guerrillas in two Indian states that border Nepal are likely to grow. That’s the main reason India condemned Gyanendra’s coup so strongly.

The United States also objected, understanding that if Nepal becomes a failed state it could provide a sanctuary for terrorists, as Afghanistan did not long ago. As prime minister of India, Indira Gandhi declared a state of emergency nearly 30 years ago and jailed many of her political opponents, a tactic Gyanendra emulated last week. India recovered when Gandhi held elections, and it has stayed on the democratic path. So there’s hope for Nepal, but the king should not wait for three years, as he declared he would last week. He’s gotten the politicians’ attention and should quickly reaffirm the powers of Nepal’s parliament.