0’2’’
Sunrise in Kathmandu. Every day, the Nepalese reach out to the Gods during their morning exercise.
0’9
They sing, pray and do gymnastics on the sacred hill in the western part of town.
0’29’’
Hindus and Buddhists pray together. The atmosphere is cheerful and relaxed.
0'46"
But away from the hill, down the old worn-out stone steps, visitors enter another Kathmandu.
1'01"
The city is in turmoil. There are pro-democracy demonstrations virtually every day and Maoist rebels have surrounded the capital.
1'13"
Special police units try to prevent demonstrators from entering the city centre. But protestors refused to be silenced. They shout anti-monarchy slogans, calling for the return of democracy.
1'30"
Since seizing control, King Gyanendra has systematically dismantled Nepal’s fledgling democracy. Arrests and human rights abuse have become a part of everyday life.
1'46"
But despite the dangers, the pro-democracy movement is gathering momentum. There’s a real mood for change in Kathmandu.
Krishna Pahadi, a human rights activist and former Amnesty spokesman seen here in the yellow shirt, is leading the call for reform.
2'03"
Meeting him is not always easy. He is permanently on the move to avoid getting arrested. He’s already been jailed 25 times.
Pahadi and his fellow protestors want to strip away the King’s absolutist power. They believe that the monarchy, which once guaranteed Nepal’s stability, has now become one of the greatest causes of insecurity.
2'26"
What is really monarchy in Nepal? Part of a tradition. But this tradition is now crumbling away. Since the 2001 massacre, there has been no support for the new king.
We challenge the king. More than 80% of the Nepalese want a peaceful takeover. They don’t want the Maoist rebels either. We want a new Nepal with a functioning democracy, human rights and social justice.
3'02"
The unpopular new monarch lives in this palace in the heart of the capital. At night, the palace becomes a military fortress: heavily armed soldiers everywhere. Filming is prohibited.
Fearing the rebels and his own people, King Gyanendra is reluctant to leave his palace. He is a member of the Schah dynasty and owes his power to the bloodshed that occurred behind these walls.
3'25"
In 2001 King Gyanendra took his place on the Peacock Throne shortly after his brother and almost the entire royal family were massacred.
The murders shocked the country to its foundations. When the bodies were burned without autopsies first being conducting, rumours started to spread.
King Gyanendra, nicknamed ‘Sour Face’ by opponents, is widely suspected of being implicated in the murders. Trust in the monarchy is at an all time low.
4'16"
Still the trappings of the monarchy remain. The Nepalese like to celebrate and when the King and Queen leave the palace, the city stands still. Like here in Patan—a neighbouring town of Kathmandu where the monarch had the town centre and schools shut down for a seven-hour long celebratory parade.
4'44"
‘This was the PR tour of a king on the defensive, who curtails the rights of the media and those of his citizens’, slammed the English language newspaper ‘Nepali Times’, speculating about what new antidemocratic move his majesty would make next.
5'00"
Kunda Dixit runs one of the most influential political publications in Nepal. His magazines shape critical public opinion in the kingdom.
5'20"
In recent months, he’s increasingly having to fight censorship.
5'26"
OT Kunda Dixit
Publisher, Nepali Times
There are doubts regarding the motivations of the King. In February this year, he concentrated all power on himself. He justified this by claiming that only so he could beat the Maoist rebels. But in the past seven months, he’s only destroyed democracy, persecuted the free press and limited civil rights. One can wonder whether he knows who his real enemies are.
All he’s achieved is a strengthening of the Maoist movement. Many of us in the media, the intellectuals, the political parties and society at large believe that the best way to get rid of the Maoists is a consolidation of democracy, not its weakening.
6'07"
But outside Kathmandu Valley, away from the royal towns of Patan, Bakhtapur and Kathmandu which are controlled by government soldiers, all talk of civil liberties is irrelevant. Here the Maoist counter-government are in control. And it’s here that most of the population live.
6'31"
In remote villages that can only be reach after walking for days, power is tightly controlled by the young people’s revolutionaries. Here, the rural population has exchanged castes system and feudal rule for the message of a sixties style Chinese Cultural Revolution.
6'48"
Calls for democracy in Kathmandu have little impact on these people’s lives. The backbone of the Maoist army is made up of young men without future prospects. But women and children are also conscripted.
7'13"
More and more people are drawn into the conflict.
7'20"
The Maoists uprising began in 1996. Since then, the rural population has been caught up in a brutal civil war.
7'47"
12,000 are dead, hundreds of thousands of refugees have fled the villages and countless children made orphaned. Those unlucky enough to be arrested by soldiers are tortured or simply disappear.
The army’s budget has been doubled over the past three years. In that same period, the livelihood of many peasants has been destroyed, forcing peasants to flee to the capital.
8'11"
OT Kunda Dixit
For a long time, Politicians and the elite in Kathmandu acted as if the rest of the country didn’t exist. The Maoists took advantage of this to increase their power dramatically. Now, the military situation has reached a standstill. The Maoists are not strong enough to take over the entire country, and the army cannot defeat them. We have a situation in which no one can win.
As we cannot win the war, we should resolve the conflict through negotiations. This needs to happen now and not in 25 years when the country is ruined and even more people have died.
8'48"
But in Kathmandu’s tense political atmosphere, there is no great willingness to talk. A stalemate has also been reached between the king, the parties and the civil rights movement. Nepal is slipping into a military dictatorship under the king’s leadership.
9'07"
Tourist quickly get used to the sight of the army at the city’s most famous beauty spots—like here at Durbar Square.
9'26"
The greatest danger is traffic. It pollutes Kathmandu’s air and requires a lot of equanimity from pedestrians.
9'47"
In the late nineties, in times of democratisation and economic boom, tourism was the greatest source of foreign currency. Now this is over.
9'58"
In autumn, the legendary Kathmandu Guest House where the Beatles stayed in the 60s becomes the meeting place for regulars—trekkers and mountaineer enthusiasts—from all over the world.
Many other hotels are struggling because negative headlines scare travellers away. But so far, the Maoists have left tourists alone. The guesthouse’s junior manager emphasises that the rebels are only after money—a tourist tax so to speak. If people want one, they will even get a receipt.
Mountain guides and travel agents could have reached an agreement with the Maoists long ago.
10'35"
OT Rajan Sakya
Kathmandu Guest House
As for safety in Nepal: we are talking mostly about tourists from Europe or the USA, western tourists. They come over here for adventure tourism and mountaineering. In the last fourteen years there hasn’t been a single incident involving a tourist. No tourist has ever been attacked.
11'02"
But there have been cases of Maoists stealing money from tourists. The rebels claim they are a parallel government and demand a mountain tax of 6 –12 Euros.
11'16"
In order to see the repercussions of the crisis on the second most important economic activity, we visit one of the numerous carpet factories in and around Kathmandu.
The ‘Gorakhanath weaving centre’ too has seen better days. The carpet-making industry is the main employer of unqualified workers but it is also stagnating. Today, only 40 young men and women work here. They all come from the country. The civil war has forced hundreds of thousands into the city or abroad.
11'48"
What makes this factory special is its commitment to fair trade. It exports carpets to Europe. Manager Sherhab Dolma Rana makes sure that the weavers work in humane conditions.
She talks problems over with the workers and looks for solutions together with the factory owner.
12'11"
But her work has also grown more difficult during Nepal’s lasting crisis.
12'22"
OT Sherhab Dolma Rana
Coordinator, STEP
Because of the violence in mountain villages, young people are migrating to the cities. They are all looking for work, and so we get more and more workers but at the same time less demand for carpets. As a result, their work’s value sinks. So all our negotiations for better wages, for wages that can sustain a family, become less successful because people are ready to work for less money.
12'54"
Still, Sherhab Dolma’s work bears fruits. There is a nursery—it may be modest and have few toys, but it’s a start. Before, toddlers used to crawl around the factory and inhale cotton fibres.
13'12"
The owner pays for the school tuition of older children. All this is a result of fair trading carpets.
13'21"
The women are afraid to talk to me openly about the Maoists. The nurse tells me about the poverty reigning in the villages and the difficulty to survive there.
13'31"
OT Rima Lama
Nurse
There isn’t enough to eat. More and more people tell themselves: if we have to live this way, then we’d rather move to the city after all. Some of them are left without men. They’re either dead or have moved abroad to work. You have to survive somehow.
13'53"
It’s a humble life, always depending on how many carpets were ordered by someone in Austria or elsewhere. But at least it provides every one with a roof and enough to eat. That also is not a matter of course in Nepal.
12'36"
OT Karma Wangyal
Factory owner, Gorkhanat Handicraft Center
For twelve years, people had high hopes for democracy. But it all came to nothing. Every two or three years we ended up with a new government. We never really had stability.
I’m no politician but as a businessman I say: we need a stable government, whether it’s the Maoists, democratic forces or the king. We need security and stability in order to focus on our businesses, so that Nepal can develop.
15'13"
Many believe that Nepal’s stagnation is due to a lack of investment by the government into the educational system.
15'24"
These children here were lucky. Their parents are poor and come from the caste of the untouchables. But here, they don’t have to pay for their education. Every morning they sing for half an hour, exercise and meditate together.
This project is also financed by fair-trade; funds are provided by business-owners in Austria and Switzerland.
15'53"
Uttam Sanjel, who created the school, is always busy. By now, the poor have entrusted him with over 3000 children. Every day, more children are enrolled at the school. With donations he’s received, he’s built simple bamboo huts and financed the salaries of his young and committed teachers.
16'11"
Until the government starts providing jobs or education for the destitute, the Maoists will continue to attract new recruits..
16'25"
OT Uttam Sanjel
Head of school, Samata Shikshya Neketan
It’s because these young people didn’t have the chance to get an education that they took to weapons. There is also the risk with the children here that they will one day use weapons. But we finally need a long period of peace.
16'42"
Most children’s parents here are weavers and very low earners. They can’t afford to send their children to a private English school, and government schools are also expensive. So the children spend most of the day playing on the streets or collecting trash. Sometimes they sleep there too.
17'08"
To compensate for the ugly environment in which the children grow up, Uttam Sanjel tries to make the school as colourful and beautiful as possible. The school’s garden is part of that remedy.
17'21"
The school’s brightly coloured uniform, which is meant to raise the children’s self-confidence, creates a sense of pride about the school. But this year, there were not enough uniforms to go round since double the number of pupils expected enrolled.
17'55"
In Nepal children usually learn to write and count in English and Nepali at the age of 3 or 4. 40 children are sitting in this small classroom but the education they receive here is a privilege that they wouldn’t enjoy in their home villages.
18'19"
Many families are scared to return to their village because the Maoists abduct children or force them to join.
18'30"
OT
Bimala, 14 Jahre
I won’t return to my village. Sometimes the Maoists come in the night and attack. They’re very dangerous. Some of them are so brutal they also kill. I never want to go back.
18'46"
Dawa, 15 Jahre
They also take children with them because they want to turn them into Maoists. They do it because they want to become as powerful as our king. They want to rule the land. But they don’t do it in a good way.
19'13"
So prayer mills keep on turning perpetually with the mantras for peace. And the people walk around their stupas and temple every morning, hoping to be heard.
19'39"
But so far the prayers of the Nepalese haven’t been fulfilled.
Sunrise in Kathmandu. Every day, the Nepalese reach out to the Gods during their morning exercise.
0’9
They sing, pray and do gymnastics on the sacred hill in the western part of town.
0’29’’
Hindus and Buddhists pray together. The atmosphere is cheerful and relaxed.
0'46"
But away from the hill, down the old worn-out stone steps, visitors enter another Kathmandu.
1'01"
The city is in turmoil. There are pro-democracy demonstrations virtually every day and Maoist rebels have surrounded the capital.
1'13"
Special police units try to prevent demonstrators from entering the city centre. But protestors refused to be silenced. They shout anti-monarchy slogans, calling for the return of democracy.
1'30"
Since seizing control, King Gyanendra has systematically dismantled Nepal’s fledgling democracy. Arrests and human rights abuse have become a part of everyday life.
1'46"
But despite the dangers, the pro-democracy movement is gathering momentum. There’s a real mood for change in Kathmandu.
Krishna Pahadi, a human rights activist and former Amnesty spokesman seen here in the yellow shirt, is leading the call for reform.
2'03"
Meeting him is not always easy. He is permanently on the move to avoid getting arrested. He’s already been jailed 25 times.
Pahadi and his fellow protestors want to strip away the King’s absolutist power. They believe that the monarchy, which once guaranteed Nepal’s stability, has now become one of the greatest causes of insecurity.
2'26"
What is really monarchy in Nepal? Part of a tradition. But this tradition is now crumbling away. Since the 2001 massacre, there has been no support for the new king.
We challenge the king. More than 80% of the Nepalese want a peaceful takeover. They don’t want the Maoist rebels either. We want a new Nepal with a functioning democracy, human rights and social justice.
3'02"
The unpopular new monarch lives in this palace in the heart of the capital. At night, the palace becomes a military fortress: heavily armed soldiers everywhere. Filming is prohibited.
Fearing the rebels and his own people, King Gyanendra is reluctant to leave his palace. He is a member of the Schah dynasty and owes his power to the bloodshed that occurred behind these walls.
3'25"
In 2001 King Gyanendra took his place on the Peacock Throne shortly after his brother and almost the entire royal family were massacred.
The murders shocked the country to its foundations. When the bodies were burned without autopsies first being conducting, rumours started to spread.
King Gyanendra, nicknamed ‘Sour Face’ by opponents, is widely suspected of being implicated in the murders. Trust in the monarchy is at an all time low.
4'16"
Still the trappings of the monarchy remain. The Nepalese like to celebrate and when the King and Queen leave the palace, the city stands still. Like here in Patan—a neighbouring town of Kathmandu where the monarch had the town centre and schools shut down for a seven-hour long celebratory parade.
4'44"
‘This was the PR tour of a king on the defensive, who curtails the rights of the media and those of his citizens’, slammed the English language newspaper ‘Nepali Times’, speculating about what new antidemocratic move his majesty would make next.
5'00"
Kunda Dixit runs one of the most influential political publications in Nepal. His magazines shape critical public opinion in the kingdom.
5'20"
In recent months, he’s increasingly having to fight censorship.
5'26"
OT Kunda Dixit
Publisher, Nepali Times
There are doubts regarding the motivations of the King. In February this year, he concentrated all power on himself. He justified this by claiming that only so he could beat the Maoist rebels. But in the past seven months, he’s only destroyed democracy, persecuted the free press and limited civil rights. One can wonder whether he knows who his real enemies are.
All he’s achieved is a strengthening of the Maoist movement. Many of us in the media, the intellectuals, the political parties and society at large believe that the best way to get rid of the Maoists is a consolidation of democracy, not its weakening.
6'07"
But outside Kathmandu Valley, away from the royal towns of Patan, Bakhtapur and Kathmandu which are controlled by government soldiers, all talk of civil liberties is irrelevant. Here the Maoist counter-government are in control. And it’s here that most of the population live.
6'31"
In remote villages that can only be reach after walking for days, power is tightly controlled by the young people’s revolutionaries. Here, the rural population has exchanged castes system and feudal rule for the message of a sixties style Chinese Cultural Revolution.
6'48"
Calls for democracy in Kathmandu have little impact on these people’s lives. The backbone of the Maoist army is made up of young men without future prospects. But women and children are also conscripted.
7'13"
More and more people are drawn into the conflict.
7'20"
The Maoists uprising began in 1996. Since then, the rural population has been caught up in a brutal civil war.
7'47"
12,000 are dead, hundreds of thousands of refugees have fled the villages and countless children made orphaned. Those unlucky enough to be arrested by soldiers are tortured or simply disappear.
The army’s budget has been doubled over the past three years. In that same period, the livelihood of many peasants has been destroyed, forcing peasants to flee to the capital.
8'11"
OT Kunda Dixit
For a long time, Politicians and the elite in Kathmandu acted as if the rest of the country didn’t exist. The Maoists took advantage of this to increase their power dramatically. Now, the military situation has reached a standstill. The Maoists are not strong enough to take over the entire country, and the army cannot defeat them. We have a situation in which no one can win.
As we cannot win the war, we should resolve the conflict through negotiations. This needs to happen now and not in 25 years when the country is ruined and even more people have died.
8'48"
But in Kathmandu’s tense political atmosphere, there is no great willingness to talk. A stalemate has also been reached between the king, the parties and the civil rights movement. Nepal is slipping into a military dictatorship under the king’s leadership.
9'07"
Tourist quickly get used to the sight of the army at the city’s most famous beauty spots—like here at Durbar Square.
9'26"
The greatest danger is traffic. It pollutes Kathmandu’s air and requires a lot of equanimity from pedestrians.
9'47"
In the late nineties, in times of democratisation and economic boom, tourism was the greatest source of foreign currency. Now this is over.
9'58"
In autumn, the legendary Kathmandu Guest House where the Beatles stayed in the 60s becomes the meeting place for regulars—trekkers and mountaineer enthusiasts—from all over the world.
Many other hotels are struggling because negative headlines scare travellers away. But so far, the Maoists have left tourists alone. The guesthouse’s junior manager emphasises that the rebels are only after money—a tourist tax so to speak. If people want one, they will even get a receipt.
Mountain guides and travel agents could have reached an agreement with the Maoists long ago.
10'35"
OT Rajan Sakya
Kathmandu Guest House
As for safety in Nepal: we are talking mostly about tourists from Europe or the USA, western tourists. They come over here for adventure tourism and mountaineering. In the last fourteen years there hasn’t been a single incident involving a tourist. No tourist has ever been attacked.
11'02"
But there have been cases of Maoists stealing money from tourists. The rebels claim they are a parallel government and demand a mountain tax of 6 –12 Euros.
11'16"
In order to see the repercussions of the crisis on the second most important economic activity, we visit one of the numerous carpet factories in and around Kathmandu.
The ‘Gorakhanath weaving centre’ too has seen better days. The carpet-making industry is the main employer of unqualified workers but it is also stagnating. Today, only 40 young men and women work here. They all come from the country. The civil war has forced hundreds of thousands into the city or abroad.
11'48"
What makes this factory special is its commitment to fair trade. It exports carpets to Europe. Manager Sherhab Dolma Rana makes sure that the weavers work in humane conditions.
She talks problems over with the workers and looks for solutions together with the factory owner.
12'11"
But her work has also grown more difficult during Nepal’s lasting crisis.
12'22"
OT Sherhab Dolma Rana
Coordinator, STEP
Because of the violence in mountain villages, young people are migrating to the cities. They are all looking for work, and so we get more and more workers but at the same time less demand for carpets. As a result, their work’s value sinks. So all our negotiations for better wages, for wages that can sustain a family, become less successful because people are ready to work for less money.
12'54"
Still, Sherhab Dolma’s work bears fruits. There is a nursery—it may be modest and have few toys, but it’s a start. Before, toddlers used to crawl around the factory and inhale cotton fibres.
13'12"
The owner pays for the school tuition of older children. All this is a result of fair trading carpets.
13'21"
The women are afraid to talk to me openly about the Maoists. The nurse tells me about the poverty reigning in the villages and the difficulty to survive there.
13'31"
OT Rima Lama
Nurse
There isn’t enough to eat. More and more people tell themselves: if we have to live this way, then we’d rather move to the city after all. Some of them are left without men. They’re either dead or have moved abroad to work. You have to survive somehow.
13'53"
It’s a humble life, always depending on how many carpets were ordered by someone in Austria or elsewhere. But at least it provides every one with a roof and enough to eat. That also is not a matter of course in Nepal.
12'36"
OT Karma Wangyal
Factory owner, Gorkhanat Handicraft Center
For twelve years, people had high hopes for democracy. But it all came to nothing. Every two or three years we ended up with a new government. We never really had stability.
I’m no politician but as a businessman I say: we need a stable government, whether it’s the Maoists, democratic forces or the king. We need security and stability in order to focus on our businesses, so that Nepal can develop.
15'13"
Many believe that Nepal’s stagnation is due to a lack of investment by the government into the educational system.
15'24"
These children here were lucky. Their parents are poor and come from the caste of the untouchables. But here, they don’t have to pay for their education. Every morning they sing for half an hour, exercise and meditate together.
This project is also financed by fair-trade; funds are provided by business-owners in Austria and Switzerland.
15'53"
Uttam Sanjel, who created the school, is always busy. By now, the poor have entrusted him with over 3000 children. Every day, more children are enrolled at the school. With donations he’s received, he’s built simple bamboo huts and financed the salaries of his young and committed teachers.
16'11"
Until the government starts providing jobs or education for the destitute, the Maoists will continue to attract new recruits..
16'25"
OT Uttam Sanjel
Head of school, Samata Shikshya Neketan
It’s because these young people didn’t have the chance to get an education that they took to weapons. There is also the risk with the children here that they will one day use weapons. But we finally need a long period of peace.
16'42"
Most children’s parents here are weavers and very low earners. They can’t afford to send their children to a private English school, and government schools are also expensive. So the children spend most of the day playing on the streets or collecting trash. Sometimes they sleep there too.
17'08"
To compensate for the ugly environment in which the children grow up, Uttam Sanjel tries to make the school as colourful and beautiful as possible. The school’s garden is part of that remedy.
17'21"
The school’s brightly coloured uniform, which is meant to raise the children’s self-confidence, creates a sense of pride about the school. But this year, there were not enough uniforms to go round since double the number of pupils expected enrolled.
17'55"
In Nepal children usually learn to write and count in English and Nepali at the age of 3 or 4. 40 children are sitting in this small classroom but the education they receive here is a privilege that they wouldn’t enjoy in their home villages.
18'19"
Many families are scared to return to their village because the Maoists abduct children or force them to join.
18'30"
OT
Bimala, 14 Jahre
I won’t return to my village. Sometimes the Maoists come in the night and attack. They’re very dangerous. Some of them are so brutal they also kill. I never want to go back.
18'46"
Dawa, 15 Jahre
They also take children with them because they want to turn them into Maoists. They do it because they want to become as powerful as our king. They want to rule the land. But they don’t do it in a good way.
19'13"
So prayer mills keep on turning perpetually with the mantras for peace. And the people walk around their stupas and temple every morning, hoping to be heard.
19'39"
But so far the prayers of the Nepalese haven’t been fulfilled.