Military on parade ground

Corcoran:  This is the frontline of Nepal's hidden war. Combat police training for a campaign against an unseen foe.

01:00:00:00

00:05

But rifle drill will be of little use when they march off to fight the enemy - a  Maoist guerrilla force vowing to overthrow the government.

The official death toll of this three year conflict now stands at 700, but the real figure may be much higher.

00:18

00:28

Chintan

Chintan:  More than 2,000. Between 2,000 to 3,000 people have been died in the past three years or so.

00:40

Corcoran:  And how many people are in jail? And who've been charged or are facing charges?

00:49

Super:

GOPAL SIWAKOTI CHINTAN

Human Rights Lawyer

Chintan:  I would say more than 2,000 again, because in all these Maoist affected areas the prisons are normally full. And most of these people are innocent, or they been put in jail under fake charges for example.

00:53

Corcoran:   And how many people have simply disappeared?

01:10

Chintan:  In the past six months, for example, there have been many police operation, many police operation. So I would say - I would just guess - that more than 500 people would have been disappeared.

01:13

Night shots in village

Corcoran:   Effectively controlling about 20 percent of rural Nepal, the obsessively secretive Maoists have avoided all contact with foreigners, with the notable exception of their ideological brethren, Peru's Shining Path Movement.

01:31

Now for the first time, they agree to emerge from the shadows to talk about their so-called ‘People's War.'

01:47

Interview with mm

Maoist:  Our party in concentrating where they [the government] are weak.  We will gradually move into the cities one by one and raise the awareness of the people - gain their support - then one day we will take our movement to Kathmandu.

01:57

Map Nepal showing Maoist held areas/temple

Music/Chanting

Tourists at temple

Corcoran:  Nepal, a destination of mountains and temples. For the tourists, it's a quick hit of boutique Buddhism.

02:34

But this timeless spiritualism is enmeshed with poverty, a quaint backdrop for the tourist cameras, but a bleak existence if you actually have to live here in one of the world's poorest countries.

02:48

Now in desperation, many are embracing another faith - that of Mao Tse Tung.

03:01

Passing villages from car

Chanting

Corcoran:  Leave the tourist circuit behind, travel off the trekking routes, and you will see a Nepal that hardly fits the peaceful postcard image.

03:14

Night shots in Dang Valley with police

Corcoran:  We're in the Dang Valley, western Nepal, the Maoist heartland. With an infra-red camera we join the nightly combat police patrol.

03:34

Patrol Commander:  Until now, the situation is clear --  we are proceeding to the junction very soon.

03:45

Corcoran:   The police are on edge. There's a blackout and they suspect the Maoists have blown up the powerlines again.

03:50

Few of these faces lit by oil lamps are friendly. As many as 70 percent of the people here support the Maoist cause. Villagers by day become insurgents by night.

04:01

Police officer on patrol

Corcoran:   How can you tell which people are Maoists?

04:15

Policeman:  Umm... we now by their activities... they are always setting ambushes... and are at war.

Corcoran:  A vague response that avoids the brutal reality. Police often shoot suspects on sight, and torture is common. Every dead civilian automatically becomes a Maoist.

04:33

Young policeman

Corcoran:   Have you been in an ambush situation?

Young policeman:  Yeah, we are often in ambushes.

04:47

Corcoran:   In Dang itself?

Young policeman: Yes, we've been ambushed in the Dang Valley.

Young policeman 2:  ...And in the jungle, and each small town... we are always being confronted in ambushes.

Corcoran:  The night passes without incident, but the next night's patrol isn't so lucky.

05:05

Wounded man in hospital

Man:  Where are you?

Wife:  I am by your side.

Corcoran:  One man is killed and four others wounded in an ambush. The survivors, evacuated to this police hospital. They join a ward already full of wounded police, and consider themselves lucky.

05:19

Police hospital

Other detachments have been wiped out by Maoist hordes armed with knives, explosives and captured rifles. It becomes clear the situation is far worse than the government admits.

05:34

Wounded Policeman in hospital

Wounded Policeman 1:  ...then we started to run... It was then, when I started to run, I was shot.

05:47

Corcoran:   Did they shoot at you from all sides?

Wounded Policeman 1:   Yes, from all four sides - 11 p.m. on the night of the 19th.

Corcoran:   What happened to the other 17 men?

Wounded Policeman 1:  Some managed to escape - others got shot in the attempt.

Wounded Policeman 2

Wounded Policeman 2:  About 30 Maoists came and attacked us in the police station.

06:08

Of the three of us, two were shot and one was stabbed in the head with a kukri knife.  They also took his rifle.

View of villages from car

Music

Corcoran:   Maoism may be a fading ideology just over the border in China, but it's rapidly gaining support here. To understand why, we leave the Dang Valley, and head for the Maoist controlled Himalayan foothills. To guarantee our safe passage, we're escorted by a senior Maoist cadre, who risks been shot on sight at police roadblocks.

06:32

Hammer and sickle on wall

Maoist Guide:  We are just going over there to tell our friends that we are here.

Man:  How far, how far?

Maoist Guide:  Just there, just there.

06:55

Policeman watches guide

Corcoran:   Our presence attracts little interest. Police appear demoralised. They control little more than the ground they stand on. And are preoccupied with surviving the night ahead.

07:04

View of countryside from car/entering Salyan

All eyes are upon us as we enter the town of Salyan, headquarters of what the Maoists call their base area.

07:21

Villagers with donkey

Corcoran:  By now, everyone knows why we're here, yet no one dares approach us. There's a police surveillance team in the area, and we're told to wait for the cover of darkness.

07:42

Night shots, Corcoran in village/visit to Maoist

Corcoran:  Finally, we're summoned to meet the local Maoist leaders.

07:59

As with so many revolutionary movements, they're young, well-educated and city bred. A world away from the rural masses they claim to lead.

Maoist:  The government has not given people security or employment - nor have they fulfilled their promises --  that's why these people are supporting this revolutionary movement.

08:22

Corcoran:   What is Maoism? Can you provide me with a definition of what Maoism is?

08:37

Maoist:  Maoism is something for the masses who are suffering in the countryside.  Peasants... farmers, represent Maoism.  If the Maoists take over government we will look after the sufferers.  The farmers... peasants... everyone will be equal.

Maoist 2:  Our party only targets our opponents because we know that not everyone is our enemy --  but the police are crazy and blind - they attack everyone, and make them suffer.

Corcoran:  Police posts have been attacked and wiped out. Is that necessary?

09:16

Maoist:  We know that lots of innocent people are suffering - but they attack us -that's why we take action.  Our friends disappear... the elderly and children are kidnapped and killed by the police. Our unity is very strong - we are fighting for a cause.

09:21

Dawn at Salyan

Corcoran:  At dawn, the young cadres are gone, and the quiet desperation of the place becomes apparent.

09:51

Corcoran:   These days, Nepal's King Birendra commands little more than the loyalty of his army. Until 1990 he'd ruled as an absolute monarch, showing scant regard for the welfare of his subjects.

10:10

Then came people power and democracy, and expectations of reform in what was little more than a feudal kingdom.

Communist rally

Music/singing

Corcoran:  Into this brave new world marched a bewildering array of communist groups and factions who struck a chord with their promises of equality and economic reform.

10:46

Music/singing

Corcoran:   The largest - the United Marxist Leninist Party - served in a series of unstable coalition governments that became mired by corruption and incompetence. In 1996, the Maoists accused the comrades of betraying the cause, declared democracy a failure, and launched their ‘People's War.'

11:00

Photos of funeral

Chanting/Music

11:21

Corcoran:   Politicians of all parties have been murdered, but the Maoists have a special retribution for the so-called class traitors. This United Marxist Leninist candidate was virtually decapitated with a kukri knife while campaigning for re-election.

11:30

Rally

Corcoran:   That attack failed to stop the recent election, but drove the mainstream Marxists into a frenzy.

11:56

Trumpets

Corcoran:   Now communist vows revenge against communist.

12:07

Politician:  I'd like to tell you people we will destroy these outside forces!

We'll destroy them.  We'll go into battle  and we'll make these people  taste and smell our mother earth!

 We will crush them - I promise you!

12:14

Corcoran:  The campaign speeches are big on retribution, but short on policies of rural reform - the very issue driving support for the Maoist revolt.

12:37

Chintan with students

Human Rights lawyer Gopal Siwakoti Chintan is one of the few people who dares confront the government over the People's War. He provides information to the United Nations on the growing litany of human rights abuses.

12:48

Chintan:  The police have been educated to crush democracy - the democracy we've fought for.  They've also tried to destroy our role as human rights activists.

13:03

Corcoran:   Accused of collaboration with the Maoists, Chintan was arrested and later released without charge. But his extensive documentation of human rights abuses was confiscated.

13:11

Chintan interview

Chintan:  Psychologically speaking, politically speaking, the government is losing the battle, the government is losing in the People's War.  Because it has not been able to promote, or to deliver, any alternatives to what Maoists are claiming. Maoists are claiming, not necessarily the republic of Nepal, like tomorrow. They are talking about food, they are talking against corruption, water, energy, day to day basic needs of social and economic measures that everyone should be doing.

13:23

People at newsstand with papers

Corcoran:  Reporting such views in Kathmandu is a dangerous business. Government attempts to eliminate the Maoists have now broadened to include the arrest or disappearance of anyone who deviates from the official version of this war.

13:58

Newspaper office

I'd arranged a meeting with the journalists of the left wing ‘Jana Ahwan Weekly,' a paper that runs interviews with the Maoists.

14:15

Within minutes of my arrival, deputy editor, Om Sharma  -- with the beard and light brown short-sleeved shirt - is seized by counter-terrorist police. As Om Sharma is led away, his editor, Bhim Prakash and several other journalists, are arrested in raids across Kathmandu.

14:26

Arrest of Prakash

Corcoran:  Where are you taking him?

14:45

Policeman:  Oh yeah, office.

Corcoran:    Why? Why are you taking him to the office?

15:06

Policeman:  Someone is coming.

Corcoran:  Excuse me sir, you speak English, why are you taking this man to the office?

Policeman:  We are busy, yeah.

Copy boy

Corcoran:  A copy boy guides me to where his colleagues are being held - a police station in the heart of the tourist district. The journalists are being interrogated barely 20 metres away from one of the country's top attractions.

15:22

Corcoran outside police station

Corcoran:   I'd like to see the officer in charge. Officer in charge. In here.

15:36

Corcoran:  I'm told the police chief is busy. Someone else will take care of me.

15:47

Inside police station

Policeman:  You want to know why Bhim Prakash has been arrested?

15:52

Corcoran:   That's right.

Policeman: Bhim Prakash?

Corcoran:  And four other journalists, one of whom I was having a meeting with an hour ago.

16:00

Policeman:  Bhim Prakash?

16:10

Corcoran:   What is this list? What is the list that you've got? What is this?

Policeman:  Bhim Prakash?

Corcoran:   He's an editor of a newspaper, and then I was meeting with one of his associates, one of the journalists from the newspaper.

Policeman:  You want to take interview with me?

Corcoran:   No, I want to find, meet Bhim Prakash.

16:29

Corcoran:   What? What's wrong? Why not?

Policeman:  I am not authorised guy.

Corcoran:   Well, you're holding him.

16:44

Joshi

Joshi:  This is a democratic system. Everything is open. I cannot hide anything.

16:45

Corcoran:  Until the election, Govinda Raj Joshi was Nepal's Home Minister, in charge of police and internal security. Basically the Minister for the People's War.

16:50

Joshi:  We have raided the office, and find out some very important things concerning the Maoist activities.

17:00

Corcoran:   Well, I'll name one of the papers - Jana Ahwan Weekly - a left wing newspaper. You've arrested two journalists, and three support staff of that paper.

17:07

Joshi:  Not as journalists, but you know, that was the mouth paper of the Maoist Party, which is not legal in our country. And they are justifying the Maoist activities.

Slo mo arrest of Om Sharma

Corcoran:    But Nepal's Supreme Court disagreed. After Om Sharma and Bhim Prakash had endured a month of interrogation, the court ordered their immediate release without charge. However three other journalists are still missing, and believed to be in police custody.

17:35

Man with generator

Out in Salyan, few people comprehend Maoist ideology. For them, it's simply a matter of supporting a movement that's trying to improve their lot.

17:57

In a nation where 85 percent of the people still don't have electricity, the Maoists provided a practical solution.

18:10

Village maintenance man

Shopkeepers were organised into a local co-op, to buy an old generator. Now, the maintenance man risks arrest as a collaborator. Around Salyan, people have been killed for far lesser offences.

18:23

Photo of dead mayor

Corcoran:   This is, this is your husband?

18:48

Widow:  This is my husband - he was 27 years old.  He was like his son.

18:51

Widow with child and mother

Corcoran:  Bhuma Kumari is a 27 year old widow with four children. Her husband, Hem Raj, was village development chairman - basically the mayor of Salyan. A loyal of the mainstream communist party, his community activities gained the respect of the Maoists.

19:09

Mother:  My son dreamt of seeing this village prosper... of getting the bus station, road and water here.

19:28

Brother with baby

Corcoran:  His brother, Jhup Lal, who also opposes the Maoists, now does what he can to help around the farm.

19:37

It was Jhup Lal who witnessed the death of his brother last year, while attempting to stop police from beating two students.

19:47

Brother:  The police did not listen - they abused him and said he was also a Maoist.

19:55

They started beating him - he pleaded for them to stop.  They didn't listen.  Then they shot him in the stomach.  He fell to the ground with his hands over his stomach. After the police killed my brother  they had a sword and Maoist flag ready - and they put them on my dead brother's body  and took a photograph.

Joshi interview

Corcoran:    We've been up in the Salyan area. There was the head of a village development committee, who tried to intervene and stop police beating two students. He was basically executed in the village, in front of dozens of people. This was the head of a village. And nothing has happened. Nothing has been done. That's a well documented case. That's only one.

20:41

Joshi:  No, no. Maybe - but I have not that, that case has not come to me up to this stage.

Corcoran:   But there were dozens of witnesses. Dozens of witnesses.

Joshi:  I don't believe it.

Corcoran:   It happened in broad daylight.

Joshi:  I don't believe it.

Army guys running

Chanting

Corcoran:  Until now, the government has resisted the temptation to call in the army. Senior police fear the military's greater fire power will lead to a massive increase in civilian casualties, and play straight into the Maoists hands. So it's a surprise to see an army battalion of 600 men setting up camp in Salyan. Officially they're building roads, but there isn't a grader or shovel in sight.

21:22

Chanting

Corcoran with army guys

Corcoran:   With a hidden camera still running, the officers become somewhat more candid.

21:57

Corcoran:  Why have they suddenly decided to construct a road now, in the middle of the election?... Is that a good question?

22:02

Soldier:  Yes... a very intelligent question.

22:10

Corcoran:   Can you tell me? Can you tell me the answer?

22:14

Soldier:  Maybe political pressure... or something...

Corcoran:  A security problem also?

Soldier:  Yeah... security problem. Political interest plus security.

Himalayas/Tourists on plane

Corcoran:  For foreigners searching for a little mountain mysticism, a few dollars buys you Mount Everest's inner peace and a t-shirt.

22:58

The government may be losing the hearts and minds campaign, but it has managed to hide the scale of this conflict from the outside world, and keep those precious tourist dollars flowing in.

23:09

But if the Maoists get their way, that could all change. They dream of a Nepal transformed into a red fort, with the hammer and sickle flying firmly over Everest.

23:21