Voices from the Field - IRC Blog

From the window of a small cargo plane filled with rice sacks and jerry cans, I get a close-up look at the magnificent Himalayan Mountains. The snow-capped peaks rise well above our cruising altitude and winds from the valleys below rock the aircraft with violent bumps of turbulence.
 
We have taken off from the town of Birendranagar in mid-western Nepal and are heading for Mugu district in the Karnali zone, the most remote region of Nepal. Hunkered down in the plane’s rear next to me, my colleague Mohan Acharya says that this area was also among the hardest-hit during the country’s long civil war between the Maoists and the Nepalese army.
 
“It is a very poor part of the country,” he says as we continue to bounce around in the turbulent Himalayan air. “Economic growth has taken place almost exclusively in urban areas. The rural economy has been more or less stagnant, especially here in the mountainous regions.”
 
There is a serious shortage of health services, clean water and nutritious food in Nepal’s western mountain communities. As a result, life expectancy in Mugu district is below 40 years, compared to 70 in the capital Kathmandu. Although the Maoist insurgency found fertile ground in these poor communities, the communist cadres drove tens of thousands of people from their homes in a campaign of terror.
 
“Both the Maoists and the Nepalese army were engaged in torture and abuses of civilians, and many people fled this area,” explains Mohan who works as an assistant protection manager for the International Rescue Committee in Birendranagar. “The Maoists demanded loyalty from people and those who disagreed with their politics were driven out. And there was also the risk of getting caught in the crossfire. Some people fled to Nepalgunj in the southern plains, others as far away as Kathmandu. Hundreds of people are still missing and are presumably dead.”
 
After the peace deal in late 2006, people gradually started to return after years of displacement. The International Rescue Committee came here to help people restart their lives by providing seeds, agricultural tools, livestock, essential household items and clothing.

One of the most isolated and impoverished areas of Nepal, life expectancy in Mugu district is
below 40 years, compared to 70 in the capital Kathmandu. Photo: Peter Biro/The IRC.
 
Engines roaring, the aircraft suddenly banks while making a rapid descent. Looking out through the window I cannot for the life of me work out where the pilot is putting us down. Then, barely visible in the rocky landscape, I see a short and narrow gravel strip carved into the side of a mountain. Seconds later, the pilot slams on the brakes and gives full reverse thrust. The plane comes to an abrupt halt nerve-wrackingly close to the precipice.
 
The only way to get to the villages in the Karnali area is to walk and Mohan estimates that our journey will require four days of hard trekking with few breaks. As we make our way uphill from the airstrip, we pass the ruins of a police station. The posts, often the only bastions of state authority in the countryside, were frequently targeted by the Maoist guerrillas during the ten-year conflict.
 
Struggling uphill, my eyes scan the trail for rocks and gravel that my boots could to cling to. Sweat pours down my back and I soon begin to feel the effects of the thin air, panting for breath with every step.

Her husband killed by the Maoists, Banchu Rokaya (second from left) is one of thousands who
fled the Karnali area during the Nepalese civil war. “This is not an uncommon story,” says
the IRC’s Mohan Acharya (right). Photo: Peter Biro/The IRC.
 
After hours of walking, we stop for a break at a small shack made from mud and stones next to the mountain trail. Banchu Rokaya, a 45-year-old woman with a wool blanket thrown over her shoulders, is serving tea with hints of ginger and black pepper. One of the thousands of people who recently retuned to this area, the woman and her family were helped by the International Rescue Committee with clothes, household items and tools so that she could repair her broken house.
 
Banchu says that her life was shattered three years ago when a group of men showed up in front of the house.
 
“It was the Maoists from this area,” she says, pouring us a second cup of tea. “They accused my husband of being an informer for the army. They tied him up and took him away. After three months I found out that they had shot him and dumped his body in the Karnali River. I was afraid for the safety of my children so we decided to run away from here.”
 
A year after the peace deal that ended the war between the Maoists and the government – and after almost three years in a camp for internally displaced in the southern city of Nepalgunj – Banchu finally decided to return.
 
“We couldn’t make any money in the camp,” she explains. “At least here I have a house and some land. But I had to start all over again; when we came back here, the house was damaged and everything looted.”
 
Banchu Rokaya grows some vegetables and makes a living by offering shelter and food for people traveling on this desolate mountain path. It’s barely enough to feed her family, she says. But her biggest worry is her two sons, aged 10 and 9, who were left behind in Nepalgunj.
 
“A man came to the camp one day and told me that he would take care of my boys and help them go to school. Now I know that they are working in someone’s house without pay. I can’t have them back until I pay 20,000 rupees ($310). I don’t know anyone who could lend me the money.”
 
Mohan, who is taking notes as the woman speaks, shakes his head.
 
“We can help this woman file a complaint with the authorities,” he says as we prepare to leave for a nearby hut where we plan to spend the night. “This is not an uncommon story in this area. So many people disappeared during the conflict. And so many people struggle to get by. There is too much suffering here.”