In the article entitled, "This Turbulent Monarchy: Nepal and the Shah dynasty, Will Tuladhar-Douglas initially begins by stateing that "Bloody oppression is nothing new in Nepal, nor is resistance to particularly unpleasant Shah kings. The difference today is that Nepalese had already won the struggle for democracy once, fifteen years ago, before the most recent king tore up the constitution and brought in the army."

Tuladhar-Douglas examines the politcal history of Nepal and explains the three major political forces and how they came about by political events. He outlines briefly the People's War and how Birendra's policy toward the Maoist (an opposing force) were cautious because he did not believe in asking the Nepalese Army to kill Nepalese. The political power because dispursed into three major players that of King Birendra, the elected government, and the Maoists.

He discusses the palace massacre along with human rights violations reported by Amnesty International on all sides and then the Kind declared an emergercy state somewhere around 2001.

By January 2005. just two brief months ago another problem occurred. The Maoists called for strikes against the government. The Shah dynasty had been looking for support from the Indian government, but in turn the Indian government supported the Nepalese elected officials. Two NGO's were shut down one that supported Tibetan refugees and another dealing with human rights.

On February 1, 2005, Gyanendra a member of the Shah dynasty, declared another state of emergency. After his speech ended all telephone and internet communications were cut. Journalist, politicians, and activists were sent off to internment camps. Many political opponents went underground. A week later communication was restored, but no one know what occurred in Nepal during the week. Media is subject to army censorship.

The question needs to be raised what happened in that one week of no communication. And how come a country that has one their own democracy fifteen years ago is not allowed to experience freedom?

I found this article both informative and discouraging. Unfortunately, with the Nepalese people it shows how quickly freedoms can be taken away when no other outside force is trying to ensure the safety and freedom of the people of Nepal.

http://www.asiamedia.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=20866%5BEdit by="ldriscoll on Mar 16, 5:02:26 PM"][/Edit]