In a farm’s basement in the village of Loribang, the leaders of the Maoist party’s local section have gathered the militants from the surrounding villages. All of the people in the attendance (a hundred of them) are supposedly members of the party but the pressure is sometimes so great that is it difficult to distinguish the true volunteers and those who are otherwise constrained. . It is also adequate to highlight the fact that a number of these sympathisers have been victims, directly or indirectly, of violence from the regular army and that all of them suffer from the total absence of minimal infrastructures in the district (for example, there was not the least road across the entire district, up to a recent past).
To the left, Pramod, aged 28, ex-guerrilla member, badly wounded at the arm in 2001 during an assault against a military post, then assigned to the area of Simle dominated by the party, is one of the Maoist leaders – of second grade – who will speak during this meeting. As for the other speakers, he will hold animated discourses – and interminable – against the king of Nepal or against the United States.
These meetings, which last an entire day, are very frequent in the regions dominated by the rebellion. And if the women represent 70% of the adult population, they are only a few lost amongst the attendance. Questioned upon this unbalance, a local leader will reply:” The women are not present because someone needs to remain at home to do the work!”
November - December 2005 - Rukum - Nepal.
© Pierre-Yves GINET