by THALIF DEEN
Former Prime Minister of Nepal Sher Bahadur Deuba (left) calls on Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India PHOTO/Wikimedia Commons
A coalition of independent Nepali citizens – including diplomats, journalists, women’s rights leaders, medical doctors and former U.N. officials – is calling on the international community and the United Nations to take “effective steps” to help remove an “economic blockade” imposed on Nepal.
The appeal expresses deep concern over the de facto economic blockade of the past two months by India, which they say, has resulted in ”a serious humanitarian crisis in Nepal”.
“We appeal to the concerned parties of Nepal, and to the international community, including India, to take effective steps to bring this crisis to an immediate end,” says the joint message released Oct. 30.
Asked what the U.N. can do, Kul Chandra Gautam, a former U.N. assistant secretary-general and deputy executive director of UNICEF, told IPS the United Nations can call for an end to the Indian blockade – “or whatever diplomatic phrases it wishes to use” – on humanitarian grounds.
The world body, he said, can also call on various protesting parties to allow free flow of essential goods without any disruption.
Additionally, he said, the U.N.’s ‘Special Rapporteur on Unilateral Coercive Measures with Serious Negative Impact on the Enjoyment of Human Rights’ can look into the impact of India’s de facto blockade on Nepal
Even during wars and conflict, Gautam pointed out, the U.N. has often called for humanitarian cease-fires, days of tranquility, humanitarian corridors, etc. especially during Christmas and other holidays.
“This is Nepal’s most important holiday season of Dasain/Dussehera, Tihar/Deepawali, Chhat.”
These holidays are commonly observed in India, as well as Nepal and other neighbouring countries. India should be extra magnanimous during such festive periods of family reunion, he added.
The Indian government has denied it has imposed a blockade, and says the obstruction at the border is solely the result of agitation within Nepal.
Disagreeing with this claim, the signatories say there is ample evidence to the contrary, as observed in the go-slow at custom checkpoints, the refusal by the Indian Oil Corporation as monopoly supplier to load fuel tankers from Nepal, and reports in the Indian press quoting Seema Shuraksha Bal (border security force) officers that they have been asked to block shipments.
Inter Press Service for more