Young Communist League or Young Criminal League

by Rajat KC

Despite the Maoists joining legislative parliament and government, the
Maoists, in the name of Young Communist League (YCL), continue to engage in
looting, vandalism, intimidation and hostility across Nepal.

Nepalnews.com, famous web
news of Nepal mentioned the atrocities of YCL in one single news report, dated
20th May 2007 as: "YCL cadres smeared the face of Narayan Bikram Rana, a
resident at Khata of Dhodhari VDC-9 with tar and took him round the village
yesterday. A local landlord, Rana was charged by the YCL cadres with exploiting
people. They even forced his family members to take refuge in their neighbour's
house and padlocked it. Police later reached the site and freed Rana from YCL
cadres." ..."In another incident the same day, cadres of the league mercilessly
beat up ex-policeman Lokraj Regmi at Shantibatka, Ratnapark, after a heated
argument among them on Saturday.

A police team that reached the spot immediately after receiving the
information about the scuffle found Regmi lying on the ground with injury marks
all over his body." ..."Similarly, YCL activists brutally thrashed Prakash
Pariyar or Pipaltari VDC-1 and broke his hands and legs, Friday evening.
35-year-old Praiyar who serves in the Indian Army, was home on a vacation and
was thrashed for using "abusive language" against the Maoists's area in-charge
Prabahat. Badly bruised, Pariyar was rushed to Pokhara for treatment where he is
said to be out of danger." ..."Additionally, a group of YCL activists looted
properties worth Rs 600,000 from the house of Ram Mani Nepane in Duwakot,
Bhaktapur yesterday. According to police, a group led by YCL activist Ram
Krishna Khadka overpowered the family members and made away with cash and other
valuables safely locked in the cabinet. Police said the search is on to nab the
culprits." ..."In the eastern town of Biratnagar, YCL activists beat up two
goldsmiths - Sanjay Devi Sutradhar and her son Manoj Sutradhar - after
vandalising their shops at Thakurbadi road, Saturday. The Maoists were
reportedly furious with them because they had opened their shop even on
Saturday, the weekly public holiday." ..."Meanwhile, due to Maoist threats, all
work on the fourth phase of the Indo-Nepal joint effort to prepare Detailed
Project Report (DPR) of the Saptakoshi High Dam has been halted, the Kathmandu
Post reports."

The above-mentioned activities of YCL are just a few examples. Similar
incidents are happening daily in almost all parts of the country. Such types of
activities are done by criminal groups, but not expected from a sister
organization of a ruling political party. Surprisingly, YCL is fully involved in
such activities. Seeing the criminal nature of the activities of YCL, people of
Nepal are getting confused as to whether the YCL is Youth Communist League or a
Youth Criminal League?

Most of the members of YCL are hardcore militants who are not registered in
a cantonment. Recently, Sagar, so-called in charge of Kathmandu valley bureau of
YCL, mentioned on a TV program that he was valley brigade commander of the
Maoists' rebel force before he assumed his present assignment. This statement
indicates that the Maoists are deceiving even the United Nations' mission in
Nepal (UNMIN) that the real combatants are outside the camps. It has been said
that more then sixty percent of rebel combatants are working as YCL cadre all
over the country. Those who are kept in camps are mostly new or child soldiers,
recruited during the post-ceasefire period.

This gives a clear picture to all of us that the government of Nepal and
UNMIN are just legitimatizing duplicate combatants. People of Nepal believe that
the government and UNMIN will seriously verify in second phase, and segregate
those who do not meet the criteria of combatants.

YCL cadres are not only busy in criminal activity, but also are involved in
anti-national activity by destroying historical monuments and statues. History
can not be deleted or changed by destruction. YCL and their leaders should not
forget that new history (good or bad) can be created, but history can not be
changed.

If the criminal acts of YCL continue, then peace is far away in Nepal, and
a free and fair election can not be held till the time such activities continue.
The Maoists often blame the Prime Minister or royalist group for disturbing and
destabilizing the peace, where as, in reality, they are the ones who are
becoming hurdles in an ongoing peace process.

Probably, this is a unique example in Nepalese history that a political
party is directly involved in crimes, smugglings and anti-people, as well as
anti-national activities. Despite of all these happenings, no strong pressures
have been given to Maoists to stop YCL brutalities. The reason could be that
nobody wants to displease the Maoists, fearing that, if the Maoists are annoyed,
then the fragile peace process will be in jeopardy.

The government and the United Nations should take serious action against
this type of undemocratic and anti-social work. Otherwise, soon they will loose
their credibility. At the same time, the Maoists must give clear-cut instruction
to YCL to behave like a responsible political force. If the Maoists' leadership
keeps encouraging YCL to work as a criminal group by taking the law into their
own hands, then the people will give them necessary punishment on which YCL will
be remembered in new history of new Nepal as "Young Criminal League".