It was heartrending to read in your editorial about the slaughter of four innocent children in Doti ('Daughter slaughter, #166). There is no doubt that this is the result of the sheer lack of conscience shown by both the army and the Maoists in this nonsensical war. As you rightly point out, we don't care about who is to blame anymore, we just want our children to be left alone. I plead (because that is all we peace-loving citizen of Nepal can do right now) to both the Maoist and the army: please spare our children.

Sajju Khatiwada,
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. From reading Manjushree Thapa's 'Storm over Doramba' (#165) and your periodic pieces on the insurgency, one gets the impression that it is the security forces that need to be contained: that it is them that forcibly recruit children and use them as cannon fodder, that the Royal Nepali Army is comprised of rapists, and it was they who attacked a nascent democracy (albeit a massively corrupt one)and are hell-bent on destroying everything in Nepal while lining their pockets through extortion, torture and killing. One might even get the impression that the only outrages over the past decade occurred in Doramba, Mudhbara or Jogimara. And were it not for RNA being "independent" from civilian rule, civil society would be blossoming this very minute in Nepal. But facts within a broader context of this conflict do not lie. The RNA is not the Burmese Army nor is it a Latin American military that slaughtered tens of thousands of its own people. The RNA has shown restraint throughout Nepal's history and it has shown little interest in Musharrafizing Nepal and is relatively benign as armies go. Are they suspicious of being under "civilian" control right away? Of course they are (lives are at stake here) and they are probably justified given the incredible bad management during civilian rule. In time, they have to come under a more democratic fold (as all armies under democracies should) but the fact that they did not immediately do so after 1990 with open arms under \'leaders\' like Koirala, Deuba or Nepal now appears a godsend but it doesn't offer redemption to those who ravaged the country during 12 years of crack-pot democratic rule. It also does not cast the Maoist atrocities in a different light. In case our liberals haven't noticed, we are in the middle of a brutal war and, in such times, war is waged often under very tough circumstances and violations of human rights do occur. It is right to point these out, provided it is done fairly. This isn't a Berkeley debate session. The RNA is learning this lesson while fighting insurgents who show little regard to any international norms, and will not relent until they achieve their goals.

P Rana,
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