Navin Singh Khadka's 'Alms race' (#198) states the Royal Nepali Army is going through its 'biggest ever expansion in history'. What he doesn't say is that even with its present strength, there doesn't seem to be much security. I returned to Nepal in early March and in just this three month period there has been unprecedented attacks on journalists, open police abuse of many involved in the five-party action, tear gassing of a hospital, arson attacks on buses, abductions, disappearances, killing of civilians by Maoists as well as the security forces and armed police obviously under the influence of alcohol terrorising the general population. This list is, of course, not exhaustive. All this with a combined RNA troop strength and paramilitary Armed Police Force of approximately 95,000.

Possibly, the so called 'security forces' should be more appropriately renamed 'insecurity forces'. The question that must be asked is: has the doubling of the security forces in Nepal in the past three years improved security? In the Panchyat days pre-1990, when the security force numbered 20,000, Nepal suffered in many ways but security was not one of them.

If security continues to deteriorate in an inverse proportion to an increase in army strength then when the troop strength reaches 150,000, as Khadka's article suggests, Nepal's security situation will probably resemble Somalia or Bihar. Let's hope this will not come to pass, but where I once saw smiles and dreams on the faces of my Nepali friends and acquaintances, I now see uncertainty and fear.

D Michael Van De Veer
Hawaii