Nepalis Say, "Ya Basta!"

"But today, we say ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. We are the inheritors of the true builders of our nation. The dispossessed, we are millions, and we thereby call upon our brothers and sisters to join this struggle as the only path, so that we will not die of hunger due to the insatiable ambition of a dictatorship led by a clique of traitors who represent the most conservative and sell-out groups. For hundreds of years we have been asking for and believing in promises that were never kept. We were always told to be patient and to wait for better times. They told us to be prudent, that the future would be different. But we see now that this isn't true. Everything is the same or worse now than when our grandparents and parents lived. Our people are still dying from hunger and curable diseases, and live with ignorance, illiteracy and lack of culture. And we realize that if we don't fight, our children can expect the same. And it is not fair. Necessity brought us together, and we said "Enough!" We no longer have the time or the will to wait for others to solve our problems."

How honestly these words represent the Nepalese people's struggle for freedom and democracy, for self-determination. But the people who uttered these words lived very far from Nepal, and perhaps the majority of them knew nothing about the Nepalese people and their struggle. These were the words of the Zapatistas declaring war against the Mexican state from Lacandona Jungle (December 31 1993). They expressed the sentiments of not only the Mexican Indians but of everyone who are waging the "struggle that is necessary to meet the demands that never have been met by [the] State [in their region]: work, land, shelter, food, health care, education, independence, freedom, democracy, justice and peace".

On April 9, the 4-day general strike in Nepal was supposed to end, but it continued. An activist said, "The Nepali people want the king to abdicate and he needs to go. There is no other option, otherwise the country will continue to see riots and demonstrations."

Guardian reports, "On the border with India, hundreds of demonstrators stormed government buildings to declare Nepal's Chitwan district the kingdom's "first republic". Troops later drove them out. It has also been reported that students in smaller towns have taken to the streets with the slogan "death to Gyanendra"."

The New York Times informs what the editor of the Nepali Times wrote, "As we write this on Sunday noon, public anger is boiling overThis is a surprising uprising: even without the parties, neighborhoods have got together to set up road barricades, stoning police and pouring out into the streets to defy curfews. Each day that passes, the pro-democracy chariot is picking up momentum."

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