NEPAL: Political impasse delays humanitarian assistance

Photo: Naresh Newar/IRIN

Many flood victims may not get the assistance they need due to governmental uncertainty

KATHMANDU, 15 May 2009 (IRIN) - The ongoing political impasse in Nepal has affected the flow of humanitarian assistance and development work, local and international aid workers say.

Nepal has been left without a government since Prime Minister Puspa Kamal Dahal, also chairman of the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (CPNM), quit his office on 4 May.

CPNM is the political body of the former Maoist rebels who ended a decade-long armed conflict following a 2006 peace agreement.

The Maoists make up the majority of the 601-member Constituent Assembly (CA) and head the coalition government comprising five national political parties.

"The withdrawal of the Maoists from the government is a serious sign of a severe political crisis in the near future and risks the country going back to war," said independent political analyst Krishna Adhikari.

Dahal quit over the decision by President Ram Baran Yadav to reinstate the Chief of Army Staff, General Rookmangud Katawal, despite his dismissal by the cabinet for defying government orders by recruiting more solders.

The general was accused by the Maoists of recruiting 3,010 soldiers to the Nepal Army (NA) and reinstating eight senior NA brigadier-generals without coordinating with the Defence Ministry.

Impact on humanitarian aid

According to aid workers, humanitarian assistance would be most affected as there is now uncertainty about the formation of a government.

Moreover, major political parties are still not in agreement as to how the next government should be formed.

"There is rising concern about the impact on the most vulnerable communities, especially the victims of the Koshi flood," Vincent Omuga, humanitarian affairs officer at the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told IRIN.

For the past nine months, thousands of people displaced by the Koshi flood have been living in the camps of Sunsari and Saptari of eastern Nepal, nearly 300km south of the capital, Kathmandu.

Before the political crisis, the government had passed a compensation package of thousands of dollars to help resettle the displaced families in their homes.

"But now the relief aid for the displaced will not be delivered because the release of funds is done only through the government," said an international aid worker, who requested anonymity.

Early recovery activities are supported by the UN and other donor agencies through the government.

"All this will be delayed now because the district level decisions by local government offices and institutions depends on the decision of the central level government, which is still lagging behind," the aid worker said.

Meanwhile, local NGO workers are also worried about the impact on their development work as most of their activities depend on their partnership with local government bodies such as the Village Development Committees and District Development Committees, none of which can make any decisions to implement aid projects without permission from central government.

"It is quite unlikely that aid services will be delivered soon until this political deadlock is over," Netra Timilsina, an aid worker and senior official of NGO Federation of Nepal, told IRIN.

"There is a huge vacuum as we are now a government-less state. Ministries and departments are not functioning and the donors are in a wait-and-see position," said Timilsina.

Nepal is one of the poorest countries in the world, with more than 30 percent of its 28 million inhabitants living below the poverty line of less than US$1 a day.

nn/ds/mw