After his party signed a peace deal with the other parties, proposing integration of a certain number of former Maoist combatants into the NA and a rehabilitation package for those who want to start a new civilian life, Hamal feels dejected. He has never been as disillusioned with his party as after the peace agreement.[break]
“I became physically disabled going to war for the Maoist party when I was supposed to be completing my studies and pursuing a career,” Hamal says. “The party I devoted my life to has now shattered my dreams.” He says his future is dark as the deal treats him on par with former rebels who are physically strong enough to start afresh in life.
Hamal left home to take up the gun for the Maoists in 2001. He was severely injured during an attack the Maoists launched on the army in Jumla the following year. His right leg was riddled with bullets. He was taken to a hospital in Jalandhar, Punjab in India where the leg was amputated. Now he cannot move without crutches.
Worse, Hamal´s wife Laxmi, also a former Maoist combatant, is deaf. Laxmi lost her hearing in battle. The two have a seven-year-old son. Now living with the Ghorahi Memorial Brigade at the Sixth Division camp of the former rebels, the Hamals are unsure of their future. A resident of Daha in Kalikot, Hamal cannot, unlike other rebels, simply return to his village and live off his relief-package money.
There are many more former Maoist fighters in all the cantonments, who, like Hamal, were maimed during the war. In the Ghorahi Brigade alone, there are 25 physically-disabled former Maoist combatants. They have rejected the government´s relief package, arguing that they cannot be treated like other rebels, who are physically fit.
“Some former rebels have no hands and some have no legs. Some are partly paralyzed. How can they make a living with just the Rs 600,000-Rs 700,000 to be given them as a relief package?” asks Chin Bahadur Bam, who lost almost all his fingers during an attack at Bharapul in Bardiya district. They have sought more facilities regarding health care, rations and public transport apart from a monetary relief package.
Former combatants obviously cannot join the army. Therefore, the sole option of rehabilitation in society with a relief package remains for the physically-disabled former Maoist rebels. Besides being physically disabled, they are also uneducated. “We didn´t complete our studies. We termed it bourgeois education,” says Prem Bhandari, who was seriously injured in the Beni attack. “Now, we cannot pursue higher education and start a new respectable career either.”
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