Woman opens stall at plenum to find missing son

PALUNGTAR, Nov 25: An elderly woman is looking for her lost son amidst the hustle and bustle of the United Communist Party of Nepal(Maoist) sixth plenum.



Ramwati Poudel, 61, has set up a temporary stall at the main entrance to the plenum venue at a cost to her of Rs 5,000 for 15 days, to look for her missing son Ramji. Ramji was arrested by the army from Dhakaltar, Abu Khaireni in January, 2001 and Ramwati has not heard of him since.[break]



“I am always expecting him to pop up from somewhere or other and that gets me excited. I sometime fear that he may have become disabled but the hope of seeing him again remains,” Ramawati said. She claimed that her son was forcibly taken away by local Maoist cadre Ajaya Devkota when he returned home from Bharatpur, where he was studying for a bachelor of commerce in the hope of landing a bank job.



“The Maoists took him when he was coming home to get married. I still have hope as there are no reports about his death,” she said. “I would have consoled myself if he had died fighting,” she added. She is hoping to at least meet some of her son´s friends and ask them about him. But she has found none.



She also expressed her dissatisfaction with the Maoists for not doing anything to find her son, who joined the party from the very start of the armed conflict. “I would be happy if they told me that he was alive or even showed me the place where he has been buried, if he has died,” she said. “I would look after him if he has been disabled,” she said in tears.



Many Maoist cadres come by her stall every day but no one from among the party leadership. She said Maoist leaders Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Dr Baburam Bhattarai had assured her they would search for her son. She had met them a few years ago while they were at Thantipokhari to address a mass rally. “I felt positive after the big leaders gave their assurances, but there has been no lead about what has happened to my son even after such a long time,” she added ruefully.



Ramwati´s youngest daughter-in-law Sita, who is assisting her, lost her elder brother Balaram Regmi, a Maoist cadre, six years ago during the Bandarmudhe incident.

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