Travel Warnings and a New PM

Today the United States Department of State issued a travel warning for travel to Nepal. http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/tw/tw_927.html The notice basically is the first update since the State Department issued a travel warning back in November 2008. Today’s notice warns Americans about traveling to Nepal and asks folks to prepare to change travel plans on very short notice. As we have all heard, a new Prime Minister was elected today. The legislature-parliament elected CPN (UML) leader Madhav Kumar Nepal. Mr. Nepal (it definitely is the easiest PM name to remember, don’t you think?) was elected unopposed as no other candidates were even nominated. It’s no surprise that Maoist lawmakers walked out of the parliament hall, boycotting the election process.

Political violence runs rampant in Nepal. The opposing factions are difficult to track. To me, it is a bit like walking through a corn maze in the dark, blindfolded. To get a better understanding of the groups involved in the upheaval, it may help to just remember four main groups (otherwise, we could be here all night). The Young Communist League (YCL), a Maoist Party subgroup, as well as youth groups from the other two main political parties, the Nepali Congress (NC) and the United Marxist-Leninist Party (UML), are also involved. The State Department mentions that they are also concerned about many of the armed splinter groups in the Terai region – which borders India. Today, a bomb exploded at the Assumption Church, Dhobighat, killing two and injuring 15 people. The involvement of the Hindu extremist group Nepal Defence Army has been suspected, but no arrests have been made. It’s definitely heating up, as far as one can tell from this far away and limited broadcast news coverage, and we are all watching closely.

It’s no surprise that the events of May 4th, when the former PM resigned, have caused increased political instability. For our adoption community, the news has been mixed. These past few weeks have also given three families the gifts of their daughters in the form of a formal referral. Questions continue to fly about the next step. Will the process continue or will it be halted by the changes in the government? No one knows for sure, but all we can do is continue to pray that it works out the way it is meant to.