YouSaid · the spoken record

Gurung

lines on the record
16
first
2010-06-16
most recent
2010-06-16
sittings or episodes
1
sources
un-security-council

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

  1. “But I also feel sad for them because I have been through the challenges they will now have to face. I truly thank the Security Council for listening to my story, for it is the story of hundreds of Nepalese children. Thanks to the help and trust of the United Nations, including UNICEF and local organizations, some of us have been able to recover. I am one of them. I am very happy now. I am in the ninth grade at the school in my village, and I still dream of becoming a teacher. 12”

    2010-06-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6341 (2010) · source

  2. “Now I am well respected in my community and my school, and I regularly participate in and lead child rights-related programmes in my school and village. Now I also have friends, and children like to play with me and talk to me. Since my family was poor, some organizations helped us to generate income. Today, I raise a little livestock. They also paid for my throat surgery. They helped me form a children's club which advocates for children's rights and on HIV issues. I am the president of the club, which counts 40 children among its members. Now, I have a new life. Not long ago, I heard through the radio that there was a formal discharge process for children who remained in the cantonments. I am happy that they will now have a chance to choose what they want to do with their lives.”

    2010-06-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6341 (2010) · source

  3. “One day, I received a call from my sister saying that someone who worked with children affected by armed conflict had come to our home. She said they would help children like me. So I came home and met with them. They convinced me to go back to school, although I was shy about returning to the sixth grade. I started my education again. Meanwhile, the Maoists continued to threaten me. I had to stay at my uncle's house to hide from them, but they would not leave me alone. They came to his home and asked me to come along with them. I was always scared. Finally, one person who worked for human rights intervened and helped me formally seek release from the Maoist Party. Then it became easier for me to stay in my village. Some of these organizations helped me readjust to life and build relationships with members of the community.”

    2010-06-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6341 (2010) · source

  4. “But I still did not want to, so they continued to harass and threaten me. Because of my hard work, they made me a section commander. I think they also thought that if I was promoted, I would be more inclined to get married. Time passed and my health worsened. I managed to tell my sister and uncle. So one day they came, and without asking any of the commanders, I just left the camp. In May 2007, I returned home. I was 15 years old. I was very happy, but I was also scared. I was afraid that the Party would take me again or that the 11 army would kill me if they found out who I was. In the village, everyone continued to show suspicion towards me and to talk behind my back. My parents could no longer send me to school, and I had to leave. I went to the nearest city, where I worked as a housemaid.”

    2010-06-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6341 (2010) · source

  5. “Luckily, after I was trained and they were planning to send me to the next round of active fighting, the peace agreement was signed and I did not have to fight. After the peace agreement was signed, people from the Maoist Party were gathered into cantonments and there was talk of a registration and verification process. The United Nations had been called in, and many of us went into the first registration that it conducted. I was one of them. The Maoists constructed seven cantonments across Nepal. At that time, the senior commanders used to tell me, "You are a commander. You need to have more patience and you need to look after your members." They also used to give me medicine, saying that it would cure my heart and throat problems. They would also tell me that my heart and throat problems would go away ifI got married.”

    2010-06-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6341 (2010) · source

  6. “I stayed home for 10 to 11 days, but I could not stay in the village longer. Villagers treated me badly, bullied me and talked behind my back. So I returned to the Maoists. Within the Party, I had many friends who had not returned home in more than one or two years. Many of my friends had died fighting and many had become disabled while fighting. Most of us were weak. At times during the war, we would not be able to eat for an entire week. Sometimes we survived on water and corn flour. Some of my close friends who had been in combat told me that it was always the youngest who were sent to the front line and that the commanders gave orders from behind. I had not been sent to the front line yet, since I had not completed the combat training.”

    2010-06-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6341 (2010) · source

  7. “In the meantime, I had become section vice-commander and my responsibilities had increased. Days passed and I started to accept my fate and to understand that this life had become my life. I felt sad, damaged and hopeless. One day I fainted. One of my senior commanders said that I was faking to avoid working and carrying arms. I was very angry and went to another commander. In a very angry voice, I told him what had happened to me and that I needed medical attention. I said that if they could not give it to me, then I needed 10-40745 to go home. The commander told me that I had violated the rules by approaching him and asking to be relieved of my duties and go home. To punish me, they demoted me and made me work as a cook for six months. After six months, I asked for a leave and they granted it.”

    2010-06-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6341 (2010) · source

  8. “They also taught us how to make and detonate bombs. We had to wear shorts and short- sleeved shirts and do leopard crawls during training, and my skin had cuts, scabs and bruises. I was still a little girl of only 14, and my body was hardly fit for such intense training. I started developing symptoms and problems in my heart and throat. Out of 160 people in my training, I finished in second place. After the training, many of my friends ran away, but some of us just could not. Since I graduated second, they made me the commander over seven people. It was my turn to train other children. Many people were forced to marry others within the Party. This was a way to ensure that they would stay with the Party. I did not want to marry, and I was beaten up several times for that.”

    2010-06-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6341 (2010) · source

  9. “They made us walk to another district on an empty stomach. When we arrived, they made us go in small groups of three to four people to people's homes and ask for food and lodging. One woman did not have food for herself and her family, but she feared us and gave the corn that she had set aside for seed. I had only one set of clothes and I would wear them for 10 to 11 days. Sometimes I would exchange clothes with others in the Party. By the time I had been with the Maoists for around 15 months, they enrolled me in their training programme. We would dig tunnels and crawl through them, and sometimes we had to jump to the ground from a height of 10 feet. Holding our weapons and gear, we had to climb ropes. They trained me to use .303 British rifles, INSAS rifles, single-loading rifles and AK-47s.”

    2010-06-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6341 (2010) · source

  10. “But there is nothing for us at home. Now we have to live and die here." But I took a risk and secretly sent a letter to my mother. I told her where I was and asked her to come and bring me back home. Despite the risks, my mother and sister found me and took me back to my village. The Maoists did not prevent me from leaving but they terrified us with their threats. They said, "We will find you again and we can do whatever we want to if we find you again." I went back to my village, but I never 10-40745 stopped worrying for me and my family. I went back to school and, after a month, the Maoists held another recruitment campaign and took students from different schools to participate. My school was requested to send seven children to the programme. I was one of them and so I was taken again.”

    2010-06-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6341 (2010) · source

  11. “I missed my parents a lot and I wanted to run away from there. After travelling for almost 12 months, we returned to my home district. By this time, it was October 2006 and I was 14 years old. I had not talked to my family in a year. They knew I was with the Maoists but did not know where I was. They could not come for me because they were afraid of the repercussions that all of us might face. When we came back to my district, I really wanted to go home. But what could I do? I was scared that if the Nepalese Army saw me, they would kill me or my parents. Our neighbour was a commander with the Maoists, and I was scared that if I went home the Maoists would again find me and take me back. There was no way to escape. When I asked some of my friends if they wanted to go home, they would say, "Who does not want to go home?”

    2010-06-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6341 (2010) · source

  12. “For a few days, we would stay in one of the hilly districts or a district in the southern plains and work for villagers, as instructed by the party. We would stay and eat in some of the villagers' homes. In one of the districts, the Party did not have a good reputation and so we had to move through that place quickly. In other districts, we would stay longer - up to a month. I was always afraid because we had to hide from the army and make sure they did not find us. While I travelled from one place to another, I saw many other children going to school. That made me very sad. I would think that if I were at home I would be going to school, too. I made friends who were my age. We shared our emotions and our sadness, but there was no hope for us. My life had become sad and painful.”

    2010-06-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6341 (2010) · source

  13. “They would not give us clothes, and we would only receive NPRSO - or $0.75 a month - for our toiletries. We had to buy undergarments, toothpaste and toothbrushes with that money. Although we were small, we had to work very hard. The Maoists were organizing a campaign to win the villagers' trust and would construct roads and trenches and till land. I had to help with this work. To construct roads, I would carry heavy loads of boulders and stones and help dig the roads. We would walk from 10 one district to another, often at night, in groups of 50 to 60 people, through the jungle, for more than 12 to 14 hours at a stretch. I would get so tired I felt I was dead. I couldn't sleep, and sometimes I would cry a lot. But there was no one for me to talk to or to help or protect me.”

    2010-06-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6341 (2010) · source

  14. “Seven days passed but they did not talk about sending me home. When I said that I wanted to go home, they said "You'll have to come with us forever". I said, "What is the use of small people like me in this party?" But they said, "Small people will one day become big people." I told them, "I'm of the age for studying, and not of the age to go with you." But they did not agree to that. At that time, I did not know that children had rights and that recruiting a 13-year-old was a crime. I did not have a choice, so I followed them. There were many other children my age who were brought forcefully or who had been coerced or enticed with promises. They would not give us food on time, and there were many children like me who wanted to go home.”

    2010-06-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6341 (2010) · source

  15. “The new school was a one-hour hike up a steep hill from my home. At that time, I had just started thinking about my future. My dream was to complete my education and become a teacher in my own village. But things did not happen the way that I had imagined. That September of 2005, during a school holiday, I walked to my house to bring some food. As I reached my home, I realized that the Maoists had organized a programme at my old school. The Maoists had demanded that each family should send one family member to their programme under the one-family/one member campaign. I had to go there because my parents were not at home. They had gone to the market. After the programme, the Maoists told me that I needed to go with them for seven days. During that time, they gave me an orientation to the Maoist party.”

    2010-06-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6341 (2010) · source

  16. “Let me thank you for inviting me. It is a great honour for me. I am a girl from Nepal. I was born in the central region of Nepal. I'm here not only to talk about my own story but on behalf of all children in armed conflict who face and survive the atrocities of war. I will start by telling you some of the stories of my past. In my family, I am the second of five children. I have a mother and father, one elder sister, two younger sisters and one younger brother. My family is very poor. My father drives a rickshaw from morning to evening and my mom works at home and also does agricultural work. It is difficult for us to have good clothing and good food. Despite our difficulties, my parents had managed to send me and my siblings to school. I was 13 years old when I completed fifth grade and moved to a new school to start the sixth grade.”

    2010-06-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6341 (2010) · source