As most of you would be aware for the last ten years Nepal has been in the throws of a civil war. This conflict started with a few slogans painted on the walls of government buildings, escalated to fights between army troops and Maoist guerrillas and now, with the inclusion of the Maoists in the government, seems to have by and large settled down again to the level of political squabbling.
Unfortunately after ten years of even more lawlessness then usual people have gotten used to a level of violence that is quite disturbing.
Every day the local newspapers are full of stories of murder, robbery and arson. The chief perpetrators seem to be the Young Communist League a group of would be "Red Guards" loosely encouraged but by the looks of it not necessarily completely controlled by comrade Prachanda the Communist party head honcho. Their actions in turn invite retaliation by the police and army as well as the local citizenry. And so a spiral of violence evolves.
Now contrary to what some people would like to believe Nepal was never a peaceful Shangrila where people lived in harmony with each other and nature. However the level of violent crime seems to have increased quite dramatically and while to the best of my knowledge no tourists have ever been on the receiving end of this it can be only a matter of time before somebody ends up in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The upshot of all this? By all means go to Nepal, but be careful out there.
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