Nepal:Maoists on Rampage

August 29, 2005

NEPAL: Disturbing developments: Update 73;

Incidents:

A list of incidents for the current and the last update is given as

an Annexure. The number of incidents has increased. Mass abductions

continue. In the Mahendra Rajmarg, the Maoists had declared an

indefinite ban on movement of vehicles. On 26 August 5 security men

were killed in an ambush in Khairenpur road junction in Kapilvastu

District. The next day five persons travelling in a bus on the same

road lost their lives in an explosion when they tried to remove the

barriers at another place. The problem, as we notice is the security

forces are being stretched too thin and it is getting too tough for

them to simultaneously deal with the law and order situation arising

out of the agitation by the students and the political parties and

continue operations against Maoists who are all over the place now. .

Annexure:

July Incidents

30 Over a thousand villagers of Dhading district staged a protest

rally against Maoists' atrocities. Some of the villagers were

carrying guns, swords, spears and Khukris.

Maoists blocked Siddharth Highway between Butwal and Tansen and took

away the keys of the vehicles that were plying, bringing the traffic

on the entire road to a standstill.

August

2 215 students from Binayak village in Acham district were abducted

fro indoctrination purposes. Another ten were taken from Darling

village of Baglung district.

6 Maoists abducted 223 civilians including 150 women from Bajura. 70

civilians were also abducted from Acham.

Two Security personnel injured when Maoists opened fire at them at

Damak Bazar, Jhapa district.

7 Maoists overran the Pili security post in Kalikot district, killing

forty and taking 60 security men as prisoners. A large quantity of

weapons and ammunition were also captured. The Kalikot incident was

one of the major disasters for the Army in their counter insurgency

operations.

Seven Police men were injured, three seriously when the police post

at Chandakote in Banepa.

8 Three Maoists including a "village people's government chief" were

killed in Ismakot, Gulmi district.

11 Security post fired at Belhani VDC near Narayangarh. No casualties

reported.

12 500 students were abducted from remote villages of Baglung

district.

14 Maoists and their affiliated labour union forced the closure of

Unilever Unit at Makwanpur.

Maoists destroyed the water supply system at Sankuwa sabha to deny

water to the security forces. This led to shortage of supply of water

to very many civilians.

Locals of Matiniya VDC in Banke district killed five Maoists

including three women.

15 One Armed Police person was killed and two others from the

security forces were injured when Maoists opened fire near Mechi

bridge in Jhapa district.

16 A Police beat was bombed by Maoists in Lalitpur district,

Kathmandu valley.

One Police man was shot and killed in Gokarna area in Kathmandu

valley.

18 Maoists exploded a bomb at the residence of former Army Chief,

Satchit Samsher Rana.

A bomb was exploded right near the Bakthapur Durbar square.

19 Six Maoists were killed in search operations by the Army in

Dailekh district. One soldier was injured.

A textile factory owned by Jyothi spinning mills was bombed at

Parwanipur, southern Nepal. The several armed Maoists entered the

factory before bombing.

Two passenger buses were set fire to at Kiteni Ilam district on the

Mechi Highway. Two other buses are also missing. The passengers were

asked to leave the buses before they were set fire to. The Maoists

accused the drivers of ferrying security personnel in their buses.

20 Six elderly people were abducted from Dailekh and another two were

taken away from Dhading.

22 A Police vehicle carrying four policemen was blown up by Maoists

by using an IED, in Rupandehi district.

24 Ajay Raju Singh, chief of the district monitoring committee of the

mid western district of Banke was shot dead. The is the first

casualty of the newly appointed district officers in various

districts by the present government to supervise administration in

far off districts.

25 Maoists opened fire at a Dalit's settlement at Jagatpur, Saptari

district and abducted five villagers.

The RNA confirmed that over a hundred people from all over the

country were abducted by the Maoists in the last few days.

26 Five security personnel were killed at Kharenpur road junction of

Kapilvastu district when they tried to clear the road blocks.

27 Five civilians travelling in a passenger bus were killed and three

others injured in an explosion that occurred when they tried to

remove a road block at Mahendra Raj Marg.

26 Two Security men were injured in a land mine blast at Myagdi.

by Dr. S. Chandrasekharan

Information emanating from Nepal is disturbing. With the King taking

on everyone including India, the political parties appear to be still

in a dilemma to decide on the future course of action- there are

contradictions within and among the individual parties on the

question of going for a republic or in joining hands with the

Maoists. With the Security forces thinly spread and unable to reach

every place, the Maoists have continued with their depredations with

unprecedented savagery as noticed in the Kalikot incident. The

Maoists are also making reasonable offers to get the agitating

parties involved to make the current "triangular conflict" into a

bipolar one to their advantage. The students' agitation is getting

intensified and there has been police firing in one incident. One

government vehicle was burnt right in front of Amrit Science campus

in Kathmandu. Unilever one of the most productive plants in Nepal at

Makwanpur was forced to close due to Maoist threats and some others

are to follow. One silver lining is that the Supreme Court after

three years, is appointing a full bench to hear the case of the

constitutionality of dissolution of the Parliament by the King on

October 4, 2002. If the Court gives a verdict against the

dissolution, perhaps a way could be found from the current mess with

none of the contending groups losing face!

The Seven Party Alliance of agitating Parties:

The seven party Alliance has agreed in principle to initiate talks

with the Maoists, though the individual parties appear to differ on

its mechanics. On August 22, the alliance decided on the following.

* To form a team of eminent personalities to examine whether the

Maoists have abided by the commitment they had made on human rights

issues, give up violence and indicate their willingness to talk to

the alliance before presenting a formula for a permanent solution.

* To start the agitation afresh from September 3, when the top

leaders of all the seven parties will address a mass meeting.

* Boycott functions attended by members of the government as well as

the office bearers of local bodies.

* That neither the Chairman nor the ministers have the legitimacy to

hold talks with the Maoists.

On the first issue, it looks that the political parties are buying

time to sort out their own internal contradictions as they really do

not need another eminent group to tell them what the Maoists are

upto. In fact, the very next day G.P.Koirala appealed to the Maoists

to create an environment conducive for dialogue by renouncing

violence, abduction and extortion for fruitful talks. This shows that

the Maoists have not given up any of those and there have been large

scale abductions in the last week of August.

The Nepali Congress and the forthcoming general convention from 30

August to September 2:

It will be interesting to note how Koirala is going to manage his

restless cadres and the second generation leaders of Nepali Congress

who are itching to go for a republic.

On August 16, G.P. said that the demand for a republic was just a

matter of bargaining and that the present situation in Nepal was not

favourable for a republican set up. Significantly he added that they

cannot go against the King. The King was perhaps not listening and

with the idea of putting pressure on G.P., the latter's private

secretary Gokarna Paudel has been indicted for corruption by the

Royal Commission against corruption on 26 August.

Unlike the UML, G.P.Koirala is head and shoulders above the other

leaders in the party and yet some rumblings have been noted from the

second generation leaders. The junior leaders are insisting on some

reforms in the coming convention that include election and not

nomination to all the key posts in the party to pave the way for

collective leadership, though G.P. has rejected it outright. Yet on

25 August, R.C.Paudel former deputy Prime minister and one of the

most vocal leaders said that they would like to transform the "party

leadership from a person centric to collective leadership," a clear

challenge to G.P. Paudel said that his party would not retain

constitutional monarchy in its policy in the upcoming general

convention.

The UML:

Madhav Nepal, the leader of UML faced similar challenges from his

colleagues in the ninth central committee meeting that took place on

14 August, 2005. In his report to the central committee, he admitted

the party's mistake in joining the Deuba government. In the nine

point agenda he put forward, he stressed on talks with the Maoists,

declaration of cease-fire, formation of an interim government

inclusive of the Maoists, elections to a constituent assembly to

draft a new constitution and the management of the Maoists' arms.

Madhav Nepal could not convince his colleagues that it would be

unwise to go for a republican setup. A large number of central

committee members wanted to make " a democratic republic" as the

party's main agenda and go for an early convention. They wanted first

to go for a dialogue with the Maoists, create an environment of

confidence and then reach an alliance with the Maoists for

restoration of democracy.

At the end of the central committee meeting, a compromise was reached

with no decision on early convening of party convention. But the

decision of significance was that the party would carry forward the

current movement in "favour of a democratic republic." The standing

committee before the meeting had recommended a ceremonial monarchy in

place of constitutional monarchy, but this was not found acceptable

to the central committee. It looks that Madhav Nepal would still be

able to carry the party against an agenda for a republic, but it all

depends on the King.

The Maoists:

Prachanda in an interview to a local daily on August 24 said-

* All should carry out a self evaluation and self criticism for

failing to collaborate and give rise to a uniform movement against a

series of regressive steps of the feudal elements.

* Collaboration with seven party alliance would break the ice of the

existing trilateral power balance. Such a polarisation will

compulsorily make people sovereign.

* The main element in a peaceful solution of the civil war would be

holding free and fair elections to a constituent assembly.

* His party is ready to accept the outcome of the elections to a

constituent assembly.

* He is ready for "appropriate reorganisation of the Maoist Army and

weapons along with the development of "collaboration and the

movement."

One thing should be clear- the Maoists are not going to lay down

their arms and they consider that the country is already in a state

of civil war. Second, they would like to disturb the present

triangular power balance by roping in the agitating parties,

collaborate with them and go for elections to a constituent assembly.

It remains to be seen whether they would stop with that.

Indo Nepal relations:

The Indo Nepal relationship is going for a nose dive and this time it

is the Nepal Government which needs to slow down to restore normalcy.

The following points need attention.

* There has been no effort on the part of the government for any

reconciliation with the agitating political parties. In his informal

visit to western and far western region after the Kalikot incident,

the King said that the February move of taking over was "for ending

terrorism and increasing people's participation." In the same breath

he ridiculed the members of the parliament by saying that "it makes

no difference if a few persons cry that they are people's

representatives." Reconciliation with the agitating political parties

appears to be far from his mind. The powers of the Zonal

Commissioners, the posts resurrected from Panchayat days have been

enhanced to effect transfers and take departmental action against

subordinates- in fact the powers enjoyed during Panchayat days.

* In the second week of August, Nepal refused to let an IAF

helicopter to use its airspace to airlift a Manasarovar pilgrim who

had taken ill and also ignored an Indian request to lend one of its

helicopters for the rescue mission. Finally the IAF rescued the

pilgrim with permission given by the Chinese.

* Nepal did not give a positive response to the Indian request to

support its case for UN Security Council seat and back the G4

resolution.

* The Nepalese Army officially declared that the Indian made Insas

rifles did not work properly and the disaster at Kalikot was

attributed to the failure of the weapons which got heated while being

used. The Indian army refuted the complaint.

The China Factor:

Many analysts feel that Nepal is tentatively trying to use the China

card as late King Mahendra did but the current situation is totally

different. The Foreign Minister, Ramesh Nath Pandey made a eleven day

visit to China and returned on 23 August. During his stay, he signed

agreements with the Chinese for investments on five projects that

also included a budgetary support of 870 million NC for the current

fiscal year for import of goods through the Tibetan route. During his

visit he met the Chinese President, Foreign and Culture ministers.

Pandey described the relation ship with China as an all weather one,

hinting thereby that it is not so with the other big neighbour!

Pandey's visit is closely followed by the Finance Minister who also

left on August 23, to attend the Nepal-China inter government

economic and technical cooperation. A Chinese investment team is due

to arrive shortly. China had made similar agreements during the

recent visit of Khaleda Zia of Bangladesh. ( See our paper in this

connection). It is our assesssment that Nepal will eventually realise

the limitations of an economic relationship with the northern

neighbour through Tibet.