Note no. 225	27. 05. 2004
NEPAL CRISIS: Sliding further- But who cares? Update 47. by Dr. S. Chandrasekharan The crisis in Nepal continues unabated. There is no let up in the standoff between the King and the five agitating political parties. Analysts believe that the deep personal distrust King Gyanendra holds against the politicians lies at the root of the standoff. But the dislike appears to be mutual and the agitating parties have not behaved better either. The Maoists declared a three-day general strike from 18th and most of the nation’s arteries were blocked. The strike was total in Kathmandu and a few vehicle owners who dared to take out the vehicles had theirs torched. Enforced blockades and strikes have brought the entire country to a stand still. Villagers are forced to attend Maoist meetings. Students from various schools are systematically kidnapped to attend training and education programmes of the Maoists and many schools have been closed. Foreign tourists are being taxed various amounts depending upon the country of origin by the Maoists. In short, in the absence of a proper government after the resignation of PM Surya Bahadur Thapa, on 5th of May, the Maoists are on a rampage. Prachanda the Maoist leader made a second call since Thapa’s resignation for round table talks consisting of political parties, the King, civil society and the United Nations. Their insistence of talks under the sponsorship of UN appears to be A. to legitimise itself as is stands branded as a terrorist outfit B. to prevent India from getting involved. In another statement he made the following points- Any political settlement excluding the Maoists would boomerang and will not work. Talks should honour the existing power balance. ( This would mean acknowledging the political and military control of Maoists in most of Nepal). Isolating the insurgency by forging an alliance between the King and the political parties will not be beneficial. There should be an all party meeting followed by a joint political convention to facilitate an interim government that should be entrusted with the drafting of a new constitution. In effect the Maoists after having reached a strategic stage in the people’s war are emboldened to declare that there could be no solution to the ongoing crisis without their active participation and solution on their terms! The Army in the meanwhile has mounted a major operation " Operation Mahakali" to flush out the Maoists from their traditional strong holds in Rolpa and Baglung. As expected, the insurgents have just vanished and would return once the security forces leave the scene. There appears no proper plan in counter insurgency operations and going for the jugular at this stage appears to be an over ambitious venture. The five agitating parties are continuing with their movement against regression with rallies mainly in Kathmandu in spite of meeting the King all together as desired by them. There have been a series of resignations of all appointees of Thapa government. It started with the resignation of 21 officials of Lalitpur sub metropolitan city on 15th May. On 16th Rajpbiraj officials including the Mayor resigned. On 18th more officials from Palpa district including the Mayor of Tansen resigned. On 21st the Kathmandu Mayor and the deputy Mayor of the Metropolitan city along with 35 ward chairmen resigned. More resignations are being reported and more could be expected. The real reason for resignations though unstated is the pressure from the Maoists. They will have to save their lives as the security forces are not in a position to give them protection. An editorial in Nepali Times called for an "Emergency Surgery." This statement succinctly describes the state of affairs in this unfortunate country. But is anybody listening? The King on his part is desperately seeking a solution to the current impasse though, on his own terms. On a particular day he met more than three hundred personalities from all walks of life. These included journalists, industrialists, artists, ex- officials, and academics. He finally gave in to the demand of the agitating parties also to meet them together. On 19th evening the King met the leaders of the agitating parties together. Those included G.P.Koirala of Nepali Congress, Madhav Nepal of UML, Narayan man Bijukche of Nepal Peasants & Worker’s Party, Amik Sherchen of People’s front Nepal and Bimal Yadav of NSP ( Anandi faction). These leaders met together at the residence of G.P.Koirala before meeting the King. It was thought that they would discuss and put forward to the King a road map to meet the constitutional crisis. (See update 45) They did not. They were not able to even to choose from among themselves a person to lead the interim government. Differences between the UML and the Nepali Congress of Girija Koirala came out into the open on this issue. The main proposal they put forward to the King was the reinstatement of the "dissolved parliament" which in their view would be politically and constitutionally correct. But the King appears to be of the view that it is unconstitutional. Discussion with the King did not give the impression that the agitating parties were united. One cannot therefore blame the King if he had just listened to them without giving his own view! Soon after the joint meeting, the leaders of the two main constituents of the movement Madhav Nepal and G.P.Koirala made a bid to see the King individually. They were met on 20th and 21st respectively. Details of the discussions are not known yet, but there is a report that Koirala discussed about the growing influence of the Maoists, chances of the capital city Kathmandu facing an economic embargo and the avoidable delay in the formation of the government. Koirala remarked that he would need many more personal meetings with the King and this after refusing to meet the King alone when invited earlier! In our update of 44, we had provided a copy of the political resolution of the third conference of CCOMPOSA held between 17 and 19 March 2004. One significant aspect of the conference was the mention of the newly formed Maoists party of Bhutan in the political resolution and the presence of an observer in the conference from the party probably from the refugee camps. There was no mention of Bhutan in the earlier two conferences held in 24 September, 2001 and 15 September 2002. Close on the heels of the third conference, the communist CCOMPOSA organised a joint campaign on the so called "state repression in South Asia"on the occasion of the 37th anniversary of Naxalbari movement. In the statement issued, considerable mention is made about conditions in Bhutan. The only conclusion that could be arrived at is that the Bhutan refugee camps are coming under increasing attention of the Maoists. Some extracts of the statement referring to Bhutan are "In Bhutan, the archaic feudal monarchy is suppressing the nationality movement of the Bhutanese Nepalese under the watchful eyes of Indian expansionism. They have been denied to form even cultural or sports organizations with the fear that they may work as political organizations. Hundreds have been tortured and imprisoned and more than 100 thousand Nepalese Bhutanese have been thrown out of their country."... "The recent attack and flushing out of ULFA and other similar forces of the North-East from Bhutan in the name of combating the Maoists spread in Bhutan is another example. The fear of influence of the CPN(Maoist) amongst Bhutanese refugees stationed in Eastern Nepal is prompting the EU and the USA to patch up the refugee problem between Nepal, India and Bhutan.".... " The formation of a new Maoist Party in Bhutan is the result of extreme poverty, backwardness and increasing repression in Bhutan.".... A list of Maoist incidents since update 44 is given as Appendix below. Appendix: Incidents April 2004    Date  27.               Suspected Maoists shot and injured Punaram Pokharel, Mayor of Butwal. Two assailants on a motorcycle shot him  when he was returning  home from his morning walk. 28.               Maoists  abducted over 200 students and youths from various rural Village Development Committees of Doti district.  Maoists abducted nearly 150 civilians including some school teachers from Baitadi district. Maoists have been abducting the locals and releasing them after giving them Maoist related training. 29.               Maoist abducted at least four government employees from Panchthar district.  They were returning to Phidim the district headquarters from Yasok bazaar after completing  the official work of government’s mobile team. Maoists abducted three VDC chairmen from Sakla, Rokarjung and Lamidanda VDCs in Jajarkot during the last week of April. 30.               Two civilians in Sunigaba village in Dhanusha district were shot dead by Maoists. The insurgents shot and killed them after abducting them from their homes. They were accused of spying against the Maoists. In the same district, a group of Maoists torched vehicles belonging to Kamala Irrigation Project. May 2004    Date 1.               Maoists abducted over 700 youths -- all from the dalit or untouchable communities, from Baitadi and Dadeldhura districts of the far west region. Maoists drove the youths towards Kalikot district in the north to include them in the rebels' military training. The mass abduction of 700 youths follows an earlier call by the Maoists to hand over 50 youths per village to them. 3.              Suspected Maoists detonated a powerful bomb at a government office at Bode, Bhaktapur The explosive hidden inside the office building of the Land Management Project building at Bode went off injuring at least four persons. 5.              Suspected Maoists bombed a house of former minister Sarbendra Nath Shukla in Bhairahawa. No one was injured in the blast. The attackers, who came on a motorcycle, first took the caretaker captive before detonating the bombs 12.           At least five policemen were killed in a gun battle with Maoists near Bhada River in  Bardia district. Assistant Sub-Inspector is among the killed. Fighting started when dozens  of armed Maoists stormed the police post set up for the security of the bridge above Bhada River. Four policemen died on the spot. 13.            At least two security personnel were killed in an exchange of fire with Maoists at  Bhawapur area in Bardia district.                  Maoists torched a passenger bus and a truck on the East-west highway in Morang district. A group of Maoist brandishing guns took the vehicles under control and set them on fire.                  Maoists had damaged the Area Police Station in Gharahi, Dang. 14.           Maoists shot dead a policeman in Dang. He was a staff of the District Police Office.                  Two civilians were killed in Dailekh by a bomb left by the Maoists. The two killed in the bomb explosion were the residents of Danda Parajul VDC. 15.           One civilian was killed and two more  hurt when a bomb left by the Maoists went off in Dailekh.                  Maoists attacked the local standard and meteorology office in Birgunj, Parsa. No one was hurt in the blast.                   A group of Maoists killed, a civilian at Bijalpura of Mahottari district. 16.           Suspected Maoists detonated a bomb in a garment factory in Kathmandu. The  blast occurred at Rolly Garments situated inside Balaju Industrial Area.                  The Maoists killed two civilians in Nuwakot and Dhanusha districts                   In Nuwakot, the militants killed a Rashtriya Prajatantra Party activist who was abducted  from his home at Bageshwori village was found dead at a jungle in Golfu  Bhanjyang, Sindhupalchowk. The Maoists had charged him of spying against them. 17             Maoists set an ambulance on fire in Dhankuta Monday afternoon. A group of seven Maoists stopped the ambulance at Rudrabari, got the driver out and set it on fire.                   The Maoists torched a Land Rover at the same place                   Suspected Maoists set off a bomb at the premises of the Labor Tribunal at Gyaneswor Gaucharan in Kathmandu. There were no casualties in the explosion. A search operation is underway to track down the Maoists. 19.           Over 50 teachers were abducted from the northern parts of Sarlahi district. The teachers   were abducted by the Maoists and  were taken  for a 'people's education' training. Local authorities have denied knowledge about the abductions.                  Maoists brutally killed a woman in Nawalparasi district.                  A Royal Nepalese Army soldier was killed due  to a landmine planted by the militants.                  Four security men  were injured in  skirmishes between security forces and the   Maoists at Ghanteshwor area in Dadeldhura district.                  Maoists blew up two taxies in Kathmandu on the second day of their three-day general strike. The blast took place as soon as two persons who had hired the cab from Bouddha got out.                  The Maoists hurled a bomb at a passing taxi at Kalimati but no explosion occurred.                  Maoist rebels bombed the house of Govinda Karki, the ex-Deputy Inspector General of the National Investigation Bureau in Motipur village of Rupandehi district.                  A Royal Nepalese Army Soldier was killed when a landmine planted by the militants exploded. 21.            Maoists abducted over 30 students and teachers from a school in Jumla. 22.           Two family members of a former army lieutenant were hurt when Maoist set off a bomb at his residence in Hetauda.                  Maoists also bombed the office building of Agriculture Development Bank in Bharatpur, Chitwan. 23.            Armed Maoists  abducted over 100 civilians from the Mahat village. The civilians were abducted for a Maoist program in Kalikot. 24.           Around 125 teachers were abducted from the western parts of Kailali and Bardiya districts.                  Over 40 teachers from schools in Baliya village of Kailali district and 48 teachers from schools in Masuriya village of Kailali were abducted. The rebels abducted the teachers to provide them with 'people education'                  The Maoists shot and killed an Assistant Sub-Inspector of police in Ilam Bazzar                  Maoists shot and injured a local businessman in Nepalgunj                  Maoist rebels have abducted over 350 persons from the district headquarters of Jumla. 25.           The Maoists abducted over 250 teachers learnt to be belonging  to Giddha Siddhi Secondary School  from the eastern part of Dhanusha district
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