Asia Times: Violence feared during Maoist shutdown in Nepal


	April 6, 2000	atimes.com

India/Pakistan

Violence feared during Maoist shutdown in Nepal
By Suman Pradhan

KATHMANDU - The Himalayan kingdom of Nepal is hunkering down for a nationwide shutdown on Thursday by the banned Communist Party of Nepal which many here expect to turn violent.

The strike has been called by the Maoists to protest against the killings of its cadres by police in a violent four-year-old struggle to overthrow Nepal's centuries-old monarchy and replace it with a republican state.

The designation of Thursday as ''armed shutdown day'' by the Maoists has only increased fears of widespread violence in a country that has seen several killing sprees since the Maoists began their ''people's war'' movement in early 1996.

Recently released government reports say more than 1300 people have died since the movement first surfaced. Victims include rebels, policemen and innocent civilians with the violence concentrated in remote districts like Rukum, Rolpa, Salyan, Jajarkot and Pyuthan in western Nepal.

Rights activists have accused both sides of human rights violations. Amnesty International and the UN's Human Rights Committee have both urged the two sides to stop the killings and start talking.

Nepal's centrist government in Kathmandu, the capital of this impoverished country, has responded to the strike call by tightening security and giving police broad powers to combat the Maoists. Shoot at sight orders, as well as the power to arrest suspects without assigning reason, have been given to the police.

Kathmandu already wears the look of a garrison city, complete with armed police patrols roaming the city thoroughfares day and night - a far cry from the days when the country and its capital were known for peace and tranquility.

On Tuesday, a top Home Ministry official said that the police would be posted at ''every street corner'' in the capital, and at major thoroughfares in other towns and villages. Home Secretary Padam Prasad Pokhrel said an additional police force of 7000 men would be pressed into service on Thursday. ''The regular police will be backed by armed policemen who will be on call and ready to respond to any situation,'' he said.

The tight security measures are in view of government apprehension of widespread violence. ''Unlike other strikes called by legally recognized political parties, this one would be different,'' the Home Secretary said.

On the other hand, the Maoists have openly distributed leaflets warning everyone to heed their call. ''The armed shutdown is to protest the government's brutal killings of our cadres and innocent civilians,'' the Maoists have stated.

Reports of killings have been pouring in from rural districts ahead of the shutdown. On Tuesday, five policemen were killed in a shoot-out with rebels in Bhigri village in Pyuthan, a remote northwestern district. A day earlier, in Maintada village in Surkhet district, seven rebels were shot dead by police.

The fear of rising Maoist violence comes at a time when Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala and his Nepali Congress party are facing serious political challenges. Opposition communist groups, who are represented in force in parliament, are also agitating against government policies, but from within the bounds of the constitution. They are demanding an end to corruption and price hikes which have hit the 23 million people of Nepal hard since the Nepali Congress emerged victorious in last year's general elections.

On top of it, an effort to start a dialogue with the rebel Maoists has gone into cold storage since Koirala came to power last month, ousting his long-time party rival Krishna Prasad Bhattarai.

The Bhattarai administration had formed a high level committee led by another former prime minister, Sher Bahadur Deuba, to hold talks with the Maoists. Things moved quickly with Deuba and a top Maoist leader even managing to sneak a meeting. But hopes of a solution were dashed when the government fell in March and Koirala assumed power.

Deuba, the committee chairman, said Tuesday that he had been unable to get the talks rolling because of the change in government. ''The Maoists had already sent a representative to create a favorable environment for the talks but the process was stalled after the fall of the Bhattarai government,'' he said.

But to allay fears, Koirala has publicly said that the committee would remain unchanged and that its work towards a dialogue with the Maoists would continue. No progress has been made since then, however.

Analysts say, Nepal offers ripe conditions for extreme left-wing movements to flourish. It is one of the poorest countries in the world with an annual per capita of just over $200, literacy is around 30-35 percent, and the mountainous terrain could support a guerrilla movement.

''The frustration of the rural peasantry with political parties and leaders has risen dramatically because of rising corruption, and instability in government,'' says Krishna Hachhethu of the Center for Nepal and Asian Studies. ''Rural areas have been left out of the development process. Such an environment is fertile for extremist movements.''

Ironically, it was the Deuba government in 1996 which branded the Maoists terrorists and refused to talk to them. But lately Deuba and almost everyone else agree that the problem is ''political'' and talks are required to resolve it.

''None of the political parties are in favor of violence,'' Deuba said Tuesday. ''They all want talks to end the uprising.''

But the chief stumbling block is the Maoists' uncompromising demand for a republican state. Nepal being a Hindu Kingdom, such a notion is banned by the nation's democratic constitution.

(Inter Press Service)

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�1999 Asia Times Online Co., Ltd.

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