A perspective on developments in Nepal
05 Dec, 2001 · 651
Brig Chandra B Khanduri warns that the democratic experiment in Nepal is at stake with Maoist violence raising its ugly head once again
The internal security situation in
Nepal
has deteriorated to a considerable extent and is comparable with the ongoing cataclysmic situation in
Afghanistan
.
20 August 2001 , he promptly announced a ceasefire and in a magnanimous gesture released Maoist detenus. The insurgents reciprocated by announcing a suspension of terrorist activities and freed several hostages including policemen. The Maoists who ran a parallel government in
Western Nepal
called for a negotiated and political settlement to the people’s problems and joined hands with the negotiators.
Kathmandu
. The Maoists’ larger political objectives appear to be the disruption of the forthcoming 11th SAARC meeting in
Kathmandu
, in addition to destabilizing the three month old Deuba Government that had forced out the previous Koirala Government on grounds of its inability to control Maoist expansion.
When Sher Bahadur Deuba replaced GP Koirala as Prime Minister on
Parleys continued until mid-November, when news began to trickle that all was not well with the negotiations. Its failure was confirmed when the Maoists struck at the security forces camp at Pyuthan on the night of 23rd November killing 38 including 14 Royal Nepal Army (RNA) soldiers and abducting several others. Simultaneously, the Maoists declared the establishment of a ‘revolutionary government’ with Rolpa as headquarters .
That the negotiations portended failure was ipso facto a foregone conclusion; at outset the Maoists had set impossible conditions: abolition of monarchy and a lion’s share in governance. They had shown clearly their contempt for the new monarch, King Gyanendra, by killing some 40 policemen on his 55th birthday in July and inflicted a larger punishment on the security forces when King Gyanendra’s son Paras Bir Shah was declared Crown Prince on 26 October. This was followed by a bigger blood bath in which almost 300 people were killed, forcing the Nepalese Government to declare a national emergency and mobilize the entire RNA for counter-insurgency and internal security duties.
The raids of November 23rd and 25th were well coordinated. At Surkhet, in the far west, Maoists destroyed three helicopters that had been employed to ferry RNA troops from where they laid siege to communication centres at Dang and Sangiya. They also struck as far as Phalpu in Solkhumu district, east of
Democracy in Nepal continues to be an experiment refusing to succeed with the way events overwhelm it; the June 1st massacre at the Palace and the ever increasing influence of the Maoists in the west, overshadow the several democratic initiatives of the government which include proposals to ban untouchability, grant rights to women in parental property, and allocation of land and dwellings to the freed bonded labour. And
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