Nepal’s post-Maoist government falters

KATHMANDU, June 8, 2009 (AFP) - Two weeks after Nepal swore in a new prime minister following the fall of the Maoist government, analysts say the ruling coalition is looking decidedly shaky as it struggles to form a cabinet.

Maoist chief Pushpa Kamal Dahal – known as Prachanda – plunged the world’s newest republic into chaos in May when he resigned as prime minister just eight months into the job following a failed bid to fire the head of the army.

A group of rival parties led by the centre-left UML – the third-largest party in parliament – agreed to form a new ruling coalition, but have failed to agree on cabinet positions amid fierce political infighting.

On Friday one of the coalition partners withdrew its support, further weakening the already fragile grouping.

“Even if they do manage to form a full government, it will be highly unstable,” said Lok Raj Baral, political science professor at the Tribhuvan University in Kathmandu.

“The culture of mistrust among parties is so high that the government could fall at any time. The rangling for the ministerial berths in parties has made the country’s political future uncertain,” Baral said.

Prachanda and his fellow guerrillas fought against the army in a bloody civil war before emerging as the surprise winners of a 2007 general election with more than a third of the seats in parliament.

However, he resigned as prime minister after Nepal’s president blocked his government’s efforts to sack the head of the army, General Rookmangud Katawal.

On Friday, Maoist lawmakers tussled with police as they protested outside the president’s office, and they have vowed to disrupt parliament and hold street protests until Katawal is removed.

“We want the president to apologise and correct his unconstitutional move,” Maoist party spokesman Dinanath Sharma told AFP.

“We will continue to protest from streets and in parliament unless our demands are met,” he added.

The row between Prachanda’s government and Katawal was centred on the fate of 19,000 former Maoist rebel fighters, who are currently confined to United Nations-supervised camps.

Prachanda demanded that they be integrated into the national army to cement the peace process but the army refused, saying the guerrillas could never become non-partisan soldiers.

The current political uncertainty has cast a shadow over the fragile peace process launched when the 10-year civil war ended in 2006.

Rhoderick Chalmers, Nepal country director for the International Crisis Group (ICG), said the process was “close to collapse.”

“It is unfortunate to see political leaders fighting for petty gains and to fulfill personal ambitions,” he told AFP.

“Consensus was the key for all the parties, including the Maoists, to move forward.

“In order to take the peace process forward, the first thing parties should do is to rebuild consensus.”

A key task is the drafting of a new constitution after the 2008 abolition of the Himalayan nation’s 239-year-old monarchy.

But the process is already well behind schedule, and few now believe the government can meet its May 2010 deadline.

“The peace process will get delayed and at this point it doesn’t seem likely that the government will meet he deadline of writing the constitution,” said Tribhuvan University’s Baral.

Shankar Pokhrel, secretary of the UML party, told AFP discussions on ministerial portfolios were continuing, and expressed hope they would be completed within a few days.

“The biggest challenge is to bring all the leaders under one roof,” he said.

But Gunaraj Luitel, political columnist with the Nepali language daily Nagarik, said the latest crisis had exposed a “deep crisis of confidence” among the party leaders.

“The road to peace and stability looks rocky. Without a politics of consensus, Nepal will remain stuck,” he said.

UN mired in deepening Nepal row

By Navin Singh Khadka 
BBC Nepali service

A fresh dispute over the true number of Nepal's former Maoist combatants - which was supposed to have been verified by the United Nations - has cast a deepening shadow over the entire peace process.

The dispute began earlier this month when a video emerged in which the Maoist leader, Prachanda, admitted that he had exaggerated the strength of his forces 18 months ago to have more bargaining power during peace negotiations.

His comments are damaging for the UN because it verified Maoist fighters who are sheltered in a number of camps and are to be either rehabilitated into civilian society or recruited into the security forces.

Prachanda's recent resignation as prime minister following a row with the president over the sacking of the head of the army - combined with the row over the video tape - have made Nepal's rocky journey to a fully-fledged constitutional republic even more fraught.

'Deliberately inflated'

For the UN, that is a worry - because its peace mission in Nepal, UNMIN, might not be able to leave the country as quickly as it wanted to.

In the video footage Prachanda said that 35,000 former fighters were registered with the UN - while the actual figure was 7,000-8,000.

"Had we revealed the real figure then, today we would have only around 4,000 of our fighters verified by the UN," he said in the video.

"Since we deliberately inflated the registration figure to 35,000, we [made a compromise and] managed to get around 20,000 of them verified."

The video was recorded in one of the UN-supervised camps where Prachanda was addressing his military commanders.

Under the peace agreement signed in 2006 at the end of Maoist insurgency, UNMIN has been monitoring the camps sheltering former Maoist fighters and supervising their arms.

Given that it had registered and verified all Maoist ex-combatants, the release of the video became an immediate cause of concern - and no doubt some embarrassment - for the UN.

UNMIN chief, Karin Landgren, has sought an explanation from Prachanda.

"When I spoke to him about it, he said he was speaking to his cadres at a time of extreme uncertainty in the peace process and that it was necessary to boost their morale," she said.

After the leak, Prachanda held a press conference to say whatever he had said in the video was in a "different context" and the figures of the ex-combatants mentioned did not include all the levels within the Maoist ranks and file.

'Look forward'

Regardless of its happiness or otherwise with Prachanda's explanation, the UN does not seem eager to allow the controversy to fester.

"Given that this process - the verification of combatants - was accepted by all sides in 2007, you really have to ask yourself if the best use of time now is to reopen the process the parties were all satisfied with," Ms Landgren told the BBC.

"Is it productive to reopen it now? People have been sitting in the cantonments for over two years now and UNMIN is not going to be here for ever, this exercise must look forward."

That UNMIN needs to pack up as soon as possible is something UN officials including Secretary General Ban Ki Moon have been repeatedly stressing.

At its inception in 2007, UNMIN's mandate was for a year. But that mandate has already been extended three times by six months.

With the current term expiring in the last week of July, UN officials had hoped that the most important part of the peace process - the integration and rehabilitation of Maoist ex-fighters - would be over by then.

But some major parties in the country do not see it that way and have expressed concern over Maoist "dissembling" in relation to the number of ex-combatants.

Leaders of the main opposition Nepali Congress have demanded that the former fighters be re-verified in the wake of the leaked video.

The centrist party's sister organisations have also submitted memorandums to UNMIN demanding re-verification.

Ms Landgren argues that if they want to do that, they will have to work through a committee formed to integrate former Maoist combatants into the national security forces or to rehabilitate them.

The committee has the representation of all the major parties.

But even when the Maoists were in government the committee hardly ever met - and things were much more stable then.

Now that the Maoists have quit the government following the controversy over army chief Gen Katawal - who was sacked by Prachanda but reinstated by the president - they have resorted to street protests, meaning that there is little chance of the committee reaching a consensus in the immediate future.

The eager-to-depart UN was already concerned about the delay in the peace process after the Maoists walked out of the government.

Now that the number of Maoist ex-fighters it verified is in dispute, it has many reasons to believe that departure will not happen in the immediate future.

How fierce will the Maoists be now?

Frustrated by an unbiddable general, the Maoists quit the government, and Nepal’s hopes for peace recede

IF NEPAL’S mainstream politicians, army and Big Brother, India did not like Maoists in government, it is hard to imagine how the scrubbed-up guerrillas will be improved out of it. The resignation of the Maoist prime minister, Pushpa Kamal Dahal, or Prachanda (“fierce”), on May 4th offers a chance to find out. Mr Dahal was protesting against a move by the president, egged on by the aforementioned critics, to reverse his sacking of the country’s army chief, General Rookmangud Katawal. Unless President Ram Baran Yadav relents, the Maoists say they will not rejoin the government. The debacle has jeopardised an already flagging peace process.

General Katawal deserved the boot. A devotee of Nepal’s deposed king, Gyanendra, whose office was abolished last year to draw the Maoists into Nepal’s first post-war election, he has never hidden his hatred for his former foes in a decade-long conflict. In December, he refused to curtail a recruitment drive, which the UN called a violation of the 2006 peace agreement. When the government then refused his request to extend the service of eight brigadier-generals, he again resisted. After he forbade the army to take part in an athletics contest last month because the Maoists’ former army, currently corralled under UN supervision, was also to take part, the government asked General Katawal to explain himself on all three issues. His haughty response prompted Mr Dahal’s action.

The general’s insubordination conceals a more serious disagreement: over how to dispose of the Maoists’ former fighters. Under the terms of the peace agreement, negotiated between the Maoists and their political opponents under India’s aegis, some of the 23,000-odd corralled must be recruited into the army. The instrument of a power grab by Gyanendra in 2005, the army must meanwhile be made less elitist and more accountable. But General Katawal, with India’s blessing, has resisted these reforms. Pointing to the Maoists’ continuing revolutionary rhetoric, his backers argue that only an unreformed army can defend Nepal from its elected government. Kumar Madhav Nepal, a leader of a mainstream leftist party known as the UML, and touted as the next prime minister, says they “clearly want to capture power”.

The Maoists’ rhetoric is certainly worrying. So is the thuggery of their storm-trooping youth wing. Yet Maoist leaders also hint that their virulent rhetoric is to placate their frustrated rank-and-file. On May 6th, Mr Dahal said he would not join a national-unity government, as his opponents say they want, unless Mr Yadav reversed his decision; but the Maoists’ democratic commitment was unchanged.

No doubt, he has given reason to doubt this. Yet worries about how easily the army might be corrupted by Maoist recruitment may be overblown. And the peace process, which should also entail accounting for the war’s atrocities, is on hold. So is work on a drafting a new constitution, with which Nepal’s elected assembly is primarily entrusted. With almost half its two-year term gone, little progress has been made, and, needing a two-thirds majority, is unlikely while the Maoists, who control 38% of the house, are in opposition.

Even with more goodwill, this exercise would be contested. The Maoists, in a draft constitution released in March, demand an executive presidency and extreme devolution of powers from the centre to 13 ethnically-based provinces. The UML wants a ceremonial president, a directly elected prime minister and a similar devolution, but to less ethnically-tinged states. The Nepali Congress, the third main party, advocates a Westminster-style parliamentary system, and less devolution.

While squabbling continues in Kathmandu, organic devolution is taking place in many mutinous places. It is most extreme in the southern Terai region, where a 2006 insurrection by ethnic Madhesis has sparked agitations by their neighbours. A militant group of Tharus, who claim to be the region’s original inhabitants and 42% of its population (or double the government’s estimate), rose up this year in protest against their official classification as Madhesis, and to demand Tharu control of an autonomous Terai.

This week, in response to Mr Dahal’s resignation, the group ended its second two-week blockade of Kathmandu, which has worsened the capital’s existing fuel shortage. Asked when this agitation might resume, the group’s leader, a 34-year-old former Maoist fighter called Laxmi Tharu, replies cheerily: “As soon as the next government is formed."

The Economist

Nepal: Ban commends strides made towards consolidating peace

Progress has been made in Nepal’s peace process, including steps towards drafting a new constitution, but Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has cautioned that differences among key political parties continues to impede the consolidation of peace.

Regarding the “all-important constitution-making work,” Mr. Ban wrote in a new report made public today that nation-wide public talks are under way and the Special Committee mandated to supervise, integrate and rehabilitate Maoist army personnel has kicked off consultations.
Further, the Government has taken steps towards discharging disqualified Maoist army personnel from the cantonment sites, he said.

In spite of these “not insignificant positive measures,” the report noted that relations between the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) (CPN-M) and its main coalition partner, the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) (UML), as well as among the four political parties in the Maoist-led coalition Government, remain “fractious, marked by public acrimony and weak consultation over major decisions.”

A decade-long civil war, claiming some 13,000 lives, ended in 2006 with the signing of a peace accord between the Government and Maoists. After conducting Constituent Assembly elections last May, the nation abolished its 240-year-old monarchy, declared itself a republic and elected Ram Baran Yadav as the country’s first President.

At the end of its previous mandate in January, the UN special political mission in the country, known as UNMIN, reduced its staff to a minimal level.

“Nepali parties have repeatedly indicated to the United Nations that UNMIN arms monitors will continue to be needed to perform their current duties until the issue of integration and rehabilitation of Maoist army personnel is resolved,” the Secretary-General said in his report.

“The international community remains committed to supporting the process on which Nepal has embarked for the consolidation of peace and improvement of the lives of its people,” he added.


UN News Centre

India alarmed as Maoists resume war on Nepal Army

Kathmandu: When Nepal's Maoist revolutionaries waged an underground war against the state to end monarchy in the Himalayan kingdom, the Nepal Army was their biggest foe.

Now, three years after the guerrillas signed a ceasefire, returned to mainstream politics and formed the government by winning a historic election, they have resumed their fight with the state forces, to the alarm of neighbour India.

On Monday, India's ambassador to Nepal Rakesh Sood met Maoist Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda after indications that the government was planning to fire the current Nepal Army (NA) chief, Gen Rookmangud Katawal.

Katawal, a graduate of India's National Defence Academy and Indian Military Academy, has had a stormy innings since he assumed his post in 2006. While human rights organisations accused him of atrocities during the insurgency, Katawal, who was adopted by deposed king Gyanendra's father king Mahendra, was also regarded as being close to the palace.

During his stormy tenure, Katawal has locked horns with Maoist Defence Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa, defied the Maoist government's order to stop recruitment to NA, and opposed the Maoist plan to induct guerrillas of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) en masse.

A fresh provocation occurred this month when the new government held the National Games after a hiatus of eight years.

Protesting against the last-minute inclusion of the PLA in the Games, the NA boycotted the programme, angering the Maoist top brass.

On Sunday, Prachanda met Katawal and reportedly asked him to resign.

Katawal's tenure will end in August. If he declines the sop of becoming the PM's security adviser or an ambassador and refuses to step down, the Maoist government seems poised to remove him.

The defence ministry has asked him to furnish an explanation within 24 hours, threatening to remove him if the explanation is found "unsatisfactory".

The Katawal crisis comes while the Maoist government is fighting a legal battle against eight senior army officers.

The feud erupted last month when the army headquarters recommended that eight brigadier-generals nearing retirement be given a three-year extension.

The government ignored the recommendation and forced them to retire, triggering a court battle.

The beginning of fresh hostilities between the two forces has revived fears that the government would not be able to effect their integration, which is regarded as a key step in the fragile peace process.

India, keen to see Nepal draft a new constitution within the stipulated deadline next year, is concerned that the new clash could derail the peace process. New Delhi has been asking the government to work in harmony with its coalition partners as well as the main opposition party to ensure peace and progress.

The Hindu

Tensions threaten Nepal peace process

Fears are growing of a breakdown in the reconciliation between Nepal’s national army and former Maoist rebels now heading the government, threatening the Himalayan state’s three-year-old peace process.

The country is struggling to integrate 19,000 Maoist cadres into the national army, forces which were bitter adversaries during an 11-year civil war and which remain deeply suspicious of one another.

“We are at a serious threat of civil war as the Maoists have shown [their] intention to capture power by integrating their combatants in the national army,” said Sushil Koirala, acting president of the Nepali Congress party.

His party played a big role in bringing the Maoists to the peace process and is now in opposition. “The [government’s] coalition members are likely to withdraw support to the government very soon. If the Maoists [refuse] to step down in that situation, the military takeover is quite possible.”

Disputes have arisen over new recruits to the Nepalese army and the extension of the terms of eight generals. The Maoists unsuccessfully challenged the new appointments in the Supreme Court.

The army, meanwhile, has complained it is being denied resources to counter a regional terror threat and of China’s growing influence in the country.

But in the latest sign of tensions, the army has threatened to withdraw players from events in Nepal’s national games, which begin on Monday, because Maoists are also competing.

So great are the tensions between the government and the army that Ram Bahadur Thapa “Badal”, the defence minister, and chief of army staff Rook Mangud Katwal are not on speaking terms. They rely on Puspa Kamal Dahal, prime minister, to mediate between them.

“Retaliation is very much likely if the Maoist government continues with its current behaviour or tries to irritate us further,” warned a senior general on condition of anonymity.

Analysts say the country’s difficulties with the military integration go hand in hand with political reconciliation and agreement over a new constitution.

“Lack of progress on one of these impinges on the other,” said a former diplomat to Kathmandu, Nepal’s capital.

The diplomat also said that there were practical concerns over the size of the army, which numbers about 100,000 people, and how to equate ranks in the regular army with those in the former guerrilla force.

“A few thousand extra troops will swell the ranks of the army, which is already fairly large for Nepal,” he said.

“The entire 19,000 [cadres] certified by the United Nations cannot be taken in. Only a certain number of those will have to be taken.”

Karin Landgren, the head of the United Nations mission in Nepal, has appealed for the re-establishment of “trust and confidence” between the rival parties, saying reconciliation had come under strain in the past months.

The Maoist government is continuing its fight in the Supreme Court. It has lodged a plea at the court to reconsider its stay order on the state not to obstruct the extension of the eight generals’ terms in office.

The head of the army declined to comment on the challenges facing the force. “The Nepal army is committed to democracy and the rule of law. Our only stand is we won’t carry any one party’s flag,” said Rook Mangud Katwal, the chief of army staff.

The Financial Times

S’porean helped this prince, but...Can she help his kingdom?

(This is the final part of series of report in The New Paper on Nepal’s former crown prince, in which he talks about his life in S’pore and meet the Singaporean woman who helped him settle in.)

A SINGLE call made by this Singapore woman can apparently move mountains in Nepal.

A king even gave up his throne after MsAngella Cheng made a strategic call.

This happened in 2006, when thousands of students took to the streets of the capital Kathmandu in demonstrations against the monarchy soon after the Maoist rebels had come into power.

Ms Cheng’s friends in Nepal had asked her for help.

So she got on the phone with former long-time prime ministerG P Koirala, who was leading the demonstrations.

“I asked him to seek an audience with then-King Gyanendra and work out a solution,” she told The New Paper.

Mr Koirala went to the palace and negotiations began in earnest.

The final outcome?

The king agreed to abdicate in favour of his grandson, Hridayendra, who was then an infant, easing the tense atmosphere.

According to Ms Cheng, Mr Koirala remarked to her then that she deserved the Nobel Peace Prize for her peacemaker role.

Call opens prison doors

Last November, when two top politicians – husbands of her close friends – were arrested, she interceded on their behalf and went to visit them when they were behind bars. “It was no easy matter – the guards refused to let me through.

“So I made calls to the Chief of Police in one instance and a Major-General in the other, and the visits were allowed.

“Till today, their wives know that I am a friend in need, and whenever they know I am in Nepal, they will whip up a feast for me,” she said.

So how did a Singapore woman acquire so much influence there, with many friendships, including some in high places?

It all began more than 10 years ago, when she was introduced to the Nepali Royal Family.

“I helped (the late) Princess Shanti, the elder sister of King Birendra, to raise funds for the country’s orphans. She was Nepal’s Patron of Orphanages. I helped raise cash which I sent over, along with used clothes, books and computers.”

Princess Shanti was among those slain in the royal massacre of 2001 when Crown prince Dipendra went berserk and opened fire on members of the Royal Family at a palace party, killing nine of them before shooting himself.

Ms Cheng’s royal connections remain strong now.

When Prince Paras decided to stay in Singapore after the abolition of the monarchy, she helped him settle down, including finding him accommodation.

Can she be a kingmaker?

Ms Cheng has visited Nepal to set up libraries, teach the children English and even cooked for them, breaking her nails, she said with a hearty laugh.

She also purchased medical equipment for Nepal’s public hospitals and co-ordinated sponsorship attachments for doctors and nurses to be trained in Singapore to upgrade their skills so that they can improve public health care back home.

In time, she extended help to Mr Koirala to raise funds to bring in urgently-needed medical experts.

Ms Cheng, 45, plans to visit Nepal during Deepavali in October and seek an audience with prime minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal (alias Prachanda), during which she will offer him a plan which she thinks will unite the country.

Nepal is currently rocked by strife and dissent, split as it is by rifts between pro-monarchist and pro-republic factions.

“I will propose that we reinstate the monarchy, with the grandson of King Gyanendra, 6-year-old Hridayendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev, as king. He will not have executive power but will be more of a figurehead, and assigned the role of doing social work.”

Why the young man and not his father, Prince Paras?

Ms Cheng believes that Prince Paras would not be a good choice as he is not popular with the people, having, as he himself has admitted, made too many mistakes to inherit the royal mantle.

Restoring paradise

And the Singaporean believes her suggestion will bear fruit as she has two bargaining chips to persuade the Prachanda government to accept the return of the monarchy.

One, the country is in dire need of infrastructural development.

An architect by training and fluent in Nepali and Mandarin, she is accompanying the Prachanda government to China to have discussions with the Chinese government on starting a number of major infrastructural projects in Nepal.

Two, through some close contacts in the Japanese government, Ms Cheng is also trying to persuade Japan to undertake some similar infrastructional projects in Nepal.

Ms Cheng comes across as a woman determined to help set things right in a country famous for its natural beauty.

Nepal is home to Everest, the world's highest peak and Lumbini, the birth place of Buddha.

Ms Cheng enjoys doing social and community work so much that she quit a cushy job with a property developer to start a social enterprise, ChaCha Cottage Industry.

Her social mission and objective is to help unskilled single mothers (divorced and widowed) with home-based work, including making decorative scented candles, beauty soaps and beauty products and costume jewellery.

She hopes to empower these women to rebuild their lives and re-establish their self-esteem.

Profits from sales of these products are used to help families of these mothers pay for school uniforms, medical and miscellaneous expenses. Products made by ChaCha Cottage Industry are sold at Raffles Hotel Shop.

Said Ms Cheng: “I was once a single mum, and my journey as a single mum to a life of blessings, and wanting to move on from success to significance, spurred me to start this cottage industry.”

Now, Nepal is facing perhaps its most difficult time. Revenue from tourism, its main income earner, is falling as visitors are staying away because of the global recession.

The country is also plagued by shortages of all sorts and daily blackouts.

Ms Cheng feels she has a new peace mission to play and intends to return to Nepal soon.

Isn’t she afraid for her safety, given that the populace in Nepal is restive, crime is rampant and kidnappings take place almost every day?

“No, I know most of the politicians, including Prime Minister Prachanda, the Maoist rebel leader turned politician, and members of the royal family since 1981.

“ I have played many crucial roles in the country for the last 28 years, and the time has come for me to do my bit for the country again.”

Nepali PM says to complete peace in 4 to 5 months

By John Acher

OSLO (Reuters)- Nepalese Prime Minister Prachanda said Monday that his government aimed to complete a peace process in four to five months, roughly in time for when the mandate of a U.N. mission expires at the end of July.

A decade-long civil war in the Himalayan nation ended in 2006, and Prachanda's former Maoist rebels head a coalition government after a surprise election victory in April last year.

Nepal is under pressure to complete the peace process, which involves finding a future for former Maoist insurgents now in U.N. camps, before the U.N. mission's mandate runs out.

"I think now we are going to conclude this peace process within a couple of months. We have already decided a timetable to lead this process to conclusion in four to five months," Pushpa Kamal Dahal, who goes by his guerrilla name Prachanda, told a news conference during a two-day visit to Norway.

"We want to see this process to a logical conclusion in such a way that it can be a model of peace, particularly for south Asia," he said.

Prachanda said the country already had a "very inclusive national assembly" and has drafted a constitution that will provide for a federal democratic republic in Nepal, which abolished a 239-year-old monarchy last year.

The constitution is due to be ready by May 2010.

"Federalism is going to be one of the vital issues we will discuss in the constitutional assembly," he said after signing an agreement with Norway on a deal to expand cooperation in areas such as hydropower development and rural education.

An insufficient power supply has been crippling to the Nepalese economy, which relies heavily on foreign aid and remains among the poorest in the world despite the former Maoist rebels' pledges to create a "new Nepal."

The Norwegian firm SN Power, owned by state-owned utility Statkraft and state development fund Norfund, operates the Khimti hydroelectric plant east of Kathmandu, and the company aims to expand its portfolio of hydropower assets in Nepal.

"We have huge hydro (power) potential," said Prachanda, who was scheduled to visit a Norwegian hydropower plant near Oslo on Tuesday. "We want to learn and enhance the level of cooperation in the hydro sector with Norway."

Nepal’s minorities find their voice

By Harry Sanna

In the rocky savannahs of Nepal’s southern Terai plains, a people long-silenced by a centuries-old Hindu monarchy are beginning to make themselves heard.

Since the country’s democratic end to a decade-long civil war, Nepal’s minorities, including more than one million Muslims, are gaining a political voice for the first time in the Himalayan nation’s history.

With the constitution currently being redrafted by Nepal’s new federal republic, a swathe of minority groups, many from the poor districts in the south, are pressuring the government to include articles legitimising their own identities.

In early March, Tharus, one of the ethnic minority groups living along the 1,700km Indo-Nepal Terai border region, held a two-week strike to demand recognition. Several days later, a prominent Muslim group made the same move.

The government signed an agreement with the group a day before the strikes were scheduled to begin, promising inclusion in the new constitution.

Among their demands are a Muslim Commission with connections to the government, an autonomous Madrasa Board, a Haj Committee and greater legitimacy for Islamic law.

“This is the most opportune time Muslims have ever had for ensuring greater rights,” said Bhaskar Gautam, a political analyst specialising in the matter. “Getting their place in the constitution is very important for them, as it is for all Nepal’s minorities.”

According to a census published by the government in 2006, Muslims make up 4.2 per cent of the country’s 30 million population, and Birganj, a border town and trade link between Nepal and the Indian state of Bihar, is fast becoming the epicentre for Muslim politicisation and progress.

“In the coming days, we will start our mighty struggle,” said Mohammed Lal Babu, a Muslim activist. “Nothing comes without agitation, procession and protest. We will be taking it to the streets very soon.”

A key fighting point is identity. In early 2007, the ethnic Madhesi in Terai started their demands for recognition. While many Muslims are currently trying to separate themselves from the Madhesi’s demands, others in the community see the struggle as a united front.

Mr Babu, 41, is one such activist and a member of the Madhesi Muslim Forum. His beliefs, different from some of his peers, lie in the connections between Madhesis and Muslims.

“Madhesis are a very disenfranchised community, but Muslims are marginalised for being both Madhesi and Muslim. They are the most marginalised in all of Nepal.”

The history of Muslims in Nepal sheds light on the complexity of their current identity crisis. Academic sources claim that Islam was introduced to the Himalayan kingdom via Arab traders, who established a route into Tibet. The majority, however, are Indian Muslims, with a large portion settling there after fleeing to the foothills from the British Raj after the Sepoy rebellion of 1857.

The economic situation for a majority of the Muslim population is grim. Many working in traditional jobs such as tailoring and watch repairing are being forced out by growing industrialisation. Others farm, living hand to mouth. Bashir Harwari, 51, runs a laundry in Birganj.

“The lack of education is a big problem for us. We have been oppressed for so longer under a Hindu monarchy, and now we have very little.”

To try to better their conditions, many have moved to Middle Eastern countries in search of work.

“Some of them are doing OK, but most of them are living in the very worst of conditions,” Mr Gautam, the political analyst, said.

Another key grievance the Muslims have is the state of madrasas, which first began to spring up in Nepal after multiparty democratisation in 1990. Today, there are several thousand.

Most of the funding for madrasas comes through zakas, localised Islamic community funds. But with a lack of investment, many are unable to fulfil their duties by preparing young Muslims for higher and college education.

“Under the terms of zakas, the madrasas rely on the funding by the community,” said Mohammed Habiburrahman, the vice principal of a madrasa in Birganj.

“We are a very poor community, so how much funding do you think we can provide? We need madrasas guaranteed and constituted by the government.”

In rural areas, many still practise elements of Islamic law, however, there is no legal legitimacy for this in Nepal. The taking of multiple wives and the talaq, where a man can divorce his wife without any justification, is still considered illegal under the country’s laws; which pressure groups are now pushing to have legitimised on a localised level.

After the democracy movement of 2006 and abolition of the monarchy in 2008, Nepal officially announced its position as a secular state, ousting a Hindu monarchy that had been in place for 240 years. Since then, tension has simmered over religious issues in the small nation.

Aside from its position as unofficial headquarters for many Muslim groups, the Terai has been a flashpoint for communal attacks between Hindus and Muslims. After the announcement of secularism in 2006, Hindu nationalists rioted in Birganj, closing the city down for days. Last year, there were two separate incidents of mosques being bombed in which two people died.

“For the most part, we are in social harmony here,” said Babujan Ali, a recognisable face among Birganj’s 30,000 Muslims.

“However, nowadays there are some radical groups who want to disturb the peace. There are some Hindu fundamentalists who come [to the Terai] make trouble, then flee again back to Kathmandu.”

Mr Ali, 60, is a member of Nepal’s Haj committee. In his work with hajis, he has become a figurehead in the push for more rights for Nepal’s would-be pilgrims. Currently, the home ministry is in charge of deciding who may, or may not, make the journey. This, Mr Ali believes, is unacceptable.

“We want independence and autonomy from the government,” said Mr Ali, who recently returned from a pilgrimage to Mecca, along with 476 other Nepalis. “While the government’s funding for my trip was adequate, there must be more for the community.”

Further clouding decision-making over such demands have been periodic reports of Islamic fundamentalist infiltration across the belt, fed primarily by the Indian media. The claims, ranging from Pakistan’s secret intelligence and al Qa’eda funding to exiled Kashmiri separatists, remain unsubstantiated.

Modern history in Nepal has shown that political grievances, such as that of the country’s Muslims, can lead to extended periods of conflict. Aggravating this further is the weak presence of representatives currently – only 17 MPs, out of a 601-seat assembly, are Muslim.
However, the current climate undeniably shows that the time has never been better for Nepal’s Muslims to fight for their rights.

Whether the government, already burdened with crippling power shortages and an ongoing peace process, will address those demands, remains to be seen.


* The National

Nepal's Royal Palace: Versailles in green nylon

The ancient house of Shah had dodgy ideas on soft furnishings

THE stuffed tigers have seen better days. The big dynastic portraits, of double-chinned Nepali princes and their fair-skinned consorts, are catching dust. But the Narayanhiti Palace, Kathmandu’s recently-vacated royal residence, is less remarkable for its faded splendour than for its dreadful modern design.

Completed in 1969, on the site of an older palace, it is built in concrete and marble, with acres of laminated wood panelling and hideous pink carpet. The royal bedchamber, last occupied by King Gyanendra, whose 2005 coup led to the abolition last year of his 240-year-old Shah dynasty, is rather poky. A bedside clutter of family snapshots and porcelain knick-knacks is simply poignant.

Since it was opened to the public on February 26th, by the Maoist prime minister who chased out its occupants, the palace has had over 36,000 visitors. Some are angry. The banquet-hall, with seating for 110, stirs particular rage in a country where almost half the children under the age of five are chronically malnourished. Other visitors—perhaps 15% of the total, reckons Jayaram Mahajan, a former royal retainer who now runs the palace museum—come in reverence. As they enter, these pilgrims stoop to take a blessing from the floor. But most visitors, Mr Mahajan admits, are rather underwhelmed. Even to a poor Nepali, the palace is no Versailles.

With more royal trophies to go on display—including the crown jewels and a Daimler-Benz car given to Gyanendra’s grandfather by Hitler—the museum will improve. For now, its biggest draw is a patch of levelled ground beside the main palace. It is the site of a building, demolished by Gyanendra, where in 2001 his nephew, Crown Prince Dipendra, massacred his parents, the king and queen, and eight other relations. Helpful signs shows where each royal was killed. Beside a small pond, near where Dipendra shot his mother, Queen Aiswarya, then himself, bullet-holes are still visible.

Mr Mahajan seems to find little pleasure in his new job. “I wish the royal family had not been killed, and I wish the last king had not left the palace,” he says. It seems Gyanendra was not expecting to do so. Beside the main palace is a half-built, rain-damaged annexe, which Gyanendra had ordered for a new banquet-hall, not long before his abrupt retirement and exit.

The Economist, (Mar 27-Apr 2)

Nepal: War without bloodshed

Troubles of the peace for the Maoist government

NEPAL’S Maoist prime minister, Pushpa Kamal Dahal, or “Prachanda” (fierce), recently said that running a country was harder than running a guerrilla war. He should not have been surprised. The Maoist-led coalition government was formed after the ex-guerrillas pulled off a stunning election victory last April, just two years after they tramped in from the jungle. It faced three giant tasks: to bring better government to one of South Asia’s poorest countries; to help sustain a peace process that followed a bitter, decade-long struggle; and to preside over the writing of a new constitution. Achieving all this, within the 30-month term allotted to a government, was bound to be difficult. Yet there is now a growing fear that failure—in a country that has seen civil war, a royal coup, the abolition of the monarchy, huge protests and an ethnically based rebellion in recent years—may spark a fresh crisis before long.

On its first task, the government has done passably well. With a few able ministers, it has made a better fist of administration than its shambolic predecessor, headed by the main opposition, the Nepali Congress party. The Maoist finance minister, Baburam Bhattarai, promised lots of handouts for the poor. But by making it easier for people to pay income tax, and threatening retribution to those who will not, he has also, he says, boosted the government’s revenues by 38%. If this has not endeared the Maoists to Kathmandu’s well-heeled tax-dodgers, the ex-guerrillas do not care. “Resolutely unclubable”, in the phrase of the International Crisis Group, a think-tank, the Maoists rose on the back of popular resentment against Kathmandu’s grip on the nation’s power and wealth.

On the second task, encouraging peace, the news is less good. In Kathmandu on March 22nd, the UN’s high commissioner for human rights, Navi Pillay, declared that without justice for the victims of Nepal’s war, in which 13,000 died, the country’s fragile peace might be doomed. There is as yet no prospect of such justice. The war’s murders and rapes were carried out by two forces that remain at loggerheads: the Maoists’ 24,000-strong People’s Liberation Army, currently corralled under UN supervision, and the national army.

Under the terms of a 2006 peace accord between the Maoists and the main political parties, the Maoist fighters were to be taken into the army, or found other jobs. The army, which backed Nepal’s deposed king, Gyanendra, in a 2005 power-grab, was also to be reformed. None of this has been done. In private, politicians and some army officers agree that a few thousand Maoist foot-soldiers will have to be recruited into the army, and some Maoist commanders given accelerated officer training. Yet the army chief, General Rookmangud Katwal, who hates Maoists, is reluctant to concur. And the Maoists seem unwilling to disband their forces.

This is unsustainable. On March 15th the Maoist defence minister refused to extend the service of eight brigadier-generals, as General Katwal had asked him to. The Maoists were retaliating against General Katwal’s earlier refusal to abandon an army recruitment drive, as the government and UN had said he should. Might the army take over? “Let’s hope that situation doesn’t arise,” says a senior officer. It may not, at least without tacit support from India, and that seems unlikely.

Alas, the Maoists’ third task, presiding over the writing of a new constitution by Nepal’s elected assembly, promises to be the most difficult. Little progress has been made, because of incompetence, political jockeying and fundamental disagreements. Most contentious is the issue of federalism. All the main parties have vowed to support a new federal Nepal, but few, if any, consider this practical or desirable. The root of the problem is, again, widespread resentment of rich Kathmandu and its pampered elite. Yet few regions outside the Kathmandu valley generate much wealth and, even if politically possible, the sort of provincial structures that many Nepalis now expect may be unaffordable.

The issue is already explosive. After a 2006 insurrection in the southern Terai region by the Madhesi ethnic group, all the main parties have pandered to regional sentiments. This has encouraged more uprisings. This month members of another ethnic group, the Tharu, in the western part of the Terai, launched a ruinous two-week blockade of roads across the country. They objected to their classification by the Maoists as Madhesi, whom the Tharu consider interlopers from India. Nepal’s troubles are far from over.

The Economist (Mar 27-Apr 2)

South Asian reporters 'at severe risk'

Rising violence in South Asia is putting journalists at "severe risk", a US-based media human rights group says.

The Committee to Protect Journalists lists nations where reporters are regularly attacked or killed.

In the committee's list of 14 leading countries where the authorities had failed to solve murders of journalists, six were in South Asia.

This year has seen the high-profile murders of a Sri Lankan editor and a Nepal radio journalist.

'Eroding'

The committee's report says attacks on reporters have increased in Sri Lanka and Pakistan, while Afghanistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and India also all appear on its "impunity index" of 14 countries.

Shawn Crispin, CPJ Asia programme consultant, told the Reuters news agency: "The political situation in South Asia is deteriorating."

He said some of the countries were "entering now into eras of sustained armed conflict and as soon as that happens, journalists are immediately at risk".

The committee's survey pointed to a surge of violence in Sri Lanka.

This year the editor of the Sunday Leader, Lasantha Wickramatunga, was killed and in a second attack, another editor, Upali Tennakoon, was injured.

Mr Crispin also pointed to the situation in Pakistan which was "quickly eroding".

"There are more and more journalists getting caught, not necessarily in the crossfire itself, but by competing groups. They don't like the coverage of the journalist, they target the journalist," he said.

TV reporter Musa Khankhel was shot dead in Pakistan's troubled Swat district in February.

Nepal also saw a high-profile murder this year. Reporter Uma Singh was murdered in the southern city of Janakpur.

The CPJ said that India was also on the list - ranked 14th with seven cases of unsolved murders.
Iraq, Sierra Leone and Somalia top the list for the second year running.

Source: BBC

Abuse, impunity endanger Nepal peace: UN rights chief

KATHMANDU, March 22 (Reuters)

Nepal's fledgling peace process could be derailed if the government failed to protect human rights and punish abusers, the UN's rights panel chief said on Sunday.

The Himalayan nation ended a decade-long civil war nearly three years ago - a conflict during which both army and Maoist rebels were blamed for abuses such as arbitrary arrests, torture, disappearances and killings.

The rebels signed a peace deal in 2006 and won a surprise election victory last year. Their leader Prachanda is now heading a coalition government, the first after Nepal abolished the 239-year-old monarchy and became a republic.UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navanethem Pillay, met the families of alleged victims of human rights violations and heard their stories.

"The families...want the truth so they can have a sense of closure; they need reparations so they can start rebuilding their lives; and, most of all, they want justice," Pillay said in a statement.

"And until these demands for justice are fulfilled and accountability for past, and in particular ongoing, violations is ensured...the peace process could be jeopardised."

More than 13,000 people were killed and tens of thousands injured and displaced during the rebellion.Pillay met Prachanda, who promised to end impunity and discrimination, and ensure respect for human rights.

"I told him that the Human Rights Council in Geneva is also following closely the progress his government is making to fulfil that commitment," Pillay told reporters before leaving for a visit to India.

"Nepal has the real possibility to grasp the historic opportunity to prove itself as a leader in implementing its human rights commitments," she said

Justice urged for Nepal's abused

By Charles Haviland

BBC News, Kathmandu

The United Nations human rights chief has told the people of Nepal that without justice, peace is impossible.

Navanethem Pillay was speaking during her first official visit to Nepal.

The country was the scene of widespread human rights violations during the 10-year conflict between the government and Maoist rebels which ended in 2006.

Political disappearances, killings and torture were all common during the war, with perpetrators on both the state and rebel sides.

Many victims were civilians with nothing to do with the conflict.

Deluged

Ms Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, reminded civil society delegates that not a single person had yet been prosecuted for such violations - and that abuses had continued even since the conflict formally ended, naming two recent examples.

"Until someone is held accountable for past violations, serious crimes like the killing of journalist Uma Singh and businessman Ram Hari Shrestha will continue and the peace process will be at threat," she said.

There was a deluge of petitions and questions to her.

A man in a wheelchair said disabled people were ignored in Nepal.

Several Dalits, formerly known as "untouchables", lamented that there was no law protecting their rights.

Others argued for the cause of Muslim women, Tibetan or Bhutanese refugees and the indigenous groups who make up more than one-third of Nepal's population.

As Nepal, now led by the Maoists, draws up a new constitution, a whole gamut of groups are clamouring for their rights.

Ms Pillay said she was struck by their "passion" and would take a raft of social and political rights concerns to the highest world bodies. Human rights, she said, must be fundamental to Nepal's peace process.

NEPAL: Ethnic identity crisis gathers momentum

KATHMANDU, 20 March 2009

At least two major ethnic groups in the southeastern Terai region bordering India have joined strikes and protests in recent weeks against their classification in the new draft constitution as Madhesi, Nepal's dominant ethnic group.

Tharu make up 6.75 percent of Nepal's 28 million inhabitants, according to the government's Central Bureau of Statistics, and have been galvanised by the Tharuhat Joint Struggle Committee.

"I'm a Tharu. That's my true identity. I'm not a Madhesi," Geeta Chaudhary, a student, told IRIN in Kathmandu.

This is a common sentiment among Tharus, the original inhabitants of the Terai. Despite their numbers, they are one of the most neglected, exploited and impoverished ethnic groups in Nepal.

Most were slaves for high caste landlords under the bonded labour system known as 'kamaiya', which was abolished in 2006. Even today, however, thousands of extremely poor and illiterate Tharu girls work as indentured servants.

"In many ways, we have been the worst victims of poverty and political neglect," said Chaudhary.

"It [the classification move] was a direct attack on our ethnic identity and an insult to the entire Tharu community," said Raj Kumar Lekhi, general secretary of Tharu Kalyankari Sabha, a prominent Tharu campaigning group.

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the recent strikes had a serious impact in terms of blocking supplies of food and petrol in hill areas, causing shortages and price hikes. Protestors also blocked the movement of humanitarian service vehicles and ambulances.

Muslims

Terai Muslims - some 4.3 percent of Nepal's population - are equally incensed, and joined the protests against their categorisation by the government as Madhesis purely because they live in the Terai.

Like the Tharu, Muslims have been on the margins of development and mainstream politics.
"We expected that our 'New Nepal' would not discriminate against us but we are still being treated as refugees," said Muslim journalist Rahamatulla Miya.

The "New Nepal" concept has been popular since the end of the decade-long armed conflict (1996-2006) which ended with the abolition of the 300-year-old monarchy, but for minority ethnic groups, the situation has barely changed.

"The Muslims want recognition of their identity and proper representation in the constitution and not to be categorised as Madhesi or any other community," said Attahar Hussain, president of Muslim Mukti Morcha, which rallies Nepalese Muslims.

Some Muslim activists told IRIN it was difficult to raise issues of discrimination and injustice without being accused of fuelling religious fundamentalism.

Still time

Tharu leader Lekhi explained that there was still time to get the draft constitution amended: "Our identity movement has been successful so far and there are signs that the government will agree to our demand."

An indication of the importance of the issue in Nepal is evident from interventions by Prime Minister Puspa Kamal Dahal, who has been in talks with leaders of the protests. Parliament is to hold a session on 29 March to address the demands of the various ethnic groups.


Source: IRIN

Nepal in the brink of failure?

By Indradhoj Kshetri

NEPAL is the youngest Republic in the world. It is the only country in South Asia ruled by the Communist Party that rose from rebellion and grabbed power through democratic election. There are many things which make this beautiful Himalayan Sangri-la unique. Despite tremendous possibilities and enormous resources, Nepal is the poorest country in the region. People had high hopes that their fate would change after the former rebel took the helm. In just three years, the Maoists held two different fronts; the rebellion and the government. However, most of the indexes in the last three years have become nothing but negative. Nepal has been fighting with a number of problems and the enormity of them could even turn the country as a failed state.

The most vicious of the problems is the intertwined ties between Feudalism and Hindu Fundamentalism. As the Maoist rebels ascended to power and the country is declared Republic, the most important and daring challenge is to root out the feudalism from the country. As they were threatened, the remnants of the feudal system have tried to play in various fronts, most significantly and gravely in southern plains. Terai plains were already under the control of the feudal lords and land mafias who descended there from northern hills or southern India. Their ownership of large chunks of plain and fertile land has been time and again threatened by 'land reforms', first time initiated by the first democratically elected Prime Minister BP Koirala in 1960. They are most dreaded by the rise of the revolutionary communists in the country which, by ideology, stand against the private ownership. To effectively bring the Maoist into size, they have used terai. The regional politics has begun and the parties which advocate the mainstreaming of terai plain minority people against hilly origin majorities are nothing but coteries of the high-caste feudal lords. Using this card, a regional party stood fourth largest in the constituent assembly elections and is now the important constituent of the Maoist led coalition government.

This conflict also provides a safe heven to the Hindu fundamentalists who think to be disgraced after the only Hindu Kingdom in the world sank. Nepal's King was believed to be the incarnation of Lord Bishnu, and thus the living god. There were protests against the parliament declaring Nepal a secular nation and also in support of the dethroned King. Though, it could not stop the tide, they will try their best to regain their safe harbour. They want to destabilise the government in Kathmandu so that they could anytime regain their safe harbour. Though, it looks like a far cry, it is never out of possibility; the former King continues his pilgrimage to various deities and political parleys in Nepal India. Gyanendra is in India now where a few leaders of former ruling Nepali Congress and CPN UML are to shortly join him. There are rumors that something is being cooked in Delhi. Given India's over possessive attitude towards its northern neighbour, it is never impossible.

This feudalist movement is given ethnic camouflage of the movement for emancipation of nearly a third of the Indian origin people dwelling in terai plains. It is no good debating their nationality; of course, they are the citizens of Nepal and have proved themselves as patriotic as the hilly origin people. It is also clear that the state discriminated them for centuries; lately placating this huge population with a few ministerial or high ranking administrative posts. However, the feudal system can never be an alternative to avert such discrimination.

The demagoguery of the leaders has portrayed each other communities which total almost equal in the plains as enemies and the rift is widening. The emotions of the youths are filled with hatred towards each other. Besides, owing to open border with India, tackling criminal and terrorist activities in these plains is so complicated, especially when this land borders with India's poorest and highly volatile states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh; it is beyond capacity of poorly equipped Nepal Police. Criminal groups are using this as an excuse to expand their network and pace up their activities. Should the army be deployed, the situation will wholly change and even turn to secessionist movement as heard in rhetoric of a few demagogues.

The situation is no better in the eastern hills. The so called high-caste continue to dominate the public and the social sphere in the hills inhabited largely by the ethnic Mongolian origin people. Thus accumulated discriminatory feeling in the hills east from Kathmandu is bursting out with the demand for autonomous states. Some radicalists have even threatened secession. Though it also seems to be a far cry now, the case is similar as in the terai region; never out of possibility especially when the Kathmandu government grossly fails to address people's melancholies.

Recently, the much overlooked Tharu community which is the indigenous dweller of terai plains, waged all out struggle against their recognition by the state as Madheshis, the term which signifies the Indian origin people. Their week-long protest brought the whole country into standstill and people fear more such showdowns may be on the cards. People are skeptic whether this government and the constituent assembly which also works as the legislature will be able to maneuver country through these mounting problems. For the people in Nepal, the situation is never better, if not worse, than during the rule of parliamentary parties and the autocratic monarchy.

Published in Daily Star, Banglades, March 12, 2009

Hemmed in at home, non-Maoist Nepal leaders line up to visit India

By Yubaraj Ghimire

Kathmandu: As the New Delhi-mediated peace process faces its stiffest challenge and Maoists move towards one-party rule, leaders of various non-Maoist political parties, including those in the ruling coalition, are in the process of heading southward.

The visits by Nepali leaders coincides with the three-week-long “social-religious” visit to India — to Delhi, Bhopal, Gujarat and back to Delhi next week—- of dethroned King Gyanendra that began end of February. Most leaders have used “health check-up” as the pretext for their Delhi visit while others are “silent”.

Party and family sources said that while the deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Bamdev Gautam left on Monday, K P Oli, another prominent leader, is likely to join them. Both belong to the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML) , a major partner coalition in the Maoist-headed coalition.

While Oli had a kidney transplant few years ago, Gautam suffered from facial paralysis about a month ago.

G P Koirala, president of the Nepali Congress, and Surya Bahadur Thapa, chairman of the Rastriya Janashakti Party, will be in Delhi on Wednesday. According to information available, former King Gyanendra is expected to arrive in Delhi a couple of days after Holi.
Whether he’s accorded a reception as a former head of the state or ignored will be, politically, an important indicator for Nepal.

As monarchy was scrapped and Maoists took control of the Government, they undermined partners in the coalition as well as the peace process. And much to India’s concern, Nepal seems moving towards signing series of treaties with the north: first, a treaty of peace and friendship which may be followed by visa-waiver policy with China. Top Maoist leaders Prachanda and Baburam Bhattarai have called the former king’s visit to India as an attempt to have the monarchy restored with the help of an “expansionist India.”

Published in Indian Express, March 10, 2009

EU asks Nepal army, Maoists to halt recruitment

Kathmandu (IANS): As the row between Nepal's army and the Maoist guerrilla army deepened, the European Union on Tuesday expressed grave concern over new recruitments in violation of the peace pact, saying this could derail the peace process.

The EU Heads of Mission, which includes Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Britain and the European Commission, and the representative of the Netherlands in Kathmandu issued a joint statement saying the recent recruitment campaigns by the Nepal Army and the Maoist People's Liberation Army (PLA) violated the spirit of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement signed three years ago between the rebels and the seven major parties.

The group said that the recruitment campaigns also posed "a serious threat to the peaceful democratic future which the Nepali people have fought so hard for".

The new complication in Nepal's fragile peace process occurred late last year after the army sought to recruit personnel and refused to back down even after being ordered to halt the process by Maoist Defence Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa Badal.

The over 90,000-strong army defended its move, saying it was not making any addition to its strength but filling the vacancies left by the "annual wastage rate", which included retirements, resignations and casualties.

Angered by this, the PLA this month announced it too would recruit nearly 12,000 combatants since its nearly 31,000 strength was slashed to about 19,000 after a UN verification that weeded out child soldiers and other illegal recruits.

The PLA anger is also fuelled by the uncertainty about the fate of its fighters even three years after they laid down arms and agreed to live in corralled cantonments under UN supervision.
While the peace pact had agreed that the PLA would be merged with the state army, it is being opposed by the army and some of the major parties that had signed the agreement.

Also, the Maoist government has not kept its commitment to the UN to discharge child soldiers and other disqualified combatants by February.

The EU on Tuesday urged the Maoist government and all parties to resolve the future of the Maoist combatants and said it was ready to assist.

It also urged the Maoist government to begin discharging disqualified Maoist fighters "without further delay", especially the minors in the cantonments.

The recruitment row has also reached Nepal's Supreme Court with the apex body asking both armies to halt recruitment.

But while the army remains quietly defiant, the PLA is vocally so. PLA chief Nanda Kishore Pun 'Pasang' has said that his guerrilla force would go ahead if the army was not stopped.
The PLA anger has widened the rift in the Maoist party and raised afresh fears of a new revolt against the party leadership.

Published in Hindu on March 11, 2009

Western envoys see cracks in Nepal's peace process

KATMANDU, Nepal - Western diplomats expressed concern over cracks in the peace process that ended Nepal's bloody 10-year communist insurgency, the British Embassy said in a statement.

Officials from the embassies of Britain, France and the United States met Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal on Sunday, the statement said.

The diplomats said in the letter that there "negative developments" in the process, including new recruitment campaigns by both the government army and the former rebel Maoists that the envoys said were "clear breaches of the spirit of the peace agreements."

The former communist rebels are protesting the recruitment of 2,800 new soldiers into the national army last year, saying it is against the peace process that prohibits the adding of personnel by either the government army or the ex-rebels.

The army has said it was not recruiting new soldiers but filling vacant posts.

However, last week the Maoists threatened to begin recruiting new combatants also.
As part of the peace process that began in April 2006, the former rebels gave up their armed revolt, confined thousands of their combatants in United Nations-monitored camps and locked up their weapons.

The Maoists contested the election last year and emerged as the largest party. They now lead the new coalition government and their leader Dahal — also known by his nom de guerre, Prachanda — is the prime minister.

About 20,000 former rebel combatants are still living in the U.N.-monitored camps, and their future is yet to be decided. The main political parties have so far failed to agree on what to do with them.

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.