Nepal Army could be deployed to contain Maoist threat: Defense Minister

Reposted from Telegraph Nepal.

Nepal’s defense minister Mrs. Bidya Devi Bhandari has said that if the Unified Maoist Party’s upcoming demonstration beginning May 1, 2010 goes out of hand and turns violent the government will deploy Nepal Army to take situation under control.

Said press advisor of Mrs. Bhandari talking to the media that the Defense Minister who met with the visiting US Navy Admiral Robert F. Willard April 28, 2010, at her secretariat had made these remarks.

Mrs. Bhandari was asked by the US’s Admiral of the government’s preparation for the forthcoming demonstration and indefinite general strike called by the main opposition ‘Unified Maoists’ Party.’

Admiral Willard also met with the Home Minister Bhim Rawal and Chief of Nepal Army General Chhatra Man Singh Gurung.

Kathmandu turns RED, Nepal Maoist’s cadres enter from all corners

Reposted from Telegraph Nepal.

 Reports quote Nepal Police sources as saying that in the last two to three days more than 40 thousand cadres of Unified Maoists have already entered in Kathmandu for the so-called ‘Peoples Uprising’ beginning May 1, 2010.

They have entered the capital through Thankot, Dakshin Kali, Sankhu, Bode and Sanga entry points, police reveals.

Reports have it that the cadres have been kept at various locations in Kathmandu, mainly at Schools, covered halls, club buildings, Party venues, vacant lands, Parks, Pashupati Area, Bhrikuti Mandap, under construction buildings and factories.

The Maoists’ party has called for Public Schools and Colleges Closure beginning April 29, 2010, to arrange shelter for their cadres who are still entering into the capital in huge numbers. The cadres will continue to arrive in Kathmandu until May 1 reports quote Maoists’ sources as saying.

At least 20 thousand cadres are expected to enter Kathmandu each day until May 1.

The Maoists’ party cadres who have already arrived in the capital could well be seen walking along the streets in various groups carrying the party flags.

“We are awaiting more cadres from Kavre, Makwanpur, Dhading, Sindhupalchowk, Nuwakot, Rasuwa and various other districts” beamingly claim Maoists’ leaders.

Some twenty public buses carrying Maoists cadres from the district of Banke have also landed in Kathmandu to add strength to the Maoist protest programs.

The stage is thus set for a confrontation, it appears.

Jed Brant's May First: High Noon in Nepal

Reposted from Jed Brant's blog.   This article is also available as a pdf via Kasama Project.

“You must come to Kathmandu with shroud cloth wrapped around your heads and flour in your bags. It will be our last battle. If we succeed, we survive, else it will be the end of our party."

— General Secretary Badal of the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist)

APRIL 21 — There are moments when Kathmandu does not feel like a city on the edge of revolution. People go about all the normal business of life. Venders sell vegetables, nail-clippers and bootleg Bollywood from the dirt, cramping the already crowded streets. Uniformed kids tumble out of schools with neat ties in the hot weather. Municipal police loiter at the intersections while traffic ignores them, their armed counter-parts patrol in platoons through the city with wood-stocked rifles and dust-masks as they have for years. New slogans are painted over the old, almost all in Maoist red. Daily blackouts and dry-season water shortages are the normal daily of Nepal’s primitive infrastructure, not the sign of crisis. Revolutions don’t happen outside of life, like an asteroid from space – but from right up the middle, out of the people themselves.

Passing through Kathmandu’s Trichandra college campus after meeting with students in a nearby media program, I walked into the aftermath of bloody attack. Thugs allied with the Congress party student group had cut up leaders of a rival student group with khukuri knives leaving one in critical condition. Hundreds of technical students were clustered in the street when I arrived by chance. The conflict most often described through the positioning of political leaders is breaking out everywhere.

Indefinite bandhs are paralyzing large parts of the country after the arrest of Young Communist League (YCL) cadre in the isolated far west and Maoist student leaders in Pokhora, the central gateway to the Annapurna mountain range. The southern Terai is in chaos, with several power centers competing and basic security has broken down with banditry, extortion and kidnapping are now endemic. Government ministers cannot appear anywhere without Maoist pickets waving black flags and throwing rocks.

With no central authority, all sides are claiming the ground they stand on and preparing their base. It’s messy, confused and coming to a sharp point as the May 28 deadline for a new constitution draws near with no consensus in sight. The weak government holding court in the Constituent Assembly can’t command a majority, not even of their own parties. Seventy assembly representatives of the status quo UML party signed a letter calling on their own leader to step down from the prime minister’s chair to make way for a Maoist national-unity government. He refuses, repeating demands that the Maoists dissolve their popular organizations and return lands seized by the people who farm them.

The Maoists have more pressing concerns than the legalism of the parliamentary parties. If they can’t restructure the state, by constitutional means or otherwise, the enthusiasm that brought their revolutionary movement this far may turn to disillusionment. With no progress in the assembly, and the leaders of the status quo parties now say there will be no resolution on time. The Maoists have rejected any extension as a stalling tactic and are turning to the people. With now-or-never urgency, they are mobilizing all their forces for a decisive showdown in Kathmandu.

Power fights

Reposted from Nepali Times.

The government has asked the security forces to remain on high alert in the run up to nationwide protests planned for International Labour Day by the Maoists. The Kathmandu Post writes:

An informal Cabinet meeting on Thursday asked the Maoists to immediately stop their nationwide ‘military training’ and withdraw their mass protests. It also warned of stern action if the Maoists ignore the appeal. The meeting attended by chiefs of three security agencies – Nepal Police, Armed Police Force and National Investigation Department – directed the security agencies to initiate special security arrangements to avert possible violence during the Maoist protests.

Meanwhile, the Maoists have intensified their efforts to train their cadres and collect donations to fund the planned protests on 1 May. Republica reports:

In Dang district, Young Communist League (YCL) has begun lathi and khukuri training to youths in the districts and expedited donation collection drive which the Maoist youth wing said is for a people’s revolt.

Youths from all 39 VDCs and two municipalities of Dang have been taking part in the training. YCL said that it has planned to train around 10,000 youths in the district alone. The participants are trained to use lathis (sticks) and khukuris. But the Maoists have termed the training as a sport training.

Local landlords have been forced to give donations worth Rs 5,000 to Rs 100,000. But the Maoists have denied the charge and said the people have been asked to donate voluntarily.

Maoists have said the training is also being given to provide security to their leaders, The Himalayan Times writes:

Maoists have been imparting paramilitary training to its cadres to use traditional weapons such as khukuris and swords to, what the Maoists said, provide security to its leaders in the rallies to be held in the capital and elsewhere.

We Need No Condescending Saviors: A Review of "Beneath Everest" by Eric Ribellarsi

Reposted from FIRE Collective.

Beneath Everest is a new documentary film depicting the revolution in Nepal. While containing some interesting footage and criticisms of the Nepalese monarchy, this film is an obnoxious, arrogant attack from a western liberal perspective on the oppressed of Nepal and their revolution.

The film’s central thesis is the "Sandwich Theory," or the claim the people are caught between two oppressors. Yet the film’s own footage frequently disproves this claim. Beneath Everest primarily condemns the Maoists for violence, even while admitting most of the violence came via the monarchy.

The opening and closing scene of the movie (as well as the film's trailer) feature a young boy, probably about five years old, saying "why did you kill my father and my brother?" No context is given to this central character until halfway into the movie when we learn the boy's family were members of the Village Defense Committees, Nepal's monarchist paramilitary organizations, which were responsible for burning villages and raping women in witch-hunts for Maoists, though this connection is never explored by Beneath Everest. We are just asked again "why did you kill my father and my brother?"

Shortly after this opening scene, we see an interview with Kapil Shrestha (identified only as "professor of political science," yet having more interview time than any person actually involved in the revolution). Shrestha tells the viewer, "Until very recently, Nepal was known as a very peaceful, beautiful country populated by smiling faces. But this is no longer so." This excerpt is followed by the film’s "exploration" of Maoist violence.

UNMIN being blamed to conceal the failures of political parties, claims top UN official

Reprinted from Nepal News.

Visiting United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, B. Lynn Pascoe, has made it clear that the actual number of the Maoist People’s Liberation Army (PLA) combatants living in UN-monitored cantonments and other information on them can’t be shared. He also accused the political parties here of putting the blame on UNMIN in order to hide their own failures.

Referring to Nepal government’s request to UNMIN to provide information on Maoist combatants in the cantonments, Pascoe bluntly said that the actual number of Maoist combatants can’t be shared and it will remain a secret. He said the information on the combatants should be kept secret as per the understanding reached between the government and the Maoists and that UNMIN will honestly abide by it (the understanding).

The remark by the senior UN official comes at a time when the government has been annoyed by UNMIN’s refusal to share information on Maoist combatants, citing such information as ‘very confidential.’

New Pamphlet: Arundhati Roy’s “Walking With the Comrades”

Revolution in South Asia has produced a pamphlet of Arundhati Roy’s “Walking With the Comrades”.  The important and brilliantly written article describes Roy's journey into Maoist influenced areas and the struggles rural people are waging against the Indian government and the local feudal ruling class.  While the Maoists in India are different from the Maoists in Nepal, the article is still important for understanding the revolutionary process taking place all over South Asia.

Hisila Yami (Pravati): Women's Role in the Nepalese Movement: Making a People's Constitution

reposted from Monthly Review.

At this very moment Nepal is making a constitution through the historic Constitutional Assembly (CA).  It is important to note that up till now all prior constitutions handed over to the people of Nepal were through direct intervention of oligarchs or kings.  It was the historic ten years of People's War (PW) (1996-2006) complemented with 19 days of People's Movement (April 2006) that made it possible to bring about a free and fair CA election in April 2008 as a means to make a people's constitution by the people themselves.  It is under the leadership of Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) [CPN(Maoist)] and its skillful use of a united front with various parties that the monarchy system was abolished in 2008.

The specificity of the Nepalese movement is the presence of a strong left.  For this very reason the women's movement is comparatively strong in Nepal.  Women's exploitation being deep-rooted -- one of the oldest and longest exploitations, embracing all sectors from womb to tomb -- communist movements often take the lead in ending it.  Of course one has to fight against patriarchal tendencies within the Communist Party or similar tendencies arising from the stage of development of one's society which ultimately find reflection on the Party or movement.  But there are always rightist, ultra-leftist and eclectic middle tendencies within the Party or movement which will affect the women's movement accordingly.  Women have to fight for a correct line which addresses both the class and gender issues in correct proportions.  In the specific case of Nepal, we have to additionally address Dalit, regional and ethnic oppression because they are interrelated to women's oppression.

Women's Movement before the PW

It is important to recall that the first people's movement that took place in 1990 lasted almost 50 days and resulted in the overthrow of the "partyless" Panchayat system, a one party system run from the royal palace that had lasted for thirty years (1960-1990).  During monarchical rule, women's and student's fronts were very active as political parties were banned and they operated through these fronts.  This is in sharp contrast to most other South Asian countries where the women's movement emerged along with independence movements against foreign rule.  When the 1990 anti-monarchical movement started spreading from urban areas towards rural areas, the king was forced to negotiate with the political parties.  This resulted in a tripartite agreement between the king, Nepali Congress (NC) (representing the comprador bourgeois class) and the United Left Front (representing broad reformist left parties) to arrive at a constitutional monarchical parliamentary system.  The new constitution promulgated in 1990 made mandatory that each party make a minimum of five percent of its candidates women as a condition to contest in the election.  In the first 1991 election, out of 205 legislatives representatives only seven women were elected.

But a second united front, a more radical United National People's Movement (UNPM), which also had been struggling against the Panchayat system, decided to continue the struggle against the constitutional monarchical parliamentary system on the ground that only a constituent assembly election would serve the interests of the broad mass of the people.  Nonetheless the underground Communist Party of Nepal (Unity Centre) [CPN(UC)], which was one of the main parties within UNPM, decided to participate in the first election through its aboveground United People's Front (UPF).  One of its main aims was to expose the contradiction between monarchy and democracy and the fallacy of a supposedly democratic Westminster parliamentary system headed by the king.  It fielded 59 candidates, of which four were women candidates.  Nine candidates won in the election, making the party the third largest after the bourgeois NC and the Communist Party of Nepal (United Marxist Leninist) [CPN(UML)].  None of the UPF women candidates won.

Skewing the Himalayan Revolution by Gary Leupp

reposted from Counter Punch.

Two recent articles in the New York Times by Pulitzer Prize winning reporter Jim Yardley draw attention to the mounting political crisis in Nepal.  They point out that the fundamental problem is “the unresolved task of merging the two enemy armies” mandated by the Comprehensive Peace Agreement signed by the Maoists and the government in November 2006. 
 
Yardley notes that the interim constitution composed in January 2007 will expire on May 28, when a new one authored by the Constituent Assembly is supposed to go into effect. But the writing of the new constitution has not been completed, and the peace agreement may fall by the wayside in a few months.

Yardley indicates that both parties are at fault for the impasse. “Many analysts,” he writes (without citing any names), “say the Maoists have maneuvered to keep their army intact as a bargaining chip to influence the constitutional negotiations. At the same time, the Nepalese Army, which before 2006 answered to the king, now deposed, has grudgingly succumbed to civilian control. In January, the defense minister announced that the army was not obligated to accept Maoist soldiers and should be included in civilian negotiations over integration — comments rejected by the prime minister and seized upon by Maoists as evidence of bad faith by the government.”

While superficially “balanced” (there’s no way the New York Times is going to take the Maoists’ side here, and yet it’s impossible for anyone familiar with the recent history to assign them entire responsibility for the gridlock) these articles actually imply that the Maoists bear principle responsibility. By treating the PLA’s continued existence as a mere political “maneuver” Yardley ignores the fact that the Comprehensive Peace Agreement explicitely provides for the the Maoists to keep their army intact pending “integration.”  More importantly it avoids what should be obvious: had the Maoists not fought a decade-long People’s War before deciding to suspend it and make the deal with the mainstream political parties in 2006 there would have been no toppling of the monarchy, no proclamation of the republic, no convening of the Constituent Assembly.

Since Yardley provides a very partial, skewed view of the historical context, it’s worth reviewing that history now as Nepal becomes front-page news.

Maoists Capture More Land

Reposted from Nepal News.

Unified CPN (Maoist) cadres have captured more land in Kavre and Kapilvastu, Wednesday. They hoisted their flags in 269 Ropanis [70 hectares/155 acres] of land at the banks of Indrawati river, in Kavre. Maoist cadres led by Mahadevsthan village committee secretary Shambhu Phuyal had gone with a bull-dozer in the land to hoist the flag.

The land belongs to Amritnath Ghalachhe, Pashupatinath Ghalachhe, Daya Laxmi Kharel, Man Thapa, Rajendra Khatri, Laxman Prasad Lamsal, Dharma Lal Shrestha, Anil Dhungel. Gokul Prasad Sapkota, Ram Krishna Shrestha, Purushottam Shrestha and Surya Lal Manandhar.

Likewise, there are reports the UCPN (Maoist) cadres captured about 33 Bigahas [22 hectares/ 48 acres] of private land in Kapilvastu, too. All Nepal Peasants Association (Revolutionary), Kapilvastu has said, the land is captured forever and will be distributed to landless squatters. However, the District Administration Office, Kapilvastu said, it will recover the land and hand them over to the rightful owners if it receives any complaints.