Monthly Archives: September 2006

Update: Thursday, Sept 28: The much-awaited “summit talks” between the top leaders of the ruling seven-party alliance (SPA) and Maoists, earlier said to be held today but postponed for tomorrow (Friday), has been put off until the conclusion of the Dashain festival. (Here is more.)

Based on a report by Balaram Baniya and Ujjir Magar
Written by Wagle

After it was announced today that the high-level talks between the ruling Seven Party Alliance (SPA) and the Maoists have been rescheduled by as much as 24 hours for Friday, the question many wanted to raise was: Will the Alliance be able to come up with concrete agreement to face the rebels on the talks table? If so, no problem, take another week, why just a day. Forest minister Gopal Rai’s state funeral to be held tomorrow is being cited as the reason for this deferment though there are very few reasons to be hopeful about SPA coming in one voice regarding the most crucial issue: the monarchy. Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala is hell bent on giving space to monarchy, that is, saving the institution that the popular and historic April uprising clearly wanted to be abolished.

Today’s central committee meeting of Nepali Congress party, of which Prime Minister Koirala is the all-powerful president, discussed on its possible stand on interim constitution, formation of interim parliament and interim government, and to which extent the government and the party can be flexible in the talks with the Maoists. In the informal meeting that took place in the residence of the Prime Minister in Baluwataar, Koirala directed Home Minister and chief government negotiator and Shekhar Koirala, a central committee member of Nepali Congress, to talk to the Maoists and prepare for the high level talks. Both Sitalula and Shekhar met Dr. Baburam Bhattarai, one of the top Maoist leaders and Krishna Bahadur Mahara, the chief Maoist negotiator, this afternoon and talked about They talked about reaching agreement on political package (interim constitution, interim parliament and interim government) along with arms management. Continue reading →

39 Nepalis (see the names below), buying space in Kantipur daily, appeal to leaders of Seven Party Alliance and the Maoist party. This appeal was first published in Nepali in the Sept 21 issue of Kantipur as an advertisement.

Sri Girija Prasad Koirala, Sri Madhav Kumar Nepal, Sri Sher Bahadur Deuba, Sri Amik Sherchan, Sri Narayan Man Bijukchhe (‘Rohit’), Sri Bharat Bimal Yadav, Sri Prabhu Narayan Chowdhary and Sri Pushpa Kamal Dahal (‘Prachanda’)

Gentlemen,

Before peace and democracy, fought for during the 2006 People’s Movement, have been attained, the country is entering a vortex of human insecurity. The forces that defeated royal authoritarianism by means of the 12-Point Agreement are growing apart, and this provides opportunities for reactionary elements to become active. Steps must be taken immediately to reduce the confusion and mistrust between the seven parliamentary parties and the Nepal Communist Party (Maoist) during the interim period before the elections to the Constituent Assembly. We appeal to the leadership of the eight parties to reach a wide-ranging agreement with regard to a peace settlement before the upcoming Dasain season. In our opinion, once the roadmap for peace is decided upon, the very maturity of the people will lead us through to the Constituent Assembly elections and the new Constitution. We urge the eight parties to put behind them questions of who has or has not conformed to their stated responsibilities thus far, and to move ahead with a new mutual understanding. Continue reading →

Political Threats: The Seven Party Alliance (SPA)/government of Nepal and the CPN (Maoist) have their own understandings, viewpoints and stances on peace and political threats.

UWB: Here we produce a ‘Situation Update-IX’ prepared by Kathmandu based NGO Conflict Study Center with contribution from Dr. Bishnu Pathak and Chitra Niraula. UWB received this analysis from CS Center.

Threats to SPA and/or government

• If the Maoists go for CA elections with arms, they would be wiped out in the elections. For this very reason, they fear of letting Maoists participate with arms and clamor for arms management prior to CA elections for free and fair elections.

• If the Maoists gain majority in the elections and take over state power, what would be the fate and role of their self and their parties. What the history has shown that they become fish out of water when they were ousted from power. Continue reading →