Daily Archives: October 8, 2006

Amidst high expectations the Summit Talks is going on in Baluwatar this very moment. Here are the excerpts of an interview with Chairman of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), Prachanda, taken on the eve of the much-hyped October 8 Summit Talks between his party and the ruling seven-party alliance as posted in Ekantipur:

Q. Will the CPN-M be participating in the October 8 talks?

Prachanda: There is no certainty as to the question of participation in the
talks. Interactions to this end are going on with the parties, but nothing is confirmed yet.

Q. So what is the reality then?

Prachanda: We haven’t been able to agree on the way forward. What we feel is that the 12-point understanding against the feudal autocracy was aimed against the excesses of the then Royal Army and the present Nepal army. The 8-point understanding was the result of an attempt to move forward with the 12-point understanding. But since then the seven-party government has deviated from the spirit of these historical understandings.

Q. Could you cite some examples of the deviation?

Prachanda: The way in which the letter to the UN was written, with the intention of separating the Maoist army from its arms, contrary to the initial agreement of managing both armies and their arms in the same manner and calling the UN for monitoring, is the most potent example of this deviation. This is a very dangerous thing. This was an attack on the spirit of the April movement. The political outlet the eight- and 12-point understandings had promised was effectively blocked for us. Our greatest objection is to this very issue.
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