Tag Archives: maoist

Nepal Army to Execute Maoist Guerrilla Integration Plan

Posted on November 3, 2011 by | Leave a comment

Feels Tuesday’s historic pact addresses its concerns

By Phanindra Dahal

The Nepal Army (NA) has expressed its readiness to fully support the landmark deal signed by parties on Tuesday night on concluding the peace process, stating that its concerns have been addressed in the agreement that will see former Maoist combatants integrated into its ranks.

Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Nepali Congress President Sushil Koirala, CPN-UML Chairman Jhala Nath Khanal and Samyukta Loktantrik Madhesi Morcha leader Bijay Kumar Gachchhadar signed the deal expressing commitment to setting up a general directorate under the NA to integrate up to 6,500 Maoist fighters. The general directorate, according to the deal, will be deployed for infrastructure development, rescue and relief operations as well as forest and industrial security.

“We feel fortunate that the parties forged an agreement on integration modality that we had suggested,” said a two-star general, commenting on Tuesday’s seven-point agreement. “We are ready to extend our full support to the implementation of this decision.” Continue reading →

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Posted in Peace Process 2, Security 2

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So the Magical Number for Nepal’s Peace Process is 6,500 (?)

Posted on November 1, 2011 by | 1 Comment

Leaders agree on number of Maoist guerillas to be integrated

KATHMANDU, NOV 01 – The peace process that was started five years ago in 2006 is likely to witness its logical conclusion. The meeting of the top brass leaders of the major political parties—Nepali Congress, CPN-UML, UCPN (Maoist) and the Samyukta Loktantrik Madhesi Morcha—on Tuesday agreed on contentious issues of the peace process.

UML leader Bhim Rawal announced the deal amid a press conference organised at the PM’s residence.

The leaders have agreed to integrate 6,500 former Maoist combatants into the Nepal Army in an individual basis, Rawal informed. Likewise, the rehabilitation package has been agreed upon Rs. 600,000 to Rs. 900,000 as per the rank of the combatants.

Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, NC President Sushil Koirala, UML Chairman Jhala Nath Khanal and Bijaya Kumar Gachhadar as SLMM’s representative signed on the “peace deal” at Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai’s official residence in Baluwatar.

Meanwhile, Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal held a talk with his deputy Mohan Baidya—leader of the party’s hardliner faction—so as to take him into confidence.

The background: how they bargained

Continue reading →

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Posted in Peace Process 2

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Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai’s India Trip

Posted on October 20, 2011 by | 1 Comment

baburam bhattarai india trip

By Akhilesh Upadhyay
in the Kathmandu Post

OCT 20 – No visit by a Nepali Prime Minister to New Delhi has generated as much attention as that of Maoist leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal’s in September 2008. There was a good reason.

His party CPN (Maoist), underground only until two years ago, had thumped traditional powerhouses in their first open elections. Though Maoist leaders and India’s Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) had worked closely to make the 12-point agreement between the Maoists and the Seven Party Alliance (SPA) possible, people in New Delhi were still not sure how the force that had historically regarded India as “expansionist” would respond in New Delhi. Continue reading →

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American Diplomatic Cable: Nepal Army Took US Diplomats to Rolpa in 2002 to Show How it Was Fighting the Maoists

Posted on September 7, 2011 by | Leave a comment

Details of that visit from the Americans

2002-04-22 11:22

S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 03 KATHMANDU 000787

SIPDIS

LONDON FOR POL/RIEDEL

E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/21/2012
TAGS: PGOV PTER PREL PHUM ASEC NP
SUBJECT: INTO THE MAOIST HEARTLAND – COUNTERINSURGENCY BY
THE BOOK IN ROLPA DISTRICT

REF: KATHMANDU 377

Classified By: Amb. M.E. Malinowski, Reasons 1.5 (b), (d).

¶1. (S) Summary. Emboffs joined Royal Nepalese Army (RNA)
Western Division Commander on an inspection tour of newly
established garrisons in Rolpa district, considered the
Maoist heartland. The tour coincided with the deployment of
the PACOM assessment team to the Rolpa battalion
headquarters. Two RNA task forces have completed sweeps
through eastern and northern Rolpa, leaving joint Army, Armed
Police and civil police garrisons to restore security in the
major towns. This bold incursion, to be followed by similar
sweeps through adjacent Maoist districts represents the right
strategy, but operational and logistical challenges abound.
RNA operations suffer from a lack of good boots as well as a
shortage of manpower. Additional arms and ammunition would
not be effective without good boots, the RNA commander for
western Nepal insisted. Emboffs interviewed two captured
Maoist leaders who described the insurgents’ tactics. After
recent attacks in Dang, RNA efforts to respond were hindered
when the Maoists felled trees across the highways and set
fires to reduce visibility for helicopters. Although the
monsoon will have a negative effect on the RNA’s mobility,
the Maoists will face the same obstacles. Morale was high in
the garrisons, and the response from the citizenry positive. Continue reading →

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Posted in American Diplomatic Cable, Security

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American Diplomatic Cable: Moriarty Meets Girija Prasad Koirala, Complains Against Home Minister Sitaula

Posted on September 6, 2011 by | 2 Comments

2006-06-05 12:02

S E C R E T KATHMANDU 001432

SIPDIS

NOFORN
SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/05/2016
TAGS: PREL PGOV PTER IN NP
SUBJECT: PRIME MINISTER BRIEFS AMBASSADOR ON UPCOMING NEW
DELHI VISIT

Classified By: AMBASSADOR JAMES F. MORIARTY, REASONS 1.4 (B/D).

Summary
——-

¶1. (S/NF) Ambassador Moriarty, accompanied by A/DCM Schwartz
met June 5 with Prime Minister G.P Koirala and Senior Foreign
Policy Adviser Chalise on the eve of the Prime Minister,s
upcoming visit to New Delhi. Although press accounts have
speculated that the trip will focus on economic and trade
matters, the Prime Minister immediately volunteered that he
had only one goal for his visit ) to obtain Government of
India (GoI) consent to participation of a “witness” in the
Nepal peace process. Gaunt and repeatedly coughing, the Prime
Minister asked the Ambassador to inform Washington of his
desire to firmly draw the Maoists into the peace process,
while foreclosing Maoist military threats and containing
potentially recalcitrant Nepal Army (NA) elements by engaging
a credible and independent group of foreign witnesses,
preferably including India and the United Nations. End
Summary. Continue reading →

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Maoist Infighting Update

Posted on September 3, 2011 by | Leave a comment

Standing Committee meet ends; Baidya demands Central Committee meet

SEP 03 – The UCPN (Maoist) Standing Committee meeting held at the party headquarters in Paris Dada, Kathmandu concluded on Saturday (today) after party Vice Chairman Mohan Baidya demanded the party Central Committee meeting. The meeting was said to iron out the internal differences surfaced after the party handed over the keys to the arms containers to the Special Committee. The hard-line faction of the Maoists led by Baidya has been protesting against the keys handover. Yesterday, the Baidya camp had even boycotted the SC meeting to express their discontent over the key handover issue. The Maoists have handed over the keys to the containers at all the seven cantonments to the Special Committee on Thursday and Friday. Continue reading →

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Posted in Eye on Maoist, Maoist Politics

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A Day After Handing Over Arms Key, Maoist Hardliners Baidya and Badal Revolt Against Prachanda

Posted on September 2, 2011 by | 3 Comments
maoist baidya cadres protesting

A group of pro-Baidya Maoist cadres protesting in Kathmandu

Prachanda, Baidya men clash in Kavre. Is the Maoist party on the verge of split? If yes, when?

The intra-party rift in the UCPN (M) has widened further with the faction led by Senior Vice Chairman Mohan Baidya on Friday (today) announcing a nationwide campaign against the party decision to hand over the keys of arms containers to the Special Committee. Defying calls by the party leadership, the Baidya faction decided to launch a “national awareness campaign” starting Saturday (tomorrow). Leaders from the faction told Republica newspaper that they would paint walls and hold corner meetings to protest the party establishment´s decision to hand over the keys of the arms containers to the Special Committee. Baidya and General Secretary Ram Bahadur Thapa on Friday (today) evening issued a statement demanding that the party chairman and the government scrap the decision.

Continue reading →

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Posted in Maoist Politics, Peace Process 2

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Maoists Hand Over Keys of (Some, not All) Arms Containers to Nepal

Posted on September 1, 2011 by | 2 Comments

This is a significant progress in the peace process since the former rebels signed a peace agreement with the government in 2006. Tasks ahead: re-grouping the Maoist combatants, integrate some in a new agency under Nepal army and send the rest to home with some money.  

Baidya unhappy, America happy (below)

Notwithstanding the reservations from the party’s hard-line faction, the UCPN (Maoist) has handed over the keys of at least two containers of weapons- in Chulachuli of Ilam and Shaktikhor of Chitwan- to the Special Committee for Supervision, Integration and Rehabilitation of the Maoist combatants. The Special Committee then handed over the key to the monitoring committee under it. But the Maoist party is yet to hand over the keys of other weapons containers in, for example, Talband, Kailali.  The guerrillas here reportedly said that they hadn’t received formal letter from their higher-ups regarding the handing over of the keys to the Special Committee.  The Committee is a government agency that is chaired by the Prime Minister and has representatives from Maoist and other political parties. Continue reading →

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Baburam Bhattarai Wanted to Meet the US Ambassador’s Rep in 2003…

Posted on August 31, 2011 by | Leave a comment

…thinking that the Ambassador himself may not meet him. How times of have changed! The American Ambassador has gone to meet him, most recently, two days ago Baburam became the Prime Minister. 

US diplomatic cables as revealed by Wikileaks. Report by John Narayan Parajuli

US officials saw Maoist Vice Chairman Baburam Bhattarai (who is not the Priem Minister of Nepal) as the party’s “most authoritative wordsmith,” and took serious note of both his aboveground appearance in 2003 and the missive he sent to the US embassy requesting a meeting the same year.

Bhattarai’s movement and remarks appeared to be closely monitored by the US embassy, especially after his arrival in the Capital on March 28, 2003 for talks with the Sher Bahadur Deuba government. This was the first time Bhattarai emerged in the Capital in full public view, since the beginning of the insurgency in 1996. Continue reading →

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Posted in Foreign Affairs, Maoist Politics

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Everything You Wanted to Know about Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai (and his Mustang Car)

Posted on August 29, 2011 by | 15 Comments
Baburam Bhattarai in 1970

Baburam Bhattarai in 1970 when he topped the School Leaving Certificate exam.

The impression: Nepali people have rarely been so optimistic about the Prime Minister as they are with Baburam Bhattarai and it’s a rare sight when Nepalis across the political spectrum (especially those who are considered general population- students, youths, activists) express satisfaction, relief, even happiness, over the election of a person to the post of Prime Minister. It seems as if the whole country has put its faith and hope on Baburam Bhattarai. Going by the Facebook statues, tweets and tea-talks on the streets of Kathmandu, the election of Baburam Bhattarai yesterday as the 35th Prime Minister of Nepal seems to be the best thing to have happened in Nepal in a long long time. While putting enormous faith on his the nation seems to have forgotten that BRB is a Maoist who waged a 10-year-old bloody war that killed 15000 Nepalis.  BUT, and this is a big one, will he be able to live up to the sky-high expectation of Nepali people? Lets hope he does.

On a lighter note, Prime Minister BRB will be riding a locally assembled car called Mustang- nothing to do with Ford, I assume. (Mustang is a Himalayan district that borders China.) This car (see pic below) is cheap compared to what other Prime Ministers have used in the past. Continue reading →

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Posted in nepali-politics

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