| Talks With Maoists Less Likely
Despite much hope pinned by ruling party Nepali Congress for talks with Maoist dissidents, prospects seem quite deem for any satisfactory turn of events --at least till sometime in the immediate future, writes Chiranjibi Kafle.
Some key leaders believed to have some influential touch with the rebelling Maoist leaders have suddenly appeared tough against the government itself in the recent days. As they have blamed the government for having played negative role, scopes for peaceful resolution to the vexing problem of deteriorating law and order situation have obviously slackened.
"The government has done very little to create even the minimum atmosphere for talks," says Padma Ratna Tuladhar, a left leaning human rights activist. He came down heavily on Prime Minister Koirala's government the other day, accusing it of failing to take any sincere initiative in this regard.
Tuladhar, an influential former minister believed to have easy access to the Maoist top brass, was entrusted even by Prime Minister Koirala to break the ice by convincing the hard-liner Maoists to come to the negotiating table.
But the latest utterances from Tuladhar and a number of other leaders in no way hint at the possibility of any such dialogue in the foreseeable future. The same is further corroborated by the fact that even Maoists have failed to show any restraint, even temporarily, from their violent campaigns, and the toll on human lives continues unabated.Who is responsible?"
On the one hand, deteriorating law and order situation, especially in the remote districts of the country, is continuing, while, on the other, mere rumors of talks have further complicated the problem by confusing the ordinary people who have been worst hit by the situation.
"Maoists are still interested in holding talks with the government," claims Tuladhar. But he adds that the government has failed to meet"even the minimum of conditions" forwarded by the Maoist leaders in thisregard. Not only that, the government has not even replied to them in clear terms. It has said neither 'yes' nor 'no' to the Maoists' stipulations. This, indeed, testifies the non-committal attitude on the part of the government.
Root-cause of crisis
The Maoists waged a violent campaign against the establishment four years back, demanding in their own violent way a shift of governancefrom the present constitutional monarchy to a republicanism and termination of many 'orders' which they consider as "feudal" in nature. Launched under the banner of People's War, the movement has already claimed over 600 lives in different parts of Nepal. Innocent laymen and police officials of various ranks and even members of opposing political parties have been the most affected victims. And the incidents of clashes have become more frequent in the recent days.
Flatly criticizing their violent moves--and as is typical of any government against its violent opposition--the government calls the Maoists "terrorists". Whereas, the Maoists counterblow the charges of terrorism on the government itself, which too is quite typical of such outfits.
Bhakta Bahadur Shresth a convener of National People's Movement Coordination Committee, forwards the view that the Maoist war escalated as the result of the government's tendencies to suppress people's voice against social oppression. "People in the remote districts like Rukum and Rolpa suffered much oppression at the hands of feudal lords, but asthey started raising voice against this the government took side of the same feudal class," Shrestha says, citing the very fact as theroot-cause of the present crisis.
And frankly speaking, an honestly sociological study into the problem, too, would support the same logic. For it goes without saying that even in a decade of the restoration ofdemocracy, many parts of this tiny country continue to suffer deprivation of diverse kind in terms of people's general economy andliving standard. Disenchantment with the government is only quite natural in such circumstances.
Solution
Therefore, the solution to the problem lies neither in trading charges against each other nor in exhibiting an 'artificial interest' in finding ways for resolving the problem--as has been the case in the presentcontext of talks. Rather, outlining the priorities and clearly spelling them out before the public might be of some help.
And for this, efficiency, trasperency and sincerity in the work are required, no matter whether it is the reckless Maoists or careless and listless government that may seek to find a true way out of the vexing crisis. Sooner an initiative is taken, the better.
Related Web Links
• Nepal Ministry of Home Affairs
• 'People's War' Dispatches on RWOnline
• RW Interview with Prachanda
Related Story Links
• UPI, June 25: Tuladhar
says Koirala doesn't want Dueba
to get credit in peace deal
• UPI, June 24: Police desert
guerilla fight
• Sri Lanka Daily News (June 23):
Nepal police to buy new arms to fight Maoists
• Opinion: 'Inevitability of talks'
by C.K. Lal in Nepali Times
• Commentary: 'Talking about talks'
by Sushil Sharma in KantipurOnline
• CNN, June 17: Rebel violence on
upswing in Nepal
Kafle is a Newslook contributor based in Kathmandu. He can be reached at chiranjibikafle@hotmail.com