HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK ---------------------------
AFP. 21 September 2002. Nepalese pilot tells of night of terror in clutches of Maoists. KATHMANDU -- Nepalese helicopter pilot Arun Malla, who was this week abducted with a passenger by a group of Maoists who also torched his chopper, told Saturday how he had spent a night of terror in the clutches of the rebels. Russian-trained Malla, 37, was kidnapped with civilian Indra Bahadur Gurung soon after the helicopter landed on Thursday at Jugu village in the Mount Everest region, where they had come to pick up some sick villagers. Gurung had been desperate to return to Kathmandu to attend the funeral of his wife, who had died of cancer at a local hospital. Malla said about 40 Maoists carrying lethal weapons had attacked the helicopter and torched it, destroying it completely. Three other passengers aboard the aircraft were set free by the rebels soon after the helicopter was burnt. Malla told AFP on his return to Kathmandu Saturday morning that after being taken hostage, the two captives had been forced to walk a long distance along a slippery mule track to a remote village, where he had spent a harrowing night in a damp room fearing for his life. "I asked the Maoist local commander, Kusum Chhetri, why I had been kidnapped as I was neither a civil servant nor a member of the security forces," Malla said. "I said that I do not belong to any political party but was only serving as a pilot for a humanitarian service and appealed to him to release me," he said. "Before going to bed, I was offered a couple of potatoes due to lack of foodgrains in the village," Malla said. "While lying on the village cot, I was worried about my safety and thought about my wife and two daughters. I could not sleep throughout the night but just kept worrying what the Maoists would do to Gurung and myself," Malla said. The next morning, however, Chhetri turned up and told him that he was going to be released. "I was offered steamed rice and some vegetables and set free along with Gurung," Malla said. He said there had been about 100 teenage Maoist activists in the village who in the course of conversation had expressed confidence that they would within three years set up their own government by overthrowing "the corrupt ministers and administrators of Nepal." "These young rebels were in high morale and confident of the success of their struggle against the parliamentary system," he said. "In course of my talks with the Maoists, they never mentioned their supreme commander Pushpa Kamal Dahal (alias Prachand or Babu Rram Bhattarai) but they only talked about Chhetri, the young commander of the area," he said. "When the Maoists reach the villages, the villagers just surrender to them and leave their houses for them to live in and cook their own food," the pilot said. "After cooking their food, the Maoists pay money to the house owner," Malla said. He and Grurung were flown back to Kathmandu Saturday morning. "After reaching home, my two daughters (aged 8 and 10 years) welcomed me with tearful eyes and hugged me," Malla said. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ProletarianNews http://www.utopia2000.org --------------------------- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: [email protected] EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.bacIlu Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
