From: "Magnus Bernhardsen" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Nepalese rebels follow Mao's path Guerrillas subduing the countryside before moving on cities Dermot Tatlow, Chronicle Foreign Service Tuesday, July 31, 2001 Jajarkot, Nepal -- Deputy Police Superintendent Maya Kumar Shah sits in a sandbagged hilltop headquarters, unsure who among his 450 officers is loyal to the crown and who to a surging Maoist guerrilla army. Sentries keep an eye on the valley below, ever fearful of an attack. "We were not meant to fight a war," said Shah, who conceded that morale had improved because of an extra $50 in "danger money" to supplement his officers' $70-a-month salary. "It is only four years since Nepali police routinely started to carry guns. How can we fight guerrillas?" Shah's lament is a chilling reminder that the Nepali government is slowly losing control of the countryside to a rebel army whose strength is estimated at 4,000 men and women. "Only when we have guns do the capitalists and big landlords run away," said a 23-year-old rebel squadron leader named Comrade Muktee. Nepal's constitutional monarchy, which is still reeling from the effects of the killings last month of King Birendra and seven members of the royal family by the crown prince in a drug-induced drunken rage, is facing its worst political crisis in years. The Maoists, who model themselves on Peru's Shining Path guerrillas, now run parallel governments in eight of Nepal's 75 districts and are active in 62 others, according to official sources. After the latest skirmish last week, in which guerrillas killed at least 17 police officers in the western village of Pandusen and captured their arsenal of rifles, pistols and ammunition, both sides announced that they had agreed to peace talks for the first time since the insurgency began. The revolt is rooted in abject poverty. More than 80 percent of Nepal's 24 million inhabitants are subsistence farmers who live without electricity, piped water or sewage systems. The per capita gross domestic product (GDP) is just $1,100, according to the World Factbook 2000. SHORTAGE OF FARMLAND "There is not enough arable land here," said Shah of his impoverished western Jajarkot district, referring to a major reason for the rebels' success. "Young people used to go to India for work. Now they join the Maoist army." The conflict is also seen as a rejection of the political infighting in Nepal's fledgling multiparty democracy, which has seen 10 different governments in the past 10 years, and of rampant corruption from a regime that shows no interest in anything but enriching itself. The insurgency began in 1996 after the Maoist faction of the Communist Party of Nepal was banned from contesting a general election because of its opposition to the constitutional monarchy. Its members soon began a "people's war," assassinating landlords and rural officials, robbing banks and bombing police stations. In the past five years, some 1,700 people have been killed. The guerrillas' strategy, which is based on Mao Zedong's revolutionary teachings, is to take over the countryside by wooing peasants with promises of land, then surround the cities, including the capital, Kathmandu. Baburam Bhattarai, the movement's intellectual inspiration, has vowed to "hoist the hammer and sickle atop Mount Everest." And Maoist supreme leader Prachanda boasted to the Associated Press last week that he had formed an alliance with other South Asian guerrilla groups and that "the people's revolution shall be completed very soon, not in the remote future." The birthplace of Maoism, however, is not amused. In fact, Chinese leaders have gone to great lengths to assure Nepal that they will not give the guerrillas any assistance. For their part, the insurgents scoff at China's leadership for dragging its people down the road of capitalism. "We are not swimming against the tide," said Comrade Jiwan, 36, a pistol- packing former primary school teacher who is the party chief in Jajarkot. "We want to bring the rest of the world that's against us to the right direction." If there is any doubt who runs Jajarkot, ask K.B. Rana, 43, a local civil servant in charge of district development. He says the government controls less than one square mile, while the rebels command 820. Jajarkot has neither cars nor roads. The annual per capita income is $110, and the average schooling is 1.3 years. Thirty percent of the district's schools have no buildings. Many peasants live in crude mud-walled houses thatched with rice straw. "Frankly speaking, the government has not done enough," said Rana. "Very little of the (federal) budget is allocated here." In the Jajarkot countryside, guerrillas walk freely with weapons slung across their shoulders. Their arms are a collection of antique muzzle-loaded flintlock muskets, World War II vintage rifles and 12-gauge shotguns captured in raids on police stations. The Maoists levy taxes on teachers, shopkeepers and other wage earners to finance development projects. They also have banned polygamy, gambling and alcohol, and say they have widespread support. But a 19-year-old villager who asked not to be named said only "25 percent of the people enthusiastically support them." Another farmer wearing threadbare clothes, looking far older than his 48 years, added: "People change (political sides) according to the situation. They are (caught) in the middle." Women are a significant source of support for the insurgents. In Jajarkot, according to a 1998 report by two Nepalese academics, adult female literacy is only 9 percent, compared with 40 percent for males. And since women have no legal property rights, the Maoist message of equality falls on eager ears. Comrade Naveena, 16, is one of three females in a squad of 15 guerrillas. "I joined the war to liberate women from discrimination," she said during a training exercise. "I wouldn't have been happy staying at home doing small things like cutting grass and feeding cattle." So far, the Maoists have not acted against tourism, the mainstay of Nepal's economy. In 1999, the latest year for which figures are available, 500,000 tourists spent $168 million, supplying about 4 percent of the GDP. The guerrillas, however, have taxed foreign treks and pressured store owners on trekking routes to stop selling alcohol and Coca-Cola. They also have taxed international aid agencies and looted the offices of several international aid organizations such as CARE. Tax receipts are stamped with the heads of Marx, Lenin and Mao. ATTEMPT ON THE CHIEF JUSTICE Although the government has been slow to combat the insurgency, an attempt to murder the Supreme Court chief justice and the killings of 80 police officers in two attacks in April spurred officials to try to contain the movement to the western regions, where it has the most support. In the meantime, observers are skeptical that Nepal's new prime minister, Sher Bahadur Deuba, and rebel leader Prachanda will work out any agreement. "It's a long shot because the two sides are hopelessly at odds over the Maoist main demand," said Suman Pradhan, news editor for the Kathmandu Post, of an all-party convention to draft "a new constitution and new system of government." And if the talks fail, analysts say, Nepal's scarce resources will continue to be spent on weapons rather than on development. "If poverty and social inequality continue to grow," said Pradhan, "there is a possibility that the Maoists might succeed in the long run." _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ____________
