From: Barry Stoller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [Peoples War] CPN(M), gov't talks, more details AFP. 14 November 2001. Nepal govt offers Maoists possible changes to constitution. KATHMANDU -- Nepal's government has said it will consider making changes to the country's constitution in line with a demand by Maoist rebels, officials said Wednesday. The government made its offer during a third round of peace talks with the Maoists which took place on Tuesday. "We said that the government could agree to make changes in the present constitution if necessary and asked the Maoists to suggest the changes they wanted which would best serve the interests of the Nepalese people," a member of the government negotiating team and Minister for Agriculture Mahesh Acharya said. The compromise followed one made by the Maoists, who last week said they had "deferred" their demand for an end to the constitutional monarchy -- a move which paved the way for Tuesday's talks. The leader of the government negotiating team, Minister for Public Works and Transport Chiranjbi Wagle, said: "It is a great and satisfying move of the Maoists to formally drop the demand for a republic from their proposal. "The six-hour long peace talks in a friendly and cordial atmosphere helped both sides to express the respective views on the current problem," Wagle told AFP. But he said that although the Maoists said they had deferred the republic issue, they were still insisting that a constituent assembly be set up to redraft the constitution. "We argued since the issue of republic has been deferred, there is no point of talking about the constituent assembly election as the present constitution has enough grounds to meet the interest of the Nepalese people," he said. But Acharya added that instead of the constituent assembly the government was prepared to look into making changes to the constitution. The issue will be discussed at the next round of talks, likely to be held at the end of November. Observers said Tuesday's meeting should be seen as a success even though no agreement was reached. "Though no agreements were reached even after nearly six hours of third round of talks, the gestures should be considered an indication of positive results to maintain law and order and end insurgency," Gopal Budhathoki, chief editor of the Nepali-language weekly newspaper "Sanghu" (Bridge), told AFP. "The very fact the Maoists agreed to continue the peace dialogues is itself a positive move on the part of the underground extreme left communist party," Budhathoki said. Political analyst H.C. Shrestha said the change in the Maoist attitude may have come about because of recent action by India and the United States. On Monday it was announced the US was to provide Nepal with 10 helicopters free of charge to help the government maintain "law and order." Last month India sent 10,000 Special Security Bureau personnel to the Indo-Nepal border, effectively checking the free movement of the Maoists in the area. India's Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh also announced that India would take stern action against Maoists in India. "The US threat against terrorism and India's commitment to restrict the Maoists' movement have obviously obliged the rebels to behave and defer their demand for a republic," Shrestha said. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews with continuing coverage of WWIII _________________________________________________ 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] __________________________________________________
