Nepal: King cornered by Maoists, political parties

Communist Party leader Bamdev Gautam was hustled into a Kathmandu café to avoid skirmishes with police on Dec. 2 as King Gyanendra motored past with an army escort. Midday on Dec. 2, tens of thousands of people poured into the streets for the largest yet opposition rally here since the king seized power Feb. 1. Gautam, a senior leader of the mainstream United-Marxist Leninist (UML) wing of the Communist Party, looked happy in the nearly empty restaurant where employees downed and reopened shutters repeatedly as riot police with bamboo canes charged at crowds of youths–who ran from the street towards the café–and then retreated to regroup. He estimated the crowd at 75,000 people while observers from a local human rights group suggested 30,000. It is only a beginning, Gautam said. "We are happy... We have only one aim–we have to isolate the king. It will take a long time, but we are ready." Two recent events may have started that process. One is the ceasefire called by Maoist rebels three months ago, which they extended for another month just hours before the monarch returned. The other is the 12- point "understanding" between the political parties and the insurgents, long rumored and finally announced late in November. The pact is supposed to lead to elections for a constituent assembly that would draft a new constitution for Nepal's young democracy and finally, to multi-party parliamentary elections, which have not been held here since 1999. King Gyanendra ascended the throne in 2001 after then King Birendra and all the immediate members of his family were killed in the 'royal massacre.' In October 2002, he dissolved parliament and appointed a government and then, 10 months ago, he fired it and had Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba arrested on corruption charges. While Nepal's political parties and rebels have stayed in contact during the decade-long Maoist uprising that has killed more than 12,000 Nepalis, mostly innocent villagers, local politicians have been favorite targets of the Maoists in rural areas. After Feb. 1, when an alliance between the two sides appeared possible, government officials warned that the parties could also be branded "terrorists" for cooperating with the rebels. In recent weeks local media have reported numerous incidents of villagers attempting to join pro-democracy rallies led by either the political parties or the Maoists. In the capital Kathmandu on the afternoon of Dec. 2, the sidewalks were lined with schoolchildren holding flags and civil servants in formal dress, ordered street-side to greet the king. They applauded softly when his black stretch limousine motored past towards the palace in the city center. In his return address later, the monarch praised all "contributions" towards restoring multiparty democracy, focusing on municipal elections his government has called for Feb. 8, 2006. The UML and the other six parties in the alliance opposed to the monarch have already called a boycott of those polls and a parliamentary vote for 2007. King Gyanendra ignored the Maoist-party deal in his speech, which a senior member of his handpicked council earlier called "unnatural." He also did not comment on the extended ceasefire but army spokesman Colonel Umesh Bhattarai told the Himalayan Times that soldiers would continue to hunt down Maoists, who control up to three-quarters of the countryside of this mostly rural nation of 25 million people. Government backers warn that the rebels are using the time to recuperate and re-arm their fighters. But until yesterday the voices calling for a ceasefire extension–and many for the palace to join it–were growing, internally and internationally. "It will be recalled that the [United Nations] secretary general [Kofi Annan] had recently called for an extension and urged His Majesty's government of Nepal to reciprocate the ceasefire," said a UN statement. Even the United States, which has been extremely cautious about the Maoist move, urged the government to reciprocate. "We welcome the announcement of ceasefire by the Maoists, and also call on the government to take it as an opportunity to make the most of it," US Embassy Spokesman Robert Hugins told the local Times. In another sign that momentum might be shifting to pro-democracy forces, recently the government lost what could be a significant case over its new media ordinance, which tightens the country's media laws. The Supreme Court ruled that a ban on broadcasting news on FM radio violated the constitution. Authorities had used clauses in the ordinance to seize equipment from two FM stations in the past month, one owned by the media group that has been most critical of the king's rule. Gautam's fellow UML leader, Madhav Kumar Nepal, oozed bravado at the Dec. 2 rally: "Through this gathering people have proved their support for the pro-democracy movement initiated by the seven-party alliance. But this gathering is just a harbinger of the tsunami that is coming soon." He predicted the alliance would bring 500,000 people to the streets, and challenged the government to prosecute him for cooperating with the Maoists. "This morning, I had a talk with [Maoist leader] Prachanda asking him to extend the ceasefire. Does the government have any guts to take action against us?" Nepal asked.