Red Heretic
1st September 2005, 03:38
29 August 2005. A World to Win News Service. Nepali society is undergoing rapid
polarisation. Increasingly broad numbers of people are coming to support the
Maoist-led revolution while the handful of feudal die-hard supporters of the
monarchy are becoming more isolated and some parliamentary forces are still
vacillating.
In the last weeks of August protests by students associated with the parliamentary
parties took on a vigorous momentum. The protestors engaged in pitched battles with
police, throwing stones and bricks and burning tyres at street barricades to block
government vehicles through Kathmandu valley. Riot police failed to put down
disturbances even in front of King Gyanendra Shah’s royal palace.
The protests began with demands against price rises and the king’s detention of
parliamentary leaders, but since then their slogans have been in constant flux. The
national Maoist-led student union warmly welcomed and supported these actions. Some
student leaders say they seek a government neither by the king nor the Maoists but a
middle solution led by the parliamentary parties. More than a few of those who want
to see a republic of Nepal under the leadership of the Nepali Congress Party were
bitterly disappointed by the recent statement of Congress leader Girija Koirala that
the demand for a republic is only a tactic, not a principle. Many other students
have raised slogans calling for “death to the monarchy” and “a Democratic People’s
Republic of Nepal”.
On 28 August, students from the Sankardeu Campus responded to an early-morning
police assault by counter-attacking. They threw tear gas rounds back at the police.
After several encounters in various parts of the city, the Royal Army was sent to
attack the demonstrators. Dozens of students were reportedly injured during several
hours of fighting.
In another development, a former Nepali government Population and Environment
Minister and leader of the Communist Party of Nepal (UML), one of the main
parliamentary parties opposed to the people’s war, went over to the Maoists,
according to family members quoted in the Nepali mainstream press. On 28 August
Nepalnews.com said that Ambika Sanwa, whose whereabouts have been unknown for the
last seven months, informed his family that he had joined the Maoists willingly when
he visited his house in the village of Khoklang in the eastern Taplejung district
the day before. He refused their entreaties to give himself up to the authorities,
they said.
Also recently, prominent Nepali personalities organised a mass meeting of people
from all walks of life. Writers and poets, doctors and engineers, teachers and
professors, journalists and lawyers along with the masses defied government
prohibitions and poured into the streets of Kathmandu. This is the political
phenomenon going on in Nepal now. Even vacillating forces among the middle classes
are coming out into the streets with a mixed bag of slogans that often include the
overthrow of the monarchy. They are choosing a future of change.
The royal regime has urged the seven parliamentary opposition parties to call off
proposed talks with the Maoist rebels, the Washington Post reported 24 August. King
Gyanendra dismissed parliament last year and took all power into his own hands 1
February. The CPN(M) has called on these parties to join forces with the
revolutionary upsurge against the monarchy.
On 24 August the Maoist rebels made public the names of 60 soldiers they captured in
the battle in the western district of Kalikot. The monarchy had tried to detract
from the political importance of what was internationally recognised as a stunning
defeat for the Royal Army by falsely claiming that the communists had executed
captured prisoners of war. The CPN(M) also said that the soldiers’ family members
would be allowed to meet them. This announcement was especially welcomed by the
families of soldiers who had been told by the royal authorities that these men were
dead. Recently the Maoist-led People’s Liberation Army turned over to the
International Red Cross another group of Royal Army prisoners of war captured
several months ago.
On 26 August, a desperate Royal Army arrested Eeknath Subedi, a leader of the
Maoist-led All Nepal Transport Workers Union in the Parsa district of eastern Nepal.
He was tortured and killed within an hour. Four other people arrested with him have
disappeared, Kirshnasenonline.org reports. This is king Gyanendra Shah’s vicious
answer to the will of the people. He will fight to stay in power to his last drop of
blood, until he is overthrown by force.
polarisation. Increasingly broad numbers of people are coming to support the
Maoist-led revolution while the handful of feudal die-hard supporters of the
monarchy are becoming more isolated and some parliamentary forces are still
vacillating.
In the last weeks of August protests by students associated with the parliamentary
parties took on a vigorous momentum. The protestors engaged in pitched battles with
police, throwing stones and bricks and burning tyres at street barricades to block
government vehicles through Kathmandu valley. Riot police failed to put down
disturbances even in front of King Gyanendra Shah’s royal palace.
The protests began with demands against price rises and the king’s detention of
parliamentary leaders, but since then their slogans have been in constant flux. The
national Maoist-led student union warmly welcomed and supported these actions. Some
student leaders say they seek a government neither by the king nor the Maoists but a
middle solution led by the parliamentary parties. More than a few of those who want
to see a republic of Nepal under the leadership of the Nepali Congress Party were
bitterly disappointed by the recent statement of Congress leader Girija Koirala that
the demand for a republic is only a tactic, not a principle. Many other students
have raised slogans calling for “death to the monarchy” and “a Democratic People’s
Republic of Nepal”.
On 28 August, students from the Sankardeu Campus responded to an early-morning
police assault by counter-attacking. They threw tear gas rounds back at the police.
After several encounters in various parts of the city, the Royal Army was sent to
attack the demonstrators. Dozens of students were reportedly injured during several
hours of fighting.
In another development, a former Nepali government Population and Environment
Minister and leader of the Communist Party of Nepal (UML), one of the main
parliamentary parties opposed to the people’s war, went over to the Maoists,
according to family members quoted in the Nepali mainstream press. On 28 August
Nepalnews.com said that Ambika Sanwa, whose whereabouts have been unknown for the
last seven months, informed his family that he had joined the Maoists willingly when
he visited his house in the village of Khoklang in the eastern Taplejung district
the day before. He refused their entreaties to give himself up to the authorities,
they said.
Also recently, prominent Nepali personalities organised a mass meeting of people
from all walks of life. Writers and poets, doctors and engineers, teachers and
professors, journalists and lawyers along with the masses defied government
prohibitions and poured into the streets of Kathmandu. This is the political
phenomenon going on in Nepal now. Even vacillating forces among the middle classes
are coming out into the streets with a mixed bag of slogans that often include the
overthrow of the monarchy. They are choosing a future of change.
The royal regime has urged the seven parliamentary opposition parties to call off
proposed talks with the Maoist rebels, the Washington Post reported 24 August. King
Gyanendra dismissed parliament last year and took all power into his own hands 1
February. The CPN(M) has called on these parties to join forces with the
revolutionary upsurge against the monarchy.
On 24 August the Maoist rebels made public the names of 60 soldiers they captured in
the battle in the western district of Kalikot. The monarchy had tried to detract
from the political importance of what was internationally recognised as a stunning
defeat for the Royal Army by falsely claiming that the communists had executed
captured prisoners of war. The CPN(M) also said that the soldiers’ family members
would be allowed to meet them. This announcement was especially welcomed by the
families of soldiers who had been told by the royal authorities that these men were
dead. Recently the Maoist-led People’s Liberation Army turned over to the
International Red Cross another group of Royal Army prisoners of war captured
several months ago.
On 26 August, a desperate Royal Army arrested Eeknath Subedi, a leader of the
Maoist-led All Nepal Transport Workers Union in the Parsa district of eastern Nepal.
He was tortured and killed within an hour. Four other people arrested with him have
disappeared, Kirshnasenonline.org reports. This is king Gyanendra Shah’s vicious
answer to the will of the people. He will fight to stay in power to his last drop of
blood, until he is overthrown by force.