Conghaileach
23rd December 2002, 11:59
The Furious One Speaks
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Issue cover-dated October 24, 2002
FAR EASTERN ECONOMIC REVIEW
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The chairman of the outlawed Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), Pushpa Kamal
Dahal--better known as Prachanda ("the furious one")--is wanted by the
Nepalese government and Interpol. Few outsiders have met him. Nepal's press
uses a drawing of him as no known photograph exists. But the REVIEW managed
to penetrate layers of secrecy to reach the guerrilla leader through
hand-delivered letters and a web of Internet addresses, obtaining via e-mail
the first interview he has ever given to a major international publication.
In his late 40s, Prachanda comes from Chitwan district in southern Nepal,
where he graduated from an agricultural college. He was a schoolteacher
before he became involved in extreme-leftist politics and went underground
in the mid-1980s. As head of a Maoist group, he took part in the popular
revolt in 1990 that put an end to the absolute monarchy and restored
multiparty democracy. In 1995 he founded the CPN(M); a year later the party
launched its "people's war" in Nepal's poverty-stricken northwest. The
government says that it's willing to negotiate with the Maoists if they lay
down their arms. But Prachanda tells the REVIEW'S Bertil Lintner that
disarming is out of the question:
ARE YOU WILLING TO HOLD PEACE TALKS WITH THE GOVERNMENT?
I want to make it clear that right from the initiation of the people's war
in Nepal, our party has been upholding the strategy of political and
military offensive against the old feudal state. To enter or not to enter
into peace talks with the government is a part of our political strategy . .
. It's not a question of willingness rather than a form of struggle that we
don't want to be disarmed.
WHAT WOULD YOUR DEMANDS BE AT SUCH TALKS?
Our minimum demands are widely known: the formation of an interim
government, election of a constituent assembly and organizing the country as
a democratic republic . . . It's quite clear that how far these demands will
be fulfilled through peace talks will ultimately depend on the level of
victory achieved in the actual battlefield.
WHAT IS YOUR FINAL GOAL?
As a revolutionary communist party our final goal is socialism and
communism. Right now our peoples are fighting against feudalism and
imperialism. Therefore the immediate goal of our revolution is to fulfil the
task of complete democratic revolution. We want to organize and develop the
country with the full initiative of the masses through the abolition of the
feudal and autocratic monarchy.
HOW DO YOU EXPECT TO ACHIEVE THAT GOAL?
No doubt we will achieve this goal through the politics of people's war.
WHAT ARE YOUR COMMENTS ON THE RECENT MOVES BY THE KING?
The latest step taken by this regicidal and fratricidal "King" Gyanendra is
nothing less than a feudal, autocratic, military coup. This desperate
attempt of the feudal "lord" will ultimately be smashed by our great people.
DO YOU THINK IT IS POSSIBLE TO HOLD ELECTIONS IN THE PRESENT SITUATION?
Our party has already decided that without any political resolution of the
civil war, no election will be held.
=================
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Issue cover-dated October 24, 2002
FAR EASTERN ECONOMIC REVIEW
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
The chairman of the outlawed Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), Pushpa Kamal
Dahal--better known as Prachanda ("the furious one")--is wanted by the
Nepalese government and Interpol. Few outsiders have met him. Nepal's press
uses a drawing of him as no known photograph exists. But the REVIEW managed
to penetrate layers of secrecy to reach the guerrilla leader through
hand-delivered letters and a web of Internet addresses, obtaining via e-mail
the first interview he has ever given to a major international publication.
In his late 40s, Prachanda comes from Chitwan district in southern Nepal,
where he graduated from an agricultural college. He was a schoolteacher
before he became involved in extreme-leftist politics and went underground
in the mid-1980s. As head of a Maoist group, he took part in the popular
revolt in 1990 that put an end to the absolute monarchy and restored
multiparty democracy. In 1995 he founded the CPN(M); a year later the party
launched its "people's war" in Nepal's poverty-stricken northwest. The
government says that it's willing to negotiate with the Maoists if they lay
down their arms. But Prachanda tells the REVIEW'S Bertil Lintner that
disarming is out of the question:
ARE YOU WILLING TO HOLD PEACE TALKS WITH THE GOVERNMENT?
I want to make it clear that right from the initiation of the people's war
in Nepal, our party has been upholding the strategy of political and
military offensive against the old feudal state. To enter or not to enter
into peace talks with the government is a part of our political strategy . .
. It's not a question of willingness rather than a form of struggle that we
don't want to be disarmed.
WHAT WOULD YOUR DEMANDS BE AT SUCH TALKS?
Our minimum demands are widely known: the formation of an interim
government, election of a constituent assembly and organizing the country as
a democratic republic . . . It's quite clear that how far these demands will
be fulfilled through peace talks will ultimately depend on the level of
victory achieved in the actual battlefield.
WHAT IS YOUR FINAL GOAL?
As a revolutionary communist party our final goal is socialism and
communism. Right now our peoples are fighting against feudalism and
imperialism. Therefore the immediate goal of our revolution is to fulfil the
task of complete democratic revolution. We want to organize and develop the
country with the full initiative of the masses through the abolition of the
feudal and autocratic monarchy.
HOW DO YOU EXPECT TO ACHIEVE THAT GOAL?
No doubt we will achieve this goal through the politics of people's war.
WHAT ARE YOUR COMMENTS ON THE RECENT MOVES BY THE KING?
The latest step taken by this regicidal and fratricidal "King" Gyanendra is
nothing less than a feudal, autocratic, military coup. This desperate
attempt of the feudal "lord" will ultimately be smashed by our great people.
DO YOU THINK IT IS POSSIBLE TO HOLD ELECTIONS IN THE PRESENT SITUATION?
Our party has already decided that without any political resolution of the
civil war, no election will be held.