In Nepal Maoist rebels run own government

In Nepal Maoist rebels run own government

Binaj Gurubacharya, Associated Press/Musikot

In the mountains of Nepal, a full-blown Maoist uprising is
gaining ground.

It may sound a bit anachronistic, especially in a region of
Asia that has embraced market economics and linked up with the
outside world to export everything from Indian computer software
to Bangladeshi textiles and Sri Lankan-made designer clothes.

Yet the doctrines of Mao Zedong, the Chinese communist leader
who believed in empowering the peasantry, have found new life in
the countryside of this Himalayan kingdom.

The nation of 24 million seems to offer laboratory conditions
for a revolution: widespread poverty, an undemocratic government
perceived as remote and corrupt, a conflict-riven royal family,
and a feudal system run by a few rich landlords.

Since going from absolute monarchy to a democracy in 1990,
Nepal has had 14 governments. This month another prime minister
resigned in the face of protest rallies in Katmandu, the capital,
against King Gyanendra for dumping an elected government in 2002.

The resignation has eased the crisis, but the Maoist
insurgency remains the same and peace continues to be a distant
dream.

On top of the perennial violence, Nepal suffered a shattering
and still somewhat mysterious tragedy in 2001, when the king,
queen and seven relatives were shot to death by Crown Prince
Dipendra, who then turned the gun on himself.

In the past two years U.S. annual aid has nearly doubled, to
US$40 million, much of it to arm and train the Royal Nepalese
Army. But after eight years of fighting that has claimed nearly
10,000 lives, the rebels have a strong presence in one-fourth of
the country, including a big chunk of the midwestern mountainous
region.

An Associated Press reporter and photographer who trekked into
the rebel heartland and spent a week in its villages and the
besieged district capital heard voices both for and against the
fighters who call themselves "Maobadi," or Maoists.

Some deplored the guerrillas' violent intolerance of
criticism, and their attempts to impose communist ideology on the
farmers. Teachers spoke of rebels entering their classrooms to
lecture pupils. There were accounts of fighters dragging
opponents from their homes and killing them.

"If there were free elections today and the Maoists came
without their guns, they would lose by a big margin," said Harka
Bahadur Chetri, 41, a teacher who was repeatedly stabbed in front
of his family for criticizing the rebels.

But people also conceded the rebels have done much for the
villages under their control. They said they have banned
polygamy, child marriage, alcohol and witchcraft. They have
seized farms and redistributed the land among the poor and also
mediate disputes among farmers and villagers.

In the village of Dupai, bright posters depicting Mao and the
elusive rebel leader known as Prachanda were pasted on a wall by
the school.

In Rukum district, about 400 kilometers (250 miles) from
Katmandu, many rebel-built mountain trails and concrete bridges
across streams were evident. So were dug canals and pipes brought
in by the rebels to channel water to many villages.

"The poor farmers were getting poorer and exploited by the
landlords who were getting richer and fatter everyday," said Bhim
Bahadur Dhangi, 45.

A farmer, he joined the rebellion at its beginning eight years
ago and today he is rebel administrative chief of nine villages
in the Arma area of Rukum. He believes the rebels can
revolutionize agriculture, on which more than 80 percent of
Nepalese depend.

"We have taken the farms from these landlords and distributed
them to the people who actually work on them. We are teaching
them how to get maximum production out of their farms," he said.

Many farmers said they support the revolution simply to give
their children a better life. They see technology coming to
neighboring countries, and their government failing to do the
same for them.

In Rukum district, one administrative chief is only 20 years
old but rules 35 villages. He goes by the name Sangam, which
means "meeting point" and was given to him by the rebels. He said
he was elected district chief in a ballot conducted by the
rebels.

However, all the candidates were believed to have links to the
rebels; in the rebel heartland, they is no political opposition.
"I joined the Maoist movement because I wanted to free our
people," Sangam said.

He said he became a fighter at 15 and took part in several
raids, one of them two years ago in which 32 police officers were
killed and 31 captured and freed after a month. Sangam was shot
in the hands.

In another village, Pipal, a rebel official named Ganesh Man
Pun outlined ambitious goals of building roads, bridges,
hydroelectric plants and schools.

"Our aim is to have an autonomous people's government where
people seize the power for themselves," said Pun.

He and his comrades were dancing and dining with villagers - a
custom when rebels pass through.

Rukum, a district of beautiful mountains and valleys, is the
rebels' de facto capital. They patrol with guns and grenades as
farmers mostly tend their vegetable crops. The region's real
capital is Musikot, whose 6,000 people live behind a fence and,
after nightfall, under curfew.

The 500 soldiers and 300 policemen rarely venture beyond the
fence. "We have full security inside the district headquarters,
but outside the fence we have a big security problem,"
acknowledged Chet Prasad Upreti, Musikot's chief administrator.
The town is besieged. The only way around rebel roadblocks is by
air. Food stocks are diminishing.

"We have grains to last a few more days and after that we are
all going to starve," said Dil Ghimire, who runs a small hostel
in Musikot.

The government tried airlifting grain, but the rebels burned
down the storage shed.

Among the refugees living in Musikot is Nayan Singh Damai, 65.
He said he was attacked en route to a political rally in 1998 and
injured so badly that he lost a leg.

Doctors in Katmandu gave him an artificial leg, but the rebels
would kill him if he tried to make the four-hour walk to his
village, so his wife visits him twice a year, he said.

"My only offense was I had different political beliefs," he
said.

The rebels have their own courts, judges, tax system and
schools. Teachers like Chetri earn less than 12,000 Nepalese
rupees (US$160) a month, of which 5 percent goes to the rebels.
Farmers and businessmen pay according to their assets.

The rebels say defendants facing their courts have the right
to attorneys, who have no law education and are usually picked by
the rebels. A seven-member jury of villagers must reach a
unanimous verdict.

Defendants are tried in an open-air courtyard, facing a judge
at a desk and jurors seated on a mat.

"There will be a day when all of Nepal will follow this
system," said Rupesh Mainali, chief of the rebels' law and
justice department.

A woman who killed another woman brought home by her husband
is given a seven-year sentence; a rapist is serving three years.
Their prison is a house seized by the rebels from a landlord who
had to flee to the district capital. Their punishment includes
working in farmfields or carrying supplies for the rebels.

The rebels' political wing calls itself the Nepal Communist
Party-Maoist, distinguishing itself from a Marxist-Leninist party
that briefly ruled Nepal in 1994 and espouses democracy and
constitutional monarchy.

Two rounds of peace talks have failed, and the fighting has
escalated since the insurgents withdrew from a cease-fire last
August, after seven months.

They bowed out because the government refused their demand to
elect a special assembly to decide whether Nepal should continue
as a monarchy.

The rebels now say they will only enter peace talks if the
United Nation mediates, while Home Minister Kamal Thapa says the
rebels "have to first give up arms, cease violence and terror to
create a conducive environment before we can have another cease-
fire and peace talks."

"There is no magic wand to resolve the conflict," says Michael
Malinowsky, the U.S. ambassador to Nepal. "The goal is to bring
them back to society and not to kill them. For the political
solution, the constitutional forces like the king and the
political parties have to work together against the violence."

On the Net:
Nepal's National Human Rights Commission: http://www.nhrc-
nepal.org
Informal Sector Service Centre human rights group:
http://www.insec.org.np
State Deptartment: http://www.travel.state.gov/nepal-warning
Royal Nepalese Army: http://www.rna.mil.np

GetAP 1.00 -- MAY 13, 2004 09:04:58