The latest news from Nepal that the rebel Maoists are now ready to join the interim government after stripping King Gyanendra of his absolute powers, bodes well for this small Himalayan nation. It is also a triumph of a discreet and non-intrusive diplomacy successfully pursued by the USA and India.
The Maoists in Nepal, who have waged a decade-long war to seize control of the Himalayan nation, agreed on Friday to join an interim government to be formed within a month, the rebels’ leader Prachanda said after his talks with Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala.
“This is a historic decision and will move the country in a new direction,” he said after his nine-hour talks with Koirala and leaders of all the seven political parties in the ruling alliance, says a Times of India report. The rebel leader has come overground after two decades.
The interim government, which will eventually create a new permanent constitution, will replace the current parliament as well as the Maoists’ “people’s government,” which rules over the territory they control. Prachanda said he wanted elections to a constituent assembly latest by May 2007.
For details regarding the eight-point agreement between the Nepalese government and the Maoists, please have a look at the Kantipur website. I found Bloggers Nepal useful for general information on Nepal. Maybe Joe Gandelman would like to include this blog in TMV.
“He (Prachanda) did not invoke Marx, Lenin or even Mao. For a change, Maoist chief Prachanda invoked Lord Buddha, the apostle of peace, as his role model for future politics of competitive parliamentary democracy as he came overground and announced the decision to join the interim government to be formed shortly,” reports the Indian Express.
Prospects for peace rose in April after weeks of street protests forced King Gyanendra to surrender most of his power and reinstate parliament, says The Guardian.
“A solution may be imminent also for the tricky issue of what to do with the arms held by the insurgents in the period leading up to the elections.
The Maoists have been demanding that they should be treated on a par with the Royal Nepalese Army, with whom they have engaged in bloody battles for more than four years.
But the rebels may agree to surrender their arms under UN supervision providing the UN also monitors all army activity during the elections.
The Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) began a revolt in 1996 to topple Nepal’s centuries-old monarchy and establish a single-party communist republic. More than 13,000 people, half of them civilians, have died in the insurgency so far. In November 2005, the Maoists entered into a loose alliance with the seven main political parties to try to end the king’s rule.”
Until now, Nepal’s reclusive Maoist leader Prachanda has rarely been seen in public, says the BBC. The leader of Nepal’s Maoist rebels, Pushpa Kamal Dahal, 52, is better known under his nom-de-guerre of Prachanda (Fierce One).
The former agriculture student, born in the Annapurna region of Nepal, is the undisputed leader of the Maoists, and supreme commander of their army. He has led a bloody 10-year war against the monarchy in the impoverished Himalayan nation.
Until recently, very little was known about him. Nepalis knew Prachanda from only a couple of photographs.
Swaraaj Chauhan describes his two-decade-long stint as a full-time journalist as eventful, purposeful, and full of joy and excitement. In 1993 he could foresee a different work culture appearing on the horizon, and decided to devote full time to teaching journalism (also, partly, with a desire to give back to the community from where he had enriched himself so much.)
Alongside, he worked for about a year in 1993 for the US State Department’s SPAN magazine, a nearly five-decade-old art and culture monthly magazine promoting US-India relations. It gave him an excellent opportunity to learn about things American, plus the pleasure of playing tennis in the lavish American embassy compound in the heart of New Delhi.
In !995 he joined WWF-India as a full-time media and environment education consultant and worked there for five years travelling a great deal, including to Husum in Germany as a part of the international team to formulate WWF’s Eco-tourism policy.
He taught journalism to honors students in a college affiliated to the University of Delhi, as also at the prestigious Indian Institute of Mass Communication where he lectured on “Development Journalism” to mid-career journalists/Information officers from the SAARC, African, East European and Latin American countries, for eight years.
In 2004 the BBC World Service Trust (BBC WST) selected him as a Trainer/Mentor for India under a European Union project. In 2008/09 He completed another European Union-funded project for the BBC WST related to Disaster Management and media coverage in two eastern States in India — West Bengal and Orissa.
Last year, he spent a couple of months in Australia and enjoyed trekking, and also taught for a while at the University of South Australia.
Recently, he was appointed as a Member of the Board of Studies at Chitkara University in Chandigarh, a beautiful city in North India designed by the famous Swiss/French architect Le Corbusier. He also teaches undergraduate and postgraduate students there.
He loves trekking, especially in the hills, and never misses an opportunity to play a game of tennis. The Western and Indian classical music are always within his reach for instant relaxation.
And last, but not least, is his firm belief in the power of the positive thought to heal oneself and others.