Despotic king besieged as
General strike shuts down Nepal
By Deirdre Griswold
April 7--Should we be surprised that the Bush administration
is supporting the tottering reign of King Gyanendra of Nepal
with money and military equipment, even though virtually the
entire population has risen up against the despotic
monarch?
Nepal, a country of 24 million people high in the Himalayas,
is in the middle of a full-blown political crisis. On April 6
and 7, the whole country reportedly "came to a standstill" as a
general strike called by the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist)
closed "almost all shops, schools, busines ses and factories."
(French Press Agency, April 7) The strike was called to protest
the killings, arrests and disappearances of the group's leaders
and activists.
The Maoists have been leading a growing insurgency in the
countryside. In recent months, they have launched major attacks
on police stations and other government targets, including
bombing the house of Interior Minister Kamal Thapa. On April 5
they released to the Interna tional Red Cross 37 police,
soldiers and government officials they had captured on March 21
after a 12-hour gun battle in Beni town, 180 miles west of
Kathmandu.
The rebels had been demanding the release of two of their
top leaders, politburo member Matrika Prasad Yadav and regional
chief Suresh Ale Magar, who had been captured in India and
turned over to the Nepal regime. (New Kerala, April 6)
That same day, hundreds of anti-government rebels attacked a
police station in Yadukuwa in central Nepal, according to
Xinhua, the Chinese press agency.
At the same time, other political forces are continuing with
daily protests against the monarchy in several cities. In Kath
mandu, the capital, tens of thousands of activists began
turning up every day, beginning on April 1, to demonstrate near
the royal palace. The next day, police attacked demonstrators
with batons and, for the first time, fired on the crowds,
injuring at least 205. (IC Wales, April 3)
On April 3, a rally was held at which the main speakers were
the president of the Nepal lawyers association, the president
of Nepal's biggest human rights association, the president of
the Nepal professors' association and the president of the
Nepal doctor's association. This moderate rally was attacked by
police with tear gas. Many senior leaders were injured. (Union
Network International, April 6)
The next day, 10,000 people returned to battle police
outside the royal palace.
Demonstrations are also continuing in Bhaktapur, a medieval
town on the outskirts of Kathmandu, and in the western city of
Pokhara.
The political thrust of these demonstrations, called by five
parliamentary parties, including the Communist Party of Nepal
(Unified Marxist-Leninist), seem to be shifting. While the UML
calls only for a con stitutional monarchy, chants for a repub
lic are coming from the demonstrators.
The present king took power in 2001 after his brother, the
constitutional mon arch King Birendra, and most of the royal
family were massacred. The mysterious kill ings were attributed
to the crown prince, but he also died, supposedly of
"self-inflicted wounds," paving the way for Gyanendra. The new
king abandoned consti tutional reforms made a decade earl ier
and has been ruling virtually by decree since he dismissed the
elected government in 2002.
Washington has been supplying Gy anen dra's regime with
modern guns and night-vision equipment to combat the growing
guerrilla movement, which has the support of the peasantry.
The BBC reported on April 6 that the U.S. was investing $17
million of military aid in the Royal Nepal Army, mainly to pay
for about 20,000 M16 rifles and night-vision equipment.
"Now that King Gyanendra has lost over all control of 40 of
the country's 75 dis tricts, the Bush administration believes
it has good reason to be concerned," said the report.
"It has decided that the only way to prevent Nepal from
becoming a 'failed state' or, worse still, a 'rogue nation,' is
to increase the flow of military aid."
A decade ago the United Communist Party of Nepal was for a
brief time the larg est party in parliament and formed a
government under King Birendra. How ever, it was in a coalition
with the monarchist party and was unable to achieve even a
modest land reform in a country where the vast majority of the
people are impoverished peasants and serfdom was still
legal.
This failure to achieve anything through the elections led
to a split between the parliamentary left and the Maoists, who
began the armed struggle for a socialist republic two years
later, in 1996.
Last August, the government entered negotiations with the
Maoists, but they broke down when it refused to accept their
demand for the election of a new constituent assembly.
Another factor was heightened repression against the rebels
and their peasant supporters.
The BBC reported on April 6 that "Just 10 days before the
collapse of peace talks last August, the army killed 21 people
in the eastern district of Ramechhap. They were lined up and
executed at the end of a three-hour march. The report by
Nepal's National Human Rights Commission into the killings
concluded that almost all of the dead bodies bore evidence of
being shot in the head at close range. It blamed the RNA [Royal
Nepal Army]."
Now, some of the parties that were with the government then
are out in the streets now, supporting the strike called by the
Maoists. The French Press Agency report ed on April 6 that "The
Maoists, who control much of the countryside, issued a
statement of support for the strike by the parties, with whom
the guerrillas regularly clashed when Nepal had an elected
government.
"Maoist leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal, better known as
Prachanda, or 'The Fierce,' called for 'unity among all
political forces' against the king."
Reprinted from the April 15, 2004, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
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