Nepal: Mass protests bring partial people’s victory

A third week of protests across Nepal brought significant concessions from the royal government, but only after massive state violence against demonstrators.

In his first real response to the demands of parliamentary opposition parties and the armed revolutionary movement, King Gyanendra on April 24 agreed by royal proclamation to reinstate the dissolved House of Representatives. After 19 days of strikes that virtually shut down the country, he also agreed to return to the role he held prior to assuming dictatorial powers in February 2005.

The third week of strikes and protests was the most intense, with hundreds of thousands of demonstrators pouring into the streets despite government curfews and shoot-to-kill orders. At least eight protesters were shot dead and hundreds more injured by police forces.

Protesters’ anger was evident as crowds fought back against the security forces that attacked them. Gyanendra’s government at last came under serious criticism from the United Nations, United States and India, who are trying to distance themselves from the violence ordered by a monarch they have long supported against the revolutionary movement.

The leaders of the opposition party alliance, which includes the electoral United Marxist-Leninist Party and United Left Front, have welcomed the reinstatement of parliament. The opposition alli ance’s first act was to name Girija Prasad Koirala, president of the bourgeois Nepali Congress Party, to head the new government. Koirala had served as premier three separate times after elections in 1991.

Those elections were held after massive street demonstrations brought down the Rashtriya Panchayat system, which had outlawed political parties and governed through royalist councils. The protests forced Gyanendra’s brother, King Biren dra, to allow the drafting of a constitution and multiparty elections.

Today’s opposition parties have vowed to make elections to a constituent assembly, with powers to draft a new constitution that will determine the fate of Nepal’s monarchy, the primary task of the new parliament. They also promised to launch a detailed investigation into abuses by security forces so that perpetrators might be brought to justice.

Press reports indicate that reaction on the streets is mixed. While the rank-and-file activists and protesters are happy that the government has started to acknowledge their political demands, many feel that reinstatement of the dissolved house is not enough. Thousands of people marched through the streets in celebration and to encourage opposition leaders not to compromise basic political positions with the king.

The revolutionary forces led by the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) [CPN (M)] insist that the King’s proclamation does not go far enough in addressing the people’s demands. A joint statement signed by CPN(M) Chairman Prachanda and Chief of Foreign Relations Baburam Bhattarai expressed concern that the opposition parties could be committing an historic mistake by prematurely accepting reinstatement of the House.

U.S. officials have repeatedly counseled Gyanendra to make some concessions in an attempt to drive a wedge between the opposition party alliance and the revolutionary forces. The two groupings previously reached an agreement based on 12 points of understanding, which include an end to autocratic monarchy and elections to a constituent assembly.

Despite their disagreement over the government’s offer, both the CPN(M) and the alliance parties have reiterated their commitment to the 12-point agreement and to further cooperation in the people’s movement.

The CPN(M) has issued a new protest program that will include a continuation of mass protests and demonstrations as well as a blockade of Katmandu valley and district headquarters in order to keep up pressure for timely elections to a constituent assembly.

Meanwhile, the CPN(M) has continued its armed offensive throughout the countryside. Its People’s Liberation Army (PLA) recently launched simultaneous attacks in Chautara on government army barracks, the district administrative office, a police post and the local jail.

The CPN(M) launched its people’s war in 1996. It was not difficult for the revolutionary forces to find a mass base of support in a country where only 10 percent of the people have access to electric power, more than 85 percent live in rural areas without running water or basic sanitation, and malnutrition is rampant among children.

The CPN(M) has vowed to continue armed actions in the pursuit of establishing a revolutionary government free from the feudal monarchy and capable of pursuing the construction of socialism.