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Kathmandu Tuesday September 11, 2001 Bhadra 26, 2058.
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Govt–Maoists talks likely in Kathmandu
‘Mahara towards Dang to contact govt negotiators’
By Ujir Magar
LIWANG, Rolpa, Sept 10 – Central leader of
the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoists) Top Bahadur Rayamajhi laid out his party’s
agenda for talks with the government at a public gathering held here Monday, reiterating
their demand for a republican state and peaceful resolution to the problem.
Addressing a mass meeting in the district
headquarters here, one of the three Maoist negotiators Rayamajhi said that he is there to
make necessary arrangements for the second round of talks with the government.
Rayamajhi was part of the Maoist delegation, who
sat before the negotiating table with the government on August 30 in Kathmandu.
According to a Maoist source, the party’s
recent politburo meeting held in Kuraili village had proposed Thwang village, about 50
kilometers north of here, as a suitable venue for the second round of talks.
However, Rayamajhi told the gathering that his
comrade-in-arms Krishna Bahadur Mahara, leader of the Maoist negotiating team, has left
for Dang to "remain in constant contact" with the government team, who were due
to sit for the second round of talks beginning Tuesday.
But the confusion still persisted about the
venue for the talks as he further said, "I cannot say for sure whether the talks will
be held in Rolpa or elsewhere."
The two sides had agreed to meet within two
weeks after the landmark August 30 talks, held in a posh resort at Godavari, on the
outskirts of the Capital.
Rayamajhi told his party cadres that he has been
assigned by his party to manage the second round of talks, and that "the government
has agreed to come to this part of the country."
"We want peaceful solution to the
problem," he said. "But if the government does not let our voices heard in the
city then they themselves have to leave the city," he added, referring to "the
state-owned media’s tendency to downplay our voices to derail the talks."
He also informed that the party was busy
preparing written agendas for the talks with detail structure of the interim government
and the new Constitution proposed by them. "A republic state means the state ruled by
the president," he said. "King Gyanendra can become the country’s president
if he desires."
He also called on all the Maoist militiamen,
Nepal Police and the Royal Nepal Army to work for the nation, and added that his party
would take the lead for that.
Thousands of Maoist supporters converged in
Rolpa for the meet. They also held a cultural programme participated in by the Maoist
performers. All the shops in and around the meeting venue remained closed throughout the
day. Chief District Officer of Rolpa and other government officials watched the event from
the terrace of a faraway building through binoculars.
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