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| Kathmandu, Sunday February 02, 2003 Magh 19, 2059. |
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UML convention kicks off, cautions Maoists
By Ghanashyam Ojha & Shyam Sundar Sashi
JANAKPUR, Feb 1 : Questioning the legitimacy of cease-fire
declared on Wednesday, the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist & Leninist
(CPN-UML), cautioned Maoist leaders not to bring the king into active politics, as the
party’s seventh national congress kicked off in this historic town today.
Madhav Kumar Nepal, the UML general secretary while
inaugurating the party seventh national congress, also urged the Maoists to get ready for
an "open discussion of all sorts of options" to pave the way for peaceful
negotiations.
"I urge the Maoists to come for open discussion
regarding the constituent assembly, round table meeting and interim government, the
conditions they have floated for peaceful dialogue," Nepal said. "The king must
be limited as a constitutional monarch."
UML has already made it clear that the party was ready to go
for constituent assembly, round table meeting and the interim government, the conditions
under which the government-Maoists cease-fire was reached on last Wednesday.
Spurred on by the thunderous applause and presence of about
100,000 party cadres at the Barha Bigha of Janakpur, Nepal also said that the
government-Maoist cease-fire was an unexpected and surprising event. He also said that the
cease-fire smacked of ‘conspiracy’.
Raising doubts over the durability of the cease-fire, Nepal
urged the Maoists to surrender their weapons if they were really sincere for talks.
Nepal also reiterated that UML was in favour of the
preservation of the achievements of the 1990 Peoples’ Movement, multi-party democracy
and constitutional monarchy. "UML in no way accepts the rule of gun," Nepal
said.
Addressing the UML congress, Sher Bahadur Deuba, president of
Nepali Congress (Democratic) said that there was a ‘pre-planned conspiracy’ in
the making to ignore the parliamentary parties in the process of the cease-fire reached
between the government and Maoists.
Deuba also urged all the political parties to come up with a
common agenda to fight the current complicated political situation.
"All the political parties must reach a consensus and
proceed with a common agenda at such critical situation," Deuba said.
Reiterating his stand for peaceful dialogue with the Maoists
to resolve the current crisis, Deuba said that NC (Democratic) had no any grudges to join
the round table meeting if all other political parties make their representations.
However, he also made it clear that he had no any faith in
such round table meetings. "The Maoists have already betrayed me and they may do so
for the second time also," Deuba said. "If Maoists use the cease-fire as a ploy
for this time also, the country has to pay a great price."
Speaking at the convention, Sushil Koirala, the general
secretary of Nepali Congress also demanded that the process of the cease-fire and the
things related to it should be made transparent.
However, he claimed that the present constitution was supreme
in itself.
Claiming that the present crisis can never be resolved by
ignoring the political parties, Koirala urged the Maoists to clearly define their demand
of constituent assembly. Another speaker Amik Serchan, president of the Peoples’
Front Nepal said that there were so many things left to be done before reaching at a
peaceful dialogue with the Maoists.
"There are many cases left; how about the armed
militants of the Maoists...," Serchan said. "Therefore I don’t think that
the Maoist problem can be resolved this way."
He however reiterated that the current problem could be
resolved only with a better co-ordination between the king and political parties.
General secretary of Nepal Sadbhawana Party Devendra Mishra,
central committee member of Rastriya Prajatantra Party Khem Raj Pandit also expressed
their best wishes to UML in the convention.
The total of 22 delegates of communist parties from India,
China, Vietnam, Korea, Sri Lanka Bangladesh including the Chinese Ambassador to Nepal also
addressed the convention giving their best wishes to UML.
UML is going to hold its close-session meeting followed by
the party 35th central committee meeting tomorrow.
‘UML leaders met Maoists’
During a situation when the government-Maoist cease-fire is
proceeding towards a peaceful dialogue, Madhav Kumar Nepal, general secretary of UML and
Amik Serchan, president of Peoples’ Front Nepal on Saturday made public about their
talks with one of the Maoist leaders.
"I had a talk with one of the Maoist leaders this
morning," Nepal said.
Nepal said that the Maoist leader told him that there was no
any evil-intention hidden in the cease-fire in his query regarding the peace process.
Sherchan who had come to give a welcome speech at UML
national congress also said that he had a talk with a Maoist leader who told him that they
were proceeding towards the peace process.
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