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| Kathmandu, Thursday January 30, 2003 Magh 16, 2059. |
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Govt, Maoists announce
cease-fire
Post Report
KATHMANDU, Jan 29 The government and the
Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) today declared a cease-fire, paving way for peace talks
‘soon’. However, the date and modality for the talks has not been announced.
In a day of dramatic development, the statement
from the CPN-Maoist expressing their willingness to give up the insurgency was soon
followed by a similar statement from the government in which it has agreed to withdraw
previous order listing Maoists as a terrorist outfit.
Since the government has also removed price tags
on certain Maoist leaders, the announcement of the preceding government, the heavy price
tag on the head of the leading Maoist leaders have become infructuous.
The statement issued by government said it would
be initiating process to notify the international community and the INTERPOL to withdraw
the red corner notices issued against scores of Maoist leaders. This, among others, was
the precondition laid by the Maoist outfit before there could be any talks.
The formal declaration of cease-fire was
announced by the government after a brainstorming marathon session of the cabinet, which
continued till mid-night yesterday. The decision was arrived in a second sitting this
morning. However, because of certain differences within the cabinet, the government
refused to agree to issue a joint statement with the Maoists.
The statement from the government came a couple
of hours after the Maoists had issued one signed by Prachanda, a.k.a. Puspa Kamal Dahal.
The real hero of the one-and-a-half month-long
secret parleys with the Maoists was Minister for Physical Planning and Works, Narayan
Singh Pun, who apparently co-ordinated directly between the palace and the insurgents.
According to informed sources, Minister Pun had
a series of meetings with Prachanda and the guerrilla outfits’ armed wing chief Ram
Bahadur Thapa, alias Badal. Sources said since there was a consensus that the nationalism,
nationality and the nation were at stake "we all had to work together to save
it".
Two people who actually brokered the initiative
to bring Pun and the top Maoist leaders together were Samata Party leader Dr Birendra
Jhapali and another left leader Dadhi Ram Lamichhane. While Minister Pun will be the
convenor from the government side. Other members of the negotiation team will be announced
whenever necessary.
Prachanda has already constituted his
negotiation team, headed by the party’s chief ideologue Dr Babu Ram Bhattarai.
According to the informed sources, Maoist have closed all their other channels and
conveyed firmly that no other minister or leader would be their channel of communication
except Pun this time.
Pun refused to divulge any details at the moment
but said, "This is the beginning of a confidence-building measure. And I am sure that
the palace, democratic forces, and security wings of the government are all in favour of
peace prevailing in the country."
"We have taken the government move in a
positive note. Hence we declare a cease-fire and express commitment to sit for peace
talks," the statement signed by Maoist supremo Prachanda said.
The statement issued by the rebel outfit has
also said that the party is ready to resolve the current scenario, which is deteriorating
into a civil war, through talks.
The party has, however, called upon its cadres
to peacefully continue mobilising masses for the attainment of basic strategic objectives,
round table conference, interim regime and constituent assembly.
The Maoists had earlier announced a three-member
talk team as a willingness to talk but the government had not responded to the call for
talks for unspecified reasons.
It may be recalled that the government had
announced unilateral cease-fire on July 19, 2001 which was followed by three rounds of
talks on August 30, September 14 and October 14, before the Maoist outfit walked out of
the talks. The rebels had unilaterally broken the cease-fire on November 19.
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