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| Kathmandu, Saturday March 22, 2003 Chaitra 08, 2059. |
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Release five central leaders
for immediate dialogue: Mahara
Post Report
KATHMANDU, March 21 : The Communist Party of
Nepal (Maoist) has urged the government to release at least five central level leaders as
a precondition for immediate talks They also want that the government immediately withdraw
cases filed against many Maoists leaders including top leaders Prachanda and Dr Baburam
Bhattarai at the Patan Appellate Court.
"The talks would commence immediately once
the government fulfils these demands," said Krishna Bahadur Mahara, a member of
Maoist negotiation team, during a meeting with the journalists. Those demanded to be
released are central level Maoist leaders Krishna Dhoj Khadka, Rekha Sharma, Mumaram
Khanal, Rabindra Shrestha and Bam Dev Chhettri. The government has indicated that these
leaders would soon be released. But today, the government released senior Maoist activists
Ram Karki and Maehshwar Dahal on the orders of the Supreme Court.
During his interaction with journalists today,
Mahara said there were less possibility now of anti-talks conspiracy compared to last
time, but said the state still lacked sincerity for the talks.
Mahara said there were two evidences to show the
state’s indifferent attitude towards the talks. "State’s effort to maintain
the split among the political parties and its attitude to prolong the talk process for
months have created some suspicions that the state may betray us," he said.
The rebel leader said the Maoists were sincere
this time and did not want to return to war again but they were waiting for similar
response from the government.
He informed that during his meetings with
various political parties recently, he did not see outright opposition to the Maoist idea
of a constituent assembly election. As such, Mahara added, "the proposed round-table
meeting may be of less importance if there is a consensus during bilateral talks with all
the political forces."
Mahara indicated that it wasn’t necessary
for the Maoists to join a new interim government if the consensus on constituent assembly
is reached soon.
As for the demand by the Nepali Congress and
CPN-UML to return to the pre-October 4 situation, Mahara ruled that out saying, "We
want to add to the achievements of 1990 movement but the UML and NC’s demand are
status-quoist."
He said the Maoists did not like to reactivate
the 1990 constitution as it would reverse the state of last 12 years and would not help to
pave way for further reforms. "We want forward-looking reforms in the political
system so constitution reforms can not be the right way."
Justifying the party’s advocacy for the
constituent assembly elections, Mahara said it would at least establish a tradition of
making the constitution by the people whatever the result of the elections would be.
"All the parties should be ready to
compromise to arrive at a conclusion," he said. "The Maoists have become maximum
flexible for the success of talks."
He also said that the Maoists preferred to
address the political problems first though the Maoist problem was begun on the grounds of
socio-economic disparity. "The socio-economic issues have been superceded by the
political issues as all the socio-economic system come under the political system,"
he said.
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