Deuba urges Maoists to come forth for dialogue

BY A STAFF REPORTER

Kathmandu, August 31:Nepali Congress’s youth leader Sher Bahadur Deuba, taken aback by a blunt denial last week by the Maoist leadership, has re-called the underground rebels to come forth for dialogue through "an acceptable channel."

"I call upon the Maoist leadership to agree to cease all actions and begin a humanitarian dialogue," former Prime Minister Deuba, who heads a high level committee comprising senior Cabinet Ministers, said in a public statement today.

"I have made this dialogue for peace to end this humanitarian emergency my first priority," he appealed. "Let us initiate a dialogue through a channel which is acceptable to both sides. I am waiting to hear through appropriate channels that the Maoist leadership is ready to talk," his statement read, referring also to a similar appeal in the recent past.

"On August 25, I appealed to the Maoist leadership to help end the crisis of confidence which exists between our two sides," Deuba said of his last letter to the Maoist military commander, who quickly refused to send his representatives for talks. "There has only been an escalation of violence. This unnecessary violence must stop and this can only be done through mutually reinforcing humanitarian dialogue," Deuba said in the statement.

But Maoist military commander Prachanda (whose real name is Puspa Kamal Dahal) refused Deuba’s appeal to him to send senior rebel leaders for talks, citing vague reasons. That response left Deuba baffled as he was expecting to negotiate with a three-member team headed by parallel Maoist leader Dr Baburam Bhattarai.

The former Premier, in his capacity as the Covenor of the high level committee, had sent the letter days after he was mandated by the government to initiate talks with the Maoist leadership to end the four year old insurgency. Some months ago Deuba had also talked with a certain Maoist leader known as Ashok.

"Let us both reach out towards a dialogue for peace cemented in mutual confidence and strive for a peaceful resolution to our current difficulties," the statement said. "This dialogue must be seen in the context of the extensive and far-reaching damage being done to life and property of our cohesive peaceful nation," he said of the violence, in which over 1400 people have been killed since the so-called war broke out in early 1996.

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