Govt’s Olive Branch

IN PERHAPS its most comprehensive offer yet to the Maoists for talks, the government has spelt out its sincere willingness to sit across the table with the insurgents to hammer out a solution to the long festering Maoist problem, into its sixth year now and which has claimed over 1600 lives so far. A major demand of the Maoists has been a disclosure by the government of the Maoists under police custody and serving jail sentences.That demand now has been met when, at a press conference Tuesday, Deputy Prime Minister Ramchandra Poudel disclosed the names of 294 people it has held on charges of being involved in terrorist activities. Making public the names, Mr. Poudel reiterated the government’s oft-repeated pronouncement that resolution of the Maoist problem is at the top of the government’s priority list. Though other measures like formation of the Armed Police Force and provision of regional administrators in the five development regions are under way, Mr. Poudel emphasised that solving the problem through peaceful means is uppermost in the government’s multi-pronged approach to the Maoist problem. With their major pre-condition for talks now fulfilled and the government’s openness in accepting any medium, either a person or a group, as negotiators from the Maoists’ side, the doors are open for the Maoists to come forward to talk. The government has taken a significant step here to meet one of their key pre-conditions for talks. To demonstrate reciprocal sincerity, the first thing that Maoists could do is to tell the public the whereabouts of 131 people they have kidnapped. Such a gesture from them would be an important confidence-building measure and which would go to create the right environment for dialogue.

After so much blood has been shed, it is crucial to create a helpful atmosphere for talks. To help achieve that atmosphere, the government formed Tuesday a five-member committee, headed by human rights activist Padma Ratna Tuladhar, to facilitate dialogue between the government and Maoists. The Tuladhar Committee’s informal talks with the government and the Maoists should assist in constructing conducive atmosphere, narrow down differences between the two sides, and draw up an agenda for negotiations. But for these preliminaries to lead anywhere, Maoists on their part do have to display an equal amount of seriousness for talks, a sign of which would be disclosure of the fate of those held by them over the years. The general public, highly worried by the Maoist problem, are keen to see the Maoists reach out to this latest olive branch held out by the government.

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