National 1 (Spotlight Weekly)

Harrowing Hiccups

The abrupt suspension of Monday's scheduled talks send a chill down the spine of people yearning for lasting peace

By SANJAYA DHAKAL

When Dr. Baburam Bhattarai made an urgent phone call to Minister Narayan Singh Pun at the middle of the night on Sunday (April 20) informing that the Maoists would not be coming for the talks scheduled for the following morning, it exposed how vulnerable the peace process still is in the country.

The midnight suspension of the talks was hardly the kind of news the Nepalese people were waiting to hear the next morning, when they had in fact been tuning in to the radio and television to learn more about the talks scheduled that day.

The first talks between the two sides, having been scheduled nearly three months after the ceasefire, were torpedoed by the Maoists claiming that they had no intention of taking part in any "introductory" talks. "We don't want to sit for useless introductory talks. We want to directly sit for talks focusing on political agenda," Krishna Bahadur Mahara, a member of Maoists talks team was quoted to have said.

Maoist's talks team : Bumpy beginning

The Maoists declined to sit in Monday's talks after government ministers said they would merely be an "introductory" session and would not take up any political or other agenda. Mahara told Pun that the Maoists would not sit for talks unless the government comes fully prepared.

Pun later informed that the two sides have agreed to set new dates for talks within a week. But the damage was already done. Though the ceasefire agreed by the government and the Maoists on January 30 has been largely observed throughout the country in the last three months, the jolt on Sunday night made an ominous experience especially coming at a time when the rhetoric between the government and the Maoists was getting more shrill and uncompromising even as political parties continue to stick to their guns and student organizations resort to violence and organizing Nepal bandh. The events of last week were hardly conducive for peace talks.

Deputy Prime Minister Badri Prasad Mandal, who is also the coordinator of the government's talks team, in a press statement released on Monday evening criticized Maoists for not attending the scheduled talks of Monday. "The government team waited for them (Maoists) at the pre-scheduled talks venue but they did not turn up," the statement said adding that the talks was suspended after the Maoists failed to turn up. In his statement Mandal stated that the government was prepared to talk on any agenda with the Maoists.

The differences over the agenda of the first talks seem to have killed it even before it began. While the government ministers were saying that they would first begin with a round of introduction as a warm up session to more serious jaw-jaw later on, the rebels disagreed. They wanted to enter headlong into the serious political agenda in the very first meeting. The lack of any facilitator among the two sides could also have created avoidable misunderstanding between the two, said a political analyst.

Meanwhile, Maoist supremo Prachanda, in a strongly-worded statement, warned the government not to misuse the current ceasefire to consolidate its military strength and create divisions among political parties. Prachanda has also asked the government not to harbor any "dreams" of oppressing others. Evaluating the period since the agreement of ceasefire on January 30, Prachanda accused the government of focusing on strengthening its own position rather than on burning political issues.

In an interesting development, Prachanda also trounced the demands by the political parties to form all-party government. He asked the parties to rather focus on dialogue and peace-making. He warned that even an all-party government or the reinstatement of the Deuba government would be illegitimate.

The topsy-turvy events of last week have infused a sense of despondency among the masses. But hopes never die. They still are confident that the two sides will continue with peace talks soon because they know it is in the interest of both sides as well as the country.