National 1 (Spotlight Weekly)

Passage To Peace?

With the start of formal talks between the government and the Maoists, Nepalese heave a sigh of relief. Will the parleys bring the long-awaited peace?

By KESHAB POUDEL

As the country braced for a new round of uncertainty and chaos following the announcement of a nation-wide agitation by four political parties represented in the dissolved parliament, the government and Maoist leadership sat across the table to find an amicable solution to the seven-year insurgency that claimed more than 7,000 lives and billions of rupees in public and private property.

On the eve of the two-day Nepal bandh organized by an alliance student organizations affiliated to the major political parties, Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Badri Prasad Mandal and powerful Maoist politburo member Dr. Baburam Bhattarai led their delegations at the first round of official peace talks at the capital's four-star Shankar Hotel, an old Rana Palace.

The government team includes Minister of Information, Communication and General Administration Ramesh Nath Pandey, Minister of Health† Dr. Upendra Devkota, Minister of Labor and Transport Kamal Prasad Chaulagain and Assistant Minister of Women and Social Welfare Anuradha Koirala. The Maoist delegation consists of Ram Bahadur Thapa 'Badal', Dev Gurung, Krishna Bahadur Mahara and Matrika Yadav.

The first round of talks, among other things, nominated former speaker Daman Nath Dhungana, human rights activists Padma Ratna Tuladhar, former foreign minister Shailendra Kumar Upadhyaya and former chief secretary Karna Dhoj Adhikary as facilitators for the talks. They also agreed to set up a committee to monitor the cease-fire signed three months ago. After the appointment of the four facilitators, D. R. Lamichane and Birendra Jhapali who brokered the cease-fire appeared to have been sidelined.

The Maoist leadership, which dramatically cancelled the first scheduled talks a week ago, pushed the agenda it has been advancing for the last seven years. These demands were also pressed during the last failed talks with the government of then prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba.

With the breakdown of the talks in November 2001 and over a year of escalating violence and destruction, the Maoist movement has become a cause for domestic, regional and international concern. At a time when the Maoists were virtually on winning spree, killing the Armed Police Force chief, attacking district headquarters and other vital infrastructure, they announced an unconditional cease-fire and agreed to resume peace talks.

While the Maoists have proposed their four-point agenda of round-table meeting, formation of interim government, elections for the Constituent Assembly, the scrapping of the 1950 Nepal-India Peace and Friendship Treaty, the government is yet to come up with its program.

From harping a nationalist agenda to appeasing the major political parties sidelined since King Gyanendra assumed full executive powers last October, the Maoists have put all kinds of demands. By expressing their support for the achievements of the people's movement of 1990, the Maoists have made efforts to woo the political parties represented in the dissolved parliament. By demanding the scrapping of the Nepal-India Peace and Friendship Treaty 1950, the Maoists have sought to bolster their nationalist credentials.

"We have tabled our demand to the government side and it is up to them now to come up with a clear mind," said Mahara, a member of the Maoists' politburo and spokesman for the negotiating team. "We want a clear stand from the government," said Mahara, who led the Maoist delegation to the talks with the Deuba government.

"The government will respond to the Maoist demands after consulting with other political parties and civil society," said Narayan Singh Pun, Minister of Works and Physical Planning and spokesman of the government negotiating team. "Agreeing to sit down at the negotiating table is itself a major achievement."

Despite the official ebullience, the demands forwarded by the Maoists are not easy to fulfill. Some demands like the holding the elections for the Constituent Assembly and summoning the all party round table conference require the agreement among all the major political forces, including the King.

Despite their public posture, the Maoists have also shown some flexibility in their demands. "The negotiation process has just begun and we have to decide many things in a series of negotiations," said Mahara, addressing the press.

Since there are many complex issues involved, the peace talks can break down at any time. But some recent statements by Maoist leaders also indicate that a return to the jungle figures rather low on their list of priorities. Since the violent agitation has shifted to the urban areas, the Maoists seem to have wrapped up their old game.