US embassy cable - 04KATHMANDU782

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 KATHMANDU 000782 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR SA/INS AND DS/IP/NEA 
STATE ALSO PLEASE PASS USAID/DCHA/OFDA 
STATE ALSO PLEASE PASS PEACE CORPS HQ 
USAID FOR ANE/AA GORDON WEST AND JIM BEVER 
MANILA FOR USAID/DCHA/OFDA 
LONDON FOR POL/GURNEY 
TREASURY FOR GENERAL COUNSEL/DAUFHAUSER AND DAS JZARATE 
TREASURY ALSO FOR OFAC/RNEWCOMB AND TASK FORCE ON TERRORIST 
FINANCING 
JUSTICE FOR OFFICE OF THE DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL/DLAUFMAN 
NSC FOR MILLARD 
SECDEF FOR OSD/ISA LILIENFELD 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PINS, PTER, CASC, PGOV, NP, PHUM, Maoist Insurgency 
SUBJECT: UPDATE ON NEPAL'S MAOIST INSURGENCY, APRIL 17-23, 
2004 
 
REFERENCE:  (A)  KATHMANDU 0588 
            (B)  KATHMANDU 0722 
 
SUMMARY 
------- 
 
1.   The Home Minister ruled out talks with the Maoists 
until they stop their violence.  Sporadic clashes reportedly 
left four security force personnel and twenty-five Maoists 
dead.  Maoist supremo Prachanda announced a month-long 
agenda of "peoples' action" to include a three-day 
nationwide closure (bandh) beginning May 18-20. Maoists 
reportedly have intensified forced recruitment campaigns, 
demanding one person from each family for their militia. 
Maoist imposed sanctions in the mid-west have severely 
limited supplies and services to the area.  Maoist violence 
claimed the lives of seven civilians and injured six others. 
End Summary. 
 
HOME MINISTER RULES OUT TALKS 
------------------------------ 
 
2.  On April 18, Home Minister Kamal Thapa told an audience 
of local security chiefs, journalists and businessmen that 
the Government of Nepal (GON) was ready to resume dialogue 
with the Maoists if they gave up violence and killing. 
Minister Thapa said the Maoists cannot be trusted, and 
reiterated his claim that the rebels had used the previous 
two ceasefires to build up their so-called "Peoples' Army." 
He criticized the rebels for unilaterally breaking the 
ceasefire both times and following the path of violence. 
 
CLASHES LEAVE 29 DEAD 
--------------------- 
 
3.  Sporadic clashes left four security force personnel and 
twenty-five Maoists dead this week.  A Royal Nepal Army 
(RNA) soldier was killed in Janakpur District, and another 
in the eastern district of Mahottari on April 21.  On that 
same day, a police constable was gunned down at his home in 
Taplejung District, bordering India on the east, on April 
21.  A Maoist attack on a police post in Rautahat on April 
18 left one police officer dead and another injured.  There 
has been no word on the status of forty-one policemen taken 
hostage by the Maoists after the insurgents attacked their 
police post on April 7 in the district of Ilam (Ref A). 
Appeals for their release have been ignored. 
 
4.  Twenty-six Maoists were killed during security 
operations: two in Nuwakot District, just north of 
Kathmandu, one in the western district of Dang, and one in 
Gulmi District on April 22, one in Sarlahi District and one 
in Taplejung on April 21; one in Taplejung on April 20; 
eight in the districts of Lamjung, Dhading and Kailali on 
April 19; four in Panchthar and Bardia on April 18; two in 
Sunsari and one in Ilam on April 17; and four in Panchthar 
and Dhanusha on April 16. 
 
MAOISTS ANNOUNCE 3-DAY STRIKE 
----------------------------- 
 
5.  On April 22, Maoist supremo Prachanda announced a month- 
long agenda of "peoples' action" to include a three-day 
nationwide closure (bandh) beginning May 18-20.  The 
statement, posted on the Maoist website and signed by both 
Prachanda and Baburam Bhattarai, also called on the 
political parties to join the Maoists and "wage a unified 
and powerful agitation" against the "decaying and 
feudalistic" monarchy.  The Maoist Chairman also proclaimed 
that Nepal is on the "threshold of epoch-making revolution," 
because of the "peoples' war" and it was time to establish a 
"democratic republic." 
 
MAOISTS CONDUCT POLITICAL CAMPAIGNS; 
FORCED RECRUITMENT CONTINUES 
----------------------------------- 
 
6.  Maoists continue to force villagers to participate in 
their political campaigns, rounding up dozens of youths in 
the western district of Bajura, and the eastern districts of 
Ilam and Sankhuwasabha.  According to the local press, the 
youths were forced to attend Maoist "political training," 
and were confined to a house.  In the eastern district of 
Panchthar, Maoists reportedly also have intensified forced 
recruitment campaigns, demanding one person from each family 
for their militia.  The rebels reportedly have threatened to 
impose a fine of USD 715, an exorbitant amount in that 
region, to those families who refuse.  On April 21 the 
rebels had gathered over 1,000 people from the area to 
participate in a general assembly in which it was rumored 
that Maoist ideologue Baburam Bhattarai would address the 
crowd.  They were released the following day after the 
Maoists said the program was canceled. 
 
7.  On April 22, the Nation Human Rights Commission (NHRC) 
urged the Maoists to respect humanitarian laws, and to 
release all abductees immediately.  The press statement also 
questioned the party's public claims to be adhering to the 
Geneva Convention, while their actions appear to be in 
violation. 
 
WEST SUFFERS UNDER MAOISTS AND SECURITY FORCES 
--------------------------------------------- - 
 
8.  Maoist imposed sanctions in the mid-western districts of 
Salyan and Jajarkot have severely limited supplies and 
services to the area.  The sanctions, in effect since 
February 8, were imposed by the rebels in an effort to cut 
off supplies to security forces.  Locals must submit to 
check posts, and are required to obtain permission from the 
rebels to leave the district headquarters.  Telephone and 
postal services reportedly are under the control of the 
Maoists. 
 
9.  In nearby Accham District, the Royal Nepal Army (RNA) 
reportedly has blocked the transport of food, medicine and 
supplies to parts of the district following last week's 
aerial attack launched by security forces on an assembly of 
Maoists at a secondary school in the far western district of 
Accham that killed five civilians (Ref B). The local press 
quotes a source as saying that the blockade is necessary to 
prevent Maoists from looting the supplies as they have done 
in the past.  Dozens of schools reportedly also remain 
closed in the district following that attack. 
 
INNOCENT KILLED BY MAOIST VIOLENCE 
---------------------------------- 
 
10.  Maoist violence claimed the lives of seven civilians 
and injured six others.  On April 22, Maoists gunned down an 
inspector with the National Investigation Department (NID) 
at a wedding ceremony.  April 21, a gang of Maoists hacked 
to death a 24 year-old man in the Dhangadi District, and 
also shot dead a former ward chairman in the far eastern 
district of Panchthar.  On April 19, in the eastern district 
of Rautahat, Maoists killed three civilians: a former cadre 
whom they accused of spying, a former Armed Police Force 
(APF) officer, and another youth at a sporting event.  On 
April 18, one elderly civilian was killed and two injured in 
Bara District when Maoists exploded a bomb in a nearby 
house.  On that same day in Kapilbastu District, four people 
were injured from a Maoist-planted bomb.  On April 18, 
Maoists abducted a sixty-five year old woman in Nuwakot 
District, north of Kathmandu, accusing her of being a spy 
for security forces.  The rebels bombed her house before 
leaving, completely destroying it.  She was released five 
days later. 
 
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