US embassy cable - 04KATHMANDU901

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 KATHMANDU 000901 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR SA/INS 
LONDON FOR POL - GURNEY 
NSC FOR MILLARD 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/11/2014 
TAGS: PGOV, PREL, NP, Political Parties, U.S-Nepali Relations 
SUBJECT: NEPAL:  SA DAS CAMP MEETS KING, POLITICAL PARTIES: 
 EACH SIDE DUG IN, MUTUALLY MISTRUSTFUL 
 
Classified By: CDA JANET BOGUE.  REASON:  1.5 (B,D). 
 
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SUMMARY 
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1.  (C) SUMMARY: In a May 5 meeting with Nepal,s King 
Gyanendra and a May 6 meeting with representatives of the 
main political parties, SA DAS Camp found both sides deeply 
distrustful of the other and adamant that they would not 
budge from their positions. (Both meetings took place before 
the resignation of Prime Minister Surya Bahadur Thapa on May 
8.) The King insisted he did not want absolute power; he said 
he was committed to holding elections and wanted 
constitutional monarchy to succeed.  If the political parties 
could not come up with a consensus program and candidate to 
head a new government, he &could not wait forever8 and 
would proceed with an appointed government to plan elections. 
 The parties believe the King cannot be trusted, is seeking 
absolute power and is merely maneuvering to split the 
parties.  The only unity evident in Kathmandu comes from the 
international community.  It was clear from DAS Camp,s 
meetings with diplomats and major donors, including the 
Indians, on the margins of the Nepal Development Forum, that 
the international community is pressing both the King and the 
parties to compromise for the sake of restoring democratic 
processes and presenting a united front against the Maoists. 
End Summary. 
 
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MEETING WITH KING GYANENDRA 
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2.  (C) On May 5, SA DAS Donald Camp, accompanied by the 
Charge d,Affaires, called on Nepal,s King Gyanendra.  (As 
usual, Gyanendra had no aides present for the meeting.) 
After thanking the United States for its support in Nepal,s 
struggle against Maoist insurgents, the King turned to the 
issue of the day: the political impasse in Kathmandu.  King 
Gyanendra said he had made a commitment to the people of 
Nepal to hold elections in this Nepali year (meaning by 
spring 2005).  The people, the King said, wanted peace, 
stability, transparency, development and democracy that 
&reaches the lowest of the low.8  The King said that he did 
not expect the parties to deliver all that; what he wanted 
from them was a government that could create &a conducive 
environment8 for elections.  It was up to the parties, he 
said, to choose who should lead that government.  He argued 
that the party leaders had been unable to overcome their 
self-interest and old antagonisms to rally around a single 
candidate, nor had they presented him with a joint program. 
If they did not, he concluded, he would prepare elections 
with an appointed government.  The King reiterated frequently 
that he did not seek absolute power but to preserve the 
constitution.  As proof, he said, he had not censored or shut 
newspapers when they criticized him, although the law allowed 
it. &Where else,8 he said,8 has a head of state been 
belittled in the press like this, and I have done nothing.8 
 
3.  (C) DAS Camp said it was not for outsiders to resolve 
Nepal,s political crisis.  However, U.S. support for Nepal 
was threatened because democracy was at risk, and human 
rights abuses committed by government security forces damaged 
Nepal's image abroad.  As Commander in Chief, the King could 
play an effective role in reducing those violations.  The 
King also had the &hard but necessary8 task of carrying 
through a political process with the party leaders that would 
succeed in the restoration of a democratic government.  DAS 
Camp asked if there were any effort to hold local elections 
) as a show of good faith ) in places where the security 
situation would permit, including the Kathmandu Valley. 
 
4.  (C) King Gyanendra replied that there had been no 
suggestion of local elections.  His own vision was to have 
the parties form a &multi-sectoral8 (Note: the King avoided 
saying &multi-party.8  End note) government that would give 
way to a technocratic, caretaker government a few months 
before elections, on the Bangladesh model.  DAS Camp noted 
that elections were the ultimate answer to the impasse, while 
acknowledging that the security situation made elections 
problematic.  The King repeated forcefully that he had made a 
commitment to elections and would go forward, with or without 
the parties. 
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DINNER WITH PARTY REPRESENTATIVES 
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5.  (C) On May 6, DAS Camp met representatives of the major 
parties at a dinner hosted by the DCM.  Those present 
included CPN-UML leader Madhav Nepal, RPP leader Pashupati 
Rana, Nepali Congress (Democratic) leader Sher Bahadur Deuba, 
and Nepali Congress representatives Ram Sharan Mahat and Ram 
Chandra Poudel.  The party leaders were as adamant as the 
King: there could be no progress until the King met their 
demands, met with them together, and accepted the government 
of their choosing.  While party leaders differed along 
predictable lines about the best scenario for restoring a 
democratic process, they were remarkably unified in their 
distrust of the King.  Madhav Nepal said simply &He cannot 
be trusted.  He wants total power.8  The King,s meetings 
with individual party representatives were seen most darkly 
as efforts to divide and conquer the political parties, and 
most charitably as an effort to appear to the public that he 
was trying to resolve the current stalemate.  Two lawyers, 
the head of the Nepal Bar Association and a former Chief 
Justice of the Supreme Court and drafter of Nepal's 
Constitution, raised the usual questions about the 
constitutional basis of the King's actions in dissolving one 
government and appointing two others. 
 
6.  (C) The senior Nepali Congress (NC) representatives, 
Mahat and Poudel, both claimed that the King's call for a 
consensus candidate for Prime Minister was a "game" that he 
is playing with the parties to avoid having to take a more 
direct path back to democratic government, such as 
reinstating the last Parliament.  The two NC leaders made two 
different and somewhat incompatible arguments in separate 
conversations.  One argument favored by Mahat was that the 
King had no justification for demanding that the protesting 
parties reach a consensus on a prime minister because 
political parties, by their very nature, are bound to 
disagree.  Alternatively, they argued that the King should 
have no say in the choice of a prime minister because this 
was the prerogative of the parties as representative 
organizations.  UML leader Madhav Nepal insisted that the 
five agitating parties were on the same wave length in terms 
of political tactics and henceforth would meet with the King 
only as a group to avoid his attempts to split the opposition 
coalition. 
 
7.  (C ) Significantly, all the political leaders assiduously 
avoided any comment on their own political ambitions or their 
willingness to accept a prime minister from another party. 
All seemed insecure and suspicious that the King would decide 
to appoint another party leader, or even a non-partisan 
figure, to head a new government.  Nothing that any of them 
said suggested they had any premonition that Prime Minister 
Thapa would resign the next day. 
 
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INTERNATIONALS UNITED 
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8.  (C) The only group that appears relatively united in 
Kathmandu is the international community, which is pressing 
both the King and the parties to enter a dialogue, 
compromise, and turn their united attention to the Maoist 
insurgency.  In DAS Camp,s May 6 meeting with Indian 
Ambassador Shyam Saran, the Indian stated what could have 
been U.S. talking points: both King and parties must show 
flexibility; any candidate the parties could agree on was 
fine, so long as there was a multi-party government.  The 
same sentiments were echoed by most diplomats and major 
donors at the Nepal Development Forum. 
 
9.  (U)  DAS Camp has cleared this message. 
BOGUE