US embassy cable - 02KATHMANDU747

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 KATHMANDU 000747 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
STATE FOR SA/INS AND DS/OP/NEA 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PTER, PGOV, CASC, NP, Maoist Insurgency 
SUBJECT: MAOIST CASUALTIES IN DANG REPORTEDLY HIGH; 
COCA-COLA FACTORY IN TERAI BOMBED AGAIN 
 
REF: A. (A) KATHMANDU 0737 
 
     B. (B) KATHMANDU 0439 
     C. (C) KATHMANDU 0209 
 
1.  (SBU)  Summary:  The Chief District Officer (CDO) in Dang 
told the Embassy that he has seen "hundreds" of bodies of 
Maoist dead in shallow graves in the vicinity of the April 11 
attacks on police and Armed Police Force posts (Ref A). 
According to local press reports, some of those dead may be 
villagers conscripted as cannon fodder, possibly used as 
human shields, in the hours leading up to the attacks.  A 
total of five civilians, including two small children, were 
killed in recent explosions in two other districts.  No 
injuries were reported after suspected Maoists set off 
explosive devices for the second time at the Coca-Cola 
bottling factory in Narayangadh (Ref C).  We expect the 
violence to continue as the Maoists gear up for the general 
strike called for April 23-27.  End summary. 
 
2.  (SBU) Ministry of Defense spokesman Tana Gautam has 
confirmed that the bodies of 54 Maoist insurgents killed in 
the April 11 attacks on the civilian police post at Lamahi 
and the Armed Police Force (APF) post at Satbariya in Dang 
district (Ref A) have been found in the vicinity around the 
posts.  (Note:  Maoist combatants typically transport bodies 
of their dead from battle sites.  End note.)   Gautam said 
the number of Maoist dead could rise as the search for bodies 
continues.  (Note: A PACOM assessment team is currently 
visiting division headquarters in Nepalgunj and may learn 
further details.  End note.)  The official casualty count for 
Government of Nepal (GON) security forces in the attacks has 
been revised to 10 regular police and 37 APF personnel.  Four 
civilians on a night bus in the vicinity were also killed. 
Dang Chief District Officer (CDO) Mathur Prasad Yadav told 
Embassy April 15 that he had been out to the battle sites 
that morning and estimated he had seen "hundreds" of bodies 
of insurgents in shallow graves in the forest and along the 
river bank.  He speculated that the Maoist casualty count 
could reach as high as 500, although he was unable to say 
exactly how many had been officially counted.  The police are 
still in the process of digging up the graves to determine 
the number of Maoist casualties, Yadav said. 
 
3.  (U) According to local press reports, the Maoists 
impressed local residents of villages close to Satbariya to 
serve as human shields shortly before the attack.  Relatives 
of the men, who have been missing since April 11, reportedly 
traveled to Satbariya to see if they could identify any of 
the bodies discovered in the makeshift graves.  Local human 
rights group INSEC said it has heard similar reports from the 
field and is sending an assessment team to Nepalgunj to 
investigate. 
 
4.  (U) On April 12 an improvised explosive device, 
presumably planted by insurgents, killed two children in 
Aakhibhuin, Sankhuwasabha, a remote district in northeastern 
Nepal.  The CDO in Bajura District in northwestern Nepal told 
Embassy that three civilians in Lanten Bazaar attempting to 
defuse a pressure cooker bomb, apparently left by Maoists, 
were killed when the device exploded early in the morning of 
April 14. 
 
5.  (SBU)  At about 7:45 p.m. April 14 five armed insurgents 
entered the Coca-Cola bottling plant in Narayangadh in the 
south-central Terai region and set off an explosive device. 
No casualties were reported.  N.N. Singh, the Managing 
Director of Coca-Cola in Nepal, traveled to Narayangadh April 
15 to assess the damage to the plant.  This latest attack 
marks the second time Maoists have targeted the Narayangadh 
plant (Ref C) and the third time they have set off explosive 
devices at a Coca-Cola facility in Nepal. 
 
6.  (SBU)  According to Singh, the Nepali police did not 
adequately increase the presence of armed police around the 
plant, despite his own and the Ambassador's requests to do so 
(Ref B).  Singh said he is convinced his plants are being 
targeted as symbols of corporate America and asked the 
Embassy to press the GON for augmented security around his 
Kathmandu and Narayangadh facilities. 
 
7. (SBU)  Comment:  While we think it is unlikely that there 
are "hundreds" of Maoist dead, it seems apparent that 
casualties are higher than initially thought.  At this point 
there is no telling how many of the bodies now turning up in 
makeshift graves are actual Maoist cadre and how many may be 
unfortunate villagers impressed into temporary and unwilling 
service by the insurgents.  As the date of the general strike 
called by the Maoists for April 23-27 draws nearer, we expect 
the insurgents to increase the tempo of violence in a bid to 
intimidate the general population into observing the 
otherwise unpopular shutdown.  The Embassy will continue to 
monitor the situation, and will hold an EAC meeting the day 
before the strike in order to assess our security posture and 
review any increased threat to the larger American community. 
 End comment. 
MALINOWSKI