US embassy cable - 02KATHMANDU893

UNCLAS KATHMANDU 000893 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR SA/INS 
 
E.O. 12958:    N/A 
TAGS: PTER, PGOV, OVIP, PREL, NP, Maoist Insurgency 
SUBJECT: MAOISTS SEND LETTER TO AMERICANS ON PM'S VISIT 
 
 
1.  Local media outlets received by e-mail the afternoon 
of May 7 a letter from the International Department of 
the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) addressed "To Our 
Friends in America."  A copy of the letter has been 
faxed to SA/INS. 
 
2.  The three-page letter, written in turgid but 
grammatically correct English, is dated May 6--the day 
of Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba's arrival in 
Washington.  Its release by e-mail the following day may 
have been timed to coincide with the PM's May 7 call on 
President Bush in the Oval Office.  The letter warns 
readers that Deuba's true motive is "to beg for massive 
US military and financial assistance to crush the 
popular people's democratic movement."  Since Secretary 
Powell's January visit to Nepal "the US administration 
has been systematically building the case for a massive 
armed intervention and creation of a permanent military 
base in Nepal (apparently to take on China and India in 
the long run)."  The real purpose of Deuba's visit, the 
letter charges, is "to formally initiate a long term US 
military engagement in Nepal." 
 
3.  The text compares Maoist demands for formation of an 
interim government, a constituent assembly, and a 
republic to the "common demands of every bourgeois 
democratic revolution, from Europe to Americas to 
anywhere."  Contrary to Government propaganda, the 
Maoists do not intend to impose a one-party 
dictatorship, the letter continues, but will instead 
guarantee the freedom to contest elections to all 
political parties.  Recalling Prachanda's May 1 
statement on the possibility of future dialogue, the 
letter asks why Deuba is seeking foreign military 
assistance when "all the parliamentary political parties 
and civil society" are calling for a negotiated 
political settlement.  The success of the April 23-27 
general strike attests to the popularity of the Maoist 
movement, the letter claims, adding that the Royal Nepal 
Army has "been thoroughly defeated in every real 
encounter" with the Maoists. 
 
4.  In the closing paragraphs the letter calls upon 
"class brothers and sisters in the USA, the most 
powerful and dangerous imperialist power on earth" to 
foment "revolution in the belly of the beast and stop it 
from intervening in the revolutionary processes 
elsewhere." 
 
5.  A local journalist who has previously received 
English e-mail transmissions from the Maoists' second- 
highest leader, Baburam Bhattarai, said he saw some 
similarities in the style and fluency in English of this 
letter.  He noted that the letter made no reference to 
the Maoists' apparently stunning defeat in Rolpa over 
the past week (May 2-6).  He said he could not tell from 
where the message had been sent or who the other 
addressees were. 
 
6.  Comment: Even the mainstream local press and some 
prominent national politicians have been engaged in wild 
speculation recently about USG military aims in Nepal. 
The Maoists may thus have calculated that their 
accusations regarding ulterior US goals might resonate 
with local audiences.  Deuba's success in securing the 
May 7 Oval Office appointment has piqued and irritated 
many of his political rivals; the Maoists apparently are 
also worried.  The length of this letter--one of the 
more comprehensive recent efforts by the Maoists to 
explain and justify themselves--and its emphasis on the 
their purported willingness to resume dialogue may 
indicate just how worried they are. 
 
MALINOWSKI