US embassy cable - 02KATHMANDU2070

UNCLAS KATHMANDU 002070 
 
SIPDIS 
 
CA/OCS/ACS/NESA 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV, CASC, PTER, ASEC, NP, Maoist Insurgency 
SUBJECT:  NEPAL: MAOISTS CONTINUE TO ROB FOREIGN TREKKERS 
AND CLIMBERS 
 
 
1.  SUMMARY:  In late September Maoist rebels attempted to 
extort money from a group of foreign climbers in far 
northeastern Nepal, forcing them to fly back to Kathmandu. 
This incident reflects no departure from a longstanding 
pattern of  occasional  robbery by Maoists of foreign 
trekkers and climbers in some remote parts of Nepal, but it 
has received extensive and generally sensationalized 
coverage by the international media.  No Americans were 
involved in the incident, and no climbers were kidnapped or 
injured.  End summary. 
 
2.  A group of climbers, including a well-known British 
mountaineer and his French wife and ten Slovenians, was 
stopped by four Maoists in late September as they climbed 
toward a base camp north of Taplejung in far northeastern 
Nepal.  The Maoists reportedly demanded several thousand 
dollars from the group, but the climbers were able to 
persuade them that they had no money and were allowed to 
proceed unharmed.  Reports of the amount requested have 
varied from USD 7,000 to approximately USD 4,000 (25,000 
Nepali rupees) per person.  After completing their intended 
climb and beginning their return trek to Taplejung, the 
climbers decided to request a helicopter rescue rather than 
encounter new extortionate demands on the way down. 
Several of the climbers returned to Kathmandu on Tuesday, 
October 29, with the rest scheduled to return on Wednesday, 
October 30.  While waiting for the helicopter, one member of 
the team phoned his relatives via satellite phone to relate 
details of the encounter.  The British team leader 
reportedly spoke to the BBC, sparking a flurry of media 
attention to the month-old incident. 
 
3. British Consul Jon Chick told PolOff that his office does 
not view the occurrence as a change in the Maoists' modus 
operandi.  Referring to the described events as "the typical 
story," Chick reported that other groups of trekkers and 
climbers have been stopped in the area by suspected Maoists, 
but handled the situation by bargaining with the bandits to 
pay reduced levels of "taxes." 
 
4. Post has received sporadic reports of trekkers and 
climbers encountering similar situations, including an 
incident involving an American climber on Makalu, reported 
by e-mail in April.  These other trekkers have reported 
similarly extravagant initial demands by the Maoists, but 
most have eventually handed over cameras, other equipment or 
sums of money averaging about USD 100 per person.  No 
trekkers have been harmed in the encounters. 
 
5.  Media coverage of the Taplejung incident has been 
extensive and generally sensationalistic, describing the 
event as an "ambush," and indicating that the climbers were 
held as "hostages" "at gunpoint."   None of the non-media 
sources contacted by post have supported this dramatic 
characterization of the event.  British consul Chick 
suggested that the source of the sensational phrasing may 
have been the satellite phone call from one of the Slovenian 
members of the group, who he said "was very emotive when 
speaking with his relatives back home."  Elizabeth Hawley, a 
mountaineering expert and long-term resident of Nepal, 
suggested that initial confusion by the news agencies 
regarding the basic facts of the case may have distorted the 
published articles. According to Hawley, when Reuters 
originally contacted her for comment, the news service was 
planning to run a story stating that the climbers had been 
kidnapped. 
 
COMMENT 
--------------- 
 
6.  Post does not believe that this incident marks any 
deviation from previous tactics employed by Maoists seeking 
to extort money from climbers and trekkers.  Despite 
exaggerated media coverage, the incident does not differ 
fundamentally from similar prior occurrences and does not 
appear to indicate any increased risk of injury to Americans 
in Nepal.   However, the incident does underscore the 
Maoists' increasing tendency toward banditry rather than 
political struggle and highlights the risks that trekkers 
and tourists continue to run when traveling in some remote 
areas of Nepal.  Post is submitting language for an updated 
public announcement to better reflect this situation. 
 
MALINOWSKI