US embassy cable - 03KATHMANDU15

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 KATHMANDU 000015 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR SA/INS AND DS/IP/NEA 
STATE ALSO PLEASE PASS USAID/DCHA/OFDA 
USAID FOR ANE/AA GORDON WEST AND JIM BEVER 
MANILA FOR USAID/DCHA/OFDA 
LONDON FOR POL/REIDEL 
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 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM, PTER, CASC, PGOV, NP, IN, Maoist Insurgency 
SUBJECT: NEPAL:  UPDATE ON MAOIST ACTIVITIES, DEC 27-JAN 3 
 
REF:  A.  Kathmandu 2492 
      B.  Kathmandu 2490 
 
SUMMARY 
------- 
 
1.  The GON said it is receptive to and ready to create an 
environment for peace talks with the Maoists.  Prime 
Minister Lokendra Chand said the GON will accede to the 
Maoists' demand for information on imprisoned rebels. 
Despite the GON's conciliatory gestures, the Maoists have 
called another two-day bandh for February to protest King 
Gyanendra's dismissal of the elected government and 
continued their campaign of violence.  Maoists killed six 
civilians, including two children and a young widow whom 
they hacked to death, and injured seven others in separate 
bombing incidents.  The rebels also killed three policemen 
and injured seven members of the Armed Police Force (APF) in 
separate attacks.  Two policemen are still missing from an 
attack on a police post.  Six students were abducted at 
gunpoint by the Maoists and their whereabouts are still 
unknown.  Maoists set off several bombs in the downtown 
Kathmandu area, bombed several Village Development Committee 
(VDC) buildings, set fire to a large residence, and looted 
rice, cotton and fertilizer from a Cotton Development 
Office.  India reportedly arrested three Maoists from Nepal. 
Nepali human rights groups continued to decry the human 
rights violations by both the GON and the Maoists, invoking 
the Geneva Convention and opposing the purchase of weapons 
by the GON. 
 
GOVERNMENT RESPONDS TO MAOIST DEMANDS 
-------------------------------------- 
 
2.  Speaking at a tribute to the late King Birendra, Prime 
Minister Lokendra Bahadur Chand said the GON is ready to 
reveal the locations and names of Maoist rebels currently 
imprisoned throughout the country.  Maoist leaders have 
demanded the information as one of their preconditions for a 
peace dialogue.  Chand said the only way to achieve peace is 
through dialogue and the GON will do its part, but the 
Maoists will have to take positive steps as well.  Chand 
called for an end to the violence and murder of innocent 
people, saying that such acts are not an acceptable means to 
fulfill political ambitions, but only serve to deprive 
Nepali people of their rights. 
 
MAOISTS CALL ANOTHER TWO-DAY STRIKE 
----------------------------------- 
 
3.  Maoists have called for another nationwide two-day 
strike on February 13-14.  The strike ostensibly is being 
called to protest King Gyanendra's dismissal of the elected 
government and to express their anger at what Maoist leader 
Prachanda says is the "suspension of the people's sovereign 
rights." 
 
4.  The two-day bandh called by the Maoists on December 29- 
30 for the Bagmati and Narayani districts, including the 
Kathmandu Valley, passed largely without incident (ref A). 
However, most businesses and schools were shut down and few 
vehicles were on the streets.  Nepal saw an unprecedented 
number of bandhs in 2002, particularly educational bandhs. 
According to press reports, there were a total of 39 bandh 
days, of which 17 were educational bandhs. 
 
NO END IN SIGHT TO MAOIST BRUTALITY AND DESTRUCTION 
--------------------------------------------- ------ 
 
5.  On December 29 Maoist rebels forcibly entered a home in 
Gulariya, southern Bardiga District, and brutally killed a 
twenty-five year old mother by chopping off her legs and 
driving nails into her palms.  On December 28 Maoists threw 
a grenade into a home in southern Dang District, killing 
four members of a family, including a two year-old child. 
Maoists also killed a fourteen-year-old child and injured 
seven others in neighboring Salyan District by throwing a 
bomb into a tea shop.  On December 27 Maoists bombed a 
school dormitory in Kathmandu, injuring five children, a 
teacher and a principal (ref B). 
 
6.  Maoist assaults on policemen and police posts continued 
throughout Nepal.  On January 2 seven members of the Armed 
Police Force (APF), including the superintendent, were 
injured by a Maoist landmine in the Dang District.  Two 
policemen were killed at a temporary police post in southern 
Bara District on December 28 when rebels ambushed the post 
and then blew it up.  Two policemen from the post are still 
missing.  In the Kailali District, armed Maoists surrounded 
a police officer's home and kidnapped him.  His mutilated 
body was discovered on December 29. 
 
7.  On December 27 Maoists set fire to a large residence in 
central Nuwakot District, causing damage of over one hundred 
and fifty thousand dollars.  The Maoists also looted gold 
and money from the building before destroying it.  Maoists 
also bombed a statue of the late King Mahendra in the Bara 
District, totally destroying it.  Several bombs went off in 
the Kathmandu Valley on December 28, including one at a 
central shopping area (New Road), and Gongabu Village 
Development Committee (VDC) facilities.  No injuries were 
reported.  Police in eastern Siraha District were able to 
diffuse three pressure cooker bombs that were planted near a 
main road.  Maoist rebels bombed and destroyed a Cotton 
Development Office in southern Bardia District on December 
25 and looted rice, cotton and fertilizer.  Two VDC office 
buildings in southern Parsa District were destroyed after 
being bombed by Maoists on December 27. 
 
8.  Maoists entered a high school in eastern Bhojpur 
District and abducted six students at gunpoint.  The 
students, all boys, were taken to an unknown location and 
have yet to be released. 
 
GLUTTONOUS MAOISTS CLEAN OUT HOMES 
---------------------------------- 
 
9.  Villagers already in fear for their lives now have to 
worry about Maoists depleting their personal food supplies. 
It is becoming common for Maoists to enter a home and stay 
until they have consumed all the food supplies.  The rebels, 
locally known as "Maobadis" or Maoist fanatics, have become 
so greedy that villagers have started calling them 
"khaobadis" or eating fanatics.  Villagers, already 
struggling to feed themselves and their families, now worry 
that they will be forced to feed the "khaobadis." 
 
INDIA ARRESTS NEPALI MAOISTS 
---------------------------- 
 
10.  Three Maoist rebels, including a senior leader of the 
All-Nepal National Free Students Union--Revolutionary 
(ANNFSU-R), were reportedly arrested on December 29 outside 
Siliguri, near Darjeeling.  Police officials said the rebels 
were heading to Patna to attend a meeting with the People's 
War Group and the Maoist Communist Center, two Indian Maoist 
groups.  The arrests came after India recently increased 
security along the India-Nepal border. 
 
11.  L.K. Advani, Deputy Prime Minister of India, voiced 
concern that Maoists from Nepal have increased their efforts 
to infiltrate India and step up their campaign of violence. 
 
HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVISTS WANT GENEVA PACT IMPLEMENTED 
--------------------------------------------- ------ 
 
12.  Representatives from the Human Rights and Alternative 
Development Academy and the Indigenous Human Rights and 
Concern Society filed a writ petition in Nepal's Supreme 
Court, demanding that GON be ordered, under the Geneva 
Convention, to protect human rights.  The petition claims 
that the Geneva Convention can be invoked because of Nepal's 
current internal conflict. 
13. Kapil Shrestha, member of the National Human Rights 
Commission, called for zero tolerance of human rights 
violations by both the Maoists and the GON and demanded that 
the Maoists immediately declare a cease-fire.  The Human 
Rights and Peace Society (HURPES), a non-governmental 
organization in Kathmandu, released its own paper on 
December 28 accusing the GON of gross human rights 
violations and the Maoists of violating international 
humanitarian laws. 
 
14. Lakshmi Rai, of the National Women's Commission, 
expressed anger that the identities of the rape victims in 
Amnesty International's recent human rights report were made 
public.  Rai expressed concern over the revelations and 
airing of video footage of the alleged rape victims, saying 
that it will only serve to ostracize the girls and subject 
them to further victimization.  The Royal Nepal Army (RNA) 
has publicly denied the rape charges. 
 
15.  A local human rights group decried the purchase of 
weapons by the GON, saying the arrival of the Belgian arms 
was not conducive to peace talks.  Radha Krishna Mainali, 
committee member of the Communist Party of Nepal-United 
Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML), questioned the purchase by the 
GON, saying the deal made it hard to hope for peace.