by Skeleguy » Thu Aug 19, 2004 11:31 pm
Nepal rebels target cities in final push -Straits Times
The Maoists, who have blockaded the capital, are adopting a ruthless game plan practised by Peru's shadowy militants
KATHMANDU - The blockade of the capital declared by Nepal's Maoist rebels echoes the tactics of Peru's shadowy Shining Path militants - the ruthless movement upon which they model themselves. Like the Shining Path rebels, who waged a battle of more than a decade to forge a peasant revolution, they seek to rule the countryside and now are boldly attacking big towns and even the capital. Deputy Prime Minister Bharat Mohan Adhikary appealed to the rebels yesterday for talks to end the two-day-old stand-off as food prices began to rise.
Nepalese officials said the uprising had claimed at least 10,000 lives, but the toll could be much higher as the Maoists carried off their dead and wounded. The Maoists, who were blockading the capital using fear rather than force, in 1996 launched their struggle to overthrow the monarchy and feudal caste-ridden system and turn it into a communist 'People's Republic'. Their leader, Prachanda, or the Fierce One, has promised an agrarian takeover. Analysts see the uprising as the biggest threat to the world's only Hindu kingdom, sandwiched between China and India, since it became a democracy 14 years ago.
New Delhi also fears the revolt could spill over to India, where security forces were battling ultra-leftists in the states of Bihar, Jharkand and Andhra Pradesh, creating a 'red corridor' from Nepal.
Nepal's rebels get their inspiration from Chinese revolutionary Mao Zedong's struggle against landowners. But they draw their strategy from the Shining Path, largely dormant since the arrest of its leader Abimael Guzman in 1992. Guzman had said that the 'taking of the cities' would mark the last chapter of the insurrection.
The movement took root in Nepal's remote feudal western valleys and grew as the Maoists began raiding police posts, snatching weapons to build an arsenal. Now, the Maoists say they control 70 per cent of the countryside, including the plains and lowlands of the Terai, known as Nepal's breadbasket - claims contested by the government.
Even though Prachanda belongs to the same high castes who govern Nepal and are dubbed 'parasite classes' by the Maoists, his support base is among the lowest castes. Money comes from village taxes and sympathisers' contributions. Nepal has been fertile ground for unrest. While Kathmandu boasts casinos and packed shops, most Nepalis live in rural areas on 60 US cents (S$1) a day.
Land ownership is seen as a means to prosperity in Nepal, but feudal ownership of land excludes many Nepalis from owning property. But human rights activists say the Maoists' support has been eroded by merciless killings, intimidation and torture.