Nepal Prime Minister Prachanda quits

Nepal's Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal resigned yesterday following a confrontation with the president over the dismissal of the army chief. The Prime Minister and former rebel Maoist leader, who is more commonly known as Prachanda, announced his resignation in a televised address after just nine months in the job. "I am announcing my resignation from the council of minister,” he told the nation. "I have resigned from the post of prime minister from today for the protection of democracy and peace.”

The crisis started a day earlier when Prachanda sacked army chief Rookmangud Katawal for disobeying instructions about the enlistment of former rebels into army ranks. However his decision was overruled by President Ram Baran Yadav. The president directed Katawal to continue in office, saying his dismissal by the cabinet does not "meet the constitutional requirements and due process." Prachanda hit back calling the decision “an attack on this infant democracy and the peace process.”

But as the constitution is still being worked out, Prachanda did not have the right to overrule Yadav’s decision. The secretariat of the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) quickly met after his resignation and decided to “intensify struggle in the parliament and the street” until the President withdraws his “unconstitutional” move. Secretariat member Barsaman Pun said, “Since the president’s move is a constitutional coup, we will continue protesting against the move.”

Prachanda became Prime Minister in August last year as part of an agreement to end the longstanding Nepalese civil war. 13,000 people died in the ten year struggle and Prachanda emerged from hiding after three years of negotiation to take power. He has long wanted to sack the army chief who fought against him during the rebel insurgency. Matters came to a head over the issue of integrating the former guerrillas into the national army. Prachanda faced strong protests from Katawal and his supporters against the idea of integrating a “politically indoctrinated guerillas” into the army.

Since the end of the conflict, the Maoist fighters have been staying in camps monitored by the United Nations Mission in Nepal (UNMIN). UNMIN itself has tried to stay impartial but has been accused of siding with the Maoists. There is a danger of mutiny inside the Nepal Army if their former sworn enemies are integrated. Meanwhile Army Chief Katwal has constantly reiterated his policy of accepting only those “deemed fit through free competition,” much to Prachanda’’s annoyance.

But Prachanda’s position has been significantly weakened recently. While the Maoists remain the largest party, his government has now been reduced to a minority. Key ally The Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist (UML) announced their withdrawal of support due their refusal to support Katawal’s sacking. The UML immediately started negotiations with other political parties to create an alternative ruling coalition and are widely tipped to head the new government. They look certain to get the support of the Nepal Congress, the main non-communist party. Nepal Congress leader Shekhar Koirala said they haven’t yet decided whether to support a new government yet from inside or outside a coalition. But of one thing he was certain: “We will not lead the government. We want the UML to lead.”

The question now is whether Prachanda and his Maoists accept these outcomes as part of the grubby business of democracy. Although senior Maoist leader Baburam Bhattarai has said that his party would hit the streets now demanding resignation of the President, there has been no sign of violence so far. But whatever happens, as Nepalese expert Neil Horning points out at Neil’s Nepal, it is likely the Maoists have some contingency plan. “They didn’t survive 10 years underground while building an army of 30,000 piece by piece through incompetence,” said Horning.

Nepal: Maoists sweeping towards victory

A Maoist insurgent is now odds on to become Nepal’s first elected president as results begin to flow in from last week’s election. After four days of counting the Nepal Maoist Party have won most of the 160 seats declared of the 601 seat parliament. The Maoist leader, Prachanda, said that he is willing to work with other parties for the sake of democracy but the landslide win has stunned the establishment Congress Party who were expected to win. The victory is likely to lead to constitutional change that will abolish the country’s 240 year monarchy.

Barely two years ago, Prachanda’s Maoists were at war with Nepal’s establishment and considered criminals and terrorists by the Nepali government. But after the two sides signed a peace deal in November 2006, the UN Security Council gave its seal of approval to a pact that would see the constitution re-written. Both sides agreed that “autocratic monarchy” was the main hurdle in realising a “free and sovereign Nepal”.

Now that monarchy is about to be ended. King Gyanendra has led the country since the extraordinary events of 2001 when Crown Prince Dipendra killed eight members of the royal family before committing suicide. Gyanendra hastened the monarchy’s end by disastrously deploying the royal army against the Maoists. He proved to be an unpopular leader and his effort to seize total power rebounded against him. In December 2007 the major political parties agreed to abolish the world's last Hindu monarchy as part of a deal to bring the Maoists back into government. The deal stipulated the monarchy would be eliminated once a special assembly charged with rewriting the nation's constitution is elected.

Now the game is up for Nepal’s last king. Publicly, Gyanendra has professed “satisfaction” at the widespread election participation despite the result. With the 2065th Nepali New Year to start on Sunday, he used his New Year speech to praise the people’s “firm resolve not to compromise the nation's existence, independence and integrity under any circumstance”. But with the Maoists now in power, it is likely that the first post-election meeting of government parties will abolish Gyanendra’s position.

The Maoists are led by Pushpa Kamal Dahal whose nom de guerre Prachanda means "fierce" or "terrible". The 54 year old Prachanda remains a controversial figure having led a ruthless war from exile in India that claimed the lives of 13,000 people in ten years. But others see him as a hero who represented millions of downtrodden people in one of the poorest countries in the world. The Maoist insurgency began in 1996 with a 40-point set of demands on then Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba. Prachanda wanted to end the “domination of foreign capital”, the “feudal system” of land ownership and “discriminatory treaties” that favoured India. Prachanda’s power base was Western Nepal and he made that part of the country unmanageable for the Kathmandu government who eventually were forced into a deal.

Once the deal was signed with his former enemies, Prachanda went into campaign overdrive. He used his charismatic powers to address campaign rallies everywhere, and his face appeared on posters across the land. Prachanda's metamorphosis from terrorist to political bigwig has worried some of his own supporters who complain that leaders are getting top medical care, live in posh houses and ride expensive cars captured in wartime. Having survived a ten-year insurrection, the hard part is just beginning for Prachanda. Leading his country and treading a path that satisfies all of his people, will be the true test of the man’s abilities.

How Soon is Mao

The UN Security Council (UNSC) has given its imprimatur to an assistance mission to Nepal after a peace agreement between the Government and the Maoist Rebels. In a statement read out by the Security Council President for December, Qatar's Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser, the Council welcomed the signing of a comprehensive peace agreement by the Nepalese government and the Communist Party, and the commitment both parties have stated to transforming the existing ceasefire into a permanent peace. All 15 fifteen member of the UNSC have supported the statement.

The ten year conflict killed 15,000 people and displaced over 100,000 others. The two sides signed a UN sponsored agreement on Tuesday outlining out how the insurgents will set aside their weapons. The technical assessment mission will contain an advance team of 35 UN monitors and 25 electoral personnel. On Wednesday, the Secretary-General's Personal Representative in Nepal Ian Martin briefed the UNSC and said that the agreement represents "the most promising opportunity for the establishment of lasting peace and far-reaching reform".

Nepal's government and rebels are still working to finalise an interim constitution as part of the peace process. The constitution will have to be in place before 73 rebels join the proposed 330-seat interim Parliament. Under the pact, tens of thousands of rebel fighters will be confined to seven main camps under UN supervision ahead of elections next year.

The UK drafted the UNSC’s statement. Britain’s ambassador to the UN Emyr Jones Parry said “"What we've mapped out today is a way in which the UN ... should rally behind the positive developments in Nepal”. US Ambassador to the UN John Bolton said the unanimous Council approval shows a desire to do whatever necessary to support Nepal's fragile peace. Reports from Kathmandu on Friday indicated Government and Maoist rebel representatives have failed to meet a deadline to form an interim government. The deal had been delayed until next week. Last April, the Maoists helped lead three weeks of mass protests that forced King Gyanendra to give up absolute power.

Nepal was led for over a hundred years by the Rana Autocracy. Jung Bahadur, a strongly pro-British leader, seized control of the country in 1846. He declared himself prime minister and began the Rana line of rulers. The Rana's monopolised power by making the king a titular figure and paid obeisance to the British to avoid invasion. They ruled until a newly independent India flexed its muscles and installed a Nepal Congress Party government in 1951. In 1994, the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) won the majority of seats. Man Mohan Adhikary was sworn in as prime minister. His government survived two years until it was dissolved by the parliament. Adhikary resigned his position under allegations of corruption. Also that year a radical leftist party called the Nepal Communist Party (Maoist) launched a “people’s war” aimed at overthrowing the government, abolishing the monarchy, and establishing a republic. They were first confined to remote mountain regions but by the late 1990s had spread to more than half the country.

In June 2001 the Maoist insurgency intensified after an astonishing royal massacre. King Birendra, Queen Aiswarya and seven other members of the royal family were fatally shot in the royal palace in Kathmandu, in a drunken rampage by Birendra’s first-born son. Crown Prince Dipendra dispatched his family armed with a machine gun before turning the gun on himself. Dipendra initially survived his wounds but lapsed in a coma. His subsequent death officially made his uncle Gyanendra Bir Bikram Shah the new regent of Nepal. An official investigation of the massacre confirmed earlier reports that Dipendra had killed his family members in a drunken rage.

The rebels capitalised on the shootings by claiming it was part of a bigger government conspiracy. They immediately took the uprising to Kathmandu and bombed the home of the Chief Justice who led the investigation into the palace massacre. It was the first time they bombed the capital and they struck at the regime's legislative heart. The new king Gyanendra immediately declared emergency rule, allowing the first large-scale deployment of the 80,000 strong royal army to fight the insurgency. Despite this, the rebels controlled much of western Nepal by 2002. In 2005 Gyanendra dismissed the government and assumed full executive powers in the name of combating the Maoists. The rebels held a three-day nationwide general strike to protest the king's decision.

Gyanendra’s unilateral declaration of power lost him all support among the political parties who threw their support behind the Maoists. By 2006, the population was in open uprising. Finally under foreign pressure, Gyanendra made a declaration to reinstate the parliament. Since it has reassembled Parliament moved quickly to strip the king of his power over the military, abolish his title as the descendent of a Hindu God, and required royalty to pay taxes.

Nepal's new cabinet declared a ceasefire in May. The cabinet also announced that the Maoist rebels were no longer to be considered a terrorist group. The government finally signed a peace deal with the Maoists in November. The 12 point letter of understanding which agreed that “autocratic monarchy is the main hurdle” in realising “democracy, peace, prosperity, social advancement" and "a free and sovereign Nepal”.