Johannes Schneider wrote:
> From the Nepali Times
>
> How many more bodies?
> The Maoist revolution has suddenly moved to fast-forward.
> by Sudhir Sharma
> When the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) held its second convention in
> Dang in February, the party announced a new Prachanda Path doctrine calling
> for a "mass uprising" in urban areas to take the revolution forward. At the
> vanguard would be Maoist front organisations of students, women and workers.
> The royal massacre of 1 June prompted the party to accelerate its
> preparations for such a mass uprising which would prepare the ground for an
> interim peoples' government at the centre. <snip>
These are new guys, "Nepali Times" and "Sudhir Sharma" who writes pretty slick vernacular American. Any clue who they are? There's a whiff of something nasty here, but then again on this stuff I do get paranoid...
For a take on these events from the old reliable M.R.Josse at the old reliable People's Review, check out: http://www.yomari.com/p-review/2001/07/05072001/comments.html
key excerpt: "Also worthy of public notice is that the Maoists have announced a country-wide protest programme, with "activities" promised everyday, against the government's controversial Public Security Regulations, 2001 - climaxing in a Nepal bandh on 12 July."
The activities have included several successful raids on police stations, and the setting off of bombs by the home of Girija (the pro-Indian Prime Minister) in the center of Kathmandu. The struggle against the Public Security Regulations (which purport to end the right to protest publicly) unites pretty much everyone who isn't a cop or a foreign agent. And the Maoists say they will attack only the circle around Girija, who they blame for this coup. In effect they're protesting on behalf of everyone who can't. Even left parliamentarians like Lila Pokharel and Rohit were busted when they tried to address a meeting against the regs.
So far the Army remains neutral despite (?) Gyanendra - check out this also from People's Weekly:
"According to a recent Maoist statement, they are not hostile towards any particular political party except the Girija group in the Nepali Congress. As per Prachanda, they will not take any physical action against anybody except members of the Girija Congress.
Presently, the government has deployed army in different Maoist influenced villages. Troops have also been deployed in Gurkha district, hometown of Dr. Baburam Bhattarai, top-ranking leader of the Maoist party. When this scribe met an army-man deployed there and asked him how was the Maoist movement there? He said that the Maoists shake hands with army personnel when suddenly there is any contact between them. "We have no enmity with army," they say, he informed. Maoists' movement begins when night falls in villages, he said and added that they can be seen walking in mountains carrying torchlight."
full text http://www.yomari.com/p-review/2001/07/05072001/ontherecord.html
john mage