February 21, 2006
The Insurgency in Nepal
By Richard
Halloran
The visit
of the leader of the U.S. Pacific Command to Nepal took only 24
hours but it spoke volumes about the U.S. concern over the fate
of that increasingly troubled nation nestled up against the high
Himalayas north of India.
Admiral William
J. Fallon flew into Kathmandu, the capital, earlier this month
to meet with King Gyanendra and several cabinet ministers, political
party leaders, and senior military officers. He was the highest-ranking
U.S. military officer to visit Nepal in living memory and his
message was stark: "I can’t help you until you take
steps to establish participatory democracy."
Over the
past year, Nepal has experienced a three way struggle for power.
Maoist insurgents seek to take over the country. The king has
sought to consolidate authority in his own hands to fight the
insurgents. An alliance of seven parties demands that parliamentary
government be restored and has dallied with the Maoists in an
attempt to gain political leverage.
U.S. officials
say that unless a turnaround is engineered in six to eight months,
Nepal will collapse into Maoist hands. Besides bringing more instability
to South Asia, that would enhance ties between the Maoists in
Nepal and anti-government insurgents in northern India and possibly
provide a new haven for terrorists.
The Bush
Administration has been cultivating new relations with India after
decades in which India was among the world’s leading non-aligned
nations and often tilted toward the Soviet Union during the Cold
War. President George W. Bush is scheduled to visit New Delhi
next month and Nepal is certain to be on the agenda.
Soon after
Fallon journeyed to Kathmandu, the U.S. ambassador to Nepal, James
F. Moriarty, delivered an unusually blunt address. He scolded
the king and the political parties alike for failing to join hands
to fight the 10-year Maoist insurgency in which 13,000 people
have been killed. "There is no other practical, workable
solution to your constitutional crisis," he said.
About the
same time, a spokesman for Secretary of State Condolezza Rice
abandoned the State Department’s customary diplomatic stance
to criticize the king for failing to "initiate a dialogue
with the political parties. His continuing refusal to take these
steps is leading his country further down the path of violence
and disorder."
In response,
King Gyanendra issued a statement this week in an apparent effort
to reach out to the politicians opposing him. He called on "all
willing political parties to come forth to fully activate, at
the earliest, the stalled democratic process in the greater interest
of the nation." A year go, he dismissed parliament after
claiming that the government had been ineffective in fighting
the Maoists.
The King’s
appeal was immediately rejected by leaders of the seven-party
alliance. Sushil Koirala, vice president of the Nepali Congress,
was quoted in the English language press in Kathmandu as saying
the king’s call for dialogue was intended only to deceive
people. "We will compromise neither with the king nor with
the Maoists at the cost of democracy," he said.
For ten years,
the Maoists have rampaged through the Nepali countryside murdering
innocent civilians, conscripting young men, and otherwise terrorizing
the people. They threatened violence to candidates and voters
in municipal elections earlier this month and were credited—or
blamed—for keeping the turnout down to 20 to 25 percent.
U.S. officials
with access to intelligence say no evidence has yet turned up
that the Maoists are supported by China despite having taken their
name from Mao Zedong, the revolutionary leader of the Chinese
Communist Party. The Nepali insurgents, however, are reported
to get some supplies and ammunition from insurgents next door
in northern India.
Admiral Fallon
suggested in an interview that, despite the ordeals of Nepal,
a few bright spots shone through. He found the king, with whom
he met for 90 minutes, to be well informed and articulate in arguing
that security took top priority. The admiral said Nepal’s
army, although guilty of sometimes violating human rights, had
improved and was helping to hold the country together.
Ambassador
Moriarty, however, berated the quarreling king and politicians
equally, asserting that "so long as there is no coherent
strategy in place to roll back the massive gains the Maoists have
made over the past decade, the Maoists will rightfully conclude
that they are winning."
"There
certainly is no way for the parties or the king to successfully
ride the Maoist tiger for their own advantage," Moriarty
contended. "One could easily fall off…and tigers get
hungry."
Richard Halloran, formerly
with The New York Times as a foreign correspondent in Asia and
military correspondent in Washington, writes from Honolulu. He
can be reached at oranhall@hawaii.rr.com
