Nepalese Maoists sign peace accord with government
Future of monarchy will be put to vote
By Somini Sengupta and Tilak P. Pokharel / The New York Times
Published: November 22, 2006
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/11/22/news/nepal.php

KATMANDU: Euphoria and relief swept through Nepal on Wednesday as people celebrated an end to a crippling war that had raged for more than 10 years and killed thousands.
The government declared Wednesday a public holiday to celebrate the accord, signed Tuesday evening in the Nepalese capital. The deal promises to bring Maoist rebels, who control vast swaths of the destitute countryside, into the political mainstream. The rebels have pledged to lock up their guns, at least for now, and let voters decide the future of the country.
But with the agreement, Nepalese said, came a new burden: how to lay aside arms and old enmities.
"The peace accord will be a success only if people feel peace in the air," The Kathmandu Post declared Wednesday in a front-page editorial. "There should therefore be no more extortion, abductions, intimidation, torture, disappearings or any other sort of rights abuse."
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Whether the Maoists, who once functioned as a political party but abandoned the electoral path for armed struggle, will now play by the rules of parliamentary democracy is the most important question.
"It is the beginning of a new beginning," the Maoist leader, known by his nom de guerre, Prachanda, said Tuesday night after signing the agreement. Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala said: "This has given a message to the international community and terrorists all over the world that no conflict can be resolved by guns. It can be done by dialogue."
The peace agreement paves the way for the fulfillment of one of the Maoists' chief demands: elections to decide whether Nepal will remain a monarchy. The interim government, which the rebels have agreed to join, will organize elections next year for an assembly that will determine whether Nepal will remain a kingdom and if so, what kind.
The Maoists have repeatedly promised to run in the elections and abide by the results. On Saturday, during a visit here to the Indian capital, Prachanda reiterated that pledge, saying that even if Nepal voted to keep the monarchy, his cadres would continue to press for its abolition - but would do so peacefully. In recent months, his forces have been accused of rights abuses, including widespread extortion, even as the party's senior leaders have been huddled in negotiations with the government.
The agreement came a year after the rebels teamed up with Nepal's main political parties to topple King Gyanendra, who dismissed the country's elected politicians and took control of the state early last year. Street protests, blessed by the Maoists, in April of this year prompted Gyanendra to turn over control to the elected Parliament, which had been suspended four years earlier. This week a government-appointed panel found the king responsible for rights abuses against the pro-democracy protesters and called for him to be punished.
After the king yielded to Parliament, it was swift to take vital powers away from him, including control of the army, and engaged in peace talks with the rebels, who declared a unilateral cease- fire. Under the peace accord, the Maoists will sequester their armed fighters in cantonment sites, and the Nepalese Army will return to its barracks.
The rebels, still apparently distrustful of politicians and the palace, have not laid down their arms entirely. They have agreed to lock up their weapons but are holding on to the keys. The UN is to monitor the safekeeping of weapons through a system of closed- circuit cameras. Ian Martin, the UN envoy to Nepal, said in a statement Tuesday that agreement had been reached on the locations of the cantonment sites.
Human rights groups have accused the rebels of continuing to recruit members in the countryside, including children, but the Maoists have denied the charge.
The Maoists say they want their troops to be integrated into a new national army. How many and in what fashion remain unclear. "We are not dogmatic Communists, and we are prepared to change and debate our beliefs with anybody," Prachanda was quoted by Reuters as saying.
Maoist insurgencies have blossomed in South Asia long after the demise of Mao and his ideology in China. In India, a loose confederation of Maoist rebels are active in a swath of territory from the jungles of the far south all the way north to the border with Nepal. The Indian prime minister, Manmohan Singh, recently described them as the country's most pressing internal security threat.
The peace accord in Nepal includes a provision to establish a truth and reconciliation commission.
Within minutes of its signing, crowds of well-wishers lined the streets and lighted candles as they waited for Koirala's motorcade to pass.
"Both sides give up state of war; it's celebration time," Kanak Mani Dixit, the editor of Himal magazine, said by telephone amid hoots and hollers on the street. "The only challenge that now remains is that the Maoists, in particular their militia, be held to account by the peace deal."
Tilak P. Pokharel reported from Katmandu, and Somini Sengupta from New Delhi.

Commission finds King Gyanendra guilty of suppression: report
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
http://www.indiaenews.com/nepal/20061115/28752.htm
A high-level commission set up in early May to investigate excesses by King Gyanendra's government in trying to put down a 19-day pro-democracy movement found King Gyanendra 'guilty of suppression and killing of people', newspaper reports said Wednesday.
Headed by former judge of the Nepalese Supreme Court Krishna Jung Rayamajhi, the panel was set up soon after a pro-democracy movement forced King Gyanendra to hand over power in late April to a seven-party coalition.
King Gyanendra did not reply to a set of questions sent to him by the panel in the course of its investigations of those responsible for allegedly using 'excessive force' to put down the movement spearheaded by the Seven-Party Alliance and the Maoists.
The daily Himalayan Times cited sources in the Rayamajhi panel as saying that the commission found that King Gyanendra was responsible for suppression and the deaths of people during the pro-democracy movement.
The commission decided to urge the government and parliament to take necessary steps against the king, as no law permits action against him.
The commission, which spent 184 days to complete its investigation, is scheduled to submit its report Friday to Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala.
'We have decided to recommend the parliament to take necessary steps against the king, as we found him guilty,' a highly placed commission source reportedly told the newspaper.
He added that they have said that though the king did not respond to the commission's questionnaire, it does not mean he did no wrong.
This is the first time in Nepal's history that a commission, seen by some as a panel set up by the victors to punish the vanquished, has found a king guilty.
'Since he was the chairman of the council of ministers, we found him responsible for all the decisions taken by the cabinet,' the source added.
The commission specifically recommended that the government take strong action against members of the king's cabinet and the chiefs of the security agencies who ordered use of 'excessive force' to suppress the movement.
The panel had questioned 294 people over human-rights violations and alleged misuse of the national treasury.
It has accused some security personnel of ordering the shooting of demonstrators and decided to recommend prosecution of them on charges of murder.
'Around 150 people were found guilty of killing and suppressing the people,' Himalayan Times quoted the panel source as saying.
The commission held the then vice-chairmen of the council of ministers, Tulsi Giri and Kirtinidhi Bista, Home Minister Kamal Thapa and other ministers guilty of violating human rights.
The commission is set to ask the government and parliament to promulgate a law so that the alleged perpetrators can be prosecuted on charges of abusing human rights, as Nepal has no specific law to prosecute anyone on charge of human rights abuse.
The commission named certain officials and recommended dismissals, demotions and departmental actions against them.
Many ministers and regional administrators were also found guilty of misusing the state treasury.
The commission decided to recommend that they be prosecuted under the 2002 Anti-Corruption Act, the newspaper reported.
The panel report, which appeared to have been leaked to the local press, was carried Wednesday in all major Nepalese newspapers.
About two dozen people were killed and thousands reportedly injured in the April pro-democracy movement launched by the Seven-Party Alliance, with the active support and participation of the Maoists.