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‘Peaceful war’ if no Maoist majority: Prachanda
BY J PANDEY & KASHIRAM DANGI

LIWANG (ROLPA), March 16 - CPN-Maoist Chairman Prachanda on Saturday issued another veiled threat, saying the party’s “war” would continue if they failed to win a majority in the upcoming Constituent Assembly (CA) election.

Addressing a Maoist electoral mass meeting at Liwang of Rolpa, the district from where the Maoists started their insurgency, he claimed, however, that it would be a “peaceful war”.

“Such a war will stop only if we receive a majority in the CA polls,” he said, addressing the program which was attended by deputy commanders and other senior commanders of the Maoist ‘People’s Liberation Army’.

A Maoist hotbed during the armed insurgency, Rolpa on Saturday saw Prachanda’s first public address.

“You helped us a good deal during the war,” he said to locals attending the program. “Now, we request you to help us in the election also.”

Prachanda directed his party cadres not to carry out any activities against the election code of conduct. “As this district is the focal point of all because of its links with the beginnings of the people’s war, we should do away with violence and force and influence others through ideas and logic.”

He added: “If we resort to force during election in Rolpa, many countries like the US can use that in its propaganda against us and conspire on that basis to cancel the poll in other places,” he said.

Prachanda’s public directive comes after the pro-UML weekly Drishti published on Tuesday (Mar 11) what it claimed was a secret 11-point internal circular issued by the Maoist leadership to YCL cadres to adopt all means — including threats, intimidation and violence — to win the election. The Maoists have so far not issued any rebuttal of the news report.

Venting his ire against the Nepali Congress and UML, Prachanda also alleged that the latter were now trying to “please the US”.

“We tried electoral alliance with the UML in Kathmandu but it aborted due to their snooty attitude and their claim that they would win all the constituencies,” he said.

Minister for Information and Communications Krishna Bahadur Mahara, Maoist deputy commander Nanda Kishor Pun and other Maoist leaders also addressed the meeting.

Prachanda and his team had come here in a convoy of vehicles from Kathmandu.

Hundreds of locals from almost 20 VDCs in the district, after being informed that Prachanda was coming to address the mass meet, gathered at local Tundikhel to listen to him.
Maoists turned violent after denied UML support: Oli

CPN-UML Standing Committee member K P Sharma Oli on Saturday alleged that the Maoists had gone violent after his party — CPN (UML) — refused its support in getting their candidates elected.

Speaking at a program organized by Nepal Jaycees at Maitighar Mandala this afternoon, Oli said that indiscriminate attacks against UML cadres in different parts of the country were the result of the frustration felt after the Maoist offer of alliance was turned down. “Why so much of anger? We have only told them that we cannot carry them on our shoulders,” he said.

Oli added that the UML had been working in alliance with the Maoists both in parliament and in the government. “But this does not mean you continue to lend the other party your shoulder when they ram you,” he said.

He, however, said the two parties could still go together in the polls.

Oli said the government had failed miserably to curb the unruly activities of the Maoist-affiliated Young Communist League (YCL) cadres and take action against the guilty. “Is the government a scarecrow in a vegetable garden or is it actually alive?” he questioned.

He said that free and fair elections were impossible if the government failed to curb Maoist activities targeted against the candidates and activists of other political parties. Referring to recent Maoist attacks against UML poll candidate and other cadres in Ramechhap district, he said, “This is an attack not just against the CPN-UML but also against the activists of political parties that hold a different ideology.”

Also addressing the function, Nepal Students Union (NSU) president Pradip Poudel criticized the Maoists for creating obstructions and beating up the cadres of other parties. “We will not remain mute spectators if attempts are made to seize election booths,” he added.

Lekh Nath Neupane, president of the Maoist-affiliated All Nepal National Independent Students Union-Revolutionary (ANNISU-R) alleged that the other political parties were going into the CA elections with a traditional mindset. “There must be a new culture among the political parties to draft a new constitution,” he said. Neupane did not respond to charges against the violence of his party cadres.

Addressing the function, human rights activist Krishna Pahadi said that the armed groups operating in the Tarai would not be able by themselves to disrupt the CA poll.

Pahadi urged all the political parties to start a politics of cooperation and consensus and refrain from violence during elections.

Posted on: 2008-03-15 22:00:51 (Server Time)