A. war in Nepal for identity
                                                          Shakti Ghimire

The government and representatives of the CPN (Maoist) called a cease-fire on 29 January 2003. Two rounds of peace talks, with the aim of finding a solution to the seven year conflict or "people's war" launched by the CPN (Maoist) in February 1996, took place in April and May 2003. The Maoists listed a round table conference, an interim government and elections to a constituent assembly to draft a new Constitution among their central demands.

After killing nearly 7,400 people in the seven years of deadly conflict in Nepal, the cease-fire announced and the third round table discussion also was completed without meaningful outcome. Ever since the peace talks at Nepalgunj and Hapure had suspended yielding nothing, but a deadlock, the turning and twisting of Rubik’s cube of politics of constituent assembly vs constitution reform by the players of Nepali politics were all time high. All of a sudden this is grounded by the announcement made by the Maoist supreme declaring that the cease-fire, the code of conduct and the peace talks have lost their relevance and do not hold now. Recently against of Maoist, Government Re-donate ‘terrorist’ tag so easily.

The government and the Maoists have declared that they are fighting for the nation and well being of the people. On one side the government is fighting to quell the Maoists for establishing peace & develop and on the other side Maoists are proud of themselves fighting for freedom and radical change in the social, economic and political situation of the nation. We don’t know how they are achieving their goal. But the thing that is still questionable, why those people are fighting? What are the reasons behind it? What thing they achieved and what battle they are winning? Our concern should be towards it. What for the war? Why killings? Why abduction? Why incommunicado? Why illegal detention? Why contempt of court orders? Why an environment of self-terrorizing people? What for the internal displacement? So on and so forth. Fact is that, they are only fighting for their identity that they need for their existence and for argument among others. Both of the parties are loosing the battle, but they are acting of winning it.

B. Mass arrests of peaceful demonstrators unacceptable   

Five political parties - Nepali Congress, CPN-UML, Nepal Workers' and Peasants Party (NWPP), Peoples' Front Nepal (PFN), and the Nepal Sadbhawana Party (NSP) launched a campaign in May 2003 calling for the reinstatement of parliament and the restoration of democracy. They have carried out several peaceful demonstrations over the last few months in support of their campaign.
In October 2002 King Gyanendra sacked Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba after a dispute over the timing of general elections, dismissed the government, and took executive power. On 11 October the King appointed Lokendra Bahadur Chand, a former Panchayat prime minister and a member of the Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) (National Democratic Party), as Prime Minister to head an interim government. Prime Minister Chand resigned in May following protests by political parties, and Surya Bahadur Thapa, also from the RPP, was appointed.
Since the end of the cease-fire at least 50 people, including some civilians, are reported to have died during fighting between the government and the CPN (Maoist). The CPN (Maoist) have allegedly killed four civilians in central and eastern Nepal, over the past few days, in contravention of international humanitarian law. HRERLIC-Nepal condemns human rights abuses by both sides to the conflict. It has called upon both sides to agree to setting up an independent human rights monitoring mechanism.
Following the breakdown of the peace talks between the government and the Communist Party of Nepal (CPN) (Maoist) on 27 August, the government imposed a ban on public gatherings of over five people for three weeks in Kathmandu, saying the move was aimed at maintaining law and order.