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#211 27 August - 2 September 2004 20 pages Rs 25 eyebrows. Girijaji rejected Media bark worse prime ministership under Article 127, but it looks like his than Maoist bite? followers are trying to convince him to take it, confided Nepal Government officials and the Workers and Peasants Party travel trade have reacted angrily President, Narayan Man to what they say was a “massive Bijukchhe. Some of Koiralas exaggeration” of the situation in colleagues are already rubbing Nepal during the Maoist Valley their hands in glee. blockade last week. They said it It is now or never distorted the reality and spread for the Deuba false and harmful news about Nepal across the world. “The government, NCs reporting made it sound like Narhari Acharya there was a castastrophe here, as told us. It will if the state was collapsing. This have to make was false and that is what hurt progress on peace. us,” government spokesman If it doesnt, it will Mohammad Mohsin said during have failed in its a press briefing on Thursday. mandate. One travel entrepreneur summed For optimists, this means it up: “It was a case of the that the Deuba government will media’s bark being worse than at least be forced to send feelers the Maoists’ bite.” to the Maoists. And there were SUBHAS RAI some silver linings this week: the blockade was lifted, the Weekly Internet Poll # 151 Maoist student wing formed a Q.Does the Miss Nepal contest degrade negotiating committee and the women? rebels have privately told the industrialists whose businesses they closed to persuade the government to agree to talks in exchange for lifting the closure threat. Total votes:1,109 Deubas spokesman Minendra Weekly Internet Poll # 152. To vote go to: www.nepalitimes.com Q. Should the government announce a Rijal says the government is still unilateral ceasefire ? trying to ascertain whether the Maoists are serious about talks. We have been cross checking with various sources After the siege because we dont want the rebels to use the ceasefire for In Kathmandu, politicians still dont get it reconsolidating and regrouping like they did last time, he says. The army is said to be concerned NAVIN SINGH KHADKA that the Maoists used Editorial p2 t looks like theyre taking one political insider. But do anything when they keep the blockade Shooting the turns to paralyse whichever party joins a royal trying to destabilise it? asks as a diversion messenger IKathmandu. Even before the appointed government, it one exasperated UML member and will also use a future Maoists lifted their blockade seems there will always be a of the government. ceasefire to amass forces in the on Tuesday, the four-party rival trying to prevent it from Meanwhile, Nepali Valley. opposition announced a new restoring peace and earning Congress President Girija Information Minister phase of anti-king street the peace dividend. Prasad Koirala seems to have Mohmmad Mohsin says the agitations beginning Friday. So the party in power is too suddenly developed an government is moving There is despair among busy trying to prevent itself interest in the prime systematically to form a Peace those who say a political from being toppled to get down ministership. Although he has Secretariat that will forge an all- consensus is a prerequisite to to the main agenda: ceasefire said he will not accept the party consensus for talks. We future negotiations with the and negotiations. Indeed, the office under Article 127, it is are trying to figure out exactly Maoists. vultures are already circling hard to see how else he could what the Maoists have up their If only the constitutional Prime Minister Sher Bahadur become prime minister. sleeves, he told us. As long as forces were on one side, it Deubas coalition, saying he Even some of his he is at it, he may also want to would have been much easier hasnt made progress on talks. counterparts in the four-party find out what Koiralas plans to deal with the Maoists, says How can the government alliance have begun to raise are. l 2 EDITORIAL 27 AUGUST - 2 SEPTEMBER 2004 #211 Published by Himalmedia Pvt Ltd, Chief Editor: Kunda Dixit Desk Editor: Jemima Sherpa Design: Kiran Maharjan Web: Bhushan Shilpakar Advertising: Sunaina Shah [email protected] Subscription: Anil Karki, [email protected] Sanchaya Kosh Building, Block A-4th Floor, Lalitpur GPO Box 7251, Kathmandu, Nepal Tel: 01-5543333-6, Fax: 01-5521013 Ring leaders [email protected], www.nepalitimes.com Printed at Jagadamba Press, Hatiban: 01-5547018 SHOOTING THE MESSENGER The Valley blockade was just a test for bigger things to come ost of us in the media never had any illusions about the Maoists’ t is difficult to think of a time goal of fusing a rural peoples impact. Indias leaked warning Mdemocratic credentials. But we were willing to give their political agenda the Maoists have been the war with an urban uprising. To that it would air drop food in the benefit of doubt because most of their original 40-points for a I structural overhaul of Nepali society had merit. target of as much censure as put pressure on the government case of a prolonged siege was a We never agreed with their methods, however, and we have always said so. they have been in the past two to agree to its demand for message to the Maoists to lay off. No end ever justifies such wanton slaughter, especially when the democratic weeks. Negative public opinion constituent assembly, the In Kathmandu itself, they space (however flawed) was available. and Maoists had launched a new underestimated the public The Nepali media has fulfilled its professional obligations by airing the open phase of their strategic defiance. However, this has Maoists’ political demands and making them a matter of public debate. And it has not shirked from exposing their gross abuses of human rights. This has been defiance helped them calibrate violence largely possible because of the brave and committed journalists in the field who of the GUEST COLUMN in a repeat siege: all it took this have risked their lives to get the truth out. Valley Puskar Gautam time was the threat of violence to Unlike the journalists in the capital who are relatively protected, district blockade keep most buses and trucks off reporters are vulnerable to threats, intimidation and pressures from both the forced offensive to militarily encircle the highway they didnt even Maoists and state security. They have to tread a fine line while reporting human rights violations, and have often done that without sacrificing the truth. them to Kathmandu within a Ring Area have to blow up anything. In the past year, the threats to reporters have increased in direct proportion to withdraw it and blockade the capital to The Maoists also want to the intensification of the conflict. There has been a lot of unnecessary after a week. create economic chaos. wage a dynamic war by harassment of journalists by security forces in the field, and the state has killed They have The Maoists have a Central institutionalising front more journalists in the past four years than the rebels. Krishna Sen worked for antagonised the Command under the organisations and their regional a Maoist mouthpiece and Dekendra Thapa worked for state radio, neither deserved to die. very industries chairmanship of Prachanda, yet political units. Combined with Even though the Maoist leadership pays lip service to press freedom from they targeted for they chose to announce the urban guerrilla warfare, this time to time, its field-level cadre do not waste time in such niceties. They tolerate extortion by forcing Valley blockade through their could be a way for the rebels to reporters only as long as their dispatches are favourable. This is a deliberate two- them to close down. regional organisation. This lends maximise their strength and track policy. The murder of credence to the theory that the minimise the armys superiority By killing Dekendra Thapa earlier this month the Maoists showed that they don’t even bother with politically-correct rhetoric anymore. Their Talibanesque journalist Dekendra blockade was a rehearsal for a in numbers, armour and airborne threat to chop off the hands of other journalists who refuse to toe the party line Thapa has provoked bigger future offensive, and they capacity. is further proof of a dangerously fanatical streak. unprecedented fury. were trying to test the panic- The Maoists have faced major The brutal murders of unarmed village elders, elected grassroot leaders, Even for an organisation level of the Valley residents, the losses in the past four months social workers, teachers, businessmen, anyone who don’t agree with the that is so sure of its reaction of the international with the capture of 11 senior rebels or refuse to pay ‘donations’ are acts of cowardice. When a movement has to resort to such unconscionable cruelty it means it has revolutionary destination that community and especially India, leaders in Patna, the elimination lost the power of argument. Using such brutality to impose one’s will is it is past caring about public the role of the global media, and of their Special Task Force from not only immoral, it is also an incorrect interpretation of revolutionary opinion, there seems to be see what tactics should be the Valley, the split of the Tarai dialectics. uncertainty about what to do employed in case of a future Mukti Morcha and the Kirat The regional Maoist leadership in the midwest is reported to have next. A high-level meeting military attack in the Valley. Workers Party, and the killing by said that killing Thapa was a ‘mistake’ and it won’t do it again.