Exiles Vow To Support Maoist Rebels

by Ankit Kapur

(IPS) NEW DELHI -- Supporters of the rebel Nepali Communist Party (Maoist) living in exile in India say they are determined to back a crippling economic blockade imposed by their comrades in Nepal to protest the Feb 1 takeover by King Gyanendra and the subsequent suspension of civil liberties in the Himalayan country.

'We think that the government in Nepal has failed to deliver, failed to rid people like us of poverty; we have been forced to come to India for our livelihood,' said Tika Shirish, 28, originally from Bardia in west Nepal.

Shirish was among thousands of Nepali supporters who descended on Janta Mantar, an open space in the heart of the Indian capital on Sunday to stage a protest march marking the ninth anniversary of the Maoist struggle to establish a king-less communist republic in Nepal.

'Our last hope lies in this party (CPN-M) -- we hope that a republic can take care of our needs and all the problems facing us,' she said wiping the sweat off her seven-year-old son Mohan's face.

What began as ragtag demonstrations in the remote hill districts of mid-western Nepal in Feb. 1996 against the wide gap between the rich and poor in Nepal and the marginalization of the country's lower caste mountain people, gradually transformed into a 'People's War' which has now reached its tenth bloody year.

Today, the rebels maintain significant presence in virtually every district in the country, and the death toll since they started their insurgency in 1996 is now over 10,500.

From an undisclosed location, CPN-M Chairman Prachanda, whose real name is Puspa Kamal Dahal, addressed his party faithful in a radio message -- his first since the insurgency started in 1996. Prachanda maintained that the goal of the Maoists now is to abolish monarchy.

'It is our last battle against feudal autocracy. No matter how difficult and challenging this battle may be, the victory of the people is certain. Let's unite,' he said over radio.

On Feb. 1 Nepal's King Gyanendra went on state-run television and said democracy in his country was in peril and the 'Nepali people's right to live peacefully' was being threatened by the long-running Maoist insurgency.

He then accused the government of Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba of failing to conduct parliamentary elections and being unable to restore peace in the country.

Soon after the king's address, a state of emergency was declared and Indian news agencies reported that all telephone lines and mobile phone networks were shut down -- effectively cutting the country off from the rest of the world.

According to reports from the Nepali capital Kathmandu some 1,000 leaders and activists from political parties, student groups and trade unions had been rounded up nationwide. Royal Nepal Army spokesman Brigadier General Dipak Gurung said that a security committee under the Home Ministry would determine how long activists remain locked up. 'They can be detained for three months,' the general said.

The Maoist's tenth anniversary was marked in India by demonstrations not only in the Indian capital but also in the cities of Chandigarh, Mumbai and Chennai where thousands of Nepalese have fled seeking alternate livelihoods.

In Nepal itself the anniversary was observed in the Maoist strongholds in western, central and eastern parts of the country according to Laxman Pant, president of Nepali Janadhikar Surakshya Samiti, a pro-Maoist organization of Nepalis in India.

In Kathmandu, government spokesperson and Information and Communication Minister Tanka Dhakal said the government would not make any more appeals to the Maoists to come forward for talks.

'The call made in the king's proclamation is enough for them if they are serious about resolving the problems amicably,' he said.

'There is no confusion. If they want to shun violence, we still believe that they will come forward.'

The state-controlled Nepali media, meanwhile, reported that the blockade had little or no impact in the country, as security forces prepared to escort public and private freight carriers along major national highways linking various Nepali towns with India.

'People have started defying such calls,' Dhakal claimed. 'The effect of the blockade is minimal.'

But the mood in New Delhi on Sunday was different.

Sporting red ribbons with a star around their head, thousands of Maoist supporters converged on the Janta Mantar, an ancient observatory with grassy lawns, before marching towards the Indian Parliament demanding democracy in their homeland.

The demonstrators included tiny toddlers tagging along with their parents, mothers and fathers carrying their infants, teenagers, young and old men and women of all ages.

Said Lal Bahadur Rana, a daily wage earner in adjoining Haryana state but originally from Kailali in West Nepal: 'We are waiting for the day when Nepali people don't have to go abroad to earn their daily bread.'

Standing before a huge red banner -- that read 'Long Live Republic Nepal, Down With Monarchy' -- Pant said there is huge support for the Maoists among Nepali communities in India.

'This is just the tip of iceberg, we have supporters everywhere across the length and breadth of India from Kolkata to Chennai and Mumbai to Chandigarh,' he told IPS.

Pradip Giri, the Nepali Congress (Democratic) leader now in exile in India lamented on the plight of poor Nepalis across Nepal and India -- 'of those forced to work as slaves for feudal lords and those (women) forced into prostitution in brothels in India.'

He urged the Maoists and the centrist Communist Party of Nepal -- United Marxist Leninist to agree on a common minimum program to restore democracy in the country.

Indian left leaders who came to extend solidarity for the cause of the Maoist uprising in Nepal said leaders and rulers should not underestimate people's power.

'Rulers and dictators should not decide what to do, it is the people who should decide what they want,' said Tapash Jung Shah, leader of Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation. 'If the people want to create a bigger mess, let them.'

But some felt that it was all very well to demonstrate in the safety of India.

'Looking at the energy of this mass, it feels like we have won. But nothing is going to happen so long as we can't do it in Kathmandu. We should be able to woo the masses and win popular support in Nepal, not here in India,' said Tika Shirish.