Nepal: Maoists are Not Terrorists!
Posted by Mike E on April 19, 2008
Kasama received the following note together with this article:
“I think it raises an important question in terms of our responsibilities to create pressure to have the terrorist designation lifted.”
‘Nepal Maoists in talks with US to remove terrorist tag’
Kathmandu (PTI): Nepal Maoists, who are named as a terrorist organisation by the
US government, are in talks with American officials to get Washington to remove
the “terrorist tag” from the former rebels, now tipped to head the next
government in the Himalayan state.
“We are trying to establish close links with the U.S…talks are going on in
several fronts in this regard,” said C P Gajurel, a central committee member of
the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist.
“We are requesting them (United States) to remove the terrorist tag that they
have maintained on our party…our doors are always open to all US officials if
they want to talk to us,” Gajurel, who is also chief of the international bureau
of the party, was quoted as saying by the Telegraph Nepal online on Saturday.
Speaking at an interaction programme in the capital yesterday, Gajurel said the
US may feel embarrassed in maintaining the “terrorist tag” on the CPN-Maoist.
Former US president Jimmy Carter, who was in Nepal to monitor the constituent
assembly election on April 10, had said the results indicated a major transition
for the Himalayan state.
“If the Maoists do gain a substantial share of power I hope the United States
will recognise and do business with the government,” Carter had said.
He stressed that the Maoists have changed their behaviour by resorting to
peaceful democratic process. Carter hoped the American government will
reconsider its “terrorist tag” on the Maoists as they have joined the democratic
process.
The former rebels ended their decade-long civil war after inking a peace deal in
November 2006 with the government that took over from King Gyanendra. The
election was for a special assembly that is expected to abolish the 240-year-old
monarchy and rewrite Nepal’s constitution.
gangbox said
The CPN(M) does have a point, they certainly are NOT terrorists!
They are respectable parliamentary politicans now – ready to provide a good business climate and stable labor relations for foreign investors in Nepal.
Don’t believe me?
Just ask Dr. Baburam Bhattarai, one of the top leaders of the Nepali Maoists. He’s quite explicit on those points in this interview with the NEPAL TIMES (as reposted right here on Kasama):
http://mikeely.wordpress.com/2008/04/16/nepal-interview-with-baburam-bhattarai/
Since these guys have renounced revolution, the dictatorship of the proletariat and the goal of communism, and have publicly proclaimed themselves advocates of building capitalism in Nepal, they are certainly not terrorists (as US imperialism would define the term!)
the cold lamper said
How influential is Carter in ruling class circles, really? He’s been widely ridiculed as a “useful idiot” of [fill in the blank with Yankee imperialism's latest real or imagined enemy] for some time now. I’m not so sure his advocacy of dialogue with the CPN(M) is going to have that big of an effect on imperialist/Indian policy, except maybe inasmuch as it is symbolic of larger developments in the region that are forcing the U.S., Europe and India to partially retreat from their aggression against the revolution anyway.