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| ‘Maoists are not allowing other parties to form a new government’ |
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Protesters clash with police in Kathmandu
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
KATHMANDU: Police in Nepal used batons on hundreds of Maoist protesters rallying on Monday in the capital Kathmandu in support of their party leader Prachanda, who resigned as prime minister last week.
Riot police moved in after the group of about 400 protesters tried to march towards the office of the president, an officer at the scene, Ganga Budathoki, told AFP. Police used batons to force back protesters after they tried to break through a security cordon. Maoist leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal — known as Prachanda — stepped down as prime minister after his attempt to sack the army chief was blocked by the president. The Maoists accuse General Rookmangud Katawal of refusing to integrate 19,000 of their fighters into the regular army, as stipulated by a 2006 peace deal that ended a decade of civil war. Maoist supporters chanting “Down with the president” and “Scrap the unconstitutional coup” have been since protesting daily on the streets of the Himalayan nation’s capital.
President Ram Baran Yadav has asked the country’s political parties to form a majority government after they failed to meet a weekend deadline to build a new government based on national consensus. It was not immediately clear how a majority could be formed as the Maoists, who won 40 per cent of the seats in the elections, have refused to join negotiations.
The political stalemate has threatened Nepal’s peace process, which halted fighting between the Maoists and the government that had cost 13,000 lives. On Monday, leaders of the Nepali Congress and the Communist UML — the second and third-largest parties in parliament — held talks with fringe parties to attract the allies needed to form a ruling coalition.
But the Maoists have vowed to disrupt parliamentary sessions unless the president backs down and agrees to the sacking of the army chief. “We are trying to negotiate with the Maoists to open ways for the formation of a new government,” Minendra Rijal, senior leader of Nepali Congress, told AFP.
“The Maoists must let parliament resume to end the current political deadlock. They resigned from the government, yet they are not allowing other parties to form a new government.” Prachanda insisted that the former Maoist rebel fighters, who are currently confined to United Nations-supervised camps, were taken into the army to cement the peace process. But the army refused, saying the former guerrillas could never become non-partisan soldiers.
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ISSN 1563-9479 
