Revolutionary Worker #1212, September 14, 2003, posted at rwor.org
1 September 2003. A World to Win News Service. Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) Chairman Prachanda issued a statement 27 August. Following are excerpts.
As our party had seriously and enthusiastically announced a ceasefire to find a forward-looking political solution through negotiations, naturally we expected the same from the old state's side. From the very beginning the People's Liberation Army under our leadership thoroughly complied with the letter and spirit of the ceasefire and code of conduct, but the Royal Army of the old state continued to violate it. After the declaration of the ceasefire, the Royal Army not only mounted unnecessary checking and arrests, but it also continued killing our cadres in cold blood in Darchula, Makawanpur, Bhojpur and in other parts of the country, including encircling and forcibly arresting a People's Liberation Army contingent stationed peacefully in Kanchanpur.
Despite that, with a sense of grave responsibility towards the country and the people, the party patiently continued its efforts not to let the atmosphere for formal dialogue become muddled. Finally the first round of negotiations commenced, and our party presented a minimum draft political agenda at the first meeting. In order to continue the negotiation process and strengthen the application of the ceasefire and code of conduct, which were weakened due to unwarranted activities of the Royal Army, an agreement was reached to limit the Royal Army's movements to within a perimeter of five kilometers of its barracks. The Royal Army not only outright rejected this agreement reached in the second round of negotiations, but objectively Army pressure resulted in the sacking of the government.
After a series of letters exchanged with the new negotiations team of the old state following a long gap, and in view of the release of our imprisoned Central Committee members and the agreement by the old state to theoretically discuss the political issues, including keeping the Royal Army disciplined, with new hope our party again guided its negotiation team to participate in the third round of negotiations.
In the third round of negotiations, the "concept paper" that the old state presented not only failed to address the basic problems facing the country, it proved their conspiracy to strengthen the feudal retrogression of October 4 with a reformist sugar coating. [On October 4 the king dismissed the government and took executive power into his own hands.] The "concept paper" failed even to address the demands for a constitutional monarchy and multiparty democracy put forward by the main parliamentary parties. It objectively brought an end to the relevance of dialogue, urging us to capitulate politically by handing over our weapons. Our negotiating team thoroughly and seriously rejected that demand and clearly stated that a fourth round of negotiations would be possible only if the old state agreed to advance to a constituent assembly. Otherwise the relevance of the negotiations would be finished.
At the very moment that debate was going on at the third stage negotiation table, the Royal Army killed 17 unarmed cadres of our party involved in an area committee meeting and two ordinary people in cold blood one by one after taking them into custody, with their hands tied behind their back, in Doramba village in the district of Ramechhap. Hence, objectively, both events, the "concept paper" the old state presented at the third round of negotiations in political terms, and the massacre of the 19 people at Doramba by the Royal Army in the military sphere, have declared the calling off of the negotiations process.
It is obvious to all that our party is a revolutionary Communist Party fighting for a people's republic. In order to stop the rising danger to Nepal's sovereignty by foreign activities and intervention mounted through the old state, and to fulfil the wishes of the people, we suspended the demand for a people's republic as an immediate issue to be settled at the negotiating table, and instead came to the universal method of solving problems through a constituent assembly. The slogan of a constituent assembly is not a communist revolutionary slogan.
We do not see any reason for hesitation to call a constituent assembly for those who believe that the people are the sovereign power... The paradox is, they would rather see the country get ruined than make the people sovereign through the election of a constituent assembly. The old state is ready to bow down to foreign powers and ready to drench themselves in the people's blood, but it is not ready to accept the people as sovereign.
In this context, it becomes clear that the Nepalese people have no alternative but to resist the country-selling, anti-people and autocratic activities of the old state, and to struggle for national independence and their own sovereign rights. Therefore, because the old state ended the possibility of a forward-going solution through the present ceasefire and dialogue, because it gave lip service to peace and practiced backstabbing, our party, for the immediate period, wants to clarify that the ceasefire, code of conduct and negotiations process have become irrelevant.... We will not close the door to negotiations from our side. We are willing once again to take part in negotiations on the condition that the people's sovereign rights and basic interests are ensured. Our party makes a humble appeal to all pro-people forces and communities within and outside of the country to help in creating such a situation and atmosphere.
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