NEXT KARGIL? PRAIRIE FIRE IN NEPAL
by B.Raman
Coinciding with the general strike called by them on
July 12, the Maoists of Nepal killed two policemen and abducted 70 others
in an attack on a police outpost at Holkari village in the Rolpa district,
about 650 kms north-west of Kathmandu.
The Maoists subsequently declared the abducted policemen
as Prisoners of War (PsOW) and offered to release them if the Government
released the Maoist detenus. They also demanded that all Maoist detenus
should be treated as PsOW by the Government.
In its first direct intervention in the
counter-insurgency operations against the Maoists, which were till now
being handled exclusively by the Police with the Army's help confined to
defusing explosive devices, the Royal Nepal Army (RNA) surrounded the Nuwa
village of Rolpa district, where the Maoists are understood to be
detaining the abducted policemen.
The Government has reportedly denied press speculation
that an encounter between the Army and the Maoists has already taken place
in which over 60 Maoists have been killed. It has been stated that
for the present the RNA is concentrating on building psychological
pressure on the Maoists in order to persuade them to release the detained
policemen and surrender their personal weapons in return for safe passage
to their base. The encirclement has already lasted over 40 hours without
any results so far.
Troops participating in the operation have come from
Brigade No. 4 stationed in Nepalgunj and headed by Brigadier General Bajra
Gurung. The Brigade comprises two battalions - Gorakh Bahadur and
1st Rifles - with a total strength of about 1500. They are assisted
by the Chandi Prasad Company, an independent battalion reportedly of
specially-trained commandos, with a strength of 235. Some
paratroopers from the Bhairavnath Battalion "Gha" have also been
moved to Rolpa and another team of paratroopers from the same Battalion
with helicopter gunships has reportedly been deployed at the capital’s
Tribhuvan International Airport. All RNA units all over Nepal have
been put on red-alert.
The RNA presently has six large helicopters, MI-17 and
Super Puma, with a capacity for 35 persons each and about 12 smaller ones,
Indian Cheetak and Puma. One of the MI-17s was grounded at Dang on
July 13 after the Maoists partially damaged it through ground fire.
Even before this incident, the RNA was reported to have
concluded negotiations with Kazakhstan for the purchase of two more
Russian MI-17 helicopters with sophisticated night vision equipment.
It is stated that two of the existing bigger helicopters have night vision
"scopes" that can survey the ground during the nights, but are
not well equipped for take off and landing without light.
The RNA reportedly briefed diplomats posted at Kathmandu
on July 14 on its operations against the Maoists.
The Maoists announced on July 13 that the
Bangladesh Communist Party, two different factions of the Proletarian
Party of East Bengal, the Ceylon Communist Party (Maoist), the Communist
Party of India (Maoist), the Maoist Communist Centre of India, the Indian
Revolutionary Communist Centre, and the Nepal Communist Party (Maoist)
have formed a joint committee to promote their ideas across the region and
"to consolidate and strengthen the Maoists' people's wars in the
South Asian countries." A statement issued in Kathmandu on
behalf of the committee said: "The massacre in the Royal Palace is a
well planned conspiracy of the American and Indian expansionists as well
as the die hard Nepalese fascist elements. The incident has inclined
the Nepalese people to turn Nepal into a republic. The people's wars
in South Asia should be stepped up in coordination with ongoing struggles
in Peru, the Philippines and Turkey."
It also accused India's Bharatiya Janata
Party (BJP) of converting the party into an American stooge and of
indulging in aggressive behaviour against leftist movements.
Meanwhile, the Communist Party of Nepal (United Marxist
Leninist) and the Communist Party of Nepal (Unity Centre) have appealed to
the Maoists to release the abducted policemen and urged the Government not
to use the Army against the Maoists, lest it leads to a civil war.
While the Nepalese Maoists have received ideological
guidance from the Maoists groups of Peru, India and a number of other
countries, their main sources of material support are the Maoists of
India, the Communist Party of North Korea and the Inter-Services
Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan. The ISI's assistance to them is part
of its proxy war against India. It hopes that if the Maoists capture
power in Nepal, they would be better able to assist those of Bihar to
intensify their activities, thereby forcing the Indian security forces to
divert their attention from Kashmir.
How to arrest the spread of this prairie fire will be an
important task for India's national security managers in the months to
come.
(The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet
Secretariat, Govt. of India, and, presently, Director, Institute For
Topical Studies, Chennai. E-Mail: corde@vsnl.com
)
