India
hands over nine Maoists to Nepal
India
has handed over nine Maoists who were arrested in India to Nepal.
The nine Maoists were arrested in Rupedia, an Indian town close to the Nepalese border town of Nepalgunj. They are believed to have fled to India after the army was mobilized to counter growing insurgency. A high-ranking Maoist leader was among the nine who were handed over to Nepal. India
to deploy more army on Nepal-India border
Thousands of soldiers from the Secret Service Bureau of Indian Army will be deployed along the open Nepal-India borders very soon, a high-officer of the Border Police Force (BPF) said. There will be an Indian Army Post, under central government of India, in every 5 to 10 km distance of Nepal India border. Each post will have around 50 soldiers along with a doctor equipped with modern communication tools. ntration there. It is also believed that the Maoists had moved into the area following their defeat at Khara of Rukum district last month. About
500 to 1,000 Maoists were involved in the attack at a makeshift military
camp in the hill village of Damachaur of Salyan district, about 300 kilometres
west of Kathmandu. The Maoists attacked a group of about 80-100 soldiers
on routine patrol. Locals reported that the Maoists had destroyed outlying
health posts, looted medicines and were preventing travel by cutting rope
bridges. After the attack, army helicopters flew to Damachaur
with troop reinforcement. The helicopters also launched massive aerial
attacks on the Maoist targets. At least a dozen soldiers and more than
100 rebels have been killed in the fighting. The figures have not been
officially confirmed yet. There has been no comment from the rebels.
The clash is the biggest since Nepalese security forces killed more than 200 rebels when they thwarted a similar attack in neighbouring Rukum district last month. The army had move into the area a few days ago after intelligence reports indicated possible Maoist concentration there. It is also believed that the Maoists had moved into the area following their defeat at Khara of Rukum district last month. At
least 150 insurgents have been killed in the latest clash between
Maoist rebels and the security forces in western district of Rukum. The
night-long gun battle took place after an attack on an army garrison in
Khara, about 320 kilometres west of Kathmandu.
Rukum
is one of the Maoist's strongholds in western Nepal. Thousands of Maoists
had attacked the army camp at Khara. "The rebels came in human waves attacking
the army barracks, using rocket launchers and automatic weapons looted
from the army earlier this year", eyewitnesses reported. A state of emergency has been re-imposed in Nepal. The emergency was re-imposed by royal decree on the recommendation of the government. The state of emergency is being used against the rebels. Nepal's Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba had attempted to win parliamentary approval for extending the emergency. But when it became clear that parliament would not back him, he dissolved it and called elections. The PM is now fighting to overturn a decision to expel him from the ruling Nepali Congress party, which opposed the decision to call elections.
The Communist Party of Nepal CPN-M (Maoists), who had last time unilaterally broken off the peace talks with the government last November, has once again declared a month long unilateral ceasefire from May 15, 2001 for a period of one month "due to the requests of our friends to have working flexibility and strategic commitment on our side for the upcoming political possibilities and our revolutionary possibilities." The declaration of the ceasefire has been distributed by emails to Nepali media. Some observers detect desperation among the rebels and a decline in their morale - but others argue they are merely buying time to re-organise. The Maoists had re-organised their rebel forces during the period of the Government-Maoist peace talks last year. In New York Nepal's prime minister has rejected the ceasefire declaration by Maoist leaders saying the rebels cannot be trusted. A senior member of the rebels' politburo stated in an interview with the British BBC NEWS Service that an apparent truce offer from rebel leader Prachanda was "a conspiracy hatched by the Nepalese Government. The Maoists are not in favour of a ceasefire because our armed forces are winning this war" . Thousands of people marched in Kathmandu, to protest against the Maoist violence. The demonstration, organised by Nepal's main political parties, called on the government and the rebels to seek a negotiated solution to a conflict which has cost 4,300 lives over the last six years. In the Gam area of Rolpa district and Chainpur of Sankhuwasabha diatrict where the rebels clashed with the security forces. Army action were reported in Lungri Khola and Khalsing areas of Rolpa, in Lamagadh jungle area of Dadeldhura, in Sindure Khola area of Parbat and Sukkhad area of Kailali districts. Goverment sources claimed heavy losses on the rebel's side. There was no comment about the own losses. There is no independent confirmation about the number of casualties on both side. The
military offensive of Army forces in the Lisne Lek area bordering Rolpa
and Pyuthan districts continues. The sounds of gunfire still reverberate
in the nearby area. The exact details of the operations and the casualties
on both sides are not know. Human right groups suspect that the death toll
must be high. There are no independent reports available. Although the
security forces have lessened the aerial offensive in the area, they continue
to be mobilised on the ground.
Lisne
Lek is situated about eight hours walking distance from Khalanga, Pyuthan's
district headquarters and two day's trek from Liwang, the district headquarters
of Rolpa.
A pyramid-style martyr monument built by the rebels atop the Lisne Lek about two years ago has totally been ravaged in the aerial bombings. The arial arracks targeted one or two "bunkers" dug deep underneath the martyr monument for the operation of guerrilla warfare. Security forces from Pyuthan are cordoning-off the Jumrikanda and Fopli areas while other forces from Rolpa area conducting military offensive against the rebels. The security forces have been narrowing down their cordons. From the day the military operation began in the area of Thulogaon, Dovan, Dhunge Thanti, Bhanja, Baskot and Obang villages, schools have been closed and the entire area is under undeclared curfew. Nor have locals carried their cattle to the neighbouring jungles since the operation started. Royal
Nepal Army units attacked in a 2day-long operation rebel facilities at
Lisne Lek in mid-west Rolpa and in Khinda jungle far-west Doti districts
and bordering Pyuthan district. Khinda's jungle area is located about
one-and-half-day walking distance from Dipayal, the district headquarters
of Doti. The joint security forces launched surface and aerial offensives
at Lisne Lek. The attacks are the biggest ever operations carried out by
the government's forces.
According
to the the Defence Ministry, more than 250 Maoist fighters had been gunned
down in different encounters. Independent sources expect that the death
toll could be higher. The deaths of two soldiers of the Royal Nepal Army
are confirmed. Among the rebels killed in both the Maoists' training
camps are believed to be the military trainers, area commanders, platoon
commanders and guerrillas, official sources said.
The security forces had cordoned off the entire areas of Jumrikanda, Lisne, Sisne, Fopli, Maurimara and Richi before raiding the high altitude hills that were used by the rebelsas their base camp since the beginning of the insurgency. Rolpa is said to be one of the hotbeds of the Maoist movement. Maoists had developed Khinda's jungle area in the Chure hill range as their military headquarters in the far-western region to mobilise their cadres in the neighbouring districts of Doti, Achham, Kailali and Surkhet. The
recent spate of Maoist attacks has not only affected the people from eastern
and western hills, but it has also hit hundreds of thousands of people
in the country's mid- and far-western Terai. 20 megawatts of electricity
in Nepal's power system has been going waste in the aftermath of the Dang
attacks when Maoists hit police barracks and transmission lines in Dang.
The Maoist rebels attacked a crucial sub-station before launching the daring
raids of different police outposts in the district. And even before
engineers repaired the damage, the rebels attacked another transmission
tower at Lamki in Kailali district. Most parts of the region, including
parts of Dang, Banke, Bardiya, Kailali, Kanchanpur, Surkhet, are completely
dark ever since. The electric lights are out, except in Nepalgunj and Mahendranagar,
where electricity is imported from neighboring India.
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