Nepal ex-Maoists declare “We will follow ‘the path of capitalism’ to achieve ‘communism’”

[Seven years after abandoning the revolutionary People's War and dismantling the emerging liberation political powers in the countryside, and ending the revolutionary challenge to feudal and semi-feudal relations, and the People's Liberation Army, the former Maoists led by Prachanda and Bhattarai are now shedding their "Maoist" cover.  A good number of purported revolutionaries who supported these revisionists soon after their abandonment of the revolutionary road--(some even called Prachanda and Bhattarai the "creative Maoists" of our time, and the leaders of 21st Century Communism)--will now be challenged to sum up their promotion of these anti-revolutionaries, and help those they may have influenced to understand how to avoid such retreats in the future.  The world of revolutionary Maoists will be watching.  We encourage our readers to comment on these developments.  Frontlines ed.] Nepal Maoists to change ideology, hint at giving up anti-India stance” Friday, Feb 1, 2013

By Shirish B Pradhan | Place: Kathmandu | Agency: PTI

In a major policy shift, Nepal’s ruling Maoists will adopt a new path to socialism through capitalism and may also give up their anti-India stance at the upcoming national convention of the party. Some 2,500 delegates of the ruling UCPN-Maoist will attend the six-day general convention, to take place after a gap of over 20 years, starting on Saturday in central Nepal’s Hetauda Municipality in an attempt to revamp the guerrilla group-turned-mainstream political party. “We will follow ‘the path of capitalism’ to achieve communism instead of pursuing ‘New Democracy’ as propounded by chairman Mao Zedong,” said Narayan Kaji Shrestha, vice-chairman of UCPN-Maoist and deputy prime minister.

CPN-Maoist warns govt against handing magnetite factory to foreigners

	by RAMESH KHATIWADA, myrepublica.com
	DOLAKHA, Nov 11: Cadres of the CPN-Maoist have taken control of a Dolakha-based magnetite industry in a move they described as an effort to protect the factory from being handed over to foreigners.
	On Saturday, the CPN-Maoist cadres planted a flag on the premises of Nepal Orient Magnetite at Lakuridanda-7 of Dolakha district, accusing the government of trying to sell the country´s property to foreigners. The CPN (Maoist) have threatened to “capture the factory completely” if the government handed over its management to Indian industrialists in the name of adopting public-private partnership model. “In principle, we are not against running the factory under public-private partnership model,” said Purna Bahadur Khadka, Dolakha district in-charge of the CPN-Maoist. “But, we have learnt that the government is now trying to hand over the management of the factory to Indian industrialists on the pretext of adopting a new model.”

Nepal: CPN Maoist says a new war has begun

A march in Kathmandu of the CPN-Maoist’s National People’s Volunteers, on October 10, 2012

by Shreedeep Rayamajhi    October 10, 2012

Kathmandu, Nepal October 10, 2012: Making their way to the streets for the first general convention of the party’s National People’s Volunteer, the Mohan Baidhya led fraction of the Communist Party of Nepal – Maoist  announced the party military wing  to be formed soon here at Basantapur Kathmandu on Wednesday. The announcement was made by Chairman Mohan Baidhya during the inauguration of the general convention of the party’s people’s volunteer bureau.

During the program the Netra Bikram Chand sectary of the fraction party said, “We are not here to be ignored, we will fight for our rights where we will not let the sacrifice of 16000 Nepalese go in vain. The current government and its leaders have forgotten their values. We declare a new war against that ideology which is corrupt and lack to understand people’s voices and sentiments.”

Nepal: New Maoist Party and many former Liberation Army combatants forming new military structure

[See the two news reports, below.  Frontlines will post new information as it becomes available and confirmed. -- Frontlines ed.]

——————————————–

CPN-Maoist to unveil military wing!

ReviewNepal.com, October 8, 2012

Though the UCPN-Maoist led government seems [satisfied at its - ed.] management of its former combatants by integrating in the Nepal Army (NA), its splinter faction CPN-Maoist has began to revive ‘people’s war’ days through the announcement of military structure of the party. The military structure of CPN-Maoist is going to be announced formally under the name of Rastirya Yuwa Swayamsewak Bureau from the national conference scheduled to be held in Dhulikhel on October 10-12.

It is said that the party secretary Netra Bikram Chanda led the military structure is also proposed to name as National Youth Volunteers Bureau. The party has called the national conference with intent to fix the name of the structure and discuss about the future activities, clams a reliable source close to the party. Though the party leaders have a claim that they have no immediate plan to launch armed struggle, it is suspected that the party would launch another ‘people’s revolt.’

Some leaders have repeatedly been threatening that they would take up arm if their demands are not addressed. It is claimed that the military wing has already acquired about 10 dozen guns registered in the name of the UCPN-Maoist including some arms used in the security of leaders. Likewise, it is also claimed that about 1000 armed trained former PLA combatants, who opted for voluntary retirement after last year’s peace deal and disqualified fighters who were discharged from cantonments in 2010, have already reunited under the military structure of the party.

Conference to expose corrupts The CPN –Maoist has said that it is going to expose leaders and cadres of the UCPN-Maoist, who amassed wealth illegally after the party joined mainstream politics in 2006. Revealing about the plan of the purposed national conference party secretary Chand had said his led wing, National People’s Volunteer Bureau, will next week start a campaign to expose the corrupts of the country including his former party’s leaders. However, Chand dismissed the report about the plan to form a military structure.

“We have no plan to expose the military wing now but we will openly declare the formation of a People’s Liberation Army if Nepali politics so demands,” he said on Sunday while addressing a press conference. However, he revealed that significant number of former PLA combatants who are dissatisfied with the “move of the UCPN-Maoist have joined the volunteer’s bureau.

Economic and Political Weekly (India) on “Nepal’s Maoist’s” lost compass, derailed

[Note from Frontlines: The author of the article below appears to assume that integration of the PLA would have "neutralized"
the Nepal Army, which was not even plausible.  The reverse was the case, and this is exactly what has happened with the integrated section (about 6,000) of the PLA that did not slowly leave the cantonments over the years or accept cash/retraining payments, who have been or are preparing to be consumed and digested by the NA.  Unfortunately, the unclarity on this issue led even Kiran and his allies in the newly-formed Communist Party of Nepal - Maoist to upheld integration until relatively recently.]

Vol – XLVII No. 38, September 22, 2012

With so many unfulfilled aspirations, the recent divide in the Maoist party in Nepal is depressing.

Tremendous hope coupled with so many unfulfilled aspirations had drawn the Nepali people to the Maoists, but their dreams now seem to be in the process of being prematurely shattered. Washington’s decision on 6 September to remove the Maoist party from its list of “terrorist organisations” had been on the anvil for the last two years, and it came just when the party seems no longer in a position to upset the status quo any further. The “two-line struggle”, underway within the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) [UCPN(M)], reached a point earlier this year when the party’s central committee reconciled itself to the reality of “one party with two lines” and it was only a matter of time when the faction led by the party’s erstwhile vice-chairperson Mohan Baidya “Kiran” would form a new party, which it did on 19 June. The new Maoist party, the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) [CPN(M)], hopes to rekindle the aspiration of a people’s democracy – a democracy that takes into account the interests of the workers, the poor peasants, the oppressed nationalities and ethnic groups, women and dalits.

Expectations had run high ever since the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) of November 2006 and when the Maoist party emerged as the largest constituent in the April 2008 Constituent Assembly elections – mainly about integration of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) with the Nepal Army (NA) and the making of a people’s democratic, federal, republican constitution. Regarding the former, the prospect was of the integration of the PLA combatants with the chain of command intact, thus leading to “democratisation” in the leadership and structure of the NA. The combatants of the PLA had, after all, significantly contributed to the creation of the secular democratic republic that Nepal is today. The commanders should therefore have been treated on par with their counterparts in the NA, so also the soldiers; they should have been automatically absorbed into the NA without any process of selection. Was not integration supposed to have been a merger of the two armies? What has actually transpired is an insult to the dignity of the PLA’s commanders and other combatants. Indeed, it should not have surprised anyone that the 12 April 2012 military takeover of the PLA cantonments along with their weapons was the last straw for the veterans of people’s war period (1996-2006).

What of the promise of a people’s democratic, federal, republican constitution? To deal with this question politically, one needs to go back to the 2005 Chunbang meeting of the central committee of the Maoist party where a decision was taken to strive for a “democratic republic” in the immediate term. This was a significant tactical shift, a turning point as it soon became evident, but at that time it was merely seen as a transitional tactic in the path towards a people’s democratic republic. The 12-point agreement of 22 November 2005 with the seven parliamentary parties followed from this. From thereon to the 8-point agreement of 16 June 2006, the CPA, and the 18 June 2008 deal, all of which, taken together obliged the Maoist party to conclude the armed struggle and ultimately disarm. Its logic made them join the bandwagon of competitive multiparty politics, dissolve the people’s governments and the people’s courts that had been formed in the countryside and integrate the combatants of the PLA with the NA. From this followed the return of property, including land, of the landlords that had been confiscated as part of the radical land reform programme. In effect, the Maoists gave up the people’s war and the struggle for new democracy.

The UCPN(M) has thus become no more than a reformist left party. The tactical shift made at Chunbang in 2005, it was argued by its proponents in the Maoist party, would enable the creation of a strong revolutionary base in the cities, which would then make possible mass insurrection to seize political power at the centre. But without the PLA, the base areas, the people’s governments in the countryside, that is only a daydream now.

Nepal: Bhattarai and Dahal declare end to internal factional struggle in UCPN(M)

[Over the last six years (since the abandonment of the People's War) the CPN(M) merged with several revisionist and electoral parties, and so the composition of the membership was changed.  It changed its name to UCPN(M), and a prolonged line struggle ensued, between veteran revolutionary Maoist cadres and the old members and new recruits who were adhering to the electoral and constitutional road which Party Chairman Prachanda and Prime Minister Bhatterai were  leading.  The opposition to the 'peaceful road' -- which continues to advocate for the revolutionary People's War (details now unclear and undefined) -- has left the UCPN(M) and formed the new Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist.  Those remaining with Prachanda and Bhattarai in the UCPN(M) have declared the internal struggle over, and that factions will no longer be permitted. -- Frontlines ed.]

——————————-

Plenum’ll end factionalism in UCPN (Maoist): Bhattarai

Ekantipur Report

KATHMANDU, JUL 11 -

Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai, who is also a UCPN (Maoist) Vice-chairman, on Tuesday said that the party’s plenum beginning July 16 will end factional politics in his party.

Speaking at a programme in the Capital, Bhattarai said there was no need for factional politics in the party. “Factions were formed in the party as history demanded. Now such politics is irrelevant,” said Bhattarai.

Bhattarai’s statement comes a day after party Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal presented a political document to the party’s politburo, proposing an end to all factions within the party.

Even with the defection of the Mohan Baidya faction, there still remain three visible factions within the UCPN (Maoist)—one led by Dahal and the other two led by Bhattarai and another Vice-chairman Narayan Kaji Shrestha.

Bhattarai also said that he shares a cordial relationship with Dahal and that media reports about a rift between them were untrue. The prime minister added that in the party’s history there has been more reconciliation than dispute with Dahal.

“The party will move ahead only if Prachanda and Bhattarai come together,” he added.

Posted on: 2012-07-11 08:34

Nepal: Chairman of new Maoist party, CPN-Maoist, details their situation, 19 June 2012

Comrade Kiran (Mohan Baidya) answered the questions raised by journalists during the press conference.

These questions and answers are from the press conference that was organized on the 19th of June 2012 by the newly formed Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist, which finally ruptured from the then Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) after a 2 day long National Convention held in Kathmandu, Nepal. Chairman of the newly formed CPN-M, Comrade Kiran (Mohan Baidya) answered the questions raised by journalists during the press conference. There is a minor edit for clarity.

The uncut-hour long audio of the press conference question and answer session can be found on the link http://soundcloud.com/ignitemagazine/cpn-maoist-first-press-meet-1 . Only useful to Nepali listeners.

Thanks to Comrade Pooja ( http://kalishakti.info ) for taking her time to make this speech available in English.

Q: – How do you justify the formation of the new party? How should general people understand this?

A: - Communist party is a party for the benefit of the proletariat and the people. In the case of Nepal, the aim of a communist party remains to move forward, raising the issues of safeguarding national sovereignty; people’s democracy and livelihood then ultimately leap towards socialism and communism. This is self-proven. In the process of attaining this aim we went through people’s war, and did considerable amount of work among and with the people. We built our base areas, practiced our newly formed people’s power but then conciliation took place amidst as we moved forward to build a new Nepal.

I’m not saying that we shouldn’t compromise, we should but while compromising, the act of abandoning our entire basis (achievements) has happened. The act of slipping down from our mission and objectives has happened. The dream we carried was of a constitutional assembly but where is the constitution? How did the constituent assembly function? Talking about people’s livelihood, how has the corruption been mounting-up? That fact is clearer. In the process of making a constitution there was an agreement to move forward institutionalizing the rights of the working class, indigenous people, ethnic minorities, women & dalit; including the rights of all oppressed class, region and gender but ditching all these primary issues of constitutional thematic committees it is apparent that ex-chairman, Prachanda surrendered everything to Congress & UML by forming a dispute resolution sub-committee under the constitutional committee.

In the process of making a constitution the question of ethnic-identity-based federalism is extremely important. Our party takes the decision of an ethnic-identity-based federalism while in process of restructuring the state Prachanda & Baburam joined their necks together with Congress-UML and agreed up on eleven anonymous federal states. The situation was that they were forced to take their decision back, as we and all others in the constituent assembly carried-out a signature collection campaign against their decision. They have failed to institutionalize ethnic-identity, it is important for us to do it. 

Deutsche Welle (German press) interview with Mohan Vaidya ‘Kiran’: “Nepal on the brink of another ‘people’s war’”

dw.de, 25 June, 2012

Political turmoil continues in Nepal after the break-up of the main party, the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist). Mohan Vaidya ‘Kiran,’ former senior-vice chairman of the party, tells DW about his political plan.

Mohan Vaidya “Kiran” is the former senior-vice chairman of the Nepal’s main party, the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) and is founder of the split-off Nepal Communist Party (Maoist) faction.

DW: There are reports that you have parted ways from Nepal’s Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist). Is this true?

Mohan Vaidya Kiran: Yes, this news is correct. The party was not talking about the interests of the common man. The achievements of the People’s War (the Nepali Civil War) that was fought for ten years have been forgotten by the party. Dreams of people were not fulfilled. That is the reason we have parted our ways and have formed a new party.

What will be the name of your party?

The name of my party is Nepal Communist Party (Maoist).

What did Prachanda, Former Prime Minister of Nepal, say on hearing your announcement about the split from the party? What was his first reaction?

It has been a couple of days since we last spoke to each other. He called me up during our national conference. He said that we should have a discussion one last time; He asked me to revoke the division of the party and stop it from splitting up. I clearly told him that that could not happen now. When we officially get separated is when I will speak to him again.

Did you also speak to the current prime minister of Nepal, Baburam Bhattarai? He is also a leader of the UCPN(M). What did he say to you?

I met him 3 to 4 days ago. He didn’t day much about it. When it comes to his political thought, he has more of a national vision. He wants to save the government.

The political party that received maximum public vote has split up. Don’t you think this step of yours will deepen Nepal’s political crisis?

There is a crisis in the absence of the executive and parliament; we have broken our ties with the largest political party, the UCPN(M). We will use this crisis to the benefit of the people. The old parliamentary system is what brought it on. We will try to turn this crisis into a revolution.

Nepal: Rejecting corruption and betrayal of revolution, Maoists form new party

Maoists split in Nepal, Baidhya-led faction forms new party

Yubaraj Ghimire, Indian Express : Kathmandu, Mon Jun 18 2012

The Mohan Baidhya-led faction of the Unified Communist Party of Nepal-Maoists (UCPN-M) decided to float a new party on Sunday after declaring that “working with corrupt people and foreign stooges” had become impossible.

The new party, the Nepal Communist Party-Maoists Revolutionary (NCP-M R), was reportedly planning to hold its first national convention in February.

Last ditch efforts by Maoist chief Prachanda, who offered to quit the party leadership to prevent a spilt, were dismissed as “not being worthy of trust” at the faction’s meeting that took place in Bouddha, on the outskirts of the capital. “Prachanda and Baburam Bhattarai together have compromised on the objectives of the Revolution, and betrayed the Peoples Liberation Army by disarming and handing them over to the Nepal Army,” Baidhya, the vice-chairman of the party, told delegates at the meet, adding, “Our own leaders and comrades have acted as Red-traitors”.

Nepal: Basanta, a leader of revolutionary Maoists, on the “Prachanda-Baburam” betrayal of revolution

Comrade Basanta

[From the Basanta interview below:  "Dissolution of the people’s power, submission of the PLA into the hands of Nepal Army through a kind of coup on April 10, 2012, returning of land to the landlords, signing of anti-national treaties like BIPPA and other shameful treaties on water resources with India etc. have made Prachanda-Baburam clique stand in service of Indian expansionism, the regional watchdog of the US imperialism, and their puppets in Nepal. Through this process this clique has betrayed the nation and the class as well."  This is an important analysis of events in Nepal, and of great relation to the international MLM movement and people's struggles worldwide. -- Frontlines ed.]

Interview with Basanta

April 22, 2012

1 – How is the recent situation concerning the two line struggle in your party? Have any of the most important contradictions been solved? (Here you can describe the whole situation about the positions of each side, on which we already have a general idea, but also underline the points that are agreed on.)

For a communist party, the two-line struggle is the source of its life. As an object does not exist without contradiction in it, a communist party too does not exist when there is no two-line struggle. However, the two-line struggle does not always have the same level but varies depending upon the content of the issues involved in it. The two-line struggle in our party has sharpened mainly after the first meeting of the Constituent Assembly, which established the federal democratic republic of Nepal. Monarchy has been abolished from Nepal but not feudalism. Nepal is still a semi-feudal and semi-colonial country. External intervention is in the rise. The essence of the ongoing two-line struggle is centred on how to understand this situation and whether to continue with status quo i.e. the semi-feudal and semi-colonial condition beautified by cosmetics of the democratic republic or continue struggling to establish People’s Federal Republic in its place.

A few months before, when our CC meeting had just started, chairman Prachanda brought about a long interview in which he revealed so many things on the questions of line. In that interview he categorically said that there is no need now to make a new democratic revolution in Nepal, because the gap between the new democratic revolution and the socialist revolution has narrowed. The major part of it has already been accomplished and the rest can be accomplished when the socialist revolution comes in the agenda. He added that the major task before the party was to develop productive forces by creating conducive atmosphere for the donor countries. This way, he does not even stand in favour of national economy and the national bourgeois. In fact he has been integrated in the imperialist system.

Dissolution of the people’s power, submission of the PLA into the hands of Nepal Army through a kind of coup on April 10, 2012, returning of land to the landlords, signing of anti-national treaties like BIPPA and other shameful treaties on water resources with India etc. have made Prachanda-Baburam clique stand in service of Indian expansionism, the regional watchdog of the US imperialism, and their puppets in Nepal. Through this process this clique has betrayed the nation and the class as well.

When the leaders nakedly surrender before imperialism and their running domestic agents, then the two-line struggle does not remain an issue of the party alone. Rather it becomes an issue of the nation and the entire oppressed people as a whole. It must be taken to the masses so that their anti-people and anti-national crimes could be unveiled. Hence, the two-line struggle which we are taking to the masses now is an ideological and political campaign to make the entire oppressed class, nation, sex and region stand by the side of revolutionaries and expose the right revisionists who betrayed the nation and people in the garb of Marxism.

The last Central Committee meeting has taken up a method to deal with organisational problems. First, no committee at any level will take decisions on the basis of majority and minority and second, if there is no unanimity then either ideological group will have right to organise their separate committee meetings, take decisions and implement in their own. In other words, every ideological group in our party is free to take decisions and implement them in practice. Democratic centralism is not active in our party now. The line struggle in the party is now openly taken to the masses. We think the synthesis of this whole process will equip us with deeper ideological grasp to lead the revolution forward.

Nepal: Maoist factions agree to embrace (at arms’ length) for 60 days

by Bhola Rana, in Nepal Today

MAOISTS TO REMAIN ‘UNITED’ AT LEAST UNTIL END OF MAY
Kathmandu, 29 March: – Despite sharp ideological and political differences, UCPN (Maoist) will remain united at least till May 27 as an informal meeting of the Central Committee members of establishment faction on Wednesday recognised the parallel functioning of party’s hard-line faction led by party’s Vice-chairman Mohan Baidya.
Though the establishment faction led by party’s Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal was all set to hold an official CC meeting, they held only the informal meeting in the request of Baidya faction and unveiled a separate policy and programme to “create an appropriate environment to conclude peace and constitution writing processes”.
The meeting also decided to organise a separate programme to mark party establishment day on April and a grand mass meeting on May 1 in Kathmandu for peace, constitution and labour rights. The meeting also decided to declare a union of those disqualified combatants and who opted for volunteer retirement and to initiate a campaign for peace and constitution within the deadline.
The hardliners few days ago had unveiled their own policies and programmes highlighting the need of revolt to ensure people’s constitution.
With this, the rival factions will function separately with their respective policies and programmes. The establishment faction led by Dahal and Bhattarai will work for peace and constitution while hard-liners will make preparations for possible revolt.

Nepal: Maoist factions agree on two-pronged policy

Kathmandu Post: “Factions agree to adopt a ‘one party two tactics’ policy till May 27″

 KATHMANDU, MAR 24 -

The rival factions within the UCPN (Maoist) led by Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Vice-chairman Mohan Baidya have reached an informal understanding to move ahead adopting a “one party two tactics” policy till May 27, the extended deadline of the Constituent Assembly.

While leaders said they adopted such policy to keep the party united, some influential leaders from the Baidya camp have opposed the idea, arguing that they should form a separate party. Speaking to journalists a few days ago, Dahal had said that the party would neither split formally nor remain united.

Leaders from the hard-line camp—Ram Bahadur Thapa, CP Gajurel, Netra Bikram Chand and Hitman Shakya—are in favour of splitting the party before May 27. But Baidya and Standing Committee member Dev Gurung are against a formal split until May 27.

With such an understanding, the rival factions will function in a parallel way with their own political line. “The party will function in a parallel way till May 27 with separate policies and programmes,” said Haribol Gajurel, a Dahal confidante.

The establishment faction headed by Dahal and Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai will engage on the ongoing peace and constitution-writing process, while the hardliners will make preparations for a possible revolt.

Nepal: Maoist establishment postpones meet with revolutionary Maoists–indefinitely

Nepal Today, Monday, March 26, 2012
MAOIST CENTRAL COMMITTEE MEET POSTPONED INDEFINITELY

Kathmandu, 27 March: A meeting of the Maoist central committee that was postponed for one day Monday citing inadequate preparation has now been indefinitely postponed amid serious internal party differences.

Maoist establishment of Chairman Prachanda and Prime Minister Baburai Bhattarai had convened the central committee meeting Monday to discuss differences jointly but the meet was boycotted by dissidents led by First Vice-chairman Mohan Baidhaya who has mobilized a national campaign against the UCPN (Maoist) establishment and the government led by Second Vice-chairman Baburam Bhattarai.

Secretary CP Gajurel, who has sided with the Baidhaya camp, said Monday the government is undergoing treatment at the ICU. and is on its
death bed.

nnnn

Nepal: Prime Minister Bhattarai plans to return liberated lands to feudal landlords

Baidya faction demands PM’s resignation

by POST B BASNET, Republica KATHMANDU, Feb 10: The Maoist radical faction has demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai over the cabinet decision on Thursday to ditch the plan to legalize land transactions effected under the arbitration of the then CPN (Maoist) during the conflict period. The party radicals led by Senior Vice-chairman Mohan Baidya took strong exception to the cabinet decision during a meeting of the party Standing Committee on Thursday afternoon, and demanded that the prime minister step down. “The latest cabinet decision amounts to surrender to feudalism. So the prime minister should immediately resign,” said party Secretary CP Gajurel, who is from the Baidya faction.

Nepal: Liberation fighters wonder what to do, now that the PLA has reached an ignoble end

[With the ending of the revolutionary "people's war" in Nepal in 2006, imperialists, capitalists, and feudal landlords saw big opportunities for their renewed control and exploitation of long-suffering Nepalese people.  At the same time, a number of confused and noisy international "supporters" of the revolution tried to put a brave face on the agreements to end the armed struggle, and some even claimed that this was a step forward, a "creative application" and a "break with dogmatism."  When revolutionaries and Maoists around the world took to heart the principled stance of the Maoists in India (who deeply criticized and analyzed the retreat from revolution in Nepal), the backward "supporters" denounced or distanced themselves from the Indian Maoists, and promoted the Nepali revisionists' "fresh approach" of jockeying for position in the bourgeois government.   Now that the bitter harvest of retreat has arrived, and Liberation fighters return disarmed and empty-handed to still-oppressed peasant villages, how will the advocates and international supporters of this "creative" dismantling of the PLA sum up this period, and the role they have played?

 A Frontlines reader brought this article to our attention, and wrote:  "I draw your attention to the quoted comments of the demobilized Nepalese PLA fighter in the article below, including:  “I do not have an answer if I am asked why I joined the P.L.A. I’m confused what I should tell people when I return.”  ...  This is the lament of a revolutionary fighter who has been betrayed by the revisionism and cowardliness of Prachanda and the leadership of the UCPN("Maoist")." -- Frontlines ed.]

---

Nepal Releases Thousands of Former Fighters as Part of Peace Deal

By KIRAN CHAPAGAIN, New York Times, February 3, 2012

KATMANDU, Nepal — Nepal achieved an important step in the country’s peace process on Friday as the government began releasing more than 7,000 former Maoist fighters from encampments where they have lived under guard for the past six years.

Nepal ended a bloody 10-year guerrilla war in 2006 when Maoist rebels signed a peace accord with the government and agreed to lay down their arms. Maoist leaders formed a political party, but more than 19,000 Maoist fighters were placed inside encampments initially monitored by the United Nations.

The fate of those Maoist fighters has been a key sticking point in Nepal’s still incomplete peace process. Political parties have continued jousting over the shape of a new constitution, even as the government, at times, has teetered near collapse. Last August, a Maoist leader, Baburam Bhattarai, became prime minister and has since helped revive the stalled peace process.

Friday marked the beginning of a 12-day period in which 7,365 former Maoist fighters of the People’s Liberation Army will be released from different encampments across the country and returned to society, each provided with a check ranging from $6,357 to as much as $10,235.

“It is an emotional moment,” said Ram Lal Roka, a vice commander at the Dahaban cantonment in the Rolpa district. “I am returning to my society, ending 16 years of service in the P.L.A.,” he said.

Mr. Roka expressed sadness, despite his release, that the ultimate goals of the Maoists to transform Nepal into a Communist state had not been achieved. He said he was returning to society “without achieving any of the ideal.”

He added: “I do not have an answer if I am asked why I joined the P.L.A. I’m confused what I should tell people when I return.”

Roughly 9,000 former Maoist fighters remain in the encampments, waiting to be integrated into Nepal’s army and other security forces, as part of the 2006 peace agreement. But blending them into the military — in some cases, joining with soldiers they once fought against — has proved a very difficult political step.

Jim Yardley contributed reporting from New Delhi.