Why the king must go

Billy Briggs

In an exclusive interview, Billy Briggs talks to the Maoist commander who may soon determine his country’s fate

Chairman Prachanda sits on a leather sofa and glances out at the torrential rain of Nepal's monsoon season. We are in his office at the Maoist headquarters in the capital, Kathmandu. On the wall above his head are framed photographs of Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin and Chairman Mao. "They were all great men, but I particularly admire Lenin's political dynamism," says the leader of Nepal's Maoists and commander of a rebel army that waged war in the Himalayan nation for more than a decade.

The insurgency, an attempt to establish a communist republic, claimed 13,000 lives, ending only last year after protests forced King Gyanendra to end his dictatorship and restore democracy.
Prachanda, a nom de guerre that translates as "the fierce one", was the man who signed a historic peace deal last November. He agreed to return 30,000 People's Liberation Army fighters to the jungle in camps monitored by the UN, a move that took the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) - CPN (Maoist) - into a transition coalition government. The Maoists joined the interim parliament in January, gaining 83 seats out of 330, and in April secured cabinet posts. "The rebellion was justified and we have embraced democracy," says Prachanda, whose real name is Pushpa Kamal Dahal.

Nepal's nascent peace process has been fragile, however. The Maoists continue to demand the abolition of the monarchy and that a republic be declared ahead of constituent assembly elections due to be held on 22 November. The poll is designed to elect a body that will rewrite Nepal's constitution and decide if the monarchy should stay or go, part of the peace deal agreed last year. But despite signing up to this, the Maoists recently stormed out of the coalition after the government refused to bow to their demands, throwing the process into crisis. I ask Prachanda why he reneged on the accord and will not allow the Nepalese people to vote on the future of the king.

"The masses took part in a rebellion against the king, so they have already given their mandate for Nepal to be a republic," he says. He claims that supporters of Gyanendra, and the king, already stripped of direct power and his status as head of state, would probably sabotage any election. Prachanda's critics say the Maoists are scared of a vote because popular support for the party has fallen in recent months as a result of rising violence across Nepal, much of it blamed on the youth wing of CPN (Maoist) - the Young Communist League, which appears to have embarked on a campaign of terror. At least 60 people have died in fighting between various political factions, but Prachanda denies Maoist involvement. "There have been problems with armed groups, and this is why we feel the environment is not conducive for an election at the moment. But we are not organising the violence."

The Maoists' strategy, he says, will be to appeal to the masses to demonstrate peacefully, adding that his party will not prevent the vote taking place and will fully respect the outcome. Although many in Nepal feel Prachanda is holding the nation to ransom, with a ballot box in one hand and a rifle in the other, he insists his party will not break the ceasefire. "We will not resort to violence . . . unless the demonstrations are forcibly put down." The US ambassador, James Moriarty, has reiterated America's position that the Maoists remain on Washington's list of terrorist organisations. The EU and the UN have also condemned the recent violence. Prachanda laughs. "How can the US accuse anyone of being terrorists when it is they who export violence to places like Iraq and Afghanistan? Who are they to talk about morals?" he says.
Ethics are certainly a concern for Prachanda, who is puritanical in his determination to outlaw alcohol, gambling and "vulgar literature" from India and the US.

Let's talk morals, then: what about the recruitment by the People's Liberation Army of thousands of child soldiers, many of whom have not yet been returned to their families? He denies that any such policy ever existed, despite strong evidence to the contrary, presented in February by Human Rights Watch. "I do not know why people are afraid of us," he says. I point out that a stated aim of the Maoists is to export communism to the world through a global revolution. Prachanda nods, and says he looks forward to an ideological debate with the west.
"Would the revolution you envisage involve an armed struggle?" I ask. "That would depend on the masses," he replies.

Prachanda admits there are direct links between Nepal's Maoists and the Indian Naxalites fighting for communism in impoverished states such as Andhra Pradesh. He also supports the repatriation of more than 100,000 refugees from Bhutan who have languished in camps in eastern Nepal for 17 years. Bhutanese Maoists, with whom he says local groups "may have a relationship", are active in the camps. There have been rumblings about an armed struggle in emulation of the Nepalese Maoists.

Does he still advocate the execution of the king? Prachanda replies that a "people's court" should decide the monarch's fate, adding that his adversary is responsible for the deaths of many innocent people. I counter that the Maoists tortured and summarily executed many people during the conflict and that as leader, pursuing his own logic, Prachanda is surely as guilty as the king. "Ours was a mass movement, a mass rebellion of the people," he says. "So it was all completely justified."

Source: New Statesman, September 27, 2007