Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist)

infobox_Nepalese_Political_Party
party_name = Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist)
devanagari_name = नेपाल कम्युनिष्ट पार्टी (माओवादी)
party_
leader = Prachanda
colorcode = Red
foundation = 1994
headquarters = Kathmandu
ideology = Communism,
Marxism-Leninism-Maoism-Prachanda Path,
international = Revolutionary Internationalist Movement, CCOMPOSA
website = http://www.cpnm.org/
electoral_symbol = The Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) ( _ne. नेपाल कम्युनिष्ट पार्टी (माओवादी)) is a Maoist political party in Nepal, founded in 1994 and led by Pushpa Kamal Dahal (otherwise known as Prachanda). Following massive popular demonstrations and a prolonged "People's War" against the monarchy, the CPN(M) became the largest party in the Nepalese Constituent Assembly election, 2008.

Overview

The CPN(M) was formed following a split in the Communist Party of Nepal (Unity Centre) and it used the name 'CPN (Unity Centre)' until 1995. On February 13, 1996 the party launched the "Nepalese People's War", and it controlled rural areas of the country's territory before the agreed ceasefire.

In 2001, the Nepalese Army began a military campaign against the Maoists, especially in the western areas of the country, although there have been intermittent ceasefires. Fighting was roughly continuous through 2005, when the CPN(M) was at the height of its military power. [http://www.newleftreview.org/?page=article&view=2707 New Left Review - Achin Vanaik: The New Himalayan Republic ] ]

In 2005, the CPN(M) sought a different strategy of seeking permanent peace accords while forming an pro-democratic alliance with several other mainstream political parties against the dictatorship of King Gyanendra. Following massive popular uprisings (involving over a million people at moments) and a prolonged general strike in 2006, the monarchy finally capitulated, after several violent attacks and killings of peaceful protesters by the Nepalese Army had already occurred. Following the international legitimacy bought at the cost of laying down arms and participating in the new electoral process, several western European powers were persuaded to remove the CPN(M)from their government's terrorist lists.

In early 2008, the CPN(M) won the largest voting bloc in the Nepalese Constituent Assembly. International observers, like the Carter Group said that the election were held in a "peaceful, orderly" manner and were "satisfying" [ [http://www.nepalnews.com/archive/2008/apr/apr10/news04.php Nepalnews.com Mercantile Communications Pvt. Ltd ] ]

Organisational structure of the CPN-Maoist

Cadre

A considerable number of retired Gurkha soldiers of the British and the Indian Army inhabit many of the Maoist-affected areas and Nepalese security agencies have suspected that these former soldiers along with those retired and deserters from the Royal Nepalese Army (RNA) have/are involved in training the insurgents. Government estimates provided in early 2003 on the CPN-M strength indicated that there are approximately 31,500 combatants, 48,000 militia, 150,500 active cadres and 100,000 sympathizers. The main fighting and support forces consist of groups like Magars, Tharus, Limbus, Tamangs, Dalits, Brahmins and Chhetris, the last two also providing the political and military leadership). These communities are also an important vote-bank for the CPN(M) Among the Maoist fighters – about 60 per cent – are deployed in the mid-west and west in their strongholds. Another 10 per cent are in the far west with around 10 percent in Gorkha, the rest is located in Kathmandu valley and east of it.

Women in the party

Women have been prominent in the recruiting profile. Available reports indicate that one-fifth to one-third of the cadre and combatants may be women. Reportedly, every village has a revolutionary women’s organization. According to a Jane’s Intelligence Review report of October 2001, there are usually two women in each unit of 35-40 men, and they are used to gather intelligence and act as couriers. Baburam Bhattarai was quoted as saying in Spacetime on April 18, 2003, that fifty percent of cadres at the lower level, thirty percent of soldiers and ten percent of members of central committee of the outfit were women. Durgha Pokhrel, Chairman of National Women’s Commission, who visited more than 25 Maoist districts, stated on July 3, 2003, during a talk delivered at the Nepal Council of World Affairs that percentage of women cadres could be as high as forty. A women’s group, the All Nepal Women's Association (Revolutionary), is alleged to be a front outfit of the CPN-M.

Areas of Operation

The guerrillas operate to varying degrees in 68 of the 75 districts that comprise Nepal. Their influence varies between moderate to very strong in these districts. In the districts of Rolpa, Rukum, Jajarkot, Salyan, Pyuthan and Kalikot in mid-western Nepal, Government presence is limited to the district headquarters with the rest of each district under Maoist control. The Nepalese Home Ministry has designated these districts as 'sensitive class A'. Nine districts, namely Dolakha, Ramechhap, Sindhuli, Kavrepalanchowk, Sindhupalchowk, Gorkha, Dang, Surkhet and Achham, are classified as 'Sensitive Class B', while 17 'Sensitive Class C' districts are Khotang, Okhaldhunga, Udaypur, Makwanpur, Lalitpur, Nuwakot, Dhading, Tanahu, Lamjung, Parbat, Baglung, Gulmi, Arghakhachi, Bardiya, Dailekh, Jumla and Dolpa. The Maoist insurgency initially commenced in the three districts of Rolpa, Rukum and Jajarkot and eventually spread throughout Nepal. Maoists have very strong bases in Western and mid-Western region and partially in Eastern region.

End to the people’s war

After holding the people’s war for ten years, the CPN (Maoist) sat down for a peace talk after the successful accomplishment of the people’s movement in 2062/63. The twelve point agreement held between the then seven party alliance and the Maoist rebels in Delhi created a path for peaceful agitation against the direct rule of the king. The another important point of the twelve point agreement was to end the autocracy in Nepal. The people’s war conducted by the CPN(Maoist) created a basement for the establishment of Republic in Nepal. It also created political consciousness among the people at the grass root level and to some extent awareness for socio-economic transformation.

After the declaration of the king to reinstate the parliament, the CPN (Maoist) insisted that the declaration was a betrayal to the people. Instead the king should step down his institution for his deeds. But there was no hearing from the other parties in the alliance. Maoist chairman Prachanda appeared at the prime minister’s residence, Baluwatar for the peace talk and said that he was there to establish a new modal of democracy in Nepal, rather he didn’t reveal the new modal of system that was going to be established in Nepal. After the peace talk held between the CPN (Maoist) and the government of Nepal, the Maoist rebels were ready to put an end to the ten years long people’s war. Signing the peace accord, Maoist chairman Prachanda said that the people’s war was given a stop and a new revolution is to be performed from the reinstated parliament. The peace accord was signed in September 21,2006 after which the Maoist revolution was ended. However, Prachanda was able to provide legacy to the nineteen thousand people’s liberation army that was kept in the cantonment under the supervision of UNMIN (United Nations Mission in Nepal).

The interim constitution of Nepal 2063, gave a constitutional position to the nineteen thousand Maoist cadres. There was a provision for providing monthly allowance for the Maoist armies staying at the cantonment. The Maoist leaders doesn’t think that the revolution has not ended just here but only the form of struggle was changed.

External Linkages

According to available information, the Maoists of Nepal have well-established linkages with Indian revolutionary communist organizations, primarily with the Communist Party of India (Maoist), currently leading a protracted "people's war" throughout the subcontinent. The first signs of contacts were reportedly registered during 1989-1990, when the two groups started collaborating in order to expand their influence. According to Indian government analysis, they began the process of laying a corridor, which is now widely referred to as the Revolutionary Corridor (RC) extending from Nepal to across six Indian States, including Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and Madhya Pradesh. This entire area has been identified in Maoist literature as the Compact Revolutionary Zone (CRZ). The CRZ was organized by the Nepal and Indian members of the Naxalite movement, in a meeting at Siliguri in the Indian State of West Bengal during August 2001. Indian Maoists are known as Naxalites (or Naxals) in reference to a popular uprising that began decades ago centered in the town of Naxalbari.

Nepalese Maoists had sent their delegates to the March 2001 Congress of PWG held at Abuz Marh in the Bastar region of Chhattisgarh. The establishment of CRZ gave a wider space and platform for all the proscribed Nepal and Indian Naxalite organizations to strengthen their bases in both the countries.

The CPN(M) is a participating organization of the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement (RIM), a global association of revolutionary communist parties. In July 2001, ten regional Maoist groups formed the Coordination Committee of Maoist Parties and Organization of South Asia (CCOMPOSA), in which the Nepalese Maoists, PWG, MCC, Purbo Banglar Movement (Bangladesh), Communist Party of Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and other Indian communist parties became members. The appearance of graffiti in remote villages in Naxalite-strongholds, in Rayakal and Mallapur mandals (administrative unit) of Karimnagar district in Andhra Pradesh, hailing CCOMPOSA points the spread of the idea of a common front of revolutionary communist groups in South Asia. Moreover, the Central Committee of the Maoists, in late-January 2002, passed a resolution stating that it would work together with the PWG and the MCC in fighting the ban imposed on the latter two organisations in India, under the Prevention of Terrorism Act, 2002. A year earlier, in 2001, the Maoists had sent a senior leader named Gaurav as a fraternal delegate to attend the 9th Congress of the PWG. Reports indicate that the Maoists and the PWG have also formed the Indo-Nepal Border Region Committee to coordinate their activities in North Bihar and along the India-Nepal border.

Criticism

In April 2008 the United Nations Mission in Nepal urged the Maoist party to stop intimidating officials of other parties in the run-up of the general elections, taking place in April 10, 2008. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7159258.stm|title=UN criticises Nepal Maoist Pary|publisher=BBC News|date=2008-04-07|accessdate=2008-04-07]

The U.S. Department of State has placed the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) on its list of Specially Designated Nationals ( [http://www.ustreas.gov/offices/enforcement/ofac/sdn/t11sdn.pdf SDN list] ), and has sent $20 million in aid to the government of Nepal. Then U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell met with the Nepalese government in 2002, the first U.S. cabinet-level delegation to visit the Himalayan nation.

In August 2005, the European Union condemned CPN(M) for using children as soldiers in the civil war of Nepal. It claimed that about 400 child soldiers had died in the country's civil war. The CPN-M responds that while it cares for orphans among those killed in the war, this is different in kind from having child soldiers. (source needed)

The post-Mao People's Republic of China also opposes the group as a destabilizing force in the region. The Maoist rebels, like Maoists internationally, accuse the PRC of embracing capitalism and eschewing whatever revolutionary aspirations the regime had before the late 1970s and the leadership of Deng Xiaoping. Today, few Leftists or revolutionary socialist parties consider the PRC to be forging a meaningful alternative to global capitalism any longer. Until the spring 2006 popular uprising, the CCP supported the Nepalese monarchy.

India provided the Nepali government with aid to combat the insurgency and is currently holding two commanders of the CPN-M in jail. The government of India has also engaged in negotiations with CPN-M leadership. The CPN-M is politically allied with the Communist Party of India (Maoist), an organization waging a revolutionary war against the Indian government and social structure.

In 2004, a small group split from the CPN(M) to form Janatantric Terai Mukti Morcha.

Recent activities

* Jun 16, 2006 - The CPN (M) signed a 12 point agreement with the Seven Party Alliance in order to further the Loktantra Andolan. Following this, a three month ceasefire was declared yet the process of 'forced donations' is alleged to be continuing.Fact|date=April 2008

* January 14, 2007 - The new 330-seat parliament, including 83 Maoists, was sworn-in after the cabinet approved an interim constitution. [ [http://www.france24.com/france24Public/en/archives/news/2007/January/asia-pacific/20070115-Nepal.html Nepal Maoists join parliament after 10 years of war - AFP] ]

* March 21, 2007 - 29 people were killed and more than 40 were injured in a deadly clash between the Madhesi People's Rights Forum (MPRF) and Maoist-aligned Madhesi Rashtriya Mukti Morcha (MRMM) cadres in Gaur. [ [http://www.kantipuronline.com/kolnews.php?nid=104441 US condemns Gaur massacre] ] The clashes broke out over a meeting ground in Gaur which both sides wanted to use. The Interior Ministry ordered an investigation into the incident.

*April 1, 2007 - A new government was sworn in, [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6515159.stm "Nepal swears Maoists into cabinet"] , BBC News, April 1, 2007.] [http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/37BF6BE8-1D4A-460D-8076-A4746808D6EF.htm "Nepal swears in Maoist ministers"] , Al Jazeera, April 1, 2007.] with five Maoist ministers and one junior minister. The Maoists were placed in charge of the ministries of information, local development, planning and works, forestry, and women and children.

*September 18 2007 - The CPN (Maoist) ministers resigned from the government due to the rejection of its demands, which included the declaration of a republic prior to the Constituent Assembly election then planned for November and an electoral system of proportional representation. [ [http://www.nepalnews.com/archive/2007/sep/sep18/news09.php "Maoists quit govt; announce protest movement"] , Nepalnews.com, September 18, 2007.]

*December 31 2007 - After agreements were reached providing for a partial proportional representation system and the abolition of the monarchy after the election, [ [http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/F29F36D4-E359-48EC-80DA-0679FA0C99EA.htm "Maoists to rejoin Nepal government"] , Al Jazeera, December 23, 2007.] five Maoists were sworn in as ministers again. The Maoist ministers were: CPN(M) spokesman Krishna Bahadur Mahara as Minister of Communication and Information, Dev Gurung as Minister of Local Development, Hisila Yami as Minister of Physical Planning, Matrika Yadav as Minister for Forest and Soil Conservation, and Pampha Bhusal as Minister for Women and Social Welfare. The first four had already been members of the government appointed in April. [ [http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/9949833B-D2E3-4620-859E-64025536CB66.htm "Nepal swears in Maoist ministers"] , Al Jazeera, December 31, 2007.]

*April 10 2008 - The CPN (Maoist) participates in the 2008 Constituent Assembly election. The party gained around 30% of the vote, giving them 220 of the 575 elected seats (38%) [ [http://www.election.gov.np] , Nepalese Election Commision] and were nominated for 9 additional seats by the council of ministers, giving them a total of 229 of the 601 seats overall.

ee also

*History of Nepal
*Politics of Nepal
*Geography of Nepal
*Nepalese Civil War
*List of political parties in Nepal
*Communism
*Nepalese Constituent Assembly election, 2008

References

External links

* [http://www.krishnasenonline.org/theredstar/ "The Red Star", Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) english magazine and website]
* [http://www.cpnm.org/ Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) official website]
* [http://espresso.repubblica.it/dettaglio/Prachanda:%20Our%20Revolution%20Won/1431107 L'Espresso-Interview with Prachanda: Our revolution won, November 2006]
* [http://southasiarev.wordpress.com/ Revolutions in South Asia information project]
* [http://espresso.repubblica.it/rivoluzione_everest L'Espresso-Interview with Prachanda as Video, November 2006]
* [http://www.rwor.org/a/v21/1040-049/1043/interv.htm Interview with Comrade Prachanda, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist)]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4707482.stm BBC news Video/Transcript Interview with Prachanda]
* [http://insof.org/politics/14dwa_interv_bb interview with Baburam Bhattarai, No.2 in CPN(M)] "Washington Times" December 14 2002
* [http://www.lionesto.net Li Onesto, a sympathetic journalist who has spent a great deal of time covering the Maoists]
* [http://www.radio4all.net/proginfo.php?id=6466 An audio presentation by Li Onesto on the people's war]
* [http://www.lefthook.org/Politics/Baake041605.html Left Hook on Nepal's Civil War]
* [http://schema-root.org/region/asia/south_asia/nepal/maoists/ Nepal Maoists, live news feed]
* [http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/para/upf_nepal.htm A critical view of the Maoists from Global Security]
* [http://www7.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0511/feature3/multimedia.html National Geographic Slideshow "Inside Nepals Revolution"]
* [http://www.aroadtothefuture.org/ International Road-Building Brigades to Nepal official website]
* [http://www.worldpoliticswatch.com/article.aspx?id=687 "From Jungle Fatigues to Sensible Suits: Nepal's Maoists Join Government"] World Politics Watch, April 6, 2007.
* [http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0415/p01s02-wosc.html "Big Maoist wins could reshape Nepal's politics"] , "The Christian Science Monitor", April 15, 2008.
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7348049.stm Political program and possible behaviour of the ruling CPN(M) Party BBC Report april 2008]