Nepal: A new nest for
al-Qaeda? By Sudha
Ramachandran
BANGALORE - Early this month, the United
States
ambassador to Nepal, Michael Malinowski, told
the BBC's
Nepal correspondent, Nick Bryant, that the US
was
concerned that "areas in Nepal don't get out of
control,
don't become a vacuum where terrorist groups can
move
into and use Nepal for whatever". When Bryant
asked him
whether he meant terrorist groups like al-Qaeda,
Malinowski answered in the affirmative. He,
however,
admitted that Washington did not have evidence
or
intelligence linking al-Qaeda with the Maoists
fighting
an insurgency war in Nepal.
This is not
the
first time that the US has equated Nepalese
Maoists with
international terrorist organizations. In
January 2002,
US Secretary of State Colin Powell referred to
operations against the Maoists as part of the
international "war on terrorism". Malinowski has
in the
past described the Maoists as "fundamentally the
same as
terrorists elsewhere, be they members of the
Shining
Path [Peru], Pol Pot's people [Khmer Rouge] or
al-Qaeda".
Malinowski's recent statement
that
"terrorist groups can move into and use Nepal
for
whatever" comes at a time of intense political
uncertainty in Nepal. Not only is the government
under
serious pressure from the Maoists, but also
political
parties are out on the streets demanding
restoration of
multi-party democracy. Protest marches, strikes
and
violence have paralyzed daily life in Nepal.
Political
turmoil in Nepal has assumed worrying
proportions and
Nepal seems to have plunged into its worst
crisis in
decades.
Elaborating the ambassador's
comment to
BBC, a US embassy official in Kathmandu said
that the
persisting political turmoil in Nepal as a
result of the
Maoist insurgency, and compounded by the current
confrontation between King Gyanendra and the
political
parties, is just the kind of environment that
acts like
a magnet to groups like the al-Qaeda.
"Al-Qaeda's nest
in Afghanistan and Pakistan has been destroyed.
The
birds are looking for a new home and Nepal in
turmoil
could provide al-Qaeda fighters a sanctuary," he
argued.
The Maoist insurgency in Nepal is in its
eighth
year. What started as a small band of idealists
and
intellectuals is a battle-hardened guerrilla
army today,
capable of taking on not only the country's
police force
but also its armed forces. The Maoists control
large
swathes of territory - around two-fifths of the
Himalayan kingdom's land. Their influence runs
across
almost all of Nepal's 75 districts.
The
US,
China, India and Britain are backing the
government's
efforts to quell the Maoist insurgency. These
countries
have contributed military hardware and training
to the
Royal Nepalese Army (RNA) in its operations
against the
Maoists. The US, for instance, is said to have
provided
aid to finance Nepal's purchase of M-16 rifles
and night
vision equipment. It is also training RNA
officers in
counter-insurgency warfare. In August 2003, the
US
enhanced its grants to Nepal from US$24 million a
year
to $38 million a year in wake of the insurgency.
In 2003, the US Department of State
designated
the Nepalese Maoists as a terrorist
organization. "For
eight years, the Communist Party of Nepal
[Maoist] has
committed acts of terrorism that threaten the
stability
of a government friendly to the US," the order
said,
adding that "this organization poses a terrorist
threat
to the security of US nationals and US national
security
and foreign policy interests. Its members are
responsible for the murder of two Nepalese
security
personnel employed by the US embassy in
Kathmandu. In
public statements last year, the organization
directly
threatened US diplomats in Kathmandu. The order
also
says that "the Maoist group has intimidated and
robbed
American tourists, bombed and burned
establishments
frequented by foreign tourists, and bombed and
extorted
money from US-owned businesses. The [Communist
Party of
Nepal] has also committed acts of terrorism
against
US-sponsored non-governmental organizations."
During the Cold War, India was opposed
to any
American presence in its neighborhood. But the
growing
proximity between Delhi and Washington in recent
years
has diluted this position to some degree. That
the US,
India and China are on the same side in the
battle
against the Maoists marks a major shift from the
past.
This, however, does not negate India and China's
unease
with US long-term presence at their doorsteps.
The US embassy official in Nepal pointed
out
that all four countries view the military
operations
against the Maoists as part of their own wars
against
terrorism. India, for instance, is battling
ultra-left
radicals within its own borders. Radical groups
like the
People's War in India have strong links with the
Nepalese Maoists. "This makes the elimination of
the
Nepalese Maoists a priority for India too," the
official
said.
While Washington's extension of
military
support to the government's operations against
the
Maoists is ostensibly to pressure the rebels to
return
to the negotiating table, this has not happened.
The
rebels are far from crushed and have shown that
they are
still a potent force to reckon with.
If
anything, the provision of military equipment to
the RNA
has only emboldened the Nepalese government to
persist
with the military option and to do little to
reopen
talks with the rebels. Washington's approach to
Nepal's
Maoist problem appears to be prolonging the
bloody
conflict in the country. What is more, US
backing to the
RNA, a force that is under criticism from
international
human rights groups for its grave violation of
human
rights - most of the "disappearances" have been
attributed to the RNA rather than the Maoists -
has
drawn flak in Nepal.
The Maoist
insurgency has
its roots in poverty and the appalling
socio-economic
conditions in the country. Nepal is one of the
poorest
countries in world, with around 42 percent of
its
population living below the poverty line. The
average
per capita income is only $220 and the
unemployment rate
is around 52 percent. Instead of addressing the
socio-economic conditions that fuel the
insurgency, the
government is relying excessively on the
military option
to tackle the Maoists.
The Maoists deny
that
they have links with the al-Qaeda. They draw
inspiration
from Peru's Shining Path guerrillas and maintain
that
they are fighting a people's war to dismantle
the
monarchy in Nepal and establish a people's
republic in
its place. They strongly object to being branded
"terrorists" and insist that they are a
political
movement. They say they have nothing to do with
the
al-Qaeda. Indeed, even Nepalese officials admit
that
they have not found any evidence of such links
yet.
Maoist sympathizers based in India argue
that
the threat posed by Maoists to Americans is
being
exaggerated. "Although Maoist propaganda
literature is
critical of American imperialism, the rebels
have not
targeted Americans so far," a Nepali student
activist in
Bangalore told Asia Times Online. "The war
against the
Maoists provides Washington with an excuse for
establishing a higher and long-term presence in
Nepal,"
he pointed out. (Nepal is strategically located -
it
shares borders with India and China.)
American
officials visiting Nepal routinely state that
the
conflict can be settled only through
negotiations with
the rebels. But its strong military backing to
the RNA
is only increasing the bloodletting in the
hills. The
bloody war has contributed to a significant
hardening of
posture on the part of the Maoists, making a
compromise
solution more difficult to reach.
(Copyright
2004 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved.
Please
contact content@atimes.com for
information on our sales and syndication
policies.)
