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Commentary
July 2005
Internal Debate within the Communist Party
of Nepal (Maoist)
June 2005
Nepal—The
Most Significant Popular Struggle for Freedom and Democracy in the World
Today
by Randhir Singh
Debate Over the Future of the AFL-CIO: More
Heat than Light
by Bill Fletcher,
Jr.
May 2005
Hands off
Assata Campaign
Statement from the Black
Radical Congress
Will Miller: The
Life of an Activist-Educator
by Ron Jacobs
André Gunder Frank
(1929-2005)
by Theotonio dos
Santos
April 2005
A Note on the
Death of André Gunder Frank (1929-2005)
by Samir Amin
March 2005
Dr. Baburam Bhattarai on the Royal
Dictatorship and the Need For a Democratic Republic in Nepal
February 2005
The Future of Organized Labor in the U.S.:
Reinventing Trade Unionism for the 21st Century
by Kate Bronfenbrenner,
Donna Dewitt, Bill Fletcher, Jr., et al.
January 2005
On December 24, 2004, Maoists in China Get
Three Year Prison Sentences for Leafleting
May 2004
William H. Hinton
(1919 –2004)
by John Mage
April 2004
Can the Working
Class Change the World?
by Michael D.
Yates
December 2003
A Turn for the
Worse in the United States: Criminalizing Dissent
by Lynne A. Williams,
Esq.
September 2003
Dr. Baburam Bhattarai on the Failure of the
Peace Talks in Nepal
August 2003
Remembering W.E.B. Du Bois
by Bill Fletcher,
Jr.
June 2003
Gilbert Achcar Interviewed by David
Barsamian
May 2003
Fidel Castro: May
Day 2003
March 2003
Understanding the U.S. War State
by John McMurtry
February 2003
Women’s
Leadership and the Revolution in Nepal
by Com. Parvati
November 2002
The Face of
Empire
by William K. Tabb
September 2002
A Communication from the Revolutionaries in
Nepal on the Current (September 2002) Situation in the Civil War
Comparisons
Between Recent U.S.-Backed Coups: Caracas and Kathmandu
by Wayne Madsen
May 2002
A Struggle Within
the Chinese Communist Party
Letter of the
Fourteen
Letter of Ma Bin
and Han Yaxi
April 2002
Goldilocks Meets
a Bear: How Bad Will the U.S. Recession Be?
by Fred Moseley
Hypocrisy and Human Rights
by H. E. Mr. Felipe
Pérez Roque
January 2002
Birthpangs of Democracy in Nepal:
Commentary from Dr. Baburam Bhattarai
November 2001
Terrorism and
Human Rights
by Michael E.
Tigar
September 2001
Terror Attacks of
September 11, 2001
Statement from the Black
Radical Congress
August 2001
Will We Awaken
and Find That No One Is Left
by Bill Fletcher,
Jr.
July 2001
A Tale of Two
Conferences
by Bill Fletcher,
Jr.
June 2001
The Letter of Dr.
Baburam Bhattarai on the Palace Massacre in Nepal
April 2001
Statement on the
Rebellion in Cincinnati and Continued Police Terror
Statement from the Black
Radical Congress
African Leaders
Hide Political Woes Behind Homophobia
Statement from the Black
Radical Congress
March 2001
Communists Return
to Power in Moldova: Hope for a Communist Democracy in the Former Soviet
Union?
by John Mage
Contemporary Police Brutality and
Misconduct: A Continuation of the Legacy of Racial Violence
Statement from the Black
Radical Congress
February 2001
A Silent Coup
d’État: Only in America
by Edward Greer
U.S. Wouldn't Tolerate Our Election in
Nicaragua
by Robert W.
McChesney
Media Giants Have
a Pal at the FCC
by Robert W.
McChesney
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The revolutionary forces in Nepal led by the
Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) have been engaged in a country-wide
people’s war (“jana youdha”) against the royal government. Much
of the country has been liberated. The palace and the Royal Nepal Army now
retain control over the central valley of Nepal and areas adjacent to their
fortified bases in the district towns in the countryside, and few other areas.
On the evening of Sunday, August 7th, the People’s Liberation Army
marked a new stage in the conflict by launching, for the first time, a direct
frontal attack on a major fortified base of the RNA.. The “Pili” base
of the RNA was established last month near the village of Pakha, close to the
headquarters of Kalikot District in the valley of the Tila, a branch of the
Karnali River in the western hills of Nepal. The district lies adjacent to the
core revolutionary base region of Jajarkot. Establishing the base was a forward
move into liberated territory by the RNA, part of a strategy to increase the
RNA’s mobility by driving a military road along the line separating the
heart of the revolutionary zone and a more recently liberated region, and
between the two RNA controlled and fortified airstrips of Surkhet and Jumla. By
August 8th this strategy lay in ruins, with the base demolished, and of its
garrison of 200 the RNA admits at least 50 are dead, and the PLA has announced
it has taken 52 prisoner. The PLA announced that it had lost 22 soldiers in the
attack.
The RNA propaganda office in Kathmandu enjoys a direct line to the
world’s media, and faced with the unavoidable fact of a significant
strategic defeat responded by making the accusation that some of the dead
soldiers had been shot after surrender. This unsubstantiated slander was duly
picked up and repeated by the established global media.
On August 10th Monthly Review, along with many other far more
prosperous media outlets, received a press statement from the revolutionaries
emphatically denying the report. The statement is also of importance for
setting out a policy of co-operation with the UN in regard to the investigation
of human rights abuses, and of co-operation with the UN and with certain NGOs
and INGOs in regard to questions of construction and development. As far as we
can tell, this press statement (unlike the slander it rebuts) has not been
reported on the internet. We therefore set it out here, edited for grammatical
clarity. This edit is of course unauthorized, as we cannot communicate with the
source of the original, but we believe it fully represents the sense of the
Nepalese original.
Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist)
Central Committee
Press Statement
This press statement has been issued to clarify party policy in connection
with human rights, and development and construction.
- Our party is a revolutionary party struggling to establish a real
democracy of the Nepalese people. We have publicly stated our principled
adherence to the core and the spirit of the Geneva Conventions in regard to
human rights in the course of armed conflicts, and we have emphasized out
determination to adhere to these standards ever since the people’s war in
Nepal began under the leadership of our party. Our established practice has
been to maintain a respectful and humane conduct toward prisoners of war, and
we have repeatedly released such prisoners, demonstrating that our practice
corresponds to the statements we have made as to our convictions and beliefs.
- The reality, not hidden from anyone, is that the feudal “Royal”
army commanded from the Palace in Kathmandu has “disappeared”
thousands without legal process, inhumanely tortured and killed the sons and
daughters of the Nepalese people, raped women, beaten the poor peasants, looted
their few possessions and set fire to their villages. The palace has openly
engaged in the adventure of crushing the entire country under the millstone of
autocracy by taking away all the fundamental and sovereign rights of the
citizenry in the feudal royal coup of February 1, 2005. Against this
background, we have publicly welcomed the decision taken by the United Nations
to appoint a High Commission to investigate and protect human rights in Nepal,
and have already demonstrated our determination to help the High Commission to
the extent of our abilities. We also wish to clarify through this statement
that our party policy has been to allow the aforesaid Commission of the United
Nations to travel to any part of the country affected by the conflict, to study
and inspect the place of any sensitive incident, to visit the prisoners under
our control, and as necessary to assist the Commission in discussions and
interactions with the different units of our party. This policy of our party is
also being applied in regard to the International Red Cross Organizations.
- Everyone now knows that a base camp of the “Royal” army in
Kalikot District was daringly attacked and captured by the People’s
Liberation Army on August 7th and 8th. The “Royal” government has
spread propaganda to the world media that 40 of the captured royal soldiers
were killed in cold blood. This story is totally false, the product of a
diseased conspiratorial imagination. Far from shooting soldiers after capturing
them, the People’s Liberation Army has taken 52 royal soldiers into
detention. These royal soldiers in our detention are being treated
respectfully, and they will be released in the appropriate time and by an
appropriate process. In addition, we wish to issue a heartfelt appeal to all
the human rights organizations to protest the random air attacks being carried
out by the royal army upon remote villages and innocent and unarmed people to
hide their defeat and cowardice.
- Some lack of clarity and regional disparities in practice have remained in
our policy toward the UNDP and certain different NGOs and INGOs in regard to
construction and development. Our definite party policy has been to provide
help to the development efforts of the United Nations. Recently our party has
issued a statement to implement this policy and to implement it firmly and
evenly all across the country, and our party is confident that this shall
produce positive results. As far as different NGOs and INGOs are concerned, our
party decision has been to work with them and assist their work by maintaining
coordination and consultation and agreement with regional and district level
party organizations and people’s governments. If any problem arises in
this regard, we wish to clarify that our policy is to resolve such problems by
discussions between our party and the central bodies of the relevant
organizations and institutions.
August 10, 2005
Prachanda
Chairman
Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist)
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