It’s time to keep an eye on Nepal, things are not in good shape there. See this note regarding possible Indian Communist party influence, and this article from Sydney on the current situation. We can only hope that Prachandra doesn’t emulate Mao’s Mass Murders.
The Maoists’ chief peace negotiator, Krishna Bahadur Mahara, met the press in the capital on Thursday for the first time since the peace process began last month. He warned that the House of Representatives did not represent the interests of civil society or the Maoists and should be disbanded. If there was no consensus on a national convention from the interim government the Maoists would convene it unilaterally, he said.
The Maoists have spent the past week rallying the faithful. Everywhere you turn, there are posters of their leader Prachandra, looking more like a Bollywood movie star than a guerilla leader with a huge red tika on his forehead.
The Maoist leader made a surprise appearance at a rally in western Nepal earlier this week, but no one would say ahead of time whether he would speak at the Kathmandu rally.
For the past 10 years the Maoists have waged a people’s war – they control almost all of the countryside but they have never cracked the city, until now.
Again I will repeat: Marxism was the greatest evil of last century, and of all time. Communism, like rust, never sleeps.
Update: The maoists agree to put their arms down during elections, and to segregate themselves so as not to influence the election. Story here. Interim, many refugees still wonder if it safe to go home, or if the Maoists will give them back their home if they were to go.
