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Prachanda ready to disband guerrilla army to end standoff
One dead as violence erupts in Bangkok Policemen patrol on motorcycles in Bangkok on Thursday. — Reuters |
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Prachanda ready to disband guerrilla army to end standoff
Kathmandu, May 13 Prachanda, who is also the supreme commander of the Maoists’ People’s Liberation Army, said his party was ready to dissolve the para-military structure of the Young Communist League (YCL), the youth wing of the party, within 4-5 days and integrate and rehabilitate the Maoist combatants within four months. “We’ll dismantle the barracks of the Young Communist League within four-five days. We are ready to break the relation of the party with the cantonments,” he underlined. Unified CPN-Maoist is also ready to return the land and property seized during the decade-long insurgency as per the demands of the other political parties at the earliest, Prachanda said during an interaction with members of the civil society in the capital yesterday. Prachanda said the party was ready to categorise the Maoist combatants by mid-June in a bid to speed up the integration of the former rebels. While the former rebels want an en masse induction of some 19,500 former guerrillas, the ruling parties say the Maoists inflated the size of the PLA and are entitled to have only 3,500-4,000 combatants accommodated in the military. Major political parties have asked the Maoists to disband their para-military groups and turn their organisation into a civilian party and return properties seized before they could consider supporting a government led by the Maoists. Prachanda also asked for the setting up of a reconciliation commission to establish the whereabout of nearly 1,000 people who went missing during the “People’s War” and are feared to have been killed by security forces or the former rebels themselves. Nepali Congress, the second largest party in the 601-member Constituent Assembly, has asked the Maoists to implement its commitments so as to end the political deadlock. Sher Bahadur Deuba, the former Prime Minister of the Nepali Congress, said though the Maoists commitments were positive, they should put these commitments into practice. Even after calling off their indefinite anti-government general strike on May 7, Maoists continue to demand the resignation of embattled Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal ahead of a key deadline for a new constitution at the end of this month. Leaders of the three major political parties-the CPN-Maoist, the Nepali Congress and the prime minister’s Communist Party of Nepal (United Marxist Leninist) -- met but failed to reach an agreement to end the standoff. The Maoists, who have around 35 per cent of the seats in parliament, want the government disbanded, followed by the formation of a new coalition led by them to rescue the peace process and draft a new constitution. The Maoists, who waged a decade-long insurgency, joined mainstream politics after a 2006 peace deal with the interim government led by G. P. Koirala, who passed away in March. The Maoists headed a coalition in 2008 after a surprise election victory but walked out after Nepal President Ram Baran Yadav refused to endorse the dismissal of army chief.
— PTI
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The best-known Indian in Beijing Shastri Ramachandaran in Beijing Jairam Ramesh, India’s somewhat controversial Environment and Forests minister, has been a favourite of the Chinese media for the past several months. His three-day visit to the Chinese capital between May 7 and 9 generated an avalanche of reports and interviews quoting him. But for the controversy over his remark on Indian establishment’s hyper-sensitivity to Chinese companies, his visit could well be hailed as a resounding success in diplomatic terms. Even before he reached Beijing, which he has visited four times during the last seven months, China’s premier news agency Xinhua ran a lengthy interview with the minister, who was described as an invaluable asset to India. Few Indian politicians, barring Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, have come in for such fulsome praise in the Chinese media. More exclusive interviews followed after he landed here and his speeches were reported extensively in the media, which spoke of Ramesh in glowing terms even before he made his controversial comment on the last day of his visit. A media favourite, several leading magazines have carried cover stories on him following the Copenhagen summit and Indo-Chinese cooperation in the context of climate change. It came therefore as no surprise when Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China, which described him as India’s outspoken minister who does not pull his punches, invited him to address members. That is why his remarks about the Indian Home Ministry surprised observers. Ramesh would have known that every word that he uttered would be picked up and sent out across the global media. Not surprisingly, while Ramesh faced flak at home, the government-owned China Daily described his comments against his own country’s Home Ministry as ‘prudent’ in an editorial. It approvingly quoted Ramesh as saying that India should treat China as a trustworthy partner rather than a potential competitor. The mass-circulated Chinese Global Times from the stable of the Party-run People’s Daily, backed Ramesh in calling upon India to remove “needless” restrictions on Chinese companies. A day later, Global Times quoted the Director of South Asia Studies at the Shanghai Institute for International Studies in favour of the errant Indian minister. “Ramesh is one of the politicians who advocates friendly Sino-Indian cooperation. His supportive remarks towards Chinese products are encouraging”, he told the newspaper. However, these same newspapers, even in the thick of the current controversy, took a dim view of Ramesh opposing China’s case to build dams on the Brahmaputra and criticised him for that. To be fair to him, there are a number of issues on which he has expressed negative views on China. Ramesh is currently India’s best-known face and voice in China. It is, therefore, unfortunate that a completely unnecessary controversy has strengthened the perception here that the Indian political establishment is divided over Chinese investments and keeping keeping Chinese companies out.
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One dead as violence erupts in Bangkok
Bangkok, May 13 Gunshots and a series of loud explosions were heard close to the Red Shirts' sprawling encampment in the retail heart of the capital occupied by thousands of opposition protesters. A red-shirted demonstrator was shot in the head, and appeared to have been killed, as troops opened fire on protesters. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva declared emergency rule here and five surrounding provinces on April 7 after protesters stormed parliament as part of their campaign to topple the government. He signed an order today to extend the special measures to 15 more provinces, mostly in the north and northeast, out of a total of 76. Major-General Khattiya Sawasdipol, a key figure in the protest movement, was shot in the head and seriously wounded while he was giving an interview to a newspaper journalist close to the protest hub. Hours earlier the army had warned it would deploy snipers in the area around the rally site as part of a lockdown aimed at preventing more protesters entering.
— AFP
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today, leaving one dead and eight wounded, including a renegade general allied with the demonstrators, while the Thai PM extended emergency rule to more provinces.
