Terrorism or Democracy?

President George Bush has declared the 毛-ist (Maoist) insurgents of Nepal to be “terrorists.” This is not surprising with his “you’re with us or against us” philosophy. Of course many of us are against him.

According to Conn Hallinan, Nepal--Nursing the Pinion, February 15, 2005:

“The Bush administration sees the Nepal insurgency as another domino in its international war on terrorism, arguing that the country could become a "failed state" and hence a haven for terrorists. The CPNM has been placed on the State Department's "Watch List," along with Al-Qaida, Abu Sayyaf, and Hezbollah. While the White House claims this is about "terrorism," there are suspicions in the region that American involvement is also part of an overall U.S. plan to ring China with military bases and regimes friendly, or at least beholden, to Washington.”

Unlike past Marxist-Leninist and even毛-ist organizations who have called for a one-party state, 毛-ist Guerrillas in Nepal have called for participation of all parliamentarian parties and a multi-party state. The guerrillas now control about 80% of the country side.

According to Baburam Bhattarai, CPN(Maoist):
THE ROYAL REGRESSION AND THE QUESTION OF DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC
“Precisely in this context the question of anti-monarchy common minimum programme and slogan acceptable to all the democratic forces, including the parliamentary and revolutionary democratic forces and the international community, has become pertinent. It has been the considered view of the CPN(Maoist) that the programme of election to a representative Constituent Assembly and institutionalization of the democratic republic is best suited for the purpose. The old slogan of restoration of the parliament or re-activization and amendment of 1990 Constitution, advanced by the parliamentary forces and the international community, has been totally outdated and inadequate in the new context. A brief recapitulation of the incessant struggle between the monarchy and democracy since the 1950s in the country should leave no one in doubt that without the complete abolition of the archaic institution of feudal monarchy and its puppet RNA no form of democracy can be secure and institutional in Nepal. It has been proved time and again that the so-called 'constitutional monarchy' seen in operation in some of the highly developed capitalist countries cannot be replicated in a semi-feudal & semi-colonial society. Hence any attempt on the part of the parliamentary political parties and the international forces to preserve the thoroughly rotten and discredited institution of monarchy, in this or that pretext, does not correspond with the historical necessity and ground reality of balance of forces in the country, and the agenda of 'democratic republic' has entered the Nepalese politics.”