Nepal Army General: Army integration will not happen
Well, surprise surprise, leading figures in the reactionary Nepal Army have come out with a clear statement saying they will not allow army integration to happen. A major part of the peace accords between the Nepali state and the Maoists was the integration of the People’s Liberation Army and the reactionary army. The Maoist’s intention with doing this is to “democratise” the Nepal Army, and “professionalise” the PLA. This is a bold proposal that carries both great dangers and great potential benefits – if the Nepal Army is flooded with passionate, commited revolutionary fighters it will at the very least make it extremely difficult for the military to move against the Maoist Party and could conceivably split the army or take it over entirely. History shows that the army of a reactionary state tends to split during a time of revolutionary crisis.
The state is a structure set up with one purpose – oppression. Whether covert or overt, the state’s role is to maintain, uphold and defend the power and privilige of the ruling class and keep the exploited classes from challenging this. The state is fundamentally made up of bodies of armed men - the military, the police, the courts, the prisons, the immigration services and so on. If the army, probably the key component of the state, is politicised or at least neutralised, this deals a serious blow to the security of the ruling class. This is why the commanders of the Nepal Army and the rich minority whose interests it serves are so strongly opposed to army integration.
Army-Militia Integration Impossible: Nepal Army Official
// TGW
One of the high ranking officers of the Nepal Army has said that the Maoists’ Militia integration into the Nepal Army was an impossible proposition.
Addressing a seminar in Kathmandu, Thursday August 27, 2009, Lt. General Pawan Jung Pandey, Chief of the Directorate of the Military Intelligence of the Nepal Army had made these remarks.
“The Nepal Army will not accept the South African model of Army Integration”, said General Pandey adding, “The image of the South African Army is at the lowest because of the integration with the rebels.”
Similarly, Retd Lt. General Chitra Bahadur Gurung told point blank that the Nepal Army even do not want to listen to the talk of integration with the maoist militias.
Gurung’s fiery remark came in reply to the idea raised by Barsa Man Pun alias Ananta, in-charge of the Maoists’ party Military wing, that Nepal should adopt the South African model to carry out the integration between the State and the rebel armies.
Said Gurung, the entire world was behind Nelson Mandela while the integration process was being carried out there whereas Nepali situation stands at an entirely different plane.
Revealed the Peace Minister, Rakam Chemjong, addressing the program that the government will soon oust the four thousand disqualified militias from the cantonments. Dr. Ram Sharan Mahat told that in case the integration takes place, the country will not get the constitution.
The seminar was organized by Nepal Policy Study Center.
2009-08-28 09:04:06
Dear editor,
I support the Nepal army viewpoint not to integrate the Maoist militias with Nepal Army. From the very beginning, I am writing- the causes of the crisis of Nepal is the suspicious activities of UNMIN.Nepalese people had expected that the UN’s role would be impartial. But the UN could not remain neutral. The UNMIN listens only to the Maoist rebels and the corrupt leaders of the so-called big party totally disregarded the aspiration of majority of the Nepalese people. By hatching such conspiracy of the UNMIN teams are working to push Nepal into a bloodier civil war and conflict. From the very beginning, UNMIN has been demoralizing Nepal Army and supporting Maoist and its rebel by allowing them to keep the weapons with them in the cantonment and let them start the youth force (YCL), who can be the law and order itself as they used to do during their revolution. Nowhere in the world, would a country be able to protect its sovereignty by making the national army weak and powerless?
So I welcome the strong statement of Army staff.
Thank you.
Dirgha Raj Prasai
Former member of Parliament, nepal
Dirgha Raj Prasai
August 29, 2009 at 11:30 am
Thank you for commenting.
Out of curiosity, what political party were you a member of parliament for and when were you in parliament?
I don’t think the UNMIN are conspiring to advance the cause of the Maoists, I think they’re just pretty incompetent. IF (and I mean if) Prachanda’s secret speech (http://www.nepalnews.com/archive/2009/may/may05/news12.php#1) is real, and the Maoists really did trick the UNMIN into thinking they had 35,000 fighters rather than the 7,000 to 8,000 they really had, it just shows the UNMIN are idiots, not that they are in league with the Maoists. As a revolutionary socialist who wholeheartedly supports the Maoists and truly hopes that they lead a revolution and capture state power in Nepal, it gives me nothing but happiness that they’ve increased the size of the PLA!
You refer to the Maoists as the “so-called big party”. I don’t think there’s any so-called about it. They objectively have more seats in the Constituent Assembly than the next two parties put together, and won by far the largest vote in the elections. They have a democratic mandate to carry out their revolutionary program, and reactionary forces in Nepal such as the Nepal Congress, the military, the monarchy and much of the UML are conspiring to prevent them from doing this.
Despite how much you might want to see the PLA disarmed and the toiling masses of Nepal helpless before a resurgent (and probably vengeful) military, the Maoists would never have agreed to a peace treaty without being allowed to keep their weapons, and nor shouly they. They will resist any attempts to disarm the PLA, and rightly so. If you had your way your country would still be engulfed in civil war!
I don’t know who you are, what party you once represented or whether you committed or colluded in many crimes against the people during your time in government, but I look forward to the day when Prachanda, Bhattarai, Kiran and co declare a People’s Republic from a podium in Kathmandu. Hopefully you’ll be willing to co-operate in the New Nepal.
Alastair Reith
August 30, 2009 at 10:11 am
Dirgha Raj Prasai is a puppet of India and a servant of opportunist parties like Nepali Congress and UML. All he cares about is whether he gets some meat while these traditional blood-drinking parasite parties are in power. He would not like party like Maoist who represent the real rural and mass people of Nepal who have been exploited like people like him.
Sarkar
December 22, 2009 at 10:06 pm