Comrade Alastair

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. Read the rest of this entry »

Well, the UN Mssion in Nepal is denying it gave the PLA fighters permission to leave the cantonments, and has instead called them a breach of the peace accords. The Maoists have claimed and as far as I’m aware continue to claim they had the UNMIN’s permission to leave the cantonments, so the situation’s obviously a tad messy.

Meanwhile Prachanda has expressed “bewilderment” over the issue.

Chairman Dahal said some parties are concocting plots to drive the Maoists out of the peace process.

Claiming the detention of Maoist People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in Kapilvastu with weapons being an example of the conspiracy, Dahal argued that the UN body said nothing when he was travelling from the east in a vehicle belonging to the cantonment.

“I don’t understood where the gap is this time around?” Dahal expressed his bewilderment at the UNMIN’s criticism of the Kapilvastu incident. Read the rest of this entry »

New details have emerged about the arrested group of PLA fighters caught by the police carrying weapons outside the cantonment. This report says nineteen were arrested (previous reports said twenty two), and has specified the number and type of weapons captured. A PLA officer from the cantonment the arrested fighters came from has come out and said that they had left the cantonment “to provide security to party Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal” and that  they “were returning to the camp as per the directive of the party leadership”. He denied that this goes against the peace process in Nepal.
Meanwhile, a UCPN (M) leader called Barsaman Pun is claiming that the PLA fighters had permission from the United Nations Mission In Nepal (UNMIN), the UN body set up to oversee the peace process and monitor the situation on both sides. Frankly this seems pretty implausible to me. It’s doubtful the UNMIN would approve any such request, and even if they did it’s highly unlikely they would do so without informing the Nepali government and police forces! If the UNMINdid approve this, it’s going to make it even more unpopular amongst the reactionary forces in Nepal, who are already anoyed with what they see as it’s overly soft approach to the Maoists and the PLA.

It appears the PLA fighters were not captured as such – there was a standoff between them and armed police and they willingly chose to allow themselves to be arrested peacefully in order to avoid a gun battle which could well have totally derailed an already tenuous peace process. Read the rest of this entry »

Women and men fight for freedom together in the PLA

There’s been reports over the past week or two that the People’s Liberation Army is on high alert, that “guerrilla warfare has dominated the regular exercise session inside the camp” and that according to a PLA Division Commander the Maoist army’s “battle-hardened combatants are prepared for another war for the sake of transformation.”

And now, in the midst of numerous references by Maoist leaders to an impending’People’s Revolt’, about 22 armed PLA fighters have been arrested by armed police while travelling east from their cantonment. The fighters had assault rifles and other ‘modern weaponry’ in their possession.

Under the peace treaty signed in 2006, the PLA fighters are not permitted to leave their cantonments. The only question remaining then is whether or not the Maoist party leadership knew of and ordered this. It’s possible they may deny it to save face, but considering the tight control the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) has had over it’s armed wing in the past it seems unlikely this was an action by rogue elements. Read the rest of this entry »