NEPAL: UPDATE ON MAOIST ACTIVITIES, NOV 15-21

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 KATHMANDU 002228

SIPDIS

STATE FOR SA/INS
STATE ALSO PLEASE PASS USAID/DCHA/OFDA
MANILA FOR USAID/DCHA/OFDA
LONDON FOR POL/REIDEL

SENSITIVE

E.O 12958: N/A
TAGS: NP PGOV PTER PHUM CASC IN
SUBJECT: NEPAL: UPDATE ON MAOIST ACTIVITIES, NOV 15-21

REF: Kathmandu 2151


1. (U) Summary: Nepal's Maoist insurgents continued their
violence this week, killing at least fourteen civilians in
brutal attacks around the country. Two children, aged
fourteen and nine, were among the victims. In Kathmandu
Valley, the rebels assassinated a police officer, burned a
Village Development Committee office building, attacked an
electricity sub-station, and set off an explosion in a
businessman's home. Maoists continued to terrorize the
roads, barricading the country's major east-west highway
and killing civilians--including an Indian businessman--
with landmines. Thirty-five more Village Development
Committee offices were destroyed in new attacks. A London-
based NGO is calling for UN condemnation of Maoist use of
child soldiers. Tiger Mountain travel agency related
further details about the bombing incident at their
Kathmandu office. End summary.

MAOISTS MURDER THIRD-GRADE STUDENT;
BOMB KILLS NINE-YEAR-OLD BOY

2. (U) In two separate incidents early this week, Maoist
insurgents brutally murdered a third-grade student, and
killed a nine-year-old boy with explosives intended for his
school. A few days after abducting 14-year-old Raju Tharu
on charges of 'spying,' Maoists marched him to a bridge
near his village, where they blindfolded him, slit his
throat and hacked him to death in public, according to
witnesses in Bhimapur Village Development Committee (VDC),
in southern Bardiya district. In western Dang district,
nine-year old Anil Kumar Choudhary was killed by a Maoist
bomb planted near his school. He was playing with the
plastic packet of explosives when it exploded in his hands.

ATTACKS ON CIVILIANS CONTINUE
--------------


3. (U) Ongoing attacks against civilians this week claimed
the lives of three Communist Party (CPN-UML) workers, as
well as two teachers, a shopkeeper, a laborer and a member
of the Nepali Congress party. Chakra Pasad Choudary, a
former CPN-UML parliamentarian, was shot to death by a
group of four Maoists as he returned home from a party
meeting in southwestern Kailali district. Choudhary had
been threatened by the Maoists in September, and had
refused to pay their demand of 30,000 rupees (380 USD). The
body of party activist Kumari Deb Das was found in Nuwakot,
north of Kathmandu, several days after his abduction by
Maoists. In eastern Panchthar district, Maoists slashed 30-
year-old CPN-UML worker Hari Kambang's spine with a khukuri
and then shot him in the head as he was walking home from a
nearby village.


4. (U) Also in Panchthar, Maoists killed Chandra Kharel,
the headmaster of a local primary school. His sister
Sarita, abducted with him from their home on November 12,
is still missing. Another teacher, Keshar Bahadur Thapa,
was beheaded on the same day in eastern Ilam district.


5. (U) In other incidents, three Maoists killed Netra
Bahadur Timilshina, a 42-year-old laborer, in a temple near
his home in central Makwanpur district. Ten armed Maoists
stormed into the home of Ramesh Thapa, in Mahendranagar,
western Kanchapur district, took him several kilometers
from his house and shot him on the highway. A group of
insurgents beat to death Baburam Poudel, a shopkeeper,
according to newspaper reports.

KATHMANDU VALLEY: POLICE CONSTABLE SHOT DEAD,
VDC OFFICE
TORCHED, NEA ATTACKED, PRIVATE HOUSE BOMBED
-------------- --------------

6. (U) Raja Ram Malla, a 28-year-old plain-clothes police
constable posted to a police office in south Kathmandu, was
shot by Maoist insurgents four times in the back and
abdomen as he watched television in a shop near his home on
November 19. He died after being taken to a nearby
hospital. (Note: Malla worked in the area around Rabi
Bhawan, the location of USAID and US-affiliated Lincoln
School, where Embassy guard Ramesh Manadhar was killed in
December 2001. Post and police have no evidence that the
shooting was related to Manadhar's death or the USG. End
note.)


7. (U) On the night of November 18, Maoists severely
damaged the VDC building in Dachi, a village in the
Kathmandu Valley. According to police reports, a small
group of Maoists broke into the building overnight, threw
the furniture into the street and set it ablaze, before
setting fire to the building itself.


8. (U) Police also reported a bomb explosion in the home of
businessman Laba Shrestha in the northern suburb of
Bansbari. As in several prior attacks in the Kathmandu
Valley, the bomb blast was detonated in a toilet. No one
was injured. Police suspect that the house was targeted
because of proximity to the home of a palace relative.


9. (U) On the morning of November 17, Maoists attacked a
Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) Sub-station in Min
Bhawan, an eastern suburb of the capital. According to
eyewitnesses, a group of insurgents held the NEA security
guard at gunpoint while they set fire to thirteen vehicles
and blew up one of the station's seven transmitters.

MAOISTS TERRORIZE HIGHWAYS
--------------


10. (U) The rising toll of Maoist landmine victims assumed
an international dimension on Wednesday, when Jayenta Shah,
Indian sales manager of Eveready Battery Company, was
killed as his jeep hit a mine on November 20. The
vehicle's three other passengers were injured in the
incident, which took place near the Indian subsidiary's
facility in southwestern Kailali district. Police suspect
that the mine was intended for security forces.


11. (U) In southern Dang district, Maoists barricaded and
mined the Mahendra Highway in broad daylight on November
17, bringing traffic to a five-hour standstill. Nepal's
major east-west highway, the road was blocked from 10:30 am
to 3:30 pm, and was reopened only after police were able to
remove the obstacles placed by the Maoists and defuse their
MORE VDC OFFICES DESTROYED
--------------


12. (U) Continuing the recent pattern of attacks on Village
Development Committee (VDC) offices (reftel),Maoists
torched three VDC buildings in southern Sarlahi District on
Monday night. The attackers destroyed all of the furniture
and documents at offices in Kisanpur, Bela and Maohanpur
between 11pm and 2am. Of the 99 VDCs in Sarlahi, 29 have
been destroyed by the Maoists. An additional 32 VDCs were
destroyed in southern Arghankhanchi district from November
13-15, doing damage valued at an estimated 10 million
rupees (130,000 USD) in that district alone.

COALITION CALLS ON UNITED NATIONS
TO CONDEMN USE OF CHILD SOLDIERS IN NEPAL
--------------


13. (U) Local press has reported that the Coalition to Stop
the Use of Child Soldiers (CSUCS),a London-based coalition
of human rights NGOs, is lobbying the United Nations to
name the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) in its response
to Security Council Resolution 1379. The resolution
requested the Secretary-General to submit a list of state
and non-state actors using child soldiers.


14. (U) According to the 195-page, 25-country "1379 Report"
released by CSUS earlier this month, as many as 30 percent
of Nepal's Maoist fighters could be under 18 years of age.
The coalition based its findings on news reports and
documents compiled from NGOs, including Amnesty
Internat
ional and Human Rights Watch.

FURTHER INFORMATION ON TIGER MOUNTAIN BOMB
--------------


15. (SBU) A manager of Tiger Mountain travel agency has
told DCM that the recent small bomb explosion in the agency
office's toilet (reftel) was almost certainly retaliation
against the Kathmandu office's resistance to Maoist
extortion, and not a sign of any new threat against
tourists. According to the manager, Tiger Mountain's local
office assisted Kathmandu police in setting up a successful
sting operation to capture a Maoist who had been demanding
money from the agency. Tiger Mountain has been approaching
other hotels and travel agencies in an attempt to persuade
them to do the same, but has met with no cooperation.

MALINOWSKI