Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
03KATHMANDU1674
2003-08-29 10:48:00
SECRET
Embassy Kathmandu
Cable title:  

NEPAL: POLITICAL PARTY LEADERS SEEKING US MEDIATION

Tags:  PGOV PREL NP GON 
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This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.
S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 03 KATHMANDU 001674 

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR SA/INS
LONDON FOR POL/GURNEY
NSC FOR MILLARD

E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/28/2013
TAGS: PGOV PREL NP GON
SUBJECT: NEPAL: POLITICAL PARTY LEADERS SEEKING US MEDIATION

REF: A. KATHMANDU 1612


B. KATHMANDU 1565

C. KATHMANDU 1648

Classified By: Ambassador Michael E. Malinowski for reasons 1.5 (b) and
(d).

Summary
========

S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 03 KATHMANDU 001674

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR SA/INS
LONDON FOR POL/GURNEY
NSC FOR MILLARD

E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/28/2013
TAGS: PGOV PREL NP GON
SUBJECT: NEPAL: POLITICAL PARTY LEADERS SEEKING US MEDIATION

REF: A. KATHMANDU 1612


B. KATHMANDU 1565

C. KATHMANDU 1648

Classified By: Ambassador Michael E. Malinowski for reasons 1.5 (b) and
(d).

Summary
========


1. (S) Mainstream political parties are reassessing plans
for a large joint demonstration to be held in the capital on
September 4 in light of the Maoists' unilateral decision to
break the ceasefire and return to violence. Party leaders
have indicated that they are seeking an overture from King
Gyanendra--currently in the UK for a medical checkup--toward
establishing an all-party interim government and/or reviving
Parliament. The parties have quietly asked the Embassy to
urge its influence with the Palace. A royal confidant
indicated to the Ambassador on August 28 that the Palace may
be contemplating such a move. At the same time, however,
some in the parties advocate continuing with plans for the
rally to demonstrate to their "mass appeal" and to
"pressurize" the Palace into accepting an all-party
government. We continue to urge the parties and the
Governent of Nepal (GON) to work together against the Maoist
threat. We also have strongly expressed our growing concern
that the Maoists may infiltrate the protest, virtually
ensuring it will turn violent, and have asked the parties to
reconsider the program. End summary.

Inertia or Compromise:
Nepali Congress Seeks Ambassador's Advice
==========================================


2. (C) On August 29 Sujata Koirala, daughter of Nepali
Congress President and former Prime Minister G.P. Koirala,
and NC Central Committee member Dr. Suresh Chalise told the
Ambassador that the Central Committee will meet on August 29
to decide the agenda for a massive joint party protest
planned for September 4 (Ref A). The two said they had been
deputed by G.P. Koirala to seek the Ambassador's opinion.
The Ambassador asked them to reconsider the program and to
work with the security forces to ensure that the Maoists did
not utilize the protest as cover for violent acts. Providing
security for such a massive rally would, moreover, tax the
already over-stretched resources of the police and Army when
their full attention and manpower are needed to safeguard the

streets against possible acts of terrorism (like the August
25 assassination attempt against former Prime Minister Deuba
or the August 28 killing of an Army colonel) by the Maoists.
The parties want to hold a peaceful rally, Koirala and
Chalise replied, but are fearful that the Palace may use the
threat of Maoist violence as a pretext to suppress the
demonstration. They undertook to report the Ambassador's
concerns to the Central Committee.


3. (C) Chalise then pressed the Ambassador for his advice
on how to "reactivate" the Constitution. The Ambassador
replied that the most obvious choice was for the parties to
work with the King. Despite the mistrust on both sides, the
parties and the King have the most in common and the most to
lose should the Maoists come to power militarily. Now is the
time for the parties to come together with the King under a
common agenda that should include the principles of
multiparty democracy, constitutional monarchy, rule by
constitutional processes, national integrity, and empowerment
of the people. The NC representatives agreed with the
principles but said they suspect that the King does not share
the same values. Koirala, echoing her father and others in
her party, alleged that the King is in league with the
Maoists against democracy. The Ambassador replied that in
his meetings with the King, he warns the King not to ignore
the political parties. The parties are essential for
political support, ideas, and to mobilize the people.


4. (S) The Ambassador, drawing on an August 28 conversation
with the King's confidant, reported that the King may now be
willing to compromise. If Parliament were restored for a
limited period, the reform proposals tabled by the GoN at the
third round of negotiations (Ref B) could form the basis of
the Parliament's agenda. The Ambassador suggested that the
end point of the Parliament could be to lay the groundwork
for elections. Koirala and Chalise agreed but stated that
they will not talk to the King and cannot negotiate with the
"illegitimate" Government. Chalise requested the Ambassador
use his good offices to convince the Palace to make an
overture toward the parties. He predicted that the September
4 protest will draw party workers from around the country to
Kathmandu who will demand a "signal" from the Palace that the
consitution will be reactivated. (Note: The King is away in
London for an unofficial trip and will not be present for the
protests. End note.) Koirala requested the Ambassador to
play the role of "facilitator," as a trusted friend. Picking
up on the "facilitator" theme, Koirala then asked the
Ambassador to try to get the corruption case filed against
her by the Commission for the Investigation of the Abuse of
Authority (CIAA) dismissed. The case was no more than a
politically motivated ploy by the King to undermine the
democratic parties, she alleged. The Ambassador did not
respond. (Comment: In a country plagued by a corruption
pandemic, Sujata's close involvement in a ticketing scam that
helped bankrupt the national airline is particularly
egregious. End comment.)

All a Royal "Strategem"?
========================


5. (C) Poloff met with Nepali Congress Central Committee
member Govinda Raj Joshi on August 28 to ask if the parties
were altering their plans for September 4 in light of the
Maoist decision to break the ceasefire. While the Embassy
supports the right of democratic parties to peaceful
assembly, the Maoists' successful assassination of an Army
colonel in the capital (Ref C) proves that the insurgents are
prepared to unleash their violence on the streets of
Kathmandu, she noted. The party leadership has a
responsibility to its workers not to put them in harm's way.
A crisis of this nature calls for national unity, rather than
political divisiveness, by all legal, democratic forces, she
said. Is there some way the parties could work with the GON
against the Maoists? Joshi countered by asking why the
Maoists decided to break the ceasefire so close to the date
of the parties' rally. Perhaps it was all a royal
"strategem," he suggested, to give the GON/Palace an excuse
to suppress the rally. The parties have to hold the
September 4 rally to disprove royalist rumors that they have
no popular support, he said, and cannot accept the potential
for Maoist violence as a justification for being "sidelined
forever." The interim government of Prime Minister Surya
Bahadur Thapa, appointed with a mandate to bring peace to the
country and to hold elections, has proven unable to do
either, he charged.


6. (C) Poloff pointed out that the parties and the
GON/Palace share the same principles. These common values
should help them cooperate against the Maoists, rather than
divide them. The Nepali Congress supports the institution of
the monarchy, Joshi responded, but this King has soured the
political atmosphere and fanned mistrust by his "personal
behavior," encouraging rivalries and dissension within the
middle ranks of the party leadership. Now no one in the
parties trusts him, Joshi said bluntly. He hinted that a
Palace emissary had recently approached party representatives
to sound them out once again about participation in an
all-party government, but Joshi expressed strong suspicion of
the King's actual motives. Noting that the party has had no
direct contact with the King since he solicited (and then
rejected) the parties' consensus nomination for Prime
Minister in June, he urged the Embassy to use its influence
with the King to make an overture toward the parties. The
US, as a democratic country, should support the Nepali
Congress more openly as the only truly democratic party in
Nepal, he argued. The UML, for all its democratic
pretensions, is still a Communist party and thus undeserving
of US support, he concluded. Poloff responded that while the
Embassy supports the idea of an all-party government and has
long maintained friendly relations with the Nepali Congress,
it cannot promote one candidate or party over others.


UML Mulling It Over
====================


7. (C) In an August 29 meeting, Communist Party of Nepal -
United Marxist Leninist (UML) Central Committee member Bharat
Mohan Adhikari said that his party is reassessing holding the
rally in light of the break in the ceasefire. The main
problem facing the nation is the Maoists, he agreed; the
parties and the Palace ought to be able to work together to
confront the insurgency. But even before the Maoists broke
the ceasefire, the GON was attempting to suppress the rally,
he charged, limiting the number of buses and other vehicles
allowed to enter the capital. The parties want to use the
rally to prove to both the King and the Maoists the extent of
their grass-roots support. That said, they do not want
violence, he said, and thus will review the situation and
make a final decision over the next few days.


8. (C) Adhikari reported a recent meeting with an
unidentified Palace emissary who intimated that the King
might once again ask the parties for a consensus nomination
for a Prime Minister to head an all-party government. If
that were the case, Adhikari asked, and the parties once
again chose UML General Secretary Madhav Nepal, what would be
the US reaction? Poloff replied that an all-party government
seems the best solution, but the US has no preference for an
individual candidate or party to lead such a government.
Adhikari brushed aside suggestions that the Indians might not
accept Nepal as a candidate.

Comment
=======


9. (S) Despite their bombast against "royal regression,"
the parties recognize the Maoists pose a greater, more
immediate threat to their viability than the Palace. Maoist
violence over the past month has targeted UML and Nepali
Congress party workers as well as members of the security
forces. In the parties' view, they have pumped up the hype
about the September 4 rally too much to back down now. That
said, they seem to appreciate the clear danger that the rally
could turn violent and uncontrollable--thereby further
discrediting their "popular" image. We suspect they would
welcome a deus ex machina that would preclude holding the
rally without making them lose face by canceling it. Another
Palace overture to form an all-party government might provide
just such an out. We, along with other friendly missions,
will urge the Palace to consider such a move and the parties
to accept it.
MALINOWSKI