Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
04KATHMANDU1227
2004-06-30 08:19:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Kathmandu
Cable title:  

NEPAL: MAOISTS ATTACK NGO OFFICE IN MID-WEST

Tags:  PTER EAID NP 
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This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.
C O N F I D E N T I A L KATHMANDU 001227 

SIPDIS

STATE FOR SA/INS
LABOR FOR ILAB - VIVITA ROZENBERGS
NSC FOR MILLARD
LONDON FOR POL -GURNEY

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/29/2014
TAGS: PTER EAID NP
SUBJECT: NEPAL: MAOISTS ATTACK NGO OFFICE IN MID-WEST

REF: KATHMANDU 846

Classified By: CDA JANET BOGUE. REASON: 1.5 (B,D).

C O N F I D E N T I A L KATHMANDU 001227

SIPDIS

STATE FOR SA/INS
LABOR FOR ILAB - VIVITA ROZENBERGS
NSC FOR MILLARD
LONDON FOR POL -GURNEY

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/29/2014
TAGS: PTER EAID NP
SUBJECT: NEPAL: MAOISTS ATTACK NGO OFFICE IN MID-WEST

REF: KATHMANDU 846

Classified By: CDA JANET BOGUE. REASON: 1.5 (B,D).


1. (SBU) At about 10:00 p.m. local time on June 28, Maoist
insurgents detonated an improvised explosive device on the
second floor of an office belonging to Backward Society
Education (BASE),a local NGO, in Dhangadi, Kailali District.
According to NGO contacts, the Maoists ordered the
night-time caretakers out of the building before exploding
the device, and no one was injured. A BASE employee told the
Embassy that the bomb blew out a portion of the second floor,
destroying computer equipment, furniture and windows, and
damaging a vehicle parked outside in the driveway. The
employee added that the Maoists had attempted to take a fax
machine with them upon leaving, but abandoned the equipment
when it appeared that security forces were en route to the
site. Total damages are estimated at approximately USD
35,000.


2. (C) BASE, which focuses its development activities on
former bonded laborers (or "Kamaiyas"),is a local partner of
Save the Children - US and the ILO, the implementing agency
for the Department of Labor's time-bound program on child
labor. Although the Maoists were aware that BASE received
U.S. funding, Save Country Director Keith Leslie does not
believe the attack was prompted by the U.S. connection.
Instead, he noted that BASE, like scores of other local and
foreign NGOs and aid agencies operating in the five districts
the Maoists have designated as the "Tharuwan People's
Autonomous Government" (Reftel),has been under unrelenting
pressure from the Maoists over the past several months to
provide substantial sums of money and/or substantial amounts
of expensive computer equipment and/or a substantial public
statement of support for the nominal "government." BASE's
steadfast refusal to comply with any of these demands, rather
than its U.S. funding, in Leslie's view elicited the Maoist
attack. To date, the Maoists have made no public statement
about the bombing that would give an indication of their
motivation.


3. (C) Comment: Of all the nine so-called autonomous
governments declared by the Maoists, the "Tharuwan People's
Autonomous Government" has been the most aggressive in its
extortion and harassment of aid agencies and NGOs. Despite
their anti-US rhetoric, the Maoists have not confined
themselves to targeting U.S.-affiliated NGOs or partners; in
addition to Nepali NGOs, Dutch, British and German aid
agencies also have encountered problems. In May the Dutch
aid agency SNV suspended operations in Banke District because
of Maoist attacks and intimidation. Ironically, these
organizations are focused on assisting and uplifting the very
ethnic minorities the "autonomous government" claims to
represent. (BASE's beneficiaries are almost all ethnic
Tharus). Indeed, the Maoists may regard the NGOs' success in
responding to local needs and in representing local interests
as competition too stiff for a "government" whose only
activities so far appear limited to extortion, sabotage and
murder.
BOGUE