NEPAL: MAOISTS ATTACK NGO OFFICE IN MID-WEST

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