NEPAL: MAOISTS SUSPEND BLOCKADE OF KATHMANDU VALLEY

C O N F I D E N T I A L KATHMANDU 001698 SIPDIS STATE FOR SA/INS, DS/IP/SA NSC FOR GREEN/DORMANDY LONDON FOR POL-BELL E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/25/2014 TAGS: PTER PGOV ASEC NP SUBJECT: NEPAL: MAOISTS SUSPEND BLOCKADE OF KATHMANDU VALLEY REF: A. 8/24/04 TELCONS ¶B. KATHMANDU 1688 ¶C. KATHMANDU 1679 ¶D. KATHMANDU 1667 ¶E. KATHMANDU 1658 ¶F. KATHMANDU 1644 Classified By: Ambassador James F. Moriarty, Reasons 1.4 (b/d) ¶1. (U) On the evening of August 24, the joint district committees of CPN-Maoists in three districts issued a statement announcing they were suspending the blockade of the Kathmandu Valley for a month. They warned that they would start more severe actions in a month if the government did not meet their demands for making public the whereabouts of people who have disappeared, releasing certain detained Maoist supporters and sympathizers, and probing the killings of certain Maoist commanders. The same district committees had called for the blockade of Kathmandu Valley on August 18. On August 21, the government said that it would make public the whereabouts of missing Maoist leaders within a month. ¶2. (C) COMMENT. The Deuba government deserves credit for doing a number of things right subsequent to the Maoist announcement of a blockade against Kathmandu. First and most importantly, the government mobilized the security forces to provide protection to vehicles traveling the affected highways. Subsequently, the Prime Minister and his colleagues made serious efforts to manage public impressions. Those efforts included not only briefings for the press and diplomatic corps but also a flight in a helicopter to show members of the media traffic flowing along the highways supposedly closed by the Maoists. And finally, the government's action in providing compensation to transporters who suffered losses to the Maoists probably was the straw that broke the blockade's back. The Maoists had proven their point that they could use fear to close the roads into Kathmandu at least for a brief period of time. They lifted the blockade because the government was about to prove that it had the power to force the reopening of those roads. End Comment. MORIARTY