Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
04KATHMANDU516
2004-03-22 09:15:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Kathmandu
Cable title:  

NEPAL: SECURITY FORCES REPEL MAOIST ATTACK ON

Tags:  MOPS PTER PGOV CASC ASEC 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 SECTION 01 OF 02 KATHMANDU 000516 

SIPDIS

STATE FOR SA/INS
LONDON FOR POL - GURNEY
NSC FOR MILLARD

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/21/2014
TAGS: MOPS PTER PGOV CASC ASEC NP
SUBJECT: NEPAL: SECURITY FORCES REPEL MAOIST ATTACK ON
DISTRICT HEADQUARTERS IN NORTHWEST

REF: A. KATHMANDU 397

B. KATHMANDU 437

Classified By: DCM RKBOGGS. REASON: 1.5 (B,D).

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 KATHMANDU 000516

SIPDIS

STATE FOR SA/INS
LONDON FOR POL - GURNEY
NSC FOR MILLARD

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/21/2014
TAGS: MOPS PTER PGOV CASC ASEC NP
SUBJECT: NEPAL: SECURITY FORCES REPEL MAOIST ATTACK ON
DISTRICT HEADQUARTERS IN NORTHWEST

REF: A. KATHMANDU 397

B. KATHMANDU 437

Classified By: DCM RKBOGGS. REASON: 1.5 (B,D).


1. (SBU) At about 11:00 p.m local time on March 20, Maoist
insurgents attacked Beni, the headquarters of Myagdi District
in west-central Nepal. Initial reports indicate that 13
Royal Nepal Army (RNA) soldiers, 7 policemen, and 1 civilian
were killed, and 80 police are still missing. (Note: A
Maoist press statement acknowledges the loss of 40 cadres,
but reports from the field indicate that 90 Maoist bodies
have been recovered. The RNA estimates Maoist dead at
between 160-500. According to early press reports, fewer
than 20 Maoist bodies have been recovered. End note.) The
Chief District Officer (CDO),the highest-ranking civil
servant in the district, and the Deputy Superintendent of
Police (DSP),the highest-ranking police officer, were
reported missing. Beni, about 50 km northwest of Pokhara and
250 km northwest of Kathmandu, is located on a popular
trekking route to the Annapurna Mountain range. The Consular
section has received no reports from American citizens
affected by the fighting.


2. (U) According to press reports, the Maoists attacked the
headquarters from three sides in one of the longest
engagements in the eight-year insurgency, firing on the
police station, the jail, the District Administration Office,
and the local branch of a commercial bank. While the
insurgents succeeded in overruning the police station and
jail (releasing all 31 detainees),and in destroying a
telecommunications tower, an attack on the RNA barracks,
which housed members of an engineering brigade building a
road from Myagdi to the adjoining district of Mustang, was
repelled. By about 10:00 a.m. local time on March 21, the
Maoists had withdrawn from the site. A press release from
Maoist leader Prachanda, dated March 21, claimed that the
so-called People's Liberation Army had taken the Chief
District Officer and Deputy Superintendent of Police
prisoner, while acknowledging the death of the Maoists' "vice
brigade commander" in the battle. According to a source in
the diplomatic community, the Maoists reportedly paraded the
CDO and DSP around neighboring villages in an effort to
humiliate them.


3. (C) According to RNA sources, the Maoists used 81 mm
mortars and some rocket-propelled grenade launchers in the
attack. One dead Maoist was found with an AK-47. Weapons
were recovered from another four dead Maoists found within
the perimeter defenses of the army camp. The Maoists
reportedly used the local office of British aid agency DFID
as a makeshift hospital during the battle. RNA sources said
the Army had received prior indications of a Maoist build-up
in the area, and a reserve unit of approximately 90 soldiers
from Pokhara was sent to supplement the reinforced company of
94 guarding the district headquarters. Reinforcements,
including two companies of RNA Rangers, were airlifted to
Beni after the attack on early March 21. Earlier efforts to
reinforce the positions by helicopter were frustrated by bad
weather and poor visibility. Indian-built Lancer attack
helicopters reportedly engaged a column of retreating Maoists
with rockets. RNA reinforcements have set up blocking
positions in an effort to intercept retreating Maoists, which
the RNA estimates number several thousand, across difficult
and mountainous terrain.


4. (C) Comment: The Maoists' blockade of major roads in
the Pokhara area may have made it easier for them to move
large numbers of cadres without detection (Ref B). (Note:
The blockade was withdrawn on March 21.) The assault on Beni
marks the second Maoist attack on a district headquarters
within about three weeks (Ref A) and occurred just one week
before King Gyanendra's planned visit to Pokhara. The
Government of Nepal (GON) had touted the King's travel to
distant parts of the country, including some areas under
Maoist influence, as proof that the insurgents are not in
control of their purported heartland. Kidnapping the
Government's highest-ranking official in a neighboring
district so soon before the monarch's visit is apparently the
Maoists' defiant response to that message. The Maoists
remain unable to retain control of a district headquarters,
but this attack demonstrates that they still have the
capacity to stage large-scale attacks on government centers
in mountainous areas of the kingdom, where the topography
inhibits a quick RNA response. Leading members of Nepal's
major political parties already are pointing to the attack as
proof that the government does not have the security
situation sufficiently under control to hold elections.
MALINOWSKI