NEPAL: SA DAS CAMP MEETS KING, POLITICAL PARTIES:

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 KATHMANDU 000901

SIPDIS

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

E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/11/2014
TAGS: PGOV PREL NP
SUBJECT: NEPAL: SA DAS CAMP MEETS KING, POLITICAL PARTIES:
EACH SIDE DUG IN, MUTUALLY MISTRUSTFUL

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

--------------
SUMMARY
--------------


1. (C) SUMMARY: In a May 5 meeting with Nepal,s King
Gyanendra and a May 6 meeting with representatives of the
main political parties, SA DAS Camp found both sides deeply
distrustful of the other and adamant that they would not
budge from their positions. (Both meetings took place before
the resignation of Prime Minister Surya Bahadur Thapa on May
8.) The King insisted he did not want absolute power; he said
he was committed to holding elections and wanted
constitutional monarchy to succeed. If the political parties
could not come up with a consensus program and candidate to
head a new government, he &could not wait forever8 and
would proceed with an appointed government to plan elections.
The parties believe the King cannot be trusted, is seeking
absolute power and is merely maneuvering to split the
parties. The only unity evident in Kathmandu comes from the
international community. It was clear from DAS Camp,s
meetings with diplomats and major donors, including the
Indians, on the margins of the Nepal Development Forum, that
the international community is pressing both the King and the
parties to compromise for the sake of restoring democratic
processes and presenting a united front against the Maoists.
End Summary.

--------------
MEETING WITH KING GYANENDRA
--------------


2. (C) On May 5, SA DAS Donald Camp, accompanied by the
Charge d,Affaires, called on Nepal,s King Gyanendra. (As
usual, Gyanendra had no aides present for the meeting.)
After thanking the United States for its support in Nepal,s
struggle against Maoist insurgents, the King turned to the
issue of the day: the political impasse in Kathmandu. King
Gyanendra said he had made a commitment to the people of
Nepal to hold elections in this Nepali year (meaning by
spring 2005). The people, the King said, wanted peace,
stability, transparency, development and democracy that
&reaches the lowest of the low.8 The King said that he did
not expect the parties to deliver all that; what he wanted
from them was a government that could create &a conducive
environment8 for elections. It was up to the parties, he
said, to choose who should lead that government. He argued
that the party leaders had been unable to overcome their
self-interest and old antagonisms to rally around a single
candidate, nor had they presented him with a joint program.
If they did not, he concluded, he would prepare elections
with an appointed government. The King reiterated frequently
that he did not seek absolute power but to preserve the
constitution. As proof, he said, he had not censored or shut
newspapers when they criticized him, although the law allowed
it. &Where else,8 he said,8 has a head of state been
belittled in the press like this, and I have done nothing.8


3. (C) DAS Camp said it was not for outsiders to resolve
Nepal,s political crisis. However, U.S. support for Nepal
was threatened because democracy was at risk, and human
rights abuses committed by government security forces damaged
Nepal's image abroad. As Commander in Chief, the King could
play an effective role in reducing those violations. The
King also had the &hard but necessary8 task of carrying
through a political process with the party leaders that would
succeed in the restoration of a democratic government. DAS
Camp asked if there were any effort to hold local elections
) as a show of good faith ) in places where the security
situation would permit, including the Kathmandu Valley.


4. (C) King Gyanendra replied that there had been no
suggestion of local elections. His own vision was to have
the parties form a &multi-sectoral8 (Note: the King avoided
saying &multi-party.8 End note) government that would give
way to a technocratic, caretaker government a few months
before elections, on the Bangladesh model. DAS Camp noted
that elections were the ultimate answer to the impasse, while
acknowledging that the security situation made elections
problematic. The King repeated forcefully that he had made a
commitment to elections and would go forward, with or without
the parties.
--------------
DINNER WITH PARTY REPRESENTATIVES
--------------

5. (C) On May 6, DAS Camp met representatives of the major
parties at a dinner hosted by the DCM. Those present
included CPN-UML leader Madhav Nepal, RPP leader Pashupati
Rana, Nepali Congress (Democratic) leader Sher Bahadur Deuba,
and Nepali Congress representatives Ram Sharan Mahat and Ram
Chandra Poudel. The party leaders were as adamant as the
King: there could be no progress until the King met their
demands, met with them together, and accepted the government
of their choosing. While party leaders differed along
predictable lines about the best scenario for restoring a
democratic process, they were remarkably unified in their
distrust of the King. Madhav Nepal said simply &He cannot
be trusted. He wants total power.8 The King,s meetings
with individual party representatives were seen most darkly
as efforts to divide and conquer the political parties, and
most charitably as an effort to appear to the public that he
was trying to resolve the current stalemate. Two lawyers,
the head of the Nepal Bar Association and a former Chief
Justice of the Supreme Court and drafter of Nepal's
Constitution, raised the usual questions about the
constitutional basis of the King's actions in dissolving one
government and appointing two others.


6. (C) The senior Nepali Congress (NC) representatives,
Mahat and Poudel, both claimed that the King's call for a
consensus candidate for Prime Minister was a "game" that he
is playing with the parties to avoid having to take a more
direct path back to democratic government, such as
reinstating the last Parliament. The two NC leaders made two
different and somewhat incompatible arguments in separate
conversations. One argument favored by Mahat was that the
King had no justification for demanding that the protesting
parties reach a consensus on a prime minister because
political parties, by their very nature, are bound to
disagree. Alternatively, they argued that the King should
have no say in the choice of a prime minister because this
was the prerogative of the parties as representative
organizations. UML leader Madhav Nepal insisted that the
five agitating parties were on the same wave length in terms
of political tactics and henceforth would meet with the King
only as a group to avoid his attempts to split the opposition
coalition.


7. (C ) Significantly, all the political leaders assiduously
avoided any comment on their own political ambitions or their
willingness to accept a prime minister from another party.
All seemed insecure and suspicious that the King would decide
to appoint another party leader, or even a non-partisan
figure, to head a new government. Nothing that any of them
said suggested they had any premonition that Prime Minister
Thapa would resign the next day.

--------------
INTERNATIONALS UNITED
--------------


8. (C) The only group that appears relatively united in
Kathmandu is the international community, which is pressing
both the King and the parties to enter a dialogue,
compromise, and turn their united attention to the Maoist
insurgency. In DAS Camp,s May 6 meeting with Indian
Ambassador Shyam Saran, the Indian stated what could have
been U.S. talking points: both King and parties must show
flexibility; any candidate the parties could agree on was
fine, so long as there was a multi-party government. The
same sentiments were echoed by most diplomats and major
donors at the Nepal Development Forum.


9. (U) DAS Camp has cleared this message.
BOGUE