PRIME MINISTER TO ACT AGAINST MAOISTS IN TWO WEEKS

C O N F I D E N T I A L KATHMANDU 002461

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/10/2016
TAGS: PGOV PREL PTER NP
SUBJECT: PRIME MINISTER TO ACT AGAINST MAOISTS IN TWO WEEKS


Classified By: Ambassador James F. Moriarty. Reasons 1.4 (b/d).

Summary
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1. (C) In a meeting on September 10, the Ambassador told
Prime Minister Koirala that the Government of Nepal (GON) was
losing control of the country. The Maoists were acting with
impunity and they clearly assumed the GON would do nothing.
PM (and Nepali Congress Party chief) Koirala responded that
he planned to act within two weeks. He said that he was
laying the groundwork with civil society, the public and the
parties. In 15 days he would address the nation. Koirala
requested U.S. assistance in ensuring that the other two
large parties in the Seven-Party Alliance government, the
NC(D) and the CPN-UML, supported strong action against the
Maoists. He also requested U.S. assistance in garnering
international support for this approach.

Law and Order Situation Out of Control
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2. (C) The Ambassador told Prime Minister GP Koirala and his
foreign policy advisor Dr. Suresh Chalise on September 10
that he welcomed Koirala's recent criticism of the Maoists
for ignoring their obligations under agreements with the
Seven-Party Alliance (SPA) government, but that more had to
be done. The Maoists were running wild. The Government of
Nepal (GON),the Ambassador said, was losing control of the
country. The Maoists were creating an impression that their
victory was inevitable. According to the Ambassador, the
Maoists seemed to expect the GON to do nothing. Meanwhile,
the middle class in Kathmandu was reeling from Maoist
extortion across the board. The Nepali public and the
international community, the Ambassador declared, wanted the
GON to restore law and order.

PM Planning Action
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3. (C) The Prime Minister responded that he wanted to take
firm action against Maoist abuses and planned to do so soon.
Within 15 days, the Prime Minister said, he would speak to
the nation about the way ahead and call the Maoists to
account. He was in the process of laying the groundwork.
Koirala noted that he had met in the previous week with
representatives of civil society and of the public to explain
his position and his goals for the country. The next
challenge was to ensure that his coalition partners in the
SPA were on board, particularly the other two major parties
-- the Communist Party of Nepal -- United Marxist Leninist
(CPN-UML) and the Nepali Congress (Democratic) (NC((D)). He
expressed regret that, given the current serious situation in
the country, both CPN-UML chief MK Nepal and NC(D) head Sher
Bahadur Deuba had chosen to go to South Korea for an Asian
political party conference. He agreed that the three parties
had to have a common position. The Prime Minister reassured
the Ambassador that he had no intention of heeding the Maoist
call for an immediate high-level summit with Maoist Supremo
Prachanda. Koirala insisted that he would not talk about a
political settlement with the Maoists without a settlement of
the arms issue.

PM Requests U.S. Assistance
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4. (C) PM Koirala asked for U.S. assistance in two areas.
First, he appealed to the U.S. to do what it could to
persuade the other Seven-Party alliance leaders to support
the PM's efforts. The Ambassador said he had repeatedly
emphasized in his meetings with MK Nepal, Deuba and others
that the SPA had to have a unified position. He told the PM
that he would be meeting as soon as possible with the CPN-UML
and NC(D) heads and would reiterate that message. Koirala
also requested that the U.S. help marshal international
support for a firm GON line on the Maoists. The Ambassador
stressed that the USG wanted to be helpful. Along with other
key Embassies and their respective Chambers of Commerce, the
U.S. as acting chair of the Industrial Security Group had
issued a strong statement only a few days earlier condemning
Maoist abuses. The Ambassador maintained that all of the
major countries represented in Kathmandu shared the same
sense of urgency about addressing Maoist violence and
extortion. This included the Indians.

Comment
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5. (C) Koirala said all the right things on September 10.
Our concern, as the Ambassador emphasized to him, is that he
is running out of time. If the PM does make a major address
to the nation in two weeks, that leaves very little time
before the major Nepali holiday season of Dasain and Tihar to
begin to implement whatever plan he lays out. Meanwhile, the
Maoists are not wasting a moment.
MORIARTY