MAOIST MILITIA AND NEPAL POLICE CLASH OVER

C O N F I D E N T I A L KATHMANDU 002478 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/12/2016 TAGS: PGOV PTER PREF NP SUBJECT: MAOIST MILITIA AND NEPAL POLICE CLASH OVER BHUTANESE REFUGEE CAMP SECURITY Classified By: DCM Nicholas Dean. Reasons 1.4 (b/d). SPA-Maoist Cooperation -------------- ¶1. (C) OHCHR told us on September 12 that the Seven Party Alliance (SPA) and the Maoists had decided to pursue the idea of a joint deployment of Nepal Police and Maoist Militia forces to provide security at the Bhutanese refugee camps in Jhapa District (southeastern Nepal). OHCHR said this was decided at a meeting on September 3 between four SPA representatives, two Maoist representatives, and one "independent member." Nepal Police: No Cooperation -------------- ¶2. (C) Yogendra Katuwal, Superintendent of Police for Jhapa District told Emboff on September 12 that the Maoists had approached the Chief District Officer (CDO) and police and said that the Maoist militia would begin to provide security for the Bhutanese refugee camps in the district. The CDO and Police refused to deploy jointly with the Maoist militia to provide security. The CDO and police planned to meet with the SPA leaders on September 13 to tell them that the police would continue to provide security to the camps. Katuwal said that the Maoists informed the police that if the police were not willing to join a joint force for the camps, then the Maoists were ready to provide their own security in the camps, which they planned to begin immediately. Comment -------------- ¶3. (C) Given our existing concerns about Maoist infiltration of the Bhutanese refugee camps, Maoist efforts to insist on providing "security" to the camps are not reassuring. It is particularly concerning that SPA representatives, even at the local level, are willing to countenance Maoist militia and the Nepal Police deploying jointly in the camps, and to grant the Maoist militia the resulting legitimacy. We continue to push the GON to enforce law and order in the districts and to push back against all Maoist efforts to establish parallel government structures. Turning over the enforcement of law and order to the very group that poses the greatest existential challenge to the Government of Nepal is exactly the wrong approach. MORIARTY