BUCKING UP THE PARTIES ON MAOIST ARMS MANAGEMENT

C O N F I D E N T I A L KATHMANDU 002625

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/27/2016
TAGS: PGOV PTER PREL NP
SUBJECT: BUCKING UP THE PARTIES ON MAOIST ARMS MANAGEMENT


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

Summary
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1. (C) According to various sources, Home Minister and chief
Government of Nepal (GON) negotiator Krishna Sitaula is
pushing his Seven Party Alliance (SPA) colleagues, including
Prime Minister Koirala, to accept a deal that brings the
Maoists into an interim government quickly without dealing
with the question of Maoist weapons. The Ambassador spoke on
September 27 to Madhav Kumar Nepal, General Secretary of the
Communist Party of Nepal-United Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML),
and Sher Bahadur Deuba, President of the Nepali
Congress-Democratic (NC-D) to buck them up on separating the
Maoists from their arms. Suresh Chalise, the Prime
Minister's foreign policy advisor, assured the DCM on
September 27 that the PM would not back down on the arms
management issue during negotiations. It appears that the
summit talks that were tentatively scheduled for September 28
might be postponed due to a lack of agreement between the GON
and the Maoists on the arms management and other issues.

Sitaula Pushing a Bad Deal
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2. (C) Numerous sources told Emboffs on September 27 that
Home Minister and chief GON negotiator Krishna Sitaula was
pushing an agreement that would bring the Maoists into an
interim government quickly while staying soft on or ignoring
Maoist arms management. Narayan Man Bijukchhe, Chairman of
the small, leftist Nepal Workers and Peasants Party, told the
DCM that Sitaula was pretending there was an agreement among
the parties to move toward an interim government with the
Maoists but that, in reality, the SPA was nowhere near an
agreement on most points. Minendra Rijal, former
spokesperson for the NC-D, told Emboff that Sitaula was
insisting an agreement come quickly. Sitaula had further
claimed to be able to "take care of (PM) Koirala on arms
management." Anil Jha, spokesperson for the Nepal Sadbhavana
Party, told Emboff that Sitaula was meeting today with the
Maoist second-in-command Dr. Baburam Bhattarai in hopes of
reaching an agreement.


Party Leaders are Concerned
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3. (C) On September 27, the Ambassador spoke separately to
Madhav Kumar Nepal, General Secretary of the Communist Party
of Nepal-United Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML),and Sher Bahadur
Deuba, President of the Nepali Congress-Democratic (NC-D),to
push them to stand strong on the arms management issue during
negotiations. Each of them promised they would insist on
arms management before the Maoists entered into the
government. "Trust but verify" was the mantra the Ambassador
impressed upon them. They were, however, nervous about the
strength of the PM's will to hold the line on arms
management. Suresh Chalise, the Prime Minister's foreign
policy advisor, assured the DCM, however, that there was no
way the GON would surrender to the Maoists on the arms
management issue. The DCM made it clear to Chalise that we
had been in touch with the other major parties and that they
had no desire for an agreement with the Maoists that glossed
over the arms management issue.

Summit Talks May Be Postponed
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4. (C) Summit talks between the GON and the Maoists were
reportedly scheduled to be held on September 28. Numerous
sources have told Post that these talks will likely be
postponed a few days or even a few weeks. Rijal said that
the parties and the Maoists still had a lot of "homework to
do" before they could sit down in summit talks and make
decisions. His party colleague Prakash Mahat told Emboff
September 26 that he did not expect a GON-Maoist agreement
until mid-October. Even that, he said, would depend on a
firm Maoist commitment on arms as well as a meeting of the
minds on other open issues such as the composition of the
Interim Parliament.

Comment
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5. (C) Sitaula and company (including the PM's nephew Shekhar
Koirala) appear to be pushing a bad deal to the parties to
get the Maoists into the government quickly without managing
their weapons; that has been Sitaula's approach all along.
We will continue to buck up key SPA leaders, including the PM
himself, and encourage them not to accept a deal that would
give the Maoists a clear path to power. The rumors floating
around are concerning, but we hope that the GON will not cave
on the issue of arms management.
MORIARTY