PDAS CAMP REITERATES BUSH MESSAGE ON NEPAL

UNCLAS KATHMANDU 000677

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

DEPT FOR SCA (CAMP, DONALD)
DEPT FOR SCA/PPD (SCHWARTZ, LARRY)
DEPT FOR SCA/INS (GOWER, MOLLY)

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: OEXC SCUL PREL KMDR OPRC KPAO NP
SUBJECT: PDAS CAMP REITERATES BUSH MESSAGE ON NEPAL


Summary:
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1. (U) At a press conference in Kathmandu March 9,
visiting PDAS Donald Camp built on President Bush's March
2 statement on Nepal and Ambassador Moriarty's February
15 policy speech to reiterate that the United States
wanted to see the King reach out to the political parties
and the Maoists give up violence. A March 8 digital
videoconference with the NSC's Senior Director for South
and Central Asia and former Kathmandu DCM, Elisabeth
Millard, also helped bring home the message that the
United States believes reconciliation is the best way to
get back to democracy and that the USG will question
Maoist intentions until they show commitment in actions,
rather than just words. Both the DVC and Camp's press
meet the next day made front-page headlines, with op-ed
writers and political party pontificators correctly
analyzing both as high-level USG support for Ambassador
Moriarty's recent public comments about the urgent need
for reconciliation. End Summary.

Camp Reiterates U.S. Message of Reconciliation
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2. (U) A lead article in The Himalayan Times (pro-India
English daily, circulation: 40,000) on March 10 got the
message of Camp's March 9 press meet: "He reiterated the
two basic factors proposed by the U.S.: reconciliation
between the King and political parties and the end of
Maoist violence - for peaceful, prosperous, and
democratic Nepal. ... Citing U.S. President George W.
Bush and Indian Prime Minister Man Manmohan Singh's
recent meeting in New Delhi, Camp said, 'The two
statesmen agreed that the Maoists should abandon violence
and that the King should reach out to the political
parties.'" In a similar front-page story the same day,
the Kathmandu Post (centrist English daily, circulation:
30,000) made a point of saying that Camp "endorsed
Ambassador Moriarty's public statement last month that
the parties-Maoist alliance against the king was
'wrongheaded.'" The Post also linked this to the
President's March 2 statement, quoting Camp as saying,
"President Bush speaking publicly on the subject is an
indication of the importance [the President] attaches [to
Nepal]." An article in Nepal Samacharpatra (vernacular
daily, circulation: 65,000) characterized Camp's remarks
as a continuation of American policy, writing: "U.S.
reiterates old view, and asks the King and parties to
reconcile."

COMMENTARY: OUR MESSAGE HEARD LOUD AND CLEAR
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3. (U) The Himalayan Times' March 10 editorial disagreed
with the USG's reconciliation policy but still understood
the message correctly: "Donald Camp ... has concluded his
two-day visit to Nepal by repeating the American position
that the King and the political parties should bury the
hatchet and that the Maoists must renounce violence.
This American position has been unhelpful to a genuine
search for a broad-based democratic political settlement
in Nepal. Supposing that the palace and the parties came
together, what next?" An op-ed March 11 by the head of
the influential Nepal Press Institute in The Kathmandu
Post (who had attended the DVC with the NSC's Millard)
was more sympathetic: "Men and women in Kathmandu (and
elsewhere in the country) who earlier had thought that
the opinions and observations of James F Moriarty, US
ambassador to Nepal, mainly in the speech he delivered on
February 15 at the Ganesh Man Singh Academy, as something
casual or locally formulated policy prescription were
clearly mistaken. ... What President Bush, his senior
officials including Donald Camp and Elisabeth Millard as
well as his envoy in Kathmandu are constantly and
consistently saying is that all the Maoists need is to
abandon violence --- in words as well as in deeds.
Actions speak louder than words. But this is precisely
where the Maoists have failed to honor their promises,
contained in the 12-point understanding and other
pronouncements. ... The U.S. president's message to the
Nepali monarch is also loud and clear. He has been
advised to reach out to the political parties to restore
democratic institutions."

4. (SBU) The Rising Nepal (government-owned English
daily, circulation: 10,000) also published an op-ed on
Camp's visit, with the writer focusing on the USG's
hardline stance on the Maoists but, interestingly,
discussing prospects for reconciliation at some length:
"Camp repeatedly told reporters ... that Ambassador James

F. Moriarty's frank remarks denouncing the 12-point New
Delhi agreement between the Maoists and the Seven Party
Alliance was an official U.S. policy statement. ... Camp
also asked the political parties to play a more
constructive role [in dialogue with the King]. ...
[Foreign Minister] Pandey later said there were
'similarities' in the calls of Bush and the King on
National Democracy Day for a dialogue."


5. (SBU) Political party leaders also clearly understood
the U.S. message and in newspaper articles on March 11,
one party leader referred to "shortcomings" in the 12-
point agreement between the parties and the Maoists.
Some party leaders are currently in New Delhi to discuss
the agreement but are taking great pains to show they are
trying to pull the Maoists into the mainstream rather
than allow themselves to be pulled into a violent Maoist
agenda: "We cannot go along with an armed movement," said
Nepal Congress Democratic leader Dr. Minendra Rizal. On
March 11, The Kathmandu Post quoted Nepali Congress
leader Arjun Narsingh KC saying the Maoists must stop all
programs that affect the people, a seeming call for the
Maoists not to implement their scheduled indefinite
nationwide bandh and Kathmandu blockade starting March

14. KC also spun Camp's visit as support for the
political parties, though he acknowledged the PDAS's
caution for the parties "not to get carried away by the
Maoist agenda," something Ambassador Moriarty has been
cautioning publicly for several weeks. (Note: Both
Rizal and KC attended a March 9 dinner hosted by the
Ambassador in honor of PDAS Camp. End Note.)

COMMENT:
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6. (SBU) Camp's and Millard's interaction with the press
usefully reiterated U.S. policy, on the heels of a much-
celebrated "24-word" sentence about Nepal from President
Bush. Those in the parties and media who had fretted
over the Ambassador's February 15 caution about Maoist
intentions and call for reconciliation had on the other
hand welcomed the President's statement. Camp and
Millard made clear those messages were one and the same.

SCHLOSSER