NEPAL: NC LEADERS SAY SITUATION BAD IN COUNTRYSIDE

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 KATHMANDU 000203

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/29/2017
TAGS: PGOV PTER NP
SUBJECT: NEPAL: NC LEADERS SAY SITUATION BAD IN COUNTRYSIDE


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

Summary
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1. (C) On January 25, five Parliamentarians and district
leaders of the Nepali Congress Party (NC) and one from the
Nepali Congress-Democratic (NC-D) told the Ambassador that
the security situation in the countryside in their districts
remained poor. They wanted to see the current Home Minister
replaced, and blamed the lack of law enforcement for the
problems facing their districts. They expressed appreciation
for the Ambassador's frequent statements calling for an end
to Maoist violence and intimidation. The NC leaders all
worried about prospects for businesses in Nepal due to Maoist
pressure. They stressed that free and fair elections were
unlikely unless the Maoists changed their ways.

Situation Bad in Countryside
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2. (C) In a January 25 meeting, five NC leaders and one NC-D
leader (Keshar Man Rokka, MP from Rukum District; Janak Raj
Giri, MP from Bajura District; Lok Mani Giri, former MP from
Rolpa District; Dhurba Puri, District Development Committee
Chairman from Salyan District; Buddhi Ram Bhandari, NC-D
District President from Dang District; and Dipak Giri, Youth
Leader from Dang District) told the Ambassador that the
security situation in the countryside in their districts was
still poor due to Maoist actions. All of them had been
displaced from their homes in the conflict, calling
themselves "refugees of the Maoists." They said that the
Maoists were still intimidating people, and were not allowing
the political parties to freely conduct their activities in
the districts. The leaders believed the Maoists planned to
replace the current multi-party set-up with a one-party
state. They said that the Maoists had seized the property of
all district- and local-level party leaders (and anyone who
disagreed with the Maoists) and were offering to redistribute
it to the population in return for their vote for the Maoists
in the upcoming Constituent Assembly elections. When the
Ambassador asked whether any of the political leaders were
able to go back to their villages to counter these arguments,
the leaders responded with a collective no, stressing that
the Maoist militia still had weapons in the countryside.

Law and Order Vital
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3. (C) The leaders stressed that restoration of law and order
in the countryside was vital in order for elections to the
Constituent Assembly to be free and fair. They lamented that
Home Minister Krishna Prasad Sitaula (from the NC) was "like
a Maoist himself," and they did not trust him to do the right
thing vis-a-vis enforcing law and order against the Maoists
in the countryside. One leader said it was impossible to
trust the Maoists when they were still doing all the same
things in the villages as before, except that now the police
were helpless to do anything about it.

Ambassador's Statements Helpful
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4. (C) The leaders thanked the Ambassador for his continued
statements against Maoist behavior and his calls to hold the
Maoists accountable for their actions. They said that
members of the NC, including its leader Prime Minister Girija
Prasad Koirala, were not able to openly say many of the
things that the Ambassador regularly stated publicly,
although they agreed with them. They specifically agreed
with the Ambassador's statements that the Maoists were
bringing low quality weapons up from the Indian state of
Bihar to fill up the containers in the cantonments in order
to retain their good weapons.

Businesses Face Pressure From Maoists
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5. (C) The leaders worried that businesses across the country
and in the capital faced continued pressure from the Maoists.
They said that the Maoists were still extorting businesses
for large amounts of money, supposedly to provide support for
their combatants in the cantonments.

No Respect For New Maoist MPs
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6. (C) The leaders stated that they did not have much respect
for most of the Maoist MPs in the Interim Parliament. They
opined that all but twelve of them were "undereducated and
raw." They said that the Maoists had filled their positions
with "puppet" MPs, whom they could force to vote along party
lines. They worried that Maoist MP Lokendra Bista, who had
personally killed an NC MP in Rukum district during the
decade-long conflict and was personally responsible for the
deaths of "hundreds more," was now a member of the Interim
Parliament.

Comment
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7. (C) These NC leaders represent remote districts that were
considered Maoist strongholds during the decade-long
conflict. While unsurprising, the continued high level of
Maoist threats and extortion in these areas will have to be
countered by more than just arms management and cantonment of
combatants to ensure free and fair elections.
MORIARTY