NEPAL: MAOISTS REJOIN GOVERNMENT

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 KATHMANDU 002139 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/31/2017 TAGS: PGOV PTER KDEM PINR NP SUBJECT: NEPAL: MAOISTS REJOIN GOVERNMENT REF: A. KATHMANDU 2118 ¶B. KATHMANDU 1750 ¶C. KATHMANDU 1648 ¶D. KATHMANDU 0669 Classified By: Ambassador Nancy J. Powell. Reasons 1.4 (b/d). Summary -------------- ¶1. (C) Prime Minister Koirala appointed five Maoists to Nepal's Interim Government on December 30. With the exception of the new Minister for Women, Children, and Social Welfare, the Maoist ministers returned to portfolios they had held before they resigned in August and September. Additionally, two Nepali Congress state ministers were promoted to full ministers. The Maoist appointments mark a step forward in line with the December 23 23-Point Agreement. Maoists Rejoin Interim Government -------------- ¶2. (U) On December 30, Prime Minister G.P. Koirala appointed five Maoists to the interim cabinet. The return of the Maoists to the Government of NEPAL (GON) was one of the key points of the 23-Point Agreement the political parties and Maoists signed on December 23 (Ref A). Krishna Bahadur Mahara, the Maoist parliamentary leader, returns as Minister of Information and Communication and as the senior Maoist in the GON. Dev Gurung returns as Minister of Local Development, Hisila Yami as Minister of Physical Planning and Public Works, and Matrika Yadav as Minister of Forest and Soil Conservation. Pampha Bhusal -- whom the Maoists had nominated to be Nepal's Ambassador to France but failed to receive agrement -- replaces Khadga Bahadur Biswokarma as Minister for Women, Children and Social Welfare. Koirala on December 31 swore in all of the Maoist ministers with the exception of Yadav, who was out of the Kathmandu Valley. Months of Limbo Now Over -------------- ¶3. (C) The Maoists originally had joined the government on April 1 (Ref D). On August 2, Yadav submitted his resignation, citing the government's failure to work according to the spirit of the November 2006 Comprehensive Peace Accord (Ref C). Mahara, Gurung, Yami, and Khadga Biswokarma cited the same reason when they submitted their resignations on September 18 (Ref B). PM Koirala quickly accepted the resignation of Yadav, with whom he had publicly clashed, but declined to accept the resignations of the remaining four ministers for several months. According to Nepali Congress politicians, the Prime Minister's hope was that he could persuade the Maoists to return. On December 24, he finally accepted the resignations of Mahara and company. On December 29, Maoist chief Pushpa Dahal (aka Prachanda) also nominated Padma Rai as Minister of State for Local Development and Nabin Kumar Biswokarma as Minister of State for Women, Children and Social Welfare, but the Prime Minister has yet to approve those nominations. Biodata on Maoist Ministers -------------- Information and Communication Minister Mahara -------------- ¶4. (U) Information and Communication Minister Krishna Bahadur Mahara, a Chhetri from Rolpa District in Nepal's midwest, is the Maoist spokesman and the head of the Maoist delegation in the Interim Parliament. He led the Maoists' negotiating team with the political parties in 2006. He also led the Maoists' negotiating team in 2001 and was a team member in 2003. Mahara was promoted to the standing committee of the Communist Party of NEPAL (Maoist) (CPN-M) in 2005 and headed the party's International Department. Mahara joined politics as a student in 1979 and was elected as a United People's Front Member of Parliament in 1991. He holds KATHMANDU 00002139 002 OF 003 a Bachelor's degree in Education from Tribhuvan University and worked as a schoolteacher in Rolpa for twelve years beginning in 1980. He served a two-month jail sentence in 1981 for participating in a teachers' strike. Mahara was born on June 29, 1958. He is married and has two sons and two daughters. Local Development Minister Gurung -------------- ¶5. (U) Local Development Minister Dev Gurung, a Gurung (an indigenous nationality) from Manang District in western NEPAL and a Member of Parliament, heads the Maoists' Finance Department. He is the former head of the Ethnic Department, Gandak Regional Bureau, and Tamuwan Autonomous Regional People's Government. A member of the Central Committee since 1994, Gurung was promoted to the standing committee and appointed to lead the Western Central Command in March 2005. He was a member of the Maoist negotiating teams in 2003 and ¶2006. Gurung entered politics in 1981 when he joined the Nepal Communist Party. He holds an M.A. from Tribhuvan University. Gurung was born on November 7, 1958. He is married and has two sons. Physical Planning Minister Yami -------------- ¶6. (U) Physical Planning and Works Minister Hisila Yami is a Newar from Kathmandu and the wife of Maoist deputy chief Baburam Bhattarai. In addition to being a Member of Parliament, she is a member of the Maoist Politburo and was deputy chief of the party's International Department before being placed under disciplinary action in 2005. Yami, a former university lecturer, joined politics as a student in New Delhi and later co-wrote "Marxism and Women's Emancipation" with her husband. She holds a Master's degree in Architecture from Newcastle University in the U.K. Yami was born on June 25, 1959. She has one daughter. Forest Minister Yadav -------------- ¶7. (U) Forest and Soil Conservation Minister Matrika Yadav, a Madhesi from Dhanusha District in central Nepal, is a Member of Parliament and a Maoist Politburo member. He was a member of the Maoist negotiating team in 2003. Yadav led the Maoist-affiliated Madhesi Liberation Front between 2003 and June 2007. He was arrested in India in 2004 and remanded to Nepal where he remained in custody in NEPAL until May 2006. Yadav was born in 1947. Women, Children and Social Welfare Minister Bhusal -------------- -------------- ¶8. (U) Women, Children and Social Welfare Minister Pampha Bhusal, a Brahman from Arghakhanchi district in western Nepal, is the most senior woman in the CPN-M. Bhusal is head of the Women's Department and a member of the Politburo and Central Committee. The Maoists had submitted her name in August to be Nepal's Ambassador to France but the French Government did not provide agrement. She replaces Khadga Bahadur Biswokarma, a Dalit man. Bhusal was born in 1961. Nepali Congress State Ministers Promoted -------------- ¶9. (U) Separately, the Prime Minister promoted two Nepali Congress (NC) state ministers -- Ramesh Lekhak of Labor and Transport Management and Gyanendra Karki of Water Resources -- to full ministers with the same portfolios. Both men served in the Koirala's first interim government which was appointed in May 2006. They were also both Nepali Congress (Democratic) Members of Parliament before that party reunited with the NC in September 2007. Lekhak was part of the government's peace negotiating team in 2006. Karki was a member of the Coordination Committee of the Seven-Party Alliance during the People's Movement in April 2006. PM Koirala swore in Lekhak on December 31. Karki did not attend KATHMANDU 00002139 003 OF 003 the swearing-in because he was traveling outside the Kathmandu Valley. The Prime Minister has yet to name a successor to Science and Technology Minister Thakur, who resigned from the cabinet and the NC on December 10. Comment -------------- ¶10. (C) Although the re-entry of the Maoists into Nepal's interim cabinet did not occur "immediately" as provided in the 23-Point Agreement, it has now happened. The appointment of the five Maoist ministers is another step forward, along with the December 28 adoption by the Interim Parliament of the required constitutional amendments, toward a mid-April Constituent Assembly election. We do not expect, however, that the new cabinet, with most of the same Maoist faces, will work any more smoothly this time than it did before. In addition, post notes with regret that Prime Minister Koirala failed to take advantage of this cabinet reshuffle to replace Home Minister Sitaula. POWELL