July 22, 2003	Tuesday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 21, 1424

KATHMANDU: Nearly two-and-a-half months since the Nepal government and Maoist rebels declared “small but significant progress” in their talks, the peace process remains in tatters and clouds of mistrust hang over the two sides.

The resulting bad blood between the two negotiating panels, which stem from unfulfilled promises in the May round of talks, has virtually stalled the peace negotiations indefinitely. The situation has become one of “no war, no peace”, as the headline of an article in the English-language daily ‘Nepali Times’ put it.

Now, the stakes are being pushed higher still as both sides begin to posture to force the other to make concessions.

The latest came on Sunday when the rebels closed down their so-called ‘Contact Office’ in the capital. Maoist functionary Bharat Dhungana, who was running the office, said that it was being closed indefinitely for “security concerns”.

His action followed just days after the top Maoist negotiators, including charismatic rebel chief negotiator Dr Baburam Bhattarai, left the capital one by one for unknown destinations.

Once out in the open and behaving like a normal political party, the rebels have now all but vanished from Kathmandu.

In Nepal’s capital today, there is a general sense of foreboding. “We only hope that the peace process is back on track soon. Violence is not good for the country,” a worried Sriram Acharya, a schoolteacher, said.

But most believe the peace talks are unlikely to recover until the government makes some dramatic concessions.

“This (closing of the Maoist office) is a slap in the face of the government by the Maoists to extract some heavy concessions,” says Hari Bahadur Thapa, a political analyst who has keenly followed the Maoists’ ‘People’s War’ since it began in early 1996. “But it could also very well be the end of talks for now.”

Much of the goodwill has declined since May 9, just after the second round of peace talks in Kathmandu, when both the Nepal government and Maoist rebels publicly said the government had agreed to release five jailed senior Maoist leaders.

More importantly, they said the government had agreed to limit army patrols to within five kilometres of the barracks in the districts to minimize chances of confrontation with rebel forces.—Dawn/The InterPress News Service.