April 01, 2007	Sunday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 12, 1428

KATHMANDU: Nepal’s Maoists are facing a make-or-break test in their shift from jungle and mountain warfare to negotiating their way through the corridors of power, analysts said on Saturday.

The former rebels were given five portfolios in cabinet on Friday, bringing them into government for the first time as part of an historic peace agreement signed late last year that formally ended their bloody civil war.

Analysts warned that the Maoists, whose decade-long insurgency claimed thousands of lives, needed to end all mafia-like tactics among their members if the impoverished nation’s peace process was to move forward.

“Nepal is at a crucial crossroads. Any betrayal of their earlier commitments will be disastrous for the Maoists in particular and the country in general,” said Yubaraj Ghimire, editor of the Nepali-language weekly Samaya.

Although Maoists have registered their weapons and fighters with the United Nations as part of the peace deal, they face ongoing allegations of extortion, beatings and kidnappings — raising questions about whether the jungle fighters have really changed their spots.

The new cabinet to include the Maoists was decided late Friday at a meeting between Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala and Maoist chief Prachanda. Other leaders of the seven-party alliance also attended.

“Now the Maoists have to completely give up their past activities of continuing violence as they are part of government,” said Rabindra Khanal, who teaches politics at Nepal’s Tribhuvan University.

“If incidents of violence and intimidation continue to be reported, the people will not trust them,” he said.

Just a week ago, business leaders in Kathmandu staged a three-day strike after a hotelier was abducted and beaten for failing to hand over cash to Maoists.

Maoist leader Prachanda, whose nom de guerre means “the fierce one”, admitted “mistakes have occurred” and promised to take action against any renegade former fighters.

Another political science teacher at Nepal’s Tribhuvan University, Krishna Khanal, agreed that the Maoists must display a genuine will to change.

“The intimidation and extortion... has to be completely halted, otherwise their involvement in the government will be meaningless,” he said.

Their image problems are compounded as the former rebels are still on the US list of “terrorist” groups. And Washington’s ambassador to Kathmandu, James Moriarty, has argued it is too early to allow them into government.

With portfolios such as local development, planning and works, forestry, and women and children, the Maoists will be forced to show results in dealing with international donors and tackling Nepal’s wealth of serious economic and social problems, analysts said.

“This is a very big opportunity for them to prove themselves, (to show) their decade-long people’s war was fought to change the existing problems of the state,” Khanal said.

And in the coming months, the Maoists’ stated commitment to the democratic process will be further put to the test.

The new interim government will be tasked with steering the country into key elections for a body that will rewrite Nepal’s constitution and address the future of the 238-year-old monarchy.

The Maoists are pushing for a republic, although other parties want the monarchy and the current king, Gyanendra, still viewed by supporters as a Hindu deity, to retain a ceremonial role.

“The political parties in the interim government should now create a free and fair environment for constituent assembly elections and accept the people’s verdict to be expressed in the polls,” Krishna Khanal said.—AFP