KATHMANDU: Nepal’s Maoists have accused the country’s armed forces of plotting a coup aimed at preventing the abolition of the embattled Himalayan monarchy.

In an interview with AFP, the second-in-command of the former rebels — who want to see the monarchy dissolved — said an attempted army takeover could happen soon unless the country is immediately declared a republic.

“There is a definite chance of a coup. We have reliable information. A section of the army — we won’t say all the army, but a selection of top generals loyal to the monarchy — seem to be plotting,” said Maoist number two Baburam Bhattarai.

“If we don’t act boldly in time, they will take action,” said Bhattarai, who was guarded at all times by stony-faced armed men.

He was justifying Maoist demands that Nepal be declared a republic now — and not after a democratic vote on the matter as agreed to in last November’s peace accord between the ex-rebels and mainstream parties.

Bhattarai said their partners in the peace accord were “dragging their feet” on implementing key reforms aimed at keeping King Gyanendra and the army out of politics, giving the “regressive feudal forces” time to regroup.

Under the November 2006 deal, the Maoists agreed to formally end their decade-long “People’s War” — a conflict that claimed at least 13,000 lives — and confine their weapons and fighters to UN-supervised camps.

The Nepal Army, a bastion of the elite and pro-royals, have also been confined to barracks.

But last week, the Maoists walked out of an interim coalition government and vowed to launch street protests to disrupt elections scheduled for Nov 22 that will decide if Gyanendra and his heirs have a future.

The ultra-leftists have come in for stiff international criticism for endangering the peace process here, with some analysts saying they are merely afraid of losing a popular vote.

But Bhattarai said “the experience of revolutionary change elsewhere is that unless you restructure and democratise the army, there is a chance of a coup and the old set-up returning.” “We realised that if you don’t put pressure, if you don’t go to the people and mobilise the masses, it will be difficult to complete this democratic revolution. That why we left the government.”

The Maoist number two, an ideologue prone to drifting into lengthy discourses on Marxist-Leninist-Maoist semantics, asserted that his party was nevertheless “sticking by the ceasefire and peace accord.” “We are not going back to war,” said the 53-year-old, who was speaking at a dark, dank hotel used as the movement’s Kathmandu headquarters.

“We want change peacefully but we want change. We want to get rid of feudalism, monarchy and absolutism.” Bhattarai, who began his life as a left-wing rebel in 1977 after studying architecture in neighbouring India, said a possible solution to the impasse was an emergency parliamentary session and vote to abolish the monarchy.

“It has to be abolished — the sooner the better. We are discussing with different parties to fix the date, to convene parliament in the next few weeks and we are optimistic,” he said.

As for the fate of the deeply unpopular Gyanendra, who took the throne after the former king and most of his relatives were massacred by a drugged, drunk and lovelorn crown prince in 2001, Bhattarai offered some reassuring words.

“We don’t want to chop off his head,” he said sternly. “We are not saying he should get out or he should be killed. He should just live like you and me.”—AFP