January 17, 2008	Thursday	Muharram 07, 1429

KATHMANDU: Nepal’s interim government has made a fresh offer of peace talks to groups fighting for autonomy in the south, saying it was crucial to hold twice-delayed national elections.

More than two dozen ethnic Madheshi and armed groups have been protesting or fighting for autonomy in the southern Terai plains, home to nearly half of Nepal’s 26 million people.

Scores died last year in the ethnic violence.

Voters will elect on April 10 a constituent assembly, a key demand of the Maoists who fought a decade-long civil war. It will work as a parliament, draft a new constitution and formally declare an end to nearly 240 years of Hindu monarchy.

“I appeal to all struggling groups ... to come for a dialogue to resolve those issues that can be settled before the constituent assembly elections,” said Peace and Reconstruction Minister Ram Chandra Poudel.

“Let us all unite and face the elections,” he said in a statement in the provisional parliament.

Poudel singled out two splinter groups of the Maoist former rebels that have launched a low-intensity but sustained insurgency for greater autonomy for the Terai and renewed calls for negotiations.

“If you are fighting for the people there will be no bigger opportunity than this,” Poudel said referring to the vote.

The rebels, who have ignored similar calls in the past, could not be reached for comment.

The Madheshi People’s Rights Forum, the main group that organised most of last year’s protests, said more needed to be done.

“The government has failed to address the genuine demands of the Madheshi people in practice,” said Upendra Yadav, the chief of the Forum that has called for protests at the weekend to press for regional autonomy.

Madhesh is a narrow but fertile strip of flatland along Nepal’s southern border with India. Its people say they have long been discriminated by the ruling elites dominated by people of the hills.—Reuters