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May 03, 2008
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Saturday
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Rabi-us-Sani 26, 1429
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US ambassador meets leader of ‘terrorist’ Maoist party
KATHMANDU, May 2: The United States ambassador to Nepal has met for the first time the Maoist leader, the embassy said on Friday, despite the former rebels still being on a US list of terrorist organisations.
“US Ambassador Nancy Powell met yesterday with Communist Party of Nepal Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal to discuss the outcome of the April 10 elections,” a statement said.
Dahal, who goes by the name of Prachanda or the “fierce one,” led the Maoists to a surprise victory in the elections to a 601-member body whose first job will be to abolish the world’s last Hindu monarchy and then rewrite the constitution.
The Maoists were placed on a list of US terrorist organisations in 2003, and are yet to be removed, despite winning more than a third of the seats in the assembly that will decide the aid-dependant country’s political future.
During the meeting with the Maoist chief, Ambassador Powell “sought commitments that the new government would respect current donor agreements and ensure the safety of those implementing them,” the embassy statement said.
During the landmark elections in the impoverished Himalayan country, former US president Jimmy Carter, whose Carter Centre was monitoring the polls, urged the US government to take the ex-rebels off the terrorist list.
“My hope is and my cautious expectation is that the US will in the future recognise the authenticity and the non-terrorist nature of the commitment of the Maoists,” the ex-Democratic president told journalists in Kathmandu.
“It was a serious mistake for the United States to continue to boycott... consultations and communications with the Maoists,” Carter said.
The former rebels, who launched their civil war in 1996, are unlikely to be removed from the list quickly, the US embassy said.
“We at the embassy are working with government colleagues in Washington to review the current designation of the Maoists on the Terrorist Exclusion List, and Specially Designated National List,” the embassy spokesman said.—AFP
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