[Occasional
Information Bulletin of Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist)]
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orld imperialism boasts of the current era as the ‘age of
information’. By which it means its
enhanced capacity to manufacture disinformation through it monopoly control
over the mass media – both print & electronics for its sole goal of profit
maximization. As imperialism means ‘war capitalism’, disinformation has been a
major weapon of unjust war waged by imperialism & its lackeys all over the
world. The Nepali reactionary ruling
classes are no exception to this.
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isinformation
campaign, in the tradition of the notorious Goebbels, has always been the
chosen weapon of the Nepali reactionaries during the past six years of the
People’s War(PW). Ever since the declaration of the state of emergency on
November 26 and suspension of all fundamental & civic rights of people,
including the right to information, provided in their own constitution,
disinformation campaign has been the most important pursuit of the reactionary
rulers. They have not only resorted to
white lies on depicting the actual situation in the battlefield and often made
exaggerated claims of their exploits to conceal their factual defeats, but they
have shamelessly dared to hurl such ridiculous accusations as the members of the glorious People’s
Liberation Army (PLA) having decapitated their fallen heroes to hide their
identity and sought to drive a mischievous wedge among the top leadership of
the Party by fabricating the so-called ‘hard-liner‘ & ‘softliner’
wings. As all the news papers with a
revolutionary leaning have been shut down, progressive journalists jailed and
independent media barred from reporting the truth, the gullible public is
subjected to daily doses of shere lies or half-truths and has no alternate
means to verify the truth.
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his bulletin,
though in a very humble & grossly inadequate manner, seeks to provide that
alternate access to the quest for truth.
We as the genuine revolutionary vanguard of the proletariat have nothing
to hide from the public and the masses.
Also it is the sign of a mature proletarian Party to learn from its won
mistakes. We, therefore, vow to defeat
the enemy’s disinformation campaign by battering it with truthful & factual
information, which at times may not go in our own favour. It is expected that all the revolutionary
co-fighters and general votaries of objective truth will make best use of it
and try their best to disseminate it as widely as possible.
WHO BROKE THE
TALKS & WHY ?
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sustained campaign has been launched by the
reactionary rulers to hammer the point that it was we Maoists who have broken
the talks and violated the four month-old truce. And they have fabricated the myth of a so-called two-line
struggle within the Party to justify
their charge. But what are the facts ?
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he first glaring
fact is that it was the murderous Gyanendra clique which was calling the shots
all along during the truce to consolidate its shaky position by mobilising the
royal army and was thwarting all attempts from our side to find a political
solution in the form of an interim government, a new constitution and
instutionalisation of the republic.
Deuba was a mere helpless pawn in the hands of Gyanendra & Girija
cliques. Throughout the three rounds of
talks between August 30 and November 13 that we had with the old regime the
Deuba government did not make a single political proposal to solve the problems
of the country, but stuck to rejecting all the most moderate and practical
political proposals put forward by us.
When we offered to go for the election of a constituent assembly to
settle the question of republic in the third & the last round of talks,
they summarily rejected it without, making any other alternative proposal. What was the point then in continuing with
the endless rounds of talks with no political
solution in sight ? Meanwhile
the Gyanendra clique, which effectively controls the traditional royal army and
through which it had staged a royal coup de’tat last June by wiping out the
whole family of king Birendra, was making massive military preparations
throughout the country against the revolutionary forces. The Dang barrack and military depot was the
centre of military offensive they were planning against the Revolutionary Base
Areas in the Rapti Zone (i.e. the districts of Rolpa, Rukum, Sallyan, etc.). So
it was obvious that this counter revolutionary move under the cover of ‘peace
talks’ be effectively preempted. This
was what happened on November 23. So
should there be any doubt who objectively broke the talks ? As clarified by Chairman Prachanda in his
interview to The Times of India (November 2, 2001), our Party is still open
to the proposal of talks if a concrete political solution to the country’s
problem (i.e. abolition of the hated monarchy and institutionalisation of the
republic) is offered.
To
conceal their embarrassment of a shattering military defeat and the
never-ending power struggle within their own ranks the reactionary rulers have
sought to fabricate a so-called friction between the political and military
leadership of the Party. In this
context they have particularly attempted to float their own ‘leaders’ heading
the different imaginary departments and tried to create the impression that a
so-called military wing headed by Com. Badal (Ram Bahadur Thapa ) was
responsible for pressurising the Party leadership to take the current course of
action. This is, however, just the
figment of imagination of the reactionaries, if not a deliberate disinformation
campaign to confuse the masses. The
actual reality is that our Party has developed a unified and centralised
leadership under the supreme command of Chairman Prachanda and all the major
decisions have been taken unanimously.
Of the three instruments of revolution, viz. The Party, the Army and the
United Front, it is well known that Com.
Prachanda is the Chairman of the Party and the Supreme Commander of the
PLA and Com. Baburam Bhattarai is the Convenor of the recently formed United
Revolutionary People’s Council (URPC).
This leaves no scope for any confusion about the leadership hierarchy in
the Party. The revolution has produced
a distinguished galaxy of leaders including Com. Kiran, Com.
Diwakar, Com. Badal and others and they are fulfilling their
responsibilities in their respective fields with distinction. Certainly Com. Badal is not the ‘Military
Chief’ as is made out to be in the media and there is no question of him going
against the plans and policies of the party.
The
declaration of the state of emergency and deployment of the royal army since
November 26 has met with complete initial failure. According to the informations received from various regional
commands, the royal army caged in the reactionary barracks for ages, has not
ventured to enter into the main Revolutionary Base Areas (RBA) so far and has
made only sporadic aerial attacks from the helicopters in different parts of
the country. When their initial
attempts to enter into the RBA were thwarted by successful road mines &
ambushes in Surkhet and Pyuthan, they have beaten a hasty retreat and are
devising alternate strategies to carry out their counter revolutionary objectives.
Meanwhile
they have taken recourse to massacre of unarmed masses in the peripheral
areas. On November 27 the royal army
massacred 11 poor peasants of the oppressed Tharu nationality in Dang. The unarmed poor peasants were harvesting
rice in the fields of a landlord when they were mercilessly gunned down by the
royal butchers. It may be noted that
the All Nepal Peasants’ Association (Revolutionary) has given a call for
implementing tri-khandi system (i.e. one-third to the landlord and two-third to
the tenants) and the poor tenants, specially in the southern plains of Terai,
have responded to it overwhelmingly.
On
the same day a large gathering of people assembled for a traditional fair in
Sallayan were fired upon by the royal army and 13 persons killed on the
spot. Similarly there are reports from
different districts such as Gorkha, Rupendehi, Syanja, Kalikot, Makwanpur,
Dolakha and others, where unarmed masses of people have been fired upon and
killed by the royal army.
Unable
to locate and take upon the PLA, the reactionary side has launched a vicious
propaganda war, spreading unsubstantiated rumours through its controlled
media. One such deliberate rumour has
been the killing or capture of a number of important leaders of the Party
including Com. Krishna Bahadur Mahara, the chief negotiator of the Party. However its has been a complete
hogwash. No Central or regional level
leader of the Party except Com. Rabindra Shrestha, who was captured on November
25, has been captured by the enemy, nor anyone killed, so far. Definitely the
enemy’s principal strategy has been to capture or liquidate the central
leadership of the Party, which they have not succeeded so far, and the Party is
fully geared to thwart it.
The
enemy has taken into custody hundreds of innocent masses and some of the
sympathisers of the Party from different parts of the country. Also they have forced some members of the
local Peoples’ Committees to sign false papers of ‘surrender’ under the butt of
a rifle and sought to make a mountain out of a mole-hill. But the actual ground reality is that the
total revolutionary rank and file is in a complete upbeat mood, whereas the
reactionary camp, particularly its royal army is in a crest fallen state. The way they have been seeking frantic
military help, particularly from India, adequately speaks of this.
The
position of the reactionary camp has been all the more weakened with the
increasing opposition to the declaration of the state of emergency by the
various parliamentary parties, including the revisionist left parties
themselves.
Unable
to digest their shameful defeat at the hands of the PLA on the very first
encounter on November 23 in Dang, the royal army and their state patrons have
been spreading white lies about the non-happening subsequent encounters or
grossly exaggerating the number of casualties suffered from our side. One such gross fabrication has been the much
propagated casualties of 200 or so supposedly suffered by our side in Salleri
on November 25. To hide their inability
to substantiate such ridiculous claims thy have invented such atrocious lies as
our side having beheaded or mutilated the fallen comrades to conceal their real
identity. No person with an iota of
common sense would believe such perverted accusation. Even then as this ridiculous claim of the reactionary. Defence Ministry, full ten days after the
incident, has been bought by various national and international news agencies
as a ‘verification’, the truth needs to be told.
The
real truth is this: on that Salleri encounter total casualties on our side were
seventeen, whereas on the side of the enemy it was thirty-three (including 27
police-men, 4 army men and 2 bureaucrats).
Similarly, on November 23, in Dang three of our PLA comrades were
martyred on the spot and four more succumbed to their injuries later on,
whereas on the enemy side the total casualty was twenty-five (including 14 army
men and 11 policemen) and several dozens injured. On the same day in Syangja, fourteen policemen were killed,
whereas there was no casualty on our side.
Let independent sources verify or contradict these facts. Why should we tell lies about the number of
fallen heroes on our side ? Moreover,
why should we commit such heinous crime as to behead or mutilate a fallen
comrade ? Everybody knows we revere and
honour our fallen heroes and heroines and not shy away from but take pride in
the great process of revolutionary martyrdom.
Similarly,
there should be no difficulty in outrightly rejecting the unsubstantiated fall
claims of the reactionaries as that of their inflicting heavy casualties on us
through helicopter gunships. When asked
by foreign reporters to substantiate their tall claims, the reactionary,
spokesperson is reported to have sought to hide under a lame excuse of their
inability due to poor weather conditions prevailing in the battle zones. Everybody knows this is one of the best
weather seasons in the areas where the real battle is taking place. But the question remains: if the weather did
not permit to count the casualties, how did it permit to fix the target, if at
all ? What a lame excuse!
At a time when
the tottering old regime in Nepal is seeking military and other help from
foreign powers to save its skin, the CPN (Maoist), the PLA and the URPC have
written a joint letter to the international community, including the UN, India,
China, USA and the European Union, asking them not to interfere in the internal
affairs of Nepal and let the Nepalese People determine their own political
future. The letter signed by Com.
Prachanda on behalf of the Party and the PLA and by Com. Baburam Bhattarai on
behalf of the URPC have been sent through their respective representatives in
Nepal on December 3. 2001. [The full
text of the letter is available on
request.]
A ‘Nepal Bandh’ (General shut-down) called by the United
Revolutionary People’s Council (URPC) on December 7, calling for “All power to
the URPC” and in protest against the recent imposition of state of emergency
has been a grand success. According to
the initial information available from different parts of the country, a
complete general political strike has been observed throughout the country
despite the intimidatory tactics applied by the old regime and its armed forces
on the people against the strike.