[Occasional
Information Bulletin of Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist)]
Standing
Committee of CPN (Maoist) Meets
Standing Committee of the Politburo of CPN (Maoist),
the highest policy-making body of the party, has recently met to take stock of
the situation after the declaration of nationwide emergency & deployment of
the royal army by the old reactionary state, and passed important resolutions. The
meeting has adopted "A Brief Resolution on the Current Situation"
presented by Chairman Prachanda, which makes succinct evaluation of the current
international and national situation and provides concrete guidelines for the
future course of action by the revolutionary forces. Commenting on the
international situation particularly the recent developments in South Asia, the
resolution says: "it is now crystal clear that the brutal aggression in
Afghanistan was, objectively and ultimately, a part of the grotesque strategy
of US imperialism to establish a strong military base there for carrying out
its plunder and hegemony in South Asia. Western imperialism under the cover of
war against terrorism, is blatantly moving ahead in its ‘master plan’ to
ruthlessly crush the right of rebellion practiced by the oppressed masses of
South Asia. Caught in the quagmire of hatred, anger and rebellion of the
masses, the ruling classes of all the countries of this region are playing the
dirty game of ensuring their own survival against the masses by dancing to the
tunes of imperialism in abject subservience." Highlighting the
significance of Marxist-Leninist-Maoist ideology and party to lead the struggle
against the imperialism and reaction, the resolution further adds:
"Experience has once again proved the scientific truth to the world that
except for the proletarian leadership and the strategy of people’s war no other
method can ensure and effective resistance against imperialism and its reactionary
lackeys or bring about people’s liberation. Current developments in the
twenty-first century have all the more validated the Marxist-Leninist-Maoist
assertion that religious fundamentalism or narrow nationalism can in no way
galvanize the immense potentialities of rebellion inherent in the masses
against imperialist rubbers."
Making an objective analysis of the national situation
after the declaration of the so-called emergency, the resolution says:
"immediately after the declaration of the emergency the Deuba
‘government’, a mere courtier of the Gyanendra clique, attempted to ‘prove’ the
strength of its state and army by trampling its fascist boots upon the rights
of information of the people and unleashing its one sided, false, vested and
aggressive propaganda war and through large-scale arrests, massacre and terror
in urban and more accessible areas. However, in no time the ivory towers of its
propaganda war started crumbling under the onslaught of power of truth. The
false propaganda of passing the massacre of innocent and unarmed masses as
terrorists being killed in an encounter with the Maoists, started getting
exposed. Meanwhile the general military and non-military activities of the
people have amply demonstrated that in the actual practice of the war the
reactionary army has been forced into a defensive state. In spite of its
strategy of encirclement and annihilation in particular areas, the royal army
is getting demoralized against the heroism and war efficiency of the People
Liberation Army (PLA). There are enough signs of the this so-called emergency
turning in to a real death-knell of the reactionary state caught in the vortex
of severe economic crisis. Now, the reality of the attempt of the murder
Gyanendra clique to impose its autocratic rule through emergency in the country
by practicing repression and conspiracy even against the parliamentarists, is
slowly downing on the parliamentarist political groups. The memorandum of the
parliamentarists, the talk of "broad democratic unity" and the
intensifying factionalism even within the Nepali Congress Party, are the
manifestations of this contradictions… .The sequence of events testifies that
the situation of special equilibrium between the forces of revolution and
counter-revolution still prevails." Drawing the immediate tactical line
from this, the resolution states: "In this situation, basing on the Maoist
principle of correct identification and handling of contradictions we should
make the Gyanendra clique and its emergency as our target of attack. As per the
changed condition, we should attempt to have direct or indirect, overt and
covert interaction, joint action, understanding, tactical unity or whatever is
possible, with all the political groups, individuals, or organizations, both
inside and outside parliament, that have a minimum of contradiction with the
emergency and the Gyanendra clique."
Accordingly, the standing committee of the party has
chalked out a set of military and non-military programme of actions and
advanced the following immediate slogans:
United Revolutionary People’s Council launches
Programme of action
United
revolutionary people’s council (URPC) the revolutionary united front led by CPN
(Maoist) and an embryonic Central People’s Government Organising Committee, has
announced a two –month long programme of action culminating in a two-day Nepal
Bandh (General shut-down) on February 22 and 23 to mobilize the masses against
the so-called emergency and the royal military dictatorship. In an appeal
issued by Com. Baburam Bhattarai, Convenor of URPC, and titled "Wage
United Struggle Against the Royal Military Dictatorship", the URPC has
exhorted all the patriotic, democratic and letist forces to fight unitedly
against the military dictatorship headed by hated Gyanendra. The appeal
distributed in hundreds of thousands all over the country makes an objective
analysis of the current situation and says: "In the context of the
specific political balance of power at present and the possibility of external
imperialist and exopansionist military intervention, we, with full sense of
responsibility, deem it imerative to build a broad democratic national unity to
smash this fascist and anti-national royal military dictatorship and
institutionalize the republican form of state in the country. Because it has
once again been proved that so long as this fake ‘monarchy’ and the royal army
under its command remain in the country it is impossible to safeguard the
fundamental and political rights of the people and the true sovereignty and
independence of the country. Hence it has become an immediate political task to
institutionalize the republic and to draw a new constitution by the elected
representatives of the people. For this, it is quintessential to have different
kinds of dialogues, understandings, tactical unity or united front or whatever
is feasible, among different forces on the basis of immediate common minimum
programmes and slogans and launch struggle, unitedly or separately, against
this so-called emergency, black ordinance and deployment of the royal army. On
behalf of URPC, we make an earnest appeal to all for the sme".
To
mobilize every section of the masses for the purpose, the following immediate
slogans have been advanced.
The two-month long programme of action launched by the URPC is as
follows:
Also, February 13 would be
observed with special programmes as the 7th anniversary of the
initiation of the great People’s War, and martyrs memorial programmes would be
organized from February 26 to March 5. Royal army indulges in Cowardly Massacre
Two months into the so-called emergency and the military take-over, the
reactionary royal army is hard put to show any sign of ‘success’ against the
revolutionary people’s war (PW). Rather it has been forced to retreat to the
district headquarters in the face of stiff resistance by the heroic fighters of
the PLA, and has taken recourse to indiscriminate killing of unarmed masses to
prove its virility to its imperialist and expansionist masters. Contrary to the
daily dose of misleading propaganda through the royal army controlled media
(all the newspapers are dictated to publish only the version of the royal
army!), the reactionary mercenaries have been butchering unarmed masses and
noncombatant political activists mostly in and around district headquarters and
the plain (Terai) areas to fulfill their daily quotas of human casualties. Any
close analysis of the pattern of killings by these butchers during the past Two
months would substantiate that these cowards closeted in the heavily fortified
barracks in the district headquarters or urban areas do ventures out in a
strength of not less than 3 to 5 hundred in numbers, only in day time, to
nearby areas of 2-3 hours walking distance, herd in the masses at random, pick
up a few for annihilation and return back to the barracks before the sun sets
in. this is the pattern of their so-called ‘search and destroy operation’. The
fact that most of these massacres have taken place in the Terai districts of
Banke, Bardiya, Kailali, Dhanusha etc. and in and around the district
headquarters of Gorkha, Dailekh, Dadeldhura, Baitadi, Lamjung and others, amply
proves this. It may be recalled that after the initial attempts at firing or
bombing from helicopters turned into a total farce, this new techniqueof
cowardly massacre has been restored to by these reactionary butchers. Since the
independent media and human rights organizations are strictly barred from
visiting and verifying these massacre sites, such horrendous war crimes have
not been sufficiently exposed. It may be noteworthy that a reporter from the
pro-establishment paper Kantipur was recently arrested for reporting one of
such heinous crimes by the royal army in Parbat district. Similarly a report by
the parliamentary opposition party UML has corroborated the killing of six
ruling Nepali Congress Party activists by the royal army in Rolpa district.
Here it won’t be out of context to advice the amnesty international, which has
made a hue and cry over the punishment meted out by the revolutionary forces to
some govern,ment informers directly involved in this crimes, to monitor this
war crimes by the royal army and report to the international community.
Meanwhile the PLA and the people’s militias have carried out the numbers of
successful ambushes and military actions in Gorkha, Lamjung, Myagdi, Dailekh,
Sindhupalchok and other areas and effectively thwarted the attempts of the
royal army to invade the revolutionary base areas. Rather a number of daring
raids by the PLA over the royal army outposts guarding the telecommunication
towers and other installations have forced the reactionary army to retreat to
the district headquarters or large urban areas.
Tottering Regime Desperately Seeks External Shoring up
The
proclamation of the emergency and imposition of royal military dictatorship seems
to have added to the problems of the old reactionary state headed by
Gyanendra-Deuba clique rather than solving it. After having diverted the major
chunks of the national budget to military pursuits, the old state is fast
heading towards total economic bankruptcy. As a result the economy is reported
to have registered the lowest growth in the last ten years, and the tottering
regime has desperately sought soaring up by the imperialists and expansionists
masters, besides imposing additional taxes on the people through an economic
ordinance. The first ever Nepal visit by the US secretary of state, Colin
Powell, on January 18-19 was primarily in response to this, apart from the
global geo-strategic calculations of the master himself. That the much hyped
visit was centered around the challenges post by the revolutionary PW was
evident from the utterances of Colin Powell before he touched the soil of
Nepal. He minced no words in expressing whole hearted support to old regime and
pontificating the urgent need to exorcise the expectre of inpending communist
revolution, which they fondly brand as ‘terrorism’. He also pledged all
economic and military support against the revolution. This was, of course, on
expected lines. What was unexpected, however, was Colin Powell’s advice to the
old regime not to prolong the emergency and to guard against the violations of
human rights. Nevertheless the very fact that the US secretary of state deemed
it necessary to meet with the top military brass of Nepal eloquently speaks of
the primacy of the military aspects of the visit. Though no formal announcement
has been made so far, it is reliably learnt that the US will provide
substancial economic and military aids including 10 ultra modern helicopters,
to fight against the revolutionary PW in Nepal. Whether the old regime fast
crumbling under its own weight can survive through imperialism shoring up is
yet to be seen.
CCOMPOSA CALLS FOR UNITED ACTION
The
recently formed co-ordination committee of Maoist Parties and Organisations of
South Asia (CCOMPOSA) has taken a number of important decisions to fight
unitedly against reactionary ruling classes of this region. Among this, a
campaign against the imposition of emergency in Nepal and promulgation of POTO
and banning of revolutionary parties and organisattions in India is to be
launched throughout the region. For this, following common slogans have been
advanced:
1. Down with emergency in Nepal !
2. Lift the ban on CPI (M-L) (PW), MCC and other organizations in India !
3. Advance people’s war to establish base areas !
4. Down with US imperialism and Indian expansionism !
5. Long Live Marxism-Leninism-Maoism!