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NEPAL:
WAR OVER BUT PEACE NOT YET AT HAND
Kunda Dixit
MARCH 2007 (IPS) - If all goes well, in the next few weeks Nepal's Maoist insurgents
will join the government of Prime Minister GP Koirala, writes Kunda
Dixit, editor and publisher of the Nepali Times newspaper in
Kathmandu.
In this analysis, Dixit writes that with the restoration of
democracy, it was as if the lid came off and all pent-up grievances
and demands of groups that had been marginalised or excluded from
decision-making wanted their say. The latest complication is an
eruption of demands for fair representation and self-rule from many
of Nepal's 103 ethnic and caste groups.
Despite the peace process, Nepal is in ferment. There are strikes,
shutdowns, and highways blockades every day by various groups. The
unrest has caused a crippling shortage of fuel. The government has
held several rounds of negotiations with representatives of these
groups, but has not been able to stem the agitation.
As the first anniversary of the victory of People Power approaches
in Nepal, there is no doubt that a compromise has to be reached and
quickly before another fire ignites from the embers of ten years of
war.
/NOT FOR PUBLICATION IN AUSTRALIA, CANADA, NEW ZEALAND, CZECH
REPUBLIC, IRELAND, POLAND, UNITED STATES, OR THE UNITED KINGDOM/
(END/2007)
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