Kamala Sarup: James F Moriarty Weapons & Maoists

The US ambassador to Nepal James F Moriarty has said that Maoists are trying to keep sophisticated weapons despite their pledge to hand them over to the United Nations. He has also asked the UN to make sure that real weapons and real Maoist combatants are in the cantonments. The Maoists are trying to buy primitive and handmade weapons from India black market to put them in the UN containers and retain the sophisticated weapons. Moriarty also said the Maoists had recruited a large number of fighters in November to inflate the number of Maoist fighters.

US Ambassador James F Moriarty further said "The Maoists will continue to remain in the US government's terrorist list. The rebels have failed to live up to their commitment in restoring peace in the country. I traveled across Nepal and found nothing has changed except for the killings. The rebels started a recruitment drive right after the signing of the peace accord and obstructed the government's efforts to restore police posts in the villages. Probably they didn't have 35,000 fighters and probably because they wanted to keep part of their ex-guerrillas out of the cantonments. People in the villages continue to fear the Maoists and until this is diminished Nepal cannot hope to have a free and fair election to the constituent assembly. Maoists have deposited inferior types of weapons in the cantonments while retaining modern weapons they already have.' he said. The US Ambassador also asked the Maoist rebels to make their budgetary allocation transparent.

And on the other side, RIM and COMPOSA, who have been assisting the communist revolution through out the world, have recently organized a joint meeting in Charikot, Nepal. They have also praised the strategy of Maoists and said that they will continue helping them. They concluded the meeting saying that they will now work to start revolution like Nepal in different parts of the world. Previously, RIM and COMPOSA were against Maoists' decision to stop their armed revolution. They started supporting Maoists as the Maoists have now reached the threshold of capturing the central government of the country. On the other hand, US Ambassador, James F Moriarty, has said that he has received information from his secret agents that the Maoists have planned to capture the government through CA polls. He said that Maoists are planning to take hold of all the ballots in the remote areas with the help of their PLA's.

Indian Ambassador to Nepal, Shiv Shankar Mukherjee also said that it would be appropriate to form the new interim government incorporating Maoists only after arms management. Nepali people saying that Maoists behaviour are still the same and they could not feel peace even after the restoration of peace in the country.

According to CNUR The Maoist have been extorting money from citizens, terrorizing and killing individuals with impunity, forcibly evicting thousands of people from their homes and lands, abducting little children from schools and forcefully recruiting them into their militia on a massive scale. They also have been preventing people from engaging in any religious and cultural activities throughout the countryside.

According to IRIN report "The numbers of internally displaced people remains one of the biggest humanitarian concerns in Nepal. The armed conflict between the Maoist rebels and government forces resulted in the deaths of more than 14,000 people and the internal displacement of up to 200,000. The conflict severely affected the humanitarian activities in a country. Thousands of families are still searching for their relatives who disappeared following their abduction or illegal detention by the Maoists.

Maoists were still preventing or blocking access to development organisations, including the local and international aid agencies and the UN. During the conflict, the Maoists had destroyed much infrastructure.

It is true, If the Maoists gain complete power in Nepal, for a while, only to reject it later, after its failure becomes obvious.

The governments of many countries have adopted communism or socialism for at least the most important economic sectors: USSR, CPR, eastern Europe under USSR, United Kingdom, Egypt, India, Syria, Chile and Cuba, for prominent examples. All have failed. Only Cuba remains socialistic today and that is only because its revolutionary leader, Fidel Castro, has maintained a tight security grip on the country.

Desperate people welcome new ideologies, so it is not surprising that the people of Nepal would welcome the Maoists to power. Initially, they would fare well with land redistribution and job creation for all who apply. No starvation would exist and everyone who wants to work is able to do so. However, there the dream ends. After some initial successes, the people of Nepal would continue to be poor. Another problem with communism is its lack of incentive.

However, communism requires the intellectual and manual efforts of people that benefit the community, not the innovator. Since a communist or socialist economy lacks adequate incentives, its workers will not produce well in comparison with the capitalist economies. Furthermore, in its endeavor to have jobs for everyone, labor costs will escalate, thus making prices uncompetitive in world markets. Therefore, the Nepalese economy will not be competitive, and it will be unable to import goods and services in sufficient quantities. The result would be that its people will continue to be poor. Eventually, the general population would become so dissatisfied. The people would be no better off than before, except for communist party functionaries who would line their own pockets before fleeing to a safer haven.

Various socialist experiments were conducted throughout history to equalize incomes by groups ranging from small religious bodies to large nations, but all were unsuccessful to raise general living standards. Communist communities and nations all failed to produce sustained income and wealth for most of their citizens, compared with capitalist nations, and the causes of their failures can be summarized as follows: Acquisitive people with ability and motivation resent sharing equally with those with less ability and motivation, so the former either stopped making much effort or moved elsewhere. Why work hard and long when you get no more money and wealth than when you work less? However, in a capitalist economy, those who have must deal somehow with those who have not. This function is administered increasingly by governments rather than private citizens and charitable organizations.

Now we have questions:How would justice and freedom work under the Maoists? How would power be controlled so that a minority of rulers does not oppress a majority of rulees. Where does ultimate power reside, with a select group or with the people? How would the economy work under the Maoists? What would foreign policy be like under the Maoists? Would they promote peace or war among foreign nations? How would they work peacefully with the capitalist democracies?

In the mean time, Maoists atrocities are continuing:

People aged between 22 to 61 are in the captivity of Maoists for the last 18 months. Sher Bahadur Paudel, a teacher in Bhojpur has been given death threats for failing to pay regular levy to the rebels. Threw away all preparatory goods and articles belonging to the police post at Bhotechaur VDC, Chautara in Dolakha district on January 11 and pressured policemen to turn back from the village. Chased away police team from Chheda of Gothpani VDC in Kavre district; and Khairichandpur and Baniyabhar VDC in Bardiya district. In Ramechhap district, 15 policemen were forced to return from Bethan VDC. Disrupted VDC meetings in Deurali of Bhojpur district. Abducted Devendra Mishra and his son from Mishra's house at Bhudala of Badauli VDC in Kapilvastu district on January 13. On January 14, padlocked the office of Khandbari micro-hydropower project run jointly by three campuses of the Sankhuwasabha district. Sent 45-year old Maila Tamang of Khimti VDC-9 of Ramechhap district to a labour camp (Source:News Agencies).

Nepali Journalist and Story Writer Kamala Sarup is an editor of peacejournalism.com. She is specialising in in-depth reporting and writing on Peace, Anti War, Women, Terrorism, Democracy, and Development. Some of her publications are: Women's Empowerment (Booklet). Prevention of trafficking in women through media,(Book) Efforts to Prevent Trafficking in for Media Activism (Media research). Two Stories collections. Her interests include international conflict resolution, cross-cultural communication, philosophy, feminism, political, socio-economic and literature. Her current plans are to move on to humanitarian work in conflict areas in the near future. She also is experienced in organizational and community development.

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