Nepal Maoists swap guns for grins

Shaktikhor (Nepal), Jan 29: Nepal's Maoist revolt may have ended but the young cadres in green uniform with red ''People's Liberation Army'' badges protecting a large camp of former rebels still flag down passing vehicles for security checks.

Welcome to Shaktikhor, home to hundreds of former guerrillas living in tarpaulin and plastic shelters who are a central part of a disarmament process aimed at ending a decade-old civil war in which over 13,000 people have died.

Shaktikhor in central Nepal is the first of seven sites where Maoists have completed locking up arms in containers for UN monitoring, part of a November peace pact between the government and rebels.

Those weapons were put in a steel container that can be seen on a hillock overlooking the camp, some 50 km south of Kathmandu.

The container symbolises how life has changed for Vijay, a former fighter in charge of camp security.

''When we were fighting, we had to be aggressive. There was no place for emotions,'' said the 21-year-old Vijay, walkie-talkie in hand.

''Now we can smile, enjoy life more and talk to ordinary people,'' he added, a grin lighting his young face.

The disarmament process has been clouded by a separate unrest in Nepal's southern plains where the government has imposed curfews after protests from ethnic Madhesi people who say they have been sidelined by the peace pact with the Maoists.

STEP BY STEP

Under the peace plan, after the UN is satisfied that all Maoist weapons have been locked up, former guerrilla leaders will join an interim government that will hold elections to a constituent assembly in the summer.

But before that, Maoist fighters, their leaders estimate their number at about 35,000, are to be confined to 28 camps and their arms locked up in seven areas under UN watch.

The former rebels will keep the keys to the containers, while the army must store a similar number of weapons.

UN monitors will guard the containers around the clock, assisted by an Interim Task Force (ITF) of retired Gurkha soldiers from the Indian and British armies.

''No one can guarantee all weapons will be deposited. Some could be hidden in villages,'' said Lok Raj Baral of the independent think tank Nepal Centre for Strategic Studies.

''But remember, they have to fight the constituent assembly elections and they have to win the trust of the people. They can't do that by arms.'' This month, the US ambassador James Moriarty said the Maoists were trying to buy home-made weapons from neighbouring India to deposit in containers while keeping their advanced weapons hidden, a claim the former rebels and government rejected.

Registration of weapons in another camp at Nawalparasi, a district next to Chitwan, is expected to be over later today.

At Shaktikhor, tough-looking former Gurkha soldiers in brown jackets marked ''ITF'' could be seen walking into the camp where Vijay's superiors have not allowed journalists to enter.

Asked if he regretted not having his rifle anymore, Vijay, who is from an poor rural family, said the mood was for peace.

''The people demand peace so we are depositing our arms,'' he said as his comrades drank water from a communal plastic jug.

He justified the checking of vehicles and people moving on a dirt road along the camp as necessary to keep local crime down.

Not everyone was buying that. Some Nepalis say the Maoists still want to control things, by force if necessary.

Two km down a bone-jarring road through wheat fields, Keshav Lama, the head of the local forest users group, said the Maoists had made it tough for them to cut down trees.

''They tell us don't do any forest activity near their camp. They say they may shoot us,'' said Lama.

''It will take some time for them to change their ways.''

REUTERS

Related Stories

Republic Day celebrated in Kathmandu
Nepal: Situation in Terai worsens, curfew in 4 dist
In-focus: Nepal Quest for Democracy