Revolutionary armed struggle in Nepal
The fires of armed revolution are quickly spreading in Nepal. Under the leadership of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), the revolutionary movement is persistently advancing against the rule of the exploiting classes. | The Kingdom of Nepal is a backward country in South Asia. It lies north of India and south of Tibet and China. It is nestled by the towering Himalayas where Mt. Everest, the world�s highest peak, is found. Nepal is currently ruled by a monarchy despite the establishment of a parliament in 1990 after broad democratic actions in the 1980s. |
In the past months, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) was able to deal heavy blows on the ruling reactionary system in Nepal. From February to March, revolutionary fighters raided in succession, police detachments in western Nepal, annihilating 200 policemen.
In April, a five-day nationwide strike was launched that shook the entire ruling system. Cries to establish a free republic reverberated throughout the country. At the same time, the PLA launched coordinated offensives against police detachments in Achham and Rolpa (see map) that annihilated more than 300 policemen.
The launching and expansion of people's war
It was on February 13, 1996 when protracted people's war was waged for the very first time to advance the new democratic revolution against the imperialists and the local reactionary classes in Nepal.
Prior to this, the revolutionary forces laid down the basic requisites for the establishment of a people's army, including laying down the strategy and tactics of armed struggle, launching politico-military training and the corresponding changes in organization. Along with launching initial tactical offensives, the revolutionary forces went full steam in establishing guerrilla zones that consolidated the breadth and depth of the Party's mass base in the country.
Since 1996, armed revolution has quickly gained strength in Nepal. The revolutionary mass base was developed step-by-step in the countryside by arousing, organizing and mobilizing the broad, impoverished peasants in the Nepali countryside, conducting education and launching campaigns to improve the livelihood of the masses.
At the same time, raids were conducted on government agencies that caused the peasant masses extreme hardship and the most rabid elements in the communities were meted punishment. The revolutionary forces also organized and mobilized workers in the cities.
The PLA has gained expertise in waging guerrilla warfare through the use of self-made bombs and arms, traditional weapons such as the khukhuris (a bladed weapon) and working tools. It has launched daring raids on selected police detachments to accumulate and train in the use of modern weapons.
At present, the PLA is in a position to launch successful operations employing temporary battalions (composed of a few hundred Red fighters). It is in possession of hundreds of high-powered firearms and other modern military equipment. Temporary as well as permanent companies have been formed under various regional commands. There are dozens of regular platoons and hundreds of regular squads. In addition, thousands have been armed and trained as members of the people's militia.
In many areas in the countryside, people's political power exists in guerrilla zones and fronts. The revolutionary forces operate, on various levels, in 22 out of the country's 40 districts. In May 2001, people's governments in west Nepal were established. Police forces opted to withdraw from the area due to the strength and breadth of support for the armed revolution. Elections have already been conducted in the area to set up local united people's committees up to the village and district level.
The US' counterrevolutionary response and support for the Nepali government
The reactionary government offered to negotiate in July 2001. The PLA entered into a ceasefire to pave the way for negotiations towards the establishment of a republic.
The negotiations collapsed after five months without achieving anything due to underhanded maneuvers by the Nepali monarchy and the inutility of the Nepali parliament to counteract them.
In November 2001, the Nepali government imposed martial law and mobilized the Royal Nepal Army (RNA), the armed forces under the monarchy's authority. Since then, the RNA has launched bloody atttacks against the people and the revolutionary movement.
In the past five months, hundreds of civilians in western and eastern Nepal have been massacred by the RNA to avenge its losses in armed encounters with the PLA. To cover up its crimes, the RNA reports them as "encounters" or "raids" on supposed revolutionary camps. In reality, the RNA's military operations are a systematic implementation of genocide in revolutionary strongholds. Captured activists and prisoners of war are likewise routinely massacred. In the latest "encounter" in Rolpa-Piuthan and Doti (western Nepal), the RNA made it appear that the civilians killed in the area were revolutionaries so that it could show off before its imperialist masters in the US and United Kingdom and lay down conditions for prolonging martial law.
The US supports the counterrevolutionary war and military dictatorship imposed by the monarchy in Nepal. It has included the PLA and CPN(M) in its list of those it considers "terrorists".
In January, US Sec. of State Colin Powell visited the country to begin preparations for large-scale intervention against the armed revolution and to establish permanent US military bases in the country. When Nepali prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba visited the US this May, plans for US armed intervention in the country were drawn. The US has allotted $20 million in military aid, arms, ammunition and helicopters for the RNA's use in pursuing the revolutionary forces in the mountains.
The US has also ordered the abandonment of negotiations with the revolutionary forces as a tactic, despite calls for talks from a broad section of the people and even a number of reactionaries.
In response, the CPN(M) has established the United Revolutionary Peoples Council on the national level to represent the various nationalities, castes, women, organizations, united front committees and patriotic and democratic forces in liberated areas and raised the armed revolution in the country to a new level.
It is the breadth and strength achieved by the armed revolution in Nepal in a span of six years that has prepared the people and the revolutionary forces to confront intensifying and escalating attacks by reaction and armed intervention by US imperialism in the country.
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