December 02, 2001
KATHMANDU: Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba Sunday thanked foreign governments for support to quell a bloody insurgency by declaring a state of emergency after last month’s failed talks to end the conflict through negotiations.
“I express my thanks on behalf of the Nepali people for the international support that the government has received for the actions that we took. They( Maoists) deceived and betrayed the nation while conducting talks. The government left no stone unturned in trying to resolve the issue amicably.”
“There was no other alternative for the government but to act as it did. They even dared to attack the army,” he said at a news conference at his official Baluwatar residence. Security personnel frisked invitee journalists at the heavily guarded residence.
“Nepalis should not be fighting each other,” he said. He parried questions on how long it will take the army to crush the resurgence of Maoist violence. “Let us see. The operation is successful,” he said to a query. “The emergency is aimed to quell terrorism. Others need not fear the emergency,” he said in reply to another question.
Deuba would neither confirm nor deny reports that senior Maoist leaders have been killed in army offensives against rebels in far west Nepal. Security personnel Sunday continued search and cordon operations against Maoists nation-wide Sunday after an emergency was declared Monday.
Unspecified number of rebels were killed in continuing intensified helicopter gunship against rebels this time in Ramechap district 200kms northwest of the capital Sunday, a Defence Ministry announcement said.
The army recovered a large cache of looted arms and ammunition in Dahabi in Rolpa in far west Nepal Sunday from rebels; the weapons were looted by Maoists in the first attack on an army barrack in six years in Dang in six years since communists launched an insurgency, another announcement said.
Soldiers foiled an attempt by insurgents to destroy the Chinese-aided Sun Kosi hydel project in east Nepal with “automatic weapons,” another official announcement said. There were other reports of sporadic violence from other parts of the kingdom.
In a significant development, the Defence Ministry in an appeal Sunday asked ex-soldiers from the Nepali, Indian and British armies not to help the rebels after the government was forced to adopt a “hard-line approach” against the insurgents.
Besides the Royal Nepali Army, Nepalis also serve in the Indian and British armies by agreement. At least two Maoists died Saturday when a security patrol fired on a group of Maoists at Bhimpedhi in neighbouring Makwanpur district, a report said.
Maoist reaction to developments were not available.