Maoists must surrender arms peacefully and talk peace; Army Chief


December 17, 2001
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December 17, 2001

KATHMANDU: Maoists must surrender their arms peacefully and negotiate a peace with the government to end the present stalemate, Army Chief Gen.Prajwalla said Monday. “They must surrender peacefully and come to the talks. If not we will have to bring them to the table,” he told Nepal Television in a nationally televised interview.

“Nepalis and Nepalis should not be fighting each other,” he said. While discussing other options, he did not discount the total use of force to quell the rebellion. There have been 58 military casualties although he did not mention fatalities since the fighting erupted November 23.

Gen. Rana blamed the Maoists for the escalation of the violence. “The army had been deployed for development. But they attacked us. After they attacked us we had to go on the offensive,” he said. Nepal’s top soldier said all the arms and ammunition looted by rebels from an army barrack in Dang have not been recovered.

“It is our duty to recover the arms. That is why we went on the offensive,” he said. Gen. Rana admitted there may have been “lapses” on the part of the army in Dang when rebels for the first time attacked the army in six years; he did not elaborate; he admitted the army was taken “by surprise” in Dang while morale was high.

“If the army has been deployed earlier, this situation would not have arisen,” he said in reply to a question. “Six years ago the Maoist issue was just a spark but now it has spread nation-wide,” the Army Chief said.

Gen.Prajwalla denied claims that the army has previously refused to take on the Maoists under previous governments.

“It is not that we did not want to go. There is a procedure to deploy the army within the constitution. The government has now given us the mandate and order from the constitution,” he said.

A Maoist was shot dead and another was injured and arrested by the army is Rolpa Monday morning in an exchange of gunfire with security personnel, the Defence Ministry said.

A woman rebel was arrested and socket bombs recovered from the rebels, the Defence Ministry said.

A mother and son were killed in a land mine explosion at Suri village in Dolakha district overnight, daily newspaper Aparahna said quoting police sources Monday. The land mine was laid by rebels.

For the first time the rebels killed a soldier at Salleri in Solokhumbu district overnight using a long-range weapon in six years of communist insurgency.

It was not known from where the rebels got the sophisticated weapons; some were looted on November 23 from a barrack in Dang.