By Bhagirath Yogi

KATHMANDU: The much-talked about visit of the European Union Troika may have given much needed respite to the government, but it seems to have offended many including the Maoists, opposition political parties and the Bhutanese refugees.

A day after the EU delegation made its position public in Kathmandu, chairman of the underground Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), Prachanda, expressed surprise over statement of the European Union terming it as ‘unexpected.’.

In a statement issued Thursday, Prachanda, said, “Our party is seriously concerned over the expressions of the EU delegation. The one-sided and irresponsible expressions against our party from a responsible international organisation like the EU were unexpected.” He even alleged that EU’s statement had come as per the suggestion of the ‘old regime’ and the Royal Nepalese Army.

The rebels term the Nepal government as ‘old regime’ and describe themselves as a ‘new regime.’

Addressing the press corps on Wednesday (Dec. 15), the EU delegation expressed its ’full’ support to the peace process initiated by the Sher Bahadur Deuba-led coalition, asked all the constitutional and democratic forces in the country to rally behind the incumbent government and said the cases of human rights abuses by the security forces, particularly in view of the absence of a functioning parliament, were nothing surprising.

Head of the EU Troika delegation, Robert Milders, called upon the CPN (Maoist) to respond positively to the government’s call without any preconditions. The government has given the deadline of January 13, 2005 to the rebels to return to the table of negotiations, which they have already rejected.

“Failure to do so on the part of CPN (M) will serve as evidence that CPN (M) has no real intention of pursuing political objectives through legitimate means and will oblige the EU to reassess its position, said a press statement issued on the occasion,” said a press statement issued on the occasion.

For the CPN (M) to be recognised as a legitimate political actor, it must renounce violence and commit to democracy and human rights, the EU said. The EU also strongly condemned what it said the CPN (Maoist)’s systematic and gross human rights violations, including the use of child soldiers, which run contrary to official claims by the CPN (M) that they respect human rights.

In his rejoinder, the Maoist supremo claimed that the EU’s statement had come against the will of the Nepali people and the agitating political parties. “It has ignored our demand for a reliable international mediation as well as the demand for a constituent assembly,” he said.

“If the EU is up to forcing our party, the agitating parties and the Nepali people to surrender to the feudal dictatorial regime, its desire will never become a reality,” Prachanda said, adding that the Maoist party expected a ‘balanced and positive’ role of the EU to resolve the on-going civil war.

The Maoist reaction to the EU’s statement is understandable given the impression that the EU was relatively ‘soft’ towards Nepali rebels. The Maoists are said to be coordinating their international support network from Brussels where the EU headquarters are located. A group of European human rights activists including German lawyers had visited Chennai to lobby with the Indian authorities to stop repatriation of senior Maoist leader, C. P. Gajurel, alias “Gaurav’ and ensure his release. Indian authorities had arrested Gajurel in August last year while he was trying to board an international flight to Europe with a fake British passport. (He is still in Indian prison awaiting judicial verdict.)

Besides Maoists, major opposition parties in the country– that are launching street agitation against the royal move of October 4, 2002– were also taken aback by the ‘straightforward’ position of the EU delegation. Interestingly, EU’s position was quite different than that of special envoy of Britain—a leading EU member to Nepal—Sir Jeffrey James who said early this week that Nepal could not remain for long without a functioning parliament. He even admitted that reinstatement of the dissolved parliament could be an option to break the long-running political stalemate in the country.

Talking to Nepalnews Friday afternoon—after his party’s central working committee (CWC) meeting—CWC member of Nepali Congress, Krishna Sitaula, said the present government hand-picked by the King was in no position to resolve any of the country’s problems. “We strongly believe that this government lacks both the constitutional and political status. Only a government that is accountable to the parliament can have such a status. We are not going to consider this government as a constitutional one simply because EU or any other international power says so,” he added.

Sources say the jumble up in the EU’s position this time may be because it comprised bureaucrats only. Milders, who is the director for Asian affairs at the Foreign Ministry of the Netherlands that holds the EU Presidency now, and members of his delegation had flown for nearly 48 hours to visit Kathmandu and had ended up meeting one official after another during their three-day sojourn. They may not have had enough time to learn and understand the complex political scenario in the Himalayan kingdom and the role of various international powers that have decisive influence in the country’s polity.

Of course, the delegation expressed serious concerns about the deteriorating human rights situation in the country and criticized the recently amended anti-terror ordinance that gives power to Nepali authorities to put anybody under preventive detention for up to one year without a judicial trial. Critics, however, said the Troika was not quite forthcoming so as to censor the government and security forces on the issue of widespread rights violations.

Bhutanese refugees, on their part, complained that the delegation refused to see them. Laurence Argimon-Pistre, head of the South Asia unit of the European Commission and a member of the Troika, has left for Bhutan and her assessment of the situation is yet to become public. The refugee community wants the EU to impress upon India and Bhutan to force the Bhutanese King to accept his own subjects who are languishing in seven refugee camps in eastern Nepal for the last 14 years.

It may take sometime for Brussels to clear the mess that the high-level EU delegation has left behind during their whirlwind tour of the sub-region. It may also have learnt a lesson that inexperienced bureaucrats are not best placed to deal with a situation of `complex political emergency’ as is evident in Nepal now.