On September 3, the rebels unilaterally declared ceasefire for three months. At the time when we are desperately hoping that there would be no more news about the deaths and fights and the country will become peaceful again, the news of truce brought a glitter of hope. We thought – this might lead to the peace. The conflict had already killed more than 12,500 of Nepalese in last decade and we want this to end as soon as possible.
We hoped that the government would also declare such ceasefire to initiate talks (it’s the other case that the spokesperson of the rebels said on Sept 3 that they wanted no talks with the Royal government). We waited but instead the King, ministers and the army started saying it’s a ploy for the bigger attack and the Maoists are not serious about the peace. How can we believe you are, now?
Let it be for three months or three days, non-violent days are always welcome. We all know the battleground is no solution for the armed conflict. Talks are the only way out to peace. But this government wants us to believe that with the army they will crush the rebels and return peace to us. (Or even better to them would be that peace never returns because if it happens they will loss the right to remain in the power as the King had said he would step down after the restoration of peace!?)
Special note on this entry:Radio Free Nepal was a blog that ran during ex-King Gyanendra’s direct rule of Nepal defying the tight censorship and was instrumental in getting out information out of Nepal. The blog was at freenepal.blogspot.com which has now been closed.
The banner reads: King Gyandendra of Nepal has issued a ban on independent news broadcasts and has threatened to punish newspapers for reports that run counter to the official monarchist line. Given that any person in Nepal publishing reports critical of “the spirit of the royal proclamation” is subject to punishment and/or imprisonment, contributors to this blog will publish their reports from Nepal anonymously.
