By IANS
Kathmandu : Hundreds of fuming Maoist guerrillas are stomping out a remote Nepali camp – angered by the alleged misuse of money meant for their upkeep and lack of medical treatment for injuries sustained during their 10-year insurgency, a report said Tuesday.
About 1,000 disgruntled combatants had deserted the Nawalparasi camp in southwestern Nepal, the private television channel Kantipur reported.
A self-styled platoon commander of the rebels, who gave his name only as Kusum, held a press conference in Narayangarh town Tuesday to inform the media that guerrillas were leaving the camp due to mismanagement of state funds provided for their stay in the camps till crucial general elections in November, the TV channel said.
Kusum also alleged that the soldiers were frustrated at not receiving medical treatment for the injuries they had sustained during a 'People's War' that ended last year with the signing of a peace pact.
Kusum said he himself had received a bullet injury in his leg but was yet to receive medical treatment. Frustrated soldiers were leaving the camps because they could find no reason to stay back, he said.
However, the channel also said that the guerrilla in charge of the camp, a combatant identifying herself as Pratiksha, had denied a guerrilla exodus.
Pratiksha said that according to an arms agreement, a certain percentage of combatants from each cantonment are allowed to go on home-leave, and that the so-called "deserters" were actually people who had gone on leave.
The report comes at a time when the Maoist leadership is holding a crucial meeting to discuss its future strategies. Media reports have been predicting verbal fireworks at the meeting.
There is said to be growing dissatisfaction among the Maoist rank and file against their top leaders and Prachanda, the chairman of the party, could face sharp criticism from other senior leaders if not an outright challenge to his leadership.
The Maoists have come under heavy flak from political parties over an act of violence at a frontier town Sunday where cadres assaulted the chief administrative officer.
The Young Communist League, the controversial youth wing of the Maoists, roughed up the official at Charikot in Dolakaha district, causing civil servants countrywide to halt work Monday.
Though MPs flayed the assault in parliament, Maoists are still on the warpath at Charikot. Kantipur Television said they have called an indefinite shutdown in the town demanding that the government release 32 cadres arrested for the attack.