By Sudeshna Sarkar, IANS,
Kathmandu : Nepal’s army, the bête noir of the Maoist guerrillas during the 10-year armed insurgency, Tuesday said it was ready to work under the Maoists after the former rebels looked poised to head the government following an imminent landslide victory in the crucial
constituent assembly elections.
Major-General Shiva Ram Pradhan, the representative of the Nepal Army in a joint monitoring committee that is overseeing the management of the arms and soldiers of the state army as well as the Maoists’ guerrilla People’s Liberation Army (PLA), said the Nepal Army was ready to obey the command of any political party that came to power.
“The army will obey the commands of any government that has the mandate of the people,” the senior army official said at the first meeting of the monitoring committee Tuesday since last week’s election.
The committee also includes representatives from the PLA and the UN.
There was speculation that the chief of the army, Gen Rookmangud Katuwal, had offered to step down during a reported meeting with Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala Monday after it became evident that the Maoists would emerge the single largest party, trouncing Nepal’s former ruling parties.
Though Koirala’s government signed a peace pact with the Maoists two years ago to end the savage ‘People’s War’, a clause in the agreement has proved to be contentious.
The Maoists want their army to be merged with the state army and though the government agreed, the army has objected to the politicisation of its rank and file.
Since the PLA is politically indoctrinated, the army has reservations about its inclusion. It also emphasises that recruits to the army have to meet the standard mental and physical qualifications.
The army’s own political neutrality came under question in 2005 when it helped King Gyanendra seize absolute power and impose his own government.
After the fall of the royal regime in 2006, questions remained about the army’s status, with the new government punishing other security chiefs for siding with the king but leaving the then army chief unscathed.
Also, along with Maoists, the army personnel who were accused of grave human rights violations during the insurgency that killed over 13,000 people, were never tried in any civil court despite repeated urgings by human rights agencies, including the UN.