Shakti Bahadur Basnet is out of danger

KATHMANDU, Feb 10 Nepal authorities have deployed extra police across the capital and detained five people after a close aide to Nepal's Maoist prime minister was shot by unknown assailants outside his apartment, police said on Tuesday.

"We have not been able to catch the culprit yet," Ramesh Shrestha, the Kathmandu police chief, told Reuters.

Shakti Bahadur Basnet, Prime Minister Prachanda's personal secretary and a central committee member of the ruling Maoist party, was shot late on Monday as he was going home in a Kathmandu suburb, the prime minister's spokesman Om Sharma said."He was rushed to the hospital with leg injuries and is out of danger,"

PM Prachanda's personal aide shot at

Prime Minister Prachanda's chief personal secretary and central leader of the Unified CPN (Maoist), Shakti Bahadur Basnet, was shot at near his residence at Koteshwor, Kathmandu, Monday evening.

Basnet, who received a bullet injury in his leg, was rushed to B & B at Satdobato, Lalitpur, for treatment.

The unidentified gunman opened fire at Basnet just as he was entering his house. Earlier in the afternoon, he had accompanied the Prime Minister to Paanchthar district.

Prime Minister Prachanda and other Maoist leaders have gone to the hospital to see him

Koirala claims people want alternative to PM Prachanda

Koirala claims people want Prachanda alternative

A day after accusing Prime Minister Prachanda of having "failed the nation" due to his divided loyalty towards the Maoist combatants and the Nepal Army, Nepali congress president Girija Prasad Koirala has claimed that the general public has started looking for an alternative to PM Dahal.

Speaking to reporters Sunday morning before flying back to Kathmandu from his hometown Biratnagar where he went Saturday for rest, Koirala said that his successor to the post of prime minister is being forced to the corner by the present situation.

In a usual tone, the NC strongman said that since the Maoist-led government is pushing the country towards totalitarianism by bringing ordinances the alternative to the prime minister is being sought. He also advised the government to stop running the country through ordinances, adding that the Maoist government is becoming weak also because it has repeatedly attacked (interfered) in all sectors.

Hinting at a possible change in the government led by UML, Koirala said that no matter who replaces PM Prachandal - be it (senior UML leader) "Madhav ji (Madhav Kumar Nepal or whoever" - the country needs someone who can give the much deserved leadership to the country.

The political atmosphere is expected to heat up after the former prime minister is back in the capital as his party, which has stood resolutely against the ordinances brought by the government - has intensified discussion with other political parties to call up a special session of the legislative-parliament.

Koirala has a habit of taking a brief sojourn to his hometown Biratnagar to hatch a deft political maneuver.

Meanwhile, another former prime minister and senior NC leader Sher Bahadur Deuba lambasted at the Unified CPN (Maoists) for not heeding the advice of his party, predicting that its days were now numbered.

The NC stalwart, who was speaking at a program in Pokhara today, said that in the past "despotic kings" had perished because they didn't heed NC's advice and that he won't be surprised if the Maoists suffered the same fate

Democracy and Class Struggle says that Koirala is increasing his anti Maoist rhetoric has US Under Secretary of State Boucher returns to the region. The UCPN Maoist needs to be on the alert.

The United States Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, Richard Boucher, is scheduled to visit Nepal on Feb. 11.

Interview in Red Star Paper of CPN Maoist - The street struggle is connected with the peace process

Interview with Comrade Kiran

How are you evaluating the unity between CPN-Maoist and CPN (Unity Centre-Masal)?

Our party had already made decisions to make single pole of the revolutionary parties and organization. It is the beginning of the unity among the revolutionaries. This unity will certainly fulfill its responsibility for the nation and the people that is to accomplish the revolution.

You are inchange of the organizational department of the unified CPN-Maoist. How have you done division of responsibility of party leaders?

We are thinking about 2 phases of work division. Party central committee has 138 members. We have done our work division of the first phase. Central committee member will bear the in-chargeship of the state committee of autonomous states, mass organizations, fronts and forums. Secondly, there are special bureaus and departments. Thirdly, there are the responsibility in the fronts of the government, constitutes assembly and the different committees of the government and CA.

We have completed our primary work division to mobilize the three fronts: the government, constituent assembly and the street.

Have you any concrete policy and Programme for mobilizing the three fronts together?

We will raise the agendas of nationality, People's Republic and livelihood during our struggle. For that, we will mobilize the different mass-organizations, fronts and forums.

We have made Unity National Awareness Campaign for the struggle. The campaign will continue for 3 months. This campaign will be implemented in all the autonomous states. The struggle will be for the national independency and against international intervention.

We have made a new tactical line for People's Federal Democratic National Republic. Under this line and slogan, we will mobilize the people strongly to create the favourable situation for writing people's constitution. Along with it, the campaign is for the development of the country. It is the campaign of social-economic transformation. The programme of the budget will be implemented in the meantime. The task of socio-economic transformation and struggle will be carried together.

How will you be able to advance the two campaigns for the socio-economic transformation and the struggle of street together at a time?

The decision of the party and the government is similar in some of the issues because the party is in the government. Similarly, the front of the struggle is in the government itself and the Constituent Assembly. The street has always been the front of the struggle. We will mobilize these fronts in a harmonious way. The campaign, 'Unity National Awareness Campaign', will unify the three fronts together. And in the other hand, unified mass mobilization will combine these fronts as a supplementary to each other. The street struggle will help the government to draft the constitution of the workers and the peasants.

What are the main hindrances before the Maoist-led government?

The obstacles are both inner and the outer. First, the main inner problem is the activities and the behaviour of the aligned political parties. The UML and the Forum are in the coalition; however, they behave like the opposition. They are creating obstacles on the way to accelerate the vehicle of the government. Second, the old bureaucracy is not helping the government well. We have to solve this problem too. Third, the un-political strike and the protests in the street in an anarchist way is the another obstacle.

The solution of these problems and the address of the aspiration of the people are the true remedies.

The other important thing is that the government is not getting any chance to implement the plan and the programme as according its declaration.

Thee government has to address them.

Can you assure the people that the programme of social-economic transformation will be implemented all over the nation here after?

Certainly, the programme of the socio-economic transformation will be implemented and should be. If there will be no favourable environment to implement it, we will go to the street. We have to clear the hindrances occur on the way. At that time, the struggle will be the out come of the obligation. If one situation can not solve the problem, the other situation takes birth through it.

Many of the conspiracies are being hatched to fail the elected Maoist-led government. We all know that the main task of the government is to write a new constitution and lead the peace process in to a logical end. The extra-others are the secondary tasks for the government. However, the anti-people power and the reactionaries are trying to divert from the main issues and the tasks. Therefore, we advance a head to fulfill these tasks through the street struggle.

Is the street struggle related to the future insurrection?

The street struggle is connected with the progress of the peace process. The three fronts: the government, CA and street: are complementary.

However, the front of struggle can take another bend if the anti-people and the reactionary powers create obstacles incessantly against writing constitution and the peace process.

Maoist Rebel News 4th February 2009

Maoist stalwart says govt will muscle through 'people-centric works'

A senior leader of the ruling Unified CPN (Maoist) said Thursday that nobody can hold back the "people-centric works" being undertaken by the government.

"If anybody still tries to prevent the government from engaging in people-centric works, then we will push it through by all means," said Narayankaji Shrestha, a Central Secretariat member of Maoist party.

The remarks by Shrestha who recently merged his party CPN (Unity Centre) with the Maoists comes at a time when the Maoist-led government is trying to push through controversial ordinances on disappearance and truth and reconciliation.

Leading human rights organisations Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have asked the government to seek the approval of the CA when it enacts the laws.

Shrestha, who was speaking at a programme organised by Tamuwan State Council in Pokhara, said that the government will not tolerate anyone trying to hinder its work to build "a fully sovereign and prosperous" country.

When his own party's youth wing the YCL and Maoist affiliated trade unions have been openly defying the government orders, he said that the Nepal Army (NA) should abide by the orders of the civilian government and stall its recruitment plans. He also stressed on the need for integrating Maoist combatants into the NA as per the Comprehensive Peace Accord (CPA).

However, he said if no consensus is reached on the issue of army integration, then there is no alternative to increasing the strength of the People's Liberation Army, which is currently de-mobilized in UN monitored cantonment, to 32,000.

Recently, Maoist People's Liberation Army (PLA) chief, Nanda Kishor Pun 'Pasang', had warned that the PLA, too, would start recruiting combatants if the NA does not stop its recruitments.

ILPS SOLIDARITY MESSAGE TO ASP AND CARC LEADERS

Press Statement
2 February 2009

ILPS SOLIDARITY MESSAGE TO ASP AND CARC LEADERS
BRUTALLY ATTACKED BY ITALIAN POLICE

By Prof. Jose Maria Sison
Chairperson, International Coordinating Committee
International League of Peoples' Struggle

The International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS) condemns in the strongest terms the attacks on January 27 carried out by the Italian political police in Massa against Marco Lenzoni, member of the National Committee of ASP, and Raffaelo Petri, Secretary of the CARC Party in a Tuscan department, and extends its militant solidarity to the two comrades who were merely exercising their right to tell the truth about the genocidal war being carried out by the Zionists in Gaza and the repression by the Turkish regime against the Kurdish people.

Under Berlusconi, the Italian bourgeois state has turned more and more to employing fascist methods to attack progressive Left personalities and organizations. It is employing all means, from filing of fraudulent legal cases to using brute force to intimidate and suppress its political opponents.

We fully support the ASP and CARC in their denunciation of the hypocrisy of the Italian bourgeois parties and institutions that commemorate Nazi and Fascist extermination camps while keeping silent on the atrocities being committed by the Zionists against the Palestinian people and by the repressive Turkish regime against the Kurdish people.

The examples shown by the two comrades will surely inspire the exploited and oppressed people to courageously stand up for the truth and fight for their rights and interests.

We call on all democratic forces and freedom-loving people of the world to condemn this latest fascist attack on the rights of the Italian people under the reactionary Berlusconi regime and express solidarity to the two comrades and all progressive forces in Italy fighting for the interests of the exploited and the oppressed people.

Militant solidarity to Marco Lenzoni and Raffaelo Petri!
Down with the right-wing Berlusconi regime!
Long live international solidarity

Maoists for establishing communism through socialism

Maoists for establishing communism through socialism

United CPN (Maoist), whose top leaders have time and again repeated their commitments for multi-party democracy, has said its ultimatum mission is to establish a communist system in Nepal.

A meeting of the Maoist parliamentary party held at Singh Durbar Monday passed its statute deciding to work for establishing communism through socialism.

The statute has been revised after unification with CPN Unity Center (Masal). The statute outlines the dos and don'ts for the party leaders.

It mentions that new constitution will be pro-people which the party believes will help attain communism in the long run.

The Maoist ministers attending the meeting briefed the lawmakers regarding the achievements of their ministries and the future plans.

As per the statute, parliamentary party leader and deputy leader can be removed through the vote of no-confidence. The party must call the parliamentary meeting within fifteen days if one fourth of the MPs make such a demand.

Maoist stalwarts sit down to devise Madhesh policy

Concluding that the party's base in the Terai plains is shrinking, the Unified CPN (Maoist) leadership is currently working on a new 'Madhesh policy', holding discussions with experts and party leaders from the region.

On Sunday, the Maoist central secretariat discussed the programmes and policies that could come in handy in consolidating the party's position in the Terai as well to address the grievances of a section of party leaders and cadres from the Terai that the leadership has ignored the issues concerning Terai.

According to Maoist spokesperson Dina Nath Sharma, the secretariat has given the responsibility to devise the Madhesh policy to party chairman and Prime Minister Prachanda after consultions with various sides.

Next meeting of the secretariat will take up Prachanda's document on Madhesh policy.

Today's secretariat meeting held at Prachanda's official residence in Baluwatar also decided to launch various development programmes to Terai. Sharma said committees would be formed at different levels for implementing the development programmes.

The Maoist leadership is also known to have decided to agree disgruntled party leader Matrika Yadav, not to rebel against the party. Former minister Yadav, who has boycotted successive meetings of the party, has threatened to quit and float a new party.

Dozen injured in Jaleshwor clashes

A dozen people have been injured in the fresh round of clashes in Jaleshwor of Mahottari district Sunday afternoon.

Locals and activists from Terai Madesh Loktantrik Party (TMDP) had been protesting against the government decision to open a Integrated Administrative Service Centre in Bardibas.

The government has already taken back its decision. Ten demonstrators and two policemen sustained injuries in today's clashes. The police fired 25 rounds of teargas to control the demonstrations