Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist)

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Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist)

नेपाल कम्युनिष्ट पार्टी (माओवादी)



Leader	Prachanda

Founded	1994
Headquarters	Kathmandu

Political ideology	Communism, Marxism-Leninism-Maoism-Prachanda Path,
International affiliation	Revolutionary Internationalist Movement, CCOMPOSA

Website	http://www.cpnm.org/

Election symbol

See also the politics of Nepal series

The Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) (Nepali: नेपाल कम्युनिष्ट पार्टी (माओवादी)) is a Maoist political party in Nepal, founded in 1994 and led by Pushpa Kamal Dahal (otherwise known as Prachanda). Following massive popular demonstrations and a prolonged "People's War" against the monarchy, the CPN(M) became the largest party in the Nepalese Constituent Assembly election, 2008.

1 Overview
2 Organisational structure of the CPN-Maoist
3 Cadre
4 Women in the party
5 Areas of Operation
6 External Linkages
7 Criticism
8 Recent activities
9 See also
10 References
11 External links

[edit] Overview

The CPN(M) was formed following a split in the Communist Party of Nepal (Unity Centre) and it used the name 'CPN (Unity Centre)' until 1995. On February 13, 1996 the party launched the "Nepalese People's War", and it controlled rural areas of the country's territory before the agreed ceasefire.

A family in a Maoist-controlled valley.

In 2001, the Nepalese Army began a military campaign against the Maoists, especially in the western areas of the country, although there have been intermittent ceasefires. Fighting was roughly continuous through 2005, when the CPN(M) was at the height of its military power.^[1]

In 2005, the CPN(M) sought a different strategy of seeking permanent peace accords while forming an pro-democratic alliance with several other mainstream political parties against the dictatorship of King Gyanendra.^[2] Following massive popular uprisings (involving over a million people at moments) and a prolonged general strike in 2006, the monarchy finally capitulated, after several violent attacks and killings of peaceful protesters by the Nepalese Army had already occurred.^[3] Following the international legitimacy bought at the cost of laying down arms and participating in the new electoral process, several western European powers were persuaded to remove the CPN(M)from their government's "terrorist lists".

In early 2008, the CPN(M) won the largest voting bloc in the Nepalese Constituent Assembly. International observers, like the Carter Group said that the election were held in a "peaceful, orderly" manner and were "satisfying"^[4] This consummated the end of the centuries-old Nepali Monarchy, which has been supplanted by a secular, democratic, egalitarian Republic, a feat for which the CPN(M) was almost wholly responsible.^[5]

'Long Live Marxism-Leninism-Maoism and Prachanda Path'. Mural in Kathmandu made by the Madhesi Rashtriya Mukti Morcha

[edit] Organisational structure of the CPN-Maoist

Party	People’s Army	United Front
Standing committee	Central military commission	United people's district committees
Politburo	Regional military commissions	United people's area committee
Central committee	Sub-regional military commissions	United people's village committees
Regional bureaus (five)	District military commissions	United people's ward committees
Sub-regional bureaus (in some places special sub-regional bureau)	Included in this are: Temporary battalion
District committees	Companies
Area committees	Platoons
Cell committee	Squads (separate people's militias also exist under united village people's committees)

[edit] Cadre

A considerable number of retired Gurkha soldiers of the British and the Indian Army inhabit many of the Maoist-affected areas and Nepalese security agencies have suspected that these former soldiers along with those retired and deserters from the Royal Nepalese Army (RNA) have/are involved in training the insurgents. Government estimates provided in early 2003 on the CPN-M strength indicated that there are approximately 15,500 combatants, 18,000 militia, 24,500 active cadres, 33,000 hard core followers, and 800,000 sympathizers. The main fighting and support forces consist of groups like Magars, Tharus, Limbus, Tamangs, Dalits, Brahmins and Chhetris, the last two also providing the political and military leadership). These communities are also an important vote-bank for the CPN(M) Among the Maoist fighters – about 60 per cent – are deployed in the mid-west and west in their strongholds. Another 10 per cent are in the far west with around 10 percent in Gorkha, the rest is located in Kathmandu valley and east of it.

[edit] Women in the party

Women have been prominent in the recruiting profile. Available reports indicate that one-fifth to one-third of the cadre and combatants may be women. Reportedly, every village has a revolutionary women’s organization. According to a Jane’s Intelligence Review report of October 2001, there are usually two women in each unit of 35-40 men, and they are used to gather intelligence and act as couriers. Baburam Bhattarai was quoted as saying in Spacetime on April 18, 2003, that fifty percent of cadres at the lower level, thirty percent of soldiers and ten percent of members of central committee of the outfit were women. Durgha Pokhrel, Chairman of National Women’s Commission, who visited more than 25 Maoist districts, stated on July 3, 2003, during a talk delivered at the Nepal Council of World Affairs that percentage of women cadres could be as high as forty. A women’s group, the All Nepal Women's Association (Revolutionary), is alleged to be a front outfit of the CPN-M.

[edit] Areas of Operation

The guerrillas operate to varying degrees in 68 of the 75 districts that comprise Nepal. Their influence varies between moderate to very strong in these districts. In the districts of Rolpa, Rukum, Jajarkot, Salyan, Pyuthan and Kalikot in mid-western Nepal, Government presence is limited to the district headquarters with the rest of each district under Maoist control. The Nepalese Home Ministry has designated these districts as 'sensitive class A'. Nine districts, namely Dolakha, Ramechhap, Sindhuli, Kavrepalanchowk, Sindhupalchowk, Gorkha, Dang, Surkhet and Achham, are classified as 'Sensitive Class B', while 17 'Sensitive Class C' districts are Khotang, Okhaldhunga, Udaypur, Makwanpur, Lalitpur, Nuwakot, Dhading, Tanahu, Lamjung, Parbat, Baglung, Gulmi, Arghakhachi, Bardiya, Dailekh, Jumla and Dolpa. The Maoist insurgency initially commenced in the three districts of Rolpa, Rukum and Jajarkot and eventually spread throughout Nepal. Maoists have very strong bases in Western and mid-Western region and partially in Eastern region.

[edit] External Linkages

According to available information, the Maoists of Nepal have well-established linkages with Indian revolutionary communist organizations, primarily with the Communist Party of India (Maoist), currently leading a protracted "people's war" throughout the subcontinent. The first signs of contacts were reportedly registered during 1989-1990, when the two groups started collaborating in order to expand their influence. According to Indian government analysis, they began the process of laying a corridor, which is now widely referred to as the Revolutionary Corridor (RC) extending from Nepal to across six Indian States, including Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and Madhya Pradesh. This entire area has been identified in Maoist literature as the Compact Revolutionary Zone (CRZ). The CRZ was organized by the Nepal and Indian members of the Naxalite movement, in a meeting at Siliguri in the Indian State of West Bengal during August 2001. Indian Maoists are known as Naxalites (or Naxals) in reference to a popular uprising that began decades ago centered in the town of Naxalbari.

Nepalese Maoists had sent their delegates to the March 2001 Congress of PWG held at Abuz Marh in the Bastar region of Chhattisgarh. The establishment of CRZ gave a wider space and platform for all the proscribed Nepal and Indian Naxalite organizations to strengthen their bases in both the countries.

The CPN(M) is a participating organization of the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement (RIM), a global association of revolutionary communist parties. In July 2001, ten regional Maoist groups formed the Coordination Committee of Maoist Parties and Organization of South Asia (CCOMPOSA), in which the Nepalese Maoists, PWG, MCC, Purbo Banglar Movement (Bangladesh), Communist Party of Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and other Indian communist parties became members. The appearance of graffiti in remote villages in Naxalite-strongholds, in Rayakal and Mallapur mandals (administrative unit) of Karimnagar district in Andhra Pradesh, hailing CCOMPOSA points the spread of the idea of a common front of revolutionary communist groups in South Asia. Moreover, the Central Committee of the Maoists, in late-January 2002, passed a resolution stating that it would work together with the PWG and the MCC in fighting the ban imposed on the latter two organisations in India, under the Prevention of Terrorism Act, 2002. A year earlier, in 2001, the Maoists had sent a senior leader named Gaurav as a fraternal delegate to attend the 9th Congress of the PWG. Reports indicate that the Maoists and the PWG have also formed the Indo-Nepal Border Region Committee to coordinate their activities in North Bihar and along the India-Nepal border.

[edit] Criticism

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In April 2008 the United Nations Mission in Nepal urged the Maoist party to stop intimidating officials of other parties in the run-up of the general elections, taking place in April 10, 2008.^[6]

The U.S. Department of State has placed the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) on its list of Specially Designated Nationals (SDN list), and has sent $20 million in aid to the government of Nepal. Then U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell met with the Nepalese government in 2002, the first U.S. cabinet-level delegation to visit the Himalayan nation.

In August 2005, the European Union condemned CPN(M) for using children as soldiers in the civil war of Nepal. It claimed that about 400 child soldiers had died in the country's civil war. The CPN-M responds that while it cares for orphans among those killed in the war, this is different in kind from having child soldiers.

The post-Mao People's Republic of China also opposes the group as a destabilizing force in the region. The Maoist rebels, like Maoists internationally, accuse the PRC of embracing capitalism and eschewing whatever revolutionary aspirations the regime had before the late 1970s and the leadership of Deng Xiaoping. Today, few Leftists or revolutionary socialist parties consider the PRC to be forging a meaningful alternative to global capitalism any longer. Until the spring 2006 popular uprising, the CCP supported the Nepalese monarchy.

India provided the Nepali government with aid to combat the insurgency and is currently holding two commanders of the CPN-M in jail. The government of India has also engaged in negotiations with CPN-M leadership. The CPN-M is politically allied with the Communist Party of India (Maoist), an organization waging a revolutionary war against the Indian government and social structure.

In 2004, a small group split from the CPN(M) to form Janatantric Terai Mukti Morcha.

[edit] Recent activities

Communism in Nepal

Leaders

Current groups

Defunct groups

Related articles

Jun 16, 2006 - The CPN (M) signed a 12 point agreement with the Seven Party Alliance in order to further the Loktantra Andolan. Following this, a three month ceasefire was declared yet the process of 'forced donations' is alleged to be continuing.^{[citation needed]}

January 14, 2007 - The new 330-seat parliament, including 83 Maoists, was sworn-in after the cabinet approved an interim constitution.^[7]

March 21, 2007 - 29 people were killed and more than 40 were injured in a deadly clash between the Madhesi People's Rights Forum (MPRF) and Maoist-aligned Madhesi Rashtriya Mukti Morcha (MRMM) cadres in Gaur.^[8] The clashes broke out over a meeting ground in Gaur which both sides wanted to use. The Interior Ministry ordered an investigation into the incident.

April 1, 2007 - A new government was sworn in,^[9]^[10] with five Maoist ministers and one junior minister.^[10] The Maoists were placed in charge of the ministries of information, local development, planning and works, forestry, and women and children.^[9]

September 18, 2007 - The CPN (Maoist) ministers resigned from the government due to the rejection of its demands, which included the declaration of a republic prior to the Constituent Assembly election then planned for November and an electoral system of proportional representation.^[11]

December 31, 2007 - After agreements were reached providing for a partial proportional representation system and the abolition of the monarchy after the election,^[12] five Maoists were sworn in as ministers again. The Maoist ministers were: CPN(M) spokesman Krishna Bahadur Mahara as Minister of Communication and Information, Dev Gurung as Minister of Local Development, Hisila Yami as Minister of Physical Planning, Matrika Yadav as Minister for Forest and Soil Conservation, and Pampha Bhusal as Minister for Women and Social Welfare. The first four had already been members of the government appointed in April.^[13]

April 10, 2008 - The CPN (Maoist) participates in the 2008 Constituent Assembly election. It is projected that they will win a majority in the Constituent Assembly. According to the Election Commission of Nepal (www.election.gov.np/) they have so far won 52.54% of the votes, based on number of elected candidates.

[edit] See also

v • d • e Political parties in Nepal

Represented in the Constituent Assembly (601)	Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) (220) - Nepali Congress (110) - Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) (103) - Madhesi Jana Adhikar Forum, Nepal (52) - Tarai-Madhesh Loktantrik Party (20) - Sadbhavana Party (9) - Communist Party of Nepal (Marxist-Leninist) (8) - Rastriya Prajatantra Party (8) - Janamorcha Nepal (7) - Communist Party of Nepal (United) (5) - Nepal Workers Peasants Party (4) - Rastriya Janamorcha (4) - Rastriya Prajatantra Party Nepal (4) - Rastriya Janashakti Party (3) - Communist Party of Nepal (Unified) (2) - Nepal Sadbhavana Party (Anandidevi) (2) - Nepali Janata Dal (2) - Rastriya Janamukti Party (2) - Sanghiya Loktantrik Rastriya Manch (2) - Chure Bhawar Rastriya Ekta Party (1) - Dalit Janajati Party (1) - Nepa Rastriya Dal (1) - Nepal Loktantrik Samajbadi Dal (1) - Nepal Parivar Dal (1) - Samajtantrik Prajatantrik Janata Party (1)

Portal:Politics - List of political parties - Politics of Nepal - List of political parties in Nepal