Maoists sow insurgency in rural Nepal

MUSIKOT, Nepal — In the mountains of Nepal, a full-blown Maoist uprising is gaining ground.

It may sound a bit anachronistic, especially in a region of Asia that has embraced market economics and linked up with the outside world to export everything from Indian computer software to Bangladeshi textiles and Sri Lanka-made designer clothes.

Yet the doctrines of Mao Tse-tung, the Chinese communist leader who believed in empowering the peasantry, have found new life in the countryside of this Himalayan kingdom.

The nation of 24 million seems to offer laboratory conditions for a revolution: widespread poverty, a remote, undemocratic government perceived as corrupt, a conflict-riven royal family, and a feudal system run by a few rich landlords.

Since going from absolute monarchy to democracy in 1990, Nepal has had 14 governments. In May, another prime minister resigned in the face of protest rallies in Katmandu, the capital, against King Gyanendra for dismissing an elected government in 2002. The resignation eased the crisis, but the Maoist insurgency remains the same and peace continues to be a distant dream.

In addition to the violence, Nepal experienced a shattering and still somewhat mysterious tragedy in 2001, when the king, queen and seven relatives were fatally shot by Crown Prince Dipendra, who then turned the gun on himself.

In the past two years U.S. annual aid has nearly doubled, to $40 million, much of it to arm and train the Royal Nepalese Army. But after eight years of fighting that has claimed nearly 10,000 lives, the rebels have a strong presence in a fourth of the Iowa-size country, including a big chunk of the midwestern mountains.

An AP reporter and photographer who trekked into the rebel heartland and spent a week in its villages and the besieged district capital heard voices both for and against the fighters who call themselves Maobadi, or Maoists.

Some deplored the guerrillas’ intolerance of criticism and their attempts to impose communist ideology on the farmers. Teachers spoke of rebels entering their classrooms to lecture pupils. There were accounts of fighters dragging opponents from their homes and killing them.

“If there were free elections today and the Maoists came without their guns, they would lose by a big margin,” said Harka Bahadur Chetri, 41, a teacher who was stabbed repeatedly in front of his family for criticizing the rebels.

But people also say the rebels have done much for the villages under their control. They reportedly have banned polygamy, child marriage, alcohol and witchcraft. They have seized farms and redistributed the land among the poor and also mediate disputes among farmers and villagers.

In the village of Dupai, bright posters depicting Mao and the elusive rebel leader known as Prachanda were pasted on a wall by the school.

In Rukum district, about 250 miles from Katmandu, many rebel-built mountain trails and concrete bridges across streams were evident. So were canals dug and pipes brought in by the rebels to channel water to many villages.

“The poor farmers were getting poorer and exploited by the landlords who were getting richer and fatter every day,” said Bhim Bahadur Dhangi, 45.

A farmer, he joined the rebellion at its beginning eight years ago, and today he is rebel administrative chief of nine villages in the Arma area of Rukum. He believes the rebels can revolutionize agriculture, on which more than 80 percent of Nepalese depend.

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