Beijing’s Finger in Nepal’s Maoist Revolt

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Beijing's Finger in Nepal's Maoist Revolt

 

"The Maoist insurgency in Nepal may be one of the last surviving

operations of a little known Chinese intelligence organ known as the

Ministry of Foreign Liaison, a body the Chinese communist party set

up in Mao Tse Tung's day for the export of revolution through covert

operations and the political indoctrination of indigenous cadres."

 

The tiny Himalayan kingdom of Nepal, beloved of mountaineers and

backpacking trekkers, is in the grip of an intense government crisis

precipitated by a long-running, bloody Maoist insurgency.

Both crises climaxed in May 2002.

Tuesday, May 28, government forces claim to have routed a major rebel

assault on an army garrison in the remote, rebel-controlled western

Rukum district, killing 150 Maoist guerrillas. The government lost

five soldiers in the battle. The insurgents were armed with rocket

launchers and automatic weapons they said they had looted from the

army.

Earlier this month, some 200 rebels and 70 government security men

were killed in Gam in the Rolpa district, the birthplace of the

Maoist movement. Then too, thousands of rebels stormed a government

security post.

Since November when peace talks broke down, the violence has

escalated constantly, prompting the imposition of emergency rule, as

an estimated 10,000 insurgents battle a combined military and police

force of 90,000 troops.

The extension of emergency rule this week pitched Nepal into

political turmoil.

When parliament balked at prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba's request

to approve a three-month extension, he dissolved the House and called

elections for November 13, two years ahead of schedule. King

Gyanendra signed the emergency measure and Deuba became head of a

caretaker administration, only to find himself expelled from the

ruling Nepali Congress party, the victim of political infighting.

DEBKAfile's Chinese experts report:The Maoist insurgency in Nepal may

be one of the last surviving operations of a little known Chinese

intelligence organ known as the Ministry of Foreign Liaison, a body

the Chinese communist party set up in Mao Tse Tung's day for the

export of revolution through covert operations and the political

indoctrination of indigenous cadres.

This "Ministry" recruited and supported mostly Third World extremist

Maoist groups, such as those in Nepal and Burma (Myanmar), the New

People's Army of the Philippines, the notorious Khmer Rouge in

Cambodia, the Japanese Red Army, and the Shining Path movement in

Peru. Not all those revolutionary movements survived. One that did is

the Nepalese Maoist Communist Party, which for six years has held

this poor HimalayanKingdom to siege at the cost of 4,000 lives, some

1,000 casualties occurring within the past five months of this year

alone.

China regards Nepal as a lost territory. Since it became independent

in 1898, both China and India have been strategically interested in

the tiny kingdom, both as a buffer and a vassal state.

Hence, Chinese intelligence infiltration operations into Nepal, that

began decades ago, set off a self-perpetuating Maoist "people's war"

that has never really ended.

It would be in China's interests to install a regime in Kathmandu

that is not too friendly with the US or India. To sustain their long

rebellion, the Maoist insurgents must be receiving substantial secret

support and weapons from Beijing, although they claim they are

fighting solely with

arms captured from Nepalese government forces.

While supposedly a multi-party democracy, Nepal is ruled by a

monarchy and military (in June 2001, most of the royal family,

including the king and queen, were murdered, Gyanendra now reigns as

king amid accusations of conspiracy). The world's last feudal-like

Hindu kingdom, the king is supported by a small aristocratic caste of

land and business owners, and corrupt government officials. The vast

majority of the 25-million population is little more than poor serfs.

The Nepalese Maoist Communist Party, led by Chairman of Pushpan Kamal

Dahal (alias Comrade Prachanda, or "the Awesome One") while united

under the Maoist banner, is in fact a hodgepodge of Karl Marx,

Friedrich Engels, Vladimir Lenin and even Joseph Stalin devotees.

They aspire to establish a people's republic to replace the current

monarchy. Government, military and police facilities, and key

national infrastructure elements such as airports,

telecommunications, water supplies, hydroelectric stations, and the

Nepal Oil Corporation are frequent rebel targets.

Before the current government successes, the Maoists controlled a

quarter of the kingdom's area, in which they collected taxes, and

administered healthcare and education services.

Earlier this month, Nepal's Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba went to

Washington and London on a quest for military assistance, as part of

the new "global war on terrorism".

His want list was topped by helicopter night-vision systems, portable

missile launchers, and automatic assault weapons, as well as related

technical training. The United States offered Nepal US$20 million in

military support, and American military advisors are reportedly now

assisting counterinsurgency efforts. India has also offered military

assistance. Their presence in Nepal may well prompt China to step up

its aid to the insurgents.