Nepal: Taking It To The Streets

Taking It To The Streets

October 11, 2007: The Maoists have forced the government to cancel the November elections, by threatening to leave the government and resume the shooting war. In fact, what the Maoists are trying to do is seize control of the country using street demonstrations and gangs of violent activists to rough up and intimidate opponents. The Maoist gunmen, and their weapons, remain in special camps, with the political organizers are now leading the struggle to achieve a communist dictatorship in Nepal. The Maoists are demanding an immediate end to the monarchy. Any attempt to do that would risk a resumption of the civil war, but the Maoists want more chaos as, according to their beliefs, that would make it easier for the communists to take control. The democratic (and rather corrupt and inept) parties are split between giving in to endless Maoist demands, or returning to the civil war, and getting it over with. The democrats see the Maoists as a bunch of bloodthirsty zealots nostalgic for a past that never existed, and a future that will never be. The Maoists have rewritten the past to fit their view of the future, but are concerned with splits in their ranks, as more Maoist begin to lose the faith.

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