Indian Army
Intervenes Against
The Nepal People's War
By Li Onesto
30 January, 2005
Countercurrents.org
On
February 28, Nepal's Royal Army, backed up by the Indian army, inflicted
serious losses on a contingent of the Western Division of the Maoist
People's Liberation Army. This involvement of Indian soldiers in a major
battle against Maoist guerrillas in Nepal represents a new and alarming
development in the war.
On February 1, Nepal's
King Gyanendra's declared a state of emergency, dissolved the parliament,
sacked the prime minister and suspended many constitutional rights,
including freedom of the press, speech and expression, peaceful assembly,
the right to privacy, and the right against preventive detention. The
Indian government officially denounced this move by the King and announced
it was suspending military aid to the Nepalese government. But meanwhile,
on the ground, it appears that India is not only still backing, but
stepping up its support for and involvement in the RNA efforts to crush
the Maoist insurgency.
The February 28
battle took place in Ganeshpur, in Nepal's Bardia district. The A World
to Win News Service (AWTWNS) reported: "As the Maoist-led PLA ambushed
a small Royal Nepal Army unit on a major highway, they found themselves
surrounded by almost a thousand Royal Army soldiers and the Indian army's
Border Security Force. Together these reactionaries encircled the PLA
contingent, which numbered less than 200. In a battle that lasted about
an hour and a half, despite being surrounded the PLA was able to resist
the Indo-Nepali forces and `protect its organisation, planning and its
leadership,' comrade Pravakar, the commander of the PLA Western Division
said in a statement. The 32 fallen PLA fighters included comrade Jit,
the Brigade Commander of the Satbaria Second Brigade of the Western
Division, he said. The Royal Army seized about 28 weapons from the revolutionaries.
More than two dozen RNA personnel were killed and many others wounded."
The statement by
the commander of the PLA Western Division, issued on February 3, also
said that the Indian Army's Border Security Force arrested seven Maoist
fighters and took them back to India. The Indian government has arrested
many Maoist revolutionaries in India and at the border. But this is
the first time the Indian Army has seized Maoist guerrillas in a battle
in Nepal.
According to the
AWTWNS, the battle began after guerrillas of the People's Liberation
Army spotted some Royal Nepal Army (RNA) soldiers in the Ganeshpur area
near Nepalganj road, which runs between Nepalganj and Gularia. Gularia
is about three miles from the Indian border and is headquarters of the
Bardia District. The city of Nepalganj, about 25 miles to the west and
only a couple of miles from the Indian border, is the headquarters of
the Bake District and a business center for mid-western Nepal and northern
India.
When the PLA saw
an RNA unit west of Nepalganj, they did not know that a thousand RNA
soldiers from the two nearby district headquarters had taken hidden
positions around the area. And the Maoist forces also did not know that
Indian Border Security Forces (BSF) were there to support the RNA. When
the battle started at 4:15 in the afternoon, the hidden RNA soldiers
tried to draw their trap tightly around the Maoist guerrillas, who fought
until they broke out of the encirclement. Positional fighting lasted
until 5:45.
Commander of the
PLA Western Division Pravakar said in his statement, "We consider
this incident very serious. The human and logistical losses have seriously
affected the Western Division... Since all war advances through a series
of gains and losses, our revolutionary war could not remain untouched
by that... having given serious thought to our shortcomings in our analysis
and synthesis of the comprehensive situation of that particular battle,
we have to embrace the fact that we must advance through many sacrifices
to turn the negative to positive. This incident has also indicated that
the scale of war has developed to new heights."
King's Crimes
and Censorship
Since his February
1 coup, King Gyanendra has instituted a sweeping clampdown. (See, "Nepal:
Two Futures, Two Roads" by Li Onesto.) In the first weeks
thousands of people were jailed, and widespread arrests have continued
with the detention of members of the parliamentary parties, trade unions,
student groups, human rights activists and others.
Extreme and sweeping
censorship measures and a machinery of disinformation have been instituted.
As the king announced his seizure of power on the television, soldiers
were being sent out to occupy newspaper offices to read over and censor
news stories. Private radio stations were ordered to stop broadcasting
news and opinions and air only entertainment programs. Some newspaper
offices were raided to prevent their publication, and journalists have
been detained.
A press directive
from the king said: "Invoking Sub Clause 1 of Clause 15 of His
Majesty's Print and Publications Act, and taking into consideration
the nation and national interest, His Majesty's Government has banned
for six months any interview, article, news, notice, view or personal
opinion that goes against the letter and spirit of the Royal Proclamation
on 1 Feb 2005 and that directly or indirectly supports destruction and
terrorism. In line with the provisions of the Print and Publications
Act, action will be taken against anyone violating this notice."
So the media in
Nepal is forbidden to criticize the king and the RNA in any way--there
can be no news or commentary "made directly or indirectly"
about the security forces "that is likely to have negative impact
on their morale." Violators are subject to arrest and the government
is monitoring telephones, radio, fax and e-mail and other forms of electronic
communication. A number of websites have been blocked so they cannot
be viewed in Nepal, including:
www.cpnm.org
(the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist),
rwor.org (Revolutionary Worker/Obrero
Revolucionario)
www.insof.org
www.nepalipost.com
www.nepaljapan.com
www.anonymization.net
www.newslookmag.com
www.krishnasenonline.com
www.peoplesmarch.com
www.geocities.com/nepal
Many news organizations
in Nepal are self-censoring, not even mentioning current events. Some
publications have run stories that do not immediately appear to be about
what is going on, but upon closer read clearly contain hidden political
commentary by analogy. Some publications have come out with articles
full of blank white spaces-- where paragraphs have been taken out by
government censors.
All this has made
it extremely hard to know what is going on, especially in the countryside
where the RNA is stepping up its brutality against the people. Human
rights organizations have already documented widespread human rights
abuses by the king's army--the burning of villages, on-the-spot executions,
rape and torture. In 2003 and 2004, the United Nations working group
on disappearances said Nepal had the highest rate of disappearances
in the world. Local human rights groups have documented that over the
past five years, more than 1,200 people have vanished--most of these
clearly at the hands of government forces.
Many news articles
about the situation in Nepal have pointed out that the extreme censorship
will make it easier for the king to carry out even more human rights
abuses, as well as spread all kinds of disinformation aimed at propping
up the RNA and vilifying the Maoists. After the battle in Bardia, the
monarchy falsely claimed that they had killed 50 Maoists or more. Foreign
news organizations repeated this--even though they have few, if any,
ways to verify such reports. At the same time, official news reports
of the battle have suppressed any news of the number of dead RNA soldiers
and the fact that Indian soldiers were involved. The monarchy knows
that such news
of Indian troop involvement would arouse widespread anger and expose
the king's capitulation to Indian domination and expansionism.
Last December, the
Indian army invaded Nepal unofficially in the western part of Gularia,
destroying houses and committing abuses against Nepali women. On another
occasion, the Indian army arrested revolutionary cadres in Kanchanpur
district, in far western Nepal.
Indian Domination
and U.S. Concerns
There is a long
history of Indian economic and political domination in Nepal, and India
has long been the main supplier of military aid to the RNA. And since
the Maoist People's War began in 1996, India has increasingly provided
Nepal's army with weapons, surveillance and communications equipment,
helicopters and training. The Indian Army has also trained Nepali soldiers
in jungle and guerrilla warfare at India's Counter Insurgency and Jungle
Warfare School which is regarded as one of the best jungle warfare establishments
in the world (even U.S. military personnel have trained here).
The military relationship
between Nepal and India is very much stamped with Indian domination,
and all this has intensified as India has become more worried that the
Maoists in Nepal could actually seize power. Even with millions of dollars
of military aid from the U.S., UK and India, the RNA has been unable
to defeat the Maoists who now control and are running parallel governments
in 80 percent of the countryside.
There are around
50,000 Nepali Gurkhas in the Indian Army today. Up until recent years
this was more than the total number of soldiers in the RNA. Now, with
the help of the U.S., UK and India, the RNA has increased its force
to around 70,000.
Since the 1970s,
the chiefs of the Indian and Nepalese armies are made honorary generals
of each other's army-- ensuring that India's army of over a million
soldiers will dictate over the RNA. And until a few years ago, all RNA
officer cadres used to be trained in India. Only recently Nepal's army
set up its own military academy. But Nepal officers and other ranks
still undergo training in various defense institutes of India. And in
fact, Nepal army personnel constitute the largest number of foreign
soldiers training in India.
The Indian government
has also played a big role in hunting down, arresting and extraditing
Nepalese Maoists who are in India. Maoist guerrillas from Nepal who
were being treated in Indian hospitals have been arrested. And a number
of top leaders of the CPN (Maoist) have been picked up and imprisoned
by Indian authorities.
The Afterword of
Dispatches from the People's War in Nepal discusses the freedom and
necessity of India to intervene in Nepal and the geo-strategic dynamics
brought about by the growing Maoist insurgency:
"As part of
the U.S. quest for world domination, the `war on terrorism' serves as
an all-purpose umbrella under which numerous interventions are being
justified. The political and ideological program of the Maoists in Nepal
clearly has nothing in common with the reactionary politics and religious
fundamentalism of groups like al-Qaeda. But this hasn't stopped the
U.S. from using the pretext of `combating terror' to justify military
action against any and all insurgencies which threaten U.S. interests
-- including genuine revolutions aimed at overthrowing oppressive governments.
"The U.S.,
Britain, and other imperialist powers have provided the Nepalese regime
with political and military support exactly because they know that a
Maoist victory would reverberate throughout the Indian subcontinent
and the world. This is a region of extreme instability where a Maoist
`regime change' in Nepal could interact in unpredictable ways with the
hostility between Pakistan and India, the conflict in Kashmir, relations
between India and China, and other guerrilla insurgencies in the region,
especially those in India.
"The often
antagonistic relationship between India and China is certainly a factor
in this developing scenario. Nepal is strategically situated between
the Tibetan region of China and the northern border of India. Because
of this, both of these major powers view Nepal as a kind of `buffer,'
over which each has jockeyed for influence and power as a way of challenging
and defending against the other.
"India would
be seriously threatened by a government in Kathmandu run by Maoists
(who have already stated that one of the key goals of their revolution
is to end Indian domination). And the New Delhi government worries that
China would try to take advantage of any kind of upheaval in Nepal to
strengthen its hand against India and in the whole region."
All this has been
intensified by King Gyanendra's extreme move on February 1. The Indian
government has been in constant, daily contact with Washington DC and
London. And when Condoleezza Rice recently visited India for state-to-state
talks, Nepal was on the agenda.
On March 2, Donald
Camp, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in the South Asia Bureau
of the Department of State, went before the U.S. House of Representatives
Committee onInternational Relationsto defend the administration's decision
to continue providing U.S. military assistance to Nepal on the grounds
that the support is necessary to ensure the effectiveness of the security
forces against the insurgency. Camp said, "Nepal confronts the
real possibility that a brutal Maoist insurgency might seize power"
and "The United States shares with other friends of Nepal--particularly
India and the United Kingdom--the firm belief that the Maoist insurgency
must be resisted and addressed." And the U.S. Ambassador to India,
David Mulford, recently stated that the U.S. wants India to play a "leading
role" in Nepal in the wake of recent developments.All this underscores
the significance and dangerous direction indicated by the recent involvement
of Indian soldiers, joining the RNA in battle against the People's Liberation
Army