Nepal’s leader dismisses army chief for disobeying orders
The army chief of Nepal was dismissed today by the ruling Maoists for disobeying orders in a move that analysts believe could unravel a peace deal that ended a decade-long civil war in 2006.
The dismissal of General Rookmangud Katawal prompted the Maoists' main coalition partner to withdraw from the Government in protest. This leaves them with only a thin parliamentary majority with which to draft a new Constitution after the abolition of the monarchy last year.
Police were placed on high alert as thousands of flag-waving opposition supporters burnt tyres in Kathmandu, the capital, while thousands of Maoists thronged other parts of the city, hailing a “victory for people’s rule”.
Under the agreements that ended the conflict 20,000 Maoist troops were confined to UN-monitored camps and should have been merged with the Nepalese security forces, which are considered loyal to the deposed king.
Three years on, however, that has not happened. To make matters worse, the army recently enlisted 3,000 new troops — a move that violates the peace deal, according to the Maoists and the UN.
General Katawal, the army chief, had argued that the former rebels were still “indoctrinated”. He also refused to obey orders to dismiss eight senior generals.
Last month the Government warned General Katawal, who was due to retire in four months, that he would be dismissed if he did not explain his disobedience within 24 hours. Prachanda, the Prime Minister, postponed that deadline by two weeks and cancelled a trip to China to hold negotiations with the army, political parties and Indian envoys.
The Prime Minister carried out his threat today after an apparently tense meeting of the Cabinet. “The Cabinet has relieved General Rookmangud Katawal of his position,” Krishna Bahadur Mahara, the Information and Communications Minister, said. He said that the General’s explanations “were not satisfactory”, and that he had been replaced temporarily by his deputy, General Kul Bahadur Khadka.
General Katawal had refused to accept his dismissal and was meeting other generals in his office, local television stations reported.
Nepal does not have a history of military coups but General Katawal and many other senior generals are widely considered to be loyal to the former king, Gyanendra, who was deposed last year.
General Katawal grew up inside the royal palace. The 93,000-strong army was known until last year as the Royal Nepalese Army and traces its roots back to the mid-1800s, when a Gurkha prince led his forces to create the Kingdom of Nepal.
General Katawal is thought to have the support of India, which has long been the dominant foreign power in Nepal and remains deeply suspicious of the Maoists because of their past links to China and India’s own Maoist insurgents.
The general is backed, too, by several opposition parties and some of the Maoists’ coalition partners, who boycotted today’s Cabinet meeting in protest.
The opposition Nepali Congress said that the Maoists were trying to impose “totalitarian” rule by bringing the army under their control. One key coalition partner, the Communist UML party, is reported to have stormed out of the meeting and analysts say that it could leave the Government over the decision.
A meeting of all political parties other than the Maoists, but including their coalition allies, was scheduled for today, according to opposition officials. Many of them back the army’s assertion that the Maoists have not fulfilled their commitments to dismantle their paramilitary youth wing and to return property grabbed during the civil war, which claimed some 13,000 lives.
The Maoists gave up their “people’s war” in 2006 and won 238 seats — more than any other party — in the 601-member parliament in an election last year to a constituent assembly tasked with writing a new constitution by 2010.
|
