They have not only objected to the orders from the party leaders to end the protests, but also warned of taking revenge for the betrayal. [break]
They have been chanting slogans against Peace Minister Top Bahadur Rayamajhi and party Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, who has not agreed yet to meet them.
"We are surveying the places where all our leaders live. So Beware! We also know where the Lazimpat durbar is. We will not just stop at slapping the leaders. You [Maoist leaders] have taught us to make bombs and use bullets. If you continue to ignore us, we will take actions," said Sagar Limbu, in-charge of the Discharged People´s Liberation Army (DPLA), addressing a press meet on Thursday at Perisdanda.
The agitators padlocked the gate of UCPN (Maoist) headquarters last week and the DPLA women, carrying their babies, had spent one whole night under the tree inside the headquarters premise. They were pushed out from there by the police the next day. There is a heavy presence of security forces at the UCPN (Maoist) headquarters now.
On Saturday they met Finance Minister Barshaman Pun and peace minister Top Bahadur Rayamajhi. “Talks were held with the government on Saturday as well. They just repeated assurances like earlier,” said Arjun Budhathoki, vice coordinator of DPLA.
"Peace Minister Rayamahi met us and said that he too fought the people´s war and that he was not afraid us," Budhathoki said. “His intention was not to address our demands but to threaten us that the party would take action against us if we continued to protest.”
Maoist leaders have been assuring the protestors that their demands would be addressed if the party came to power.
"Maoist leaders and government are not serious about our concerns," said Sunita Chaudhari, who is from Bardiya and has a one-and-half-year old daughter. Tulasa Pariyar, from Rolpa, said, “The party hates us as we were disqualified.”
After they were disqualified by UNMIN, the UCPN (Maoist) discharged them giving them Rs 10,000 each. UNMIN had disqualified 4,008 combatants calling them minor or later recruits. The party then hastily discharged them to save itself from the accusations of employing “child soldiers.”
The DPLA has been holding various protest programs for the past two-and-half years. The DPLA has 8-point demand to the party and government. Their main demand is removal of the “disqualified” tag.
Their other demands are compensations to the families of the disqualified combatants who have committed suicide due to the humiliation of being called disqualified; compensation package similar to the combatants who opted voluntary retirement; reserved quota in state organs; and free education.
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