Majority votes say not 'people's war' but 'armed conflict'

KATHMANDU, June 8: Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) on Monday was defeated in voting in the Constituent Assembly (CA) over how the decade-long Maoist insurgency should be described in the new constitution. [break]



Of the 32 CA members in the Committee for Determination of the Bases of Cultural and Social Solidarity (CDBCSS) who were present, 19 members voted in favor of keeping the terminology "armed conflict". Of the remaining, 12 members voted for the Maoist-proposed "people´s war". One member abstained from the voting.



The members nearly came to blows with non-Maoists accusing the Maoists of killing people and having the temerity to downplay their atrocities by terming the conflict "people´s war". On the other hand, the Maoists called Nepali Congress and Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) members as "rapists" and murderers".



The CDBCSS Chairperson Nabodita Chaudhari had decided to conduct voting after lawmakers from Maoist and non-Maoist parties sharply differed over the term to describe the conflict in the new constitution.



The last meeting of the CDBCSS was put off after the lawmakers from Maoist and non-Maoist parties could not come to consensus over the issue. The consensus could not be arrived at as Maoists have insisted on the inclusion of "People´s Liberation Army (PLA") and "People´s War" in the constitution.



With the result of the voting process, all concept papers and proposals to be prepared by the CDBCSS and its two sub-committees will now mention "armed conflict" to refer a decade-long Maoist conflict that began in 1996.



The Maoist lawmakers have decided to write a note of dissent on the issue.



Addressing the CDBCSS meeting, CPN-UML lawmaker Rana Dhwoj Limbu argued that the term "people´s war" should not be incorporated in the new constitution as this would mean justifying the killing, abduction and other forms of excesses carried by the Maoist during the conflict.



Limbu said that neither the 12-point understanding nor other agreements and accords reached between the then Seven Party Alliance (SPA) and the Maoist have mentioned "people´s war" in their documents.



Maoist lawmakers had strongly protested as Limbu was putting forth his argument in the meeting. The situation in the meeting turned tense as the Maoist lawmakers including Kali Bahadur Malla argued that Nepali Congress and UML should take responsibility of the murder, rape and kidnappings on the part of the state during the "people´s war".



Sharada Nepali of CPN (Marxist Leninist) also criticized the idea of incorporating "people´s war" in the constitution as ordinary people had to undergo various forms of excesses on the part of Maoist cadres during the conflict period. The terminology of "people´s war" should not be mentioned in the constitution as the Maoists had tried to silence the people holding opinions different from theirs.

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