Nepal: Frontline (India) on US Military Aid

[Anon Anon <inprekorr@xxxxxxxxx>]

New guns in an old battle

RITA MANCHANDA
in Kathmandu

With the United States having substantially reinforced
its military commitment in Nepal, the Himalayan nation
is being sucked into the vortex of a U.S.-India-U.K.
military situation.

AMERICAN M16 guns have arrived for the Royal Nepal
Army (RNA) to fight the Maoist rebels. The guns have
come as part of the United States' support for the
fight against `terrorism' globally. It is the latest
in a succession of weapon systems and transport
equipment to bolster the fighting capacity of the RNA
against the seven-year-old `Peoples War' led by the
Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist). The move signals
the strategic convergence of the U.S., India and the
U.K. to contain the Maoist rebels militarily, to
ensure that the "rebels don't win by violence" and
that the state "doesn't lose out to rebel violence". A
British diplomat said: "Our commitment still is to a
negotiated settlement; militarily such a war cannot be
won." However, international backing for a `war for
peace' strategy runs the risk of strengthening the
Nepal state's belief that it can win militarily. Also,
as Nepali Congress leader Girija Prasad Koirala
warned, military assistance to the RNA has political
implications, for it could bolster autocratic impulses
at a time when multi-party democracy has been rendered
irrelevant in the country.

Full text at:
http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl2003/stories/20030214001105300.htm


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