Nepal expects formal talks with rebels soon

October 27, 2000
Web posted at: 4:28 PM HKT (0828 GMT)

KATHMANDU, Nepal (Reuters) -- Formal talks between the Nepali government and Maoist rebels are expected to be held soon to try to end four years of communist rebellion in the Himalayan kingdom, Deputy Prime Minister Ram Chandra Poudel said on Friday.

Poudel met a senior leader of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), Rabindra Shrestha, on Friday to discuss holding an official meeting aimed at ending the violence.

He said the talks -- the first direct contact between a government minister and a senior rebel leader since the group launched an armed campaign four years ago -- were positive.

"Today's meeting has created some basis for formal talks with the rebels," Poudel told Reuters.

A former communist minister and human rights activist Padma Ratna Tuladhar, who helped bring the government and the rebel leader together, said talks could start after the Hindu festival of Tihar that continues until Sunday.

There was no comment from the rebels about the talks.

The Maoist group launched a low-intensity but sustained armed campaign in early 1996 to overthrow the Himalayan kingdom's 10-year-old constitutional monarchy.

Some 1,500 people have been killed in the violence including 232 policemen.

Past efforts to organize talks have failed with the government insisting the rebels lay down their arms and the rebels demanding the government create what they call a "minimum atmosphere" for dialogue.

The rebels have demanded information on some of their leaders who have disappeared.

Home Minister Govinda Raj Joshi, known for his hard-line stand against the rebels, resigned in September after the Maoists killed 22 police personnel in separate attacks.

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