Nepal army readies for fresh attack

There are conflicting claims on whether the rebels have made a cease-fire offer

KATHMANDU, Nepal -- The Royal Nepalese Army is withdrawing from two of its five positions in the western Maoist rebel stronghold and reinforcing its largest garrison for an expected attack, an army spokesman said.

"This is a strategic withdrawal," a senior general told journalists Saturday, Associated Press reports.

For the first time, reporters were allowed into the war zone where the Nepalese army fought its deadliest battle in the six-year insurgency that has killed more than 3,500 people in this Himalayan kingdom.

The Defense Ministry said Friday that 76 soldiers and police officers and 275 rebels had been killed in a week of fighting that ended Thursday in Gam, a deserted mountainside village 300 kilometers (180 miles) west of Kathmandu, the capital.

State Radio reported 250 rebels and more than 100 security forces had been killed.

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There were burned huts, scattered helmets, shoes and bullets where soldiers and police had been overwhelmed Tuesday night by waves of guerrillas, AP reports.

The rebels beat drums, screamed taunts and exploded crude bombs as they advanced, according to survivors.

In night raids, the survivors said, what seemed like thousands of guerrillas advanced with torches to give the appearance of added strength.

The commander at Gam showed the journalists some string, saying it had been used to tie the hands and feet of one of his senior officers, who was slashed repeatedly in the neck, and shot in the head.

"We had two choices, either to reciprocate or withdraw," said the senior army general, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "We chose the latter, to have sufficient troops for a larger operation."

The army officers and a Western defense attache who visited Gam on Saturday said documents recovered from some of the hastily buried bodies of guerrillas indicate another big attack is being planned.

The operations against Maoist rebels will continue despite reports the guerrillas have called for a month-long ceasefire, Nepalese officials said earlier.

Nepal's Prime Minister Sher Bahadure Deuba rejected any ceasefire offer, saying the rebel group cannot be trusted, while a top ranking guerrilla leader denied any offer had been made.

On Thursday, some Nepali newspapers had received an email believed to be from Maoist commander Prachanda announcing a month-long truce from May 15.

But a top ranking rebel leader, Dina Nath Sharma, denied the report in an interview with the BBC and said Prachanda would issue a formal statement disowning the email message.

No formal statement has been received yet, Reuters reports.

"The security forces are continuing their operation as usual. There is no let-up in the military action," Jayaprakash Prasad Gupta, Information and Communications Minister, told Reuters Saturday.

Peace talks

Gupta said the rebels must lay down arms taken away from army garrisons, stop killing "innocent people" and stop destroying infrastructure to show their sincerity and commitment to talks.

"There cannot be any fresh talks until then," Gupta said.

The two sides held three rounds of peace talks last year.

But the guerrillas walked out of the negotiations last November after the government rejected their demand to abolish the monarchy, a centuries-old Hindu institution.

Since then, the death toll has been soaring from recent battles with government forces in western Nepal for control of a guerrilla stronghold.

Adding further weight to the government's efforts to combat the six-year-old revolt, Deuba has secured $20 million in military aid from Washington, following his recent meeting in Washington with President Bush.

Royal massacre

Nepal's army has launched a huge offensive against suspected rebel strongholds

Deuba has welcomed the assistance but says more money will be needed next year if the government is to succeed in defeating the rebels.

The Nepalese government imposed a state of emergency in November that allowed the army for the first time to join police in fighting the rebels, who follow the doctrines of Chinese revolutionary Mao Zedong.

Since then the Himalayan kingdom has been wracked by violence as the army presses on with its biggest military operations in six years of fighting.

The rebels intensified their campaign after last June's palace massacre in which King Birendra and most other members of the royal family were killed by his son, Crown Prince Dipendra, who later shot himself to death.

The violence has wrecked the aid-dependent economy and driven away tourists, who are a key source of income.

Nepal's army has participated in international peacekeeping operations but had never fought in an internal conflict until November.