-
Nepal flag - Source: ONE News
Nepal's Maoist Prime Minister Prachanda has threatened to walk
out of a coalition government, less than four months after his
election amid a deadlock with the main opposition party over the
future of ex-fighters.
Pushpa Kamal Dahal, who still goes by his nom de guerre that means
fierce, told a meeting in west Nepal this week that his party would
take to the streets if the centrist opposition Nepali Congress
party did not cooperate with him.
The government formed a multi-party panel in October to oversee the
integration and rehabilitation of more than 19,000 former Maoist
fighters housed in UN-supervised camps, part of a peace deal that
ended their decade-long civil war.
But the opposition Nepali Congress party refused to join the panel
and opposes the integration of the ex-guerrillas into the national
army as the Maoists want.
"The Nepali Congress is not helping the government in the
integration of the fighters," Maoist spokesman Krishna Bahadur
Mahara said.
Analysts said the Maoists were unlikely to pull out from the
government and the threat could have also been aimed at party
hardliners who are criticising him for going slow on the
revolutionary agenda.
"It is the highest degree of irresponsibility on Prachanda's part
to say so," said Lok Raj Baral, chief of the Nepal Centre for
Strategic Studies, an independent think-tank.
"If he quits it will show his incompetence. I don't think the
Maoists will quit the government."
The Maoists regularly threatened to launch street protests during
months of peace negotiations with the main political parties in
2006 and 2007.
The Maoists, who waged a bloody civil war which caused more than
13,000 deaths since 1996, came to government after winning the
election in April under the landmark deal.
The government's main task is to help a special constituent
assembly prepare a new constitution and cap a 2006 peace deal.
