After a ten-day stalemate the democratically elected Maoist government of Nepal has finally removed the head of the Nepal Army, Rookmangud Katawal, the
Guardian is reporting.
At issue is the fulfillment of the 2006 peace agreement which guaranteed the integration of the 19,000 troops of the Maoist's Peoples Liberation Army into the the former Royal Nepali Army and the basic principle of civilian control over the armed forces.
Here is a good overview of the issues:
The Nepali Army is the former Royal Nepali Army and remains the main bastion of monarchist and pro-feudal power in Nepal. As such it is a major obstacle to carrying out the land reform promised by the Maoists and remains a constant threat to Nepal's new democracy.
Katawal had repeatedly defied the Maoists who had won control of the government in elections last year that were declared free and fair by the Carter Center and other international observers. AS Time magazine reported last week:
Indeed, the current army chief, Rookmangud Katawal, has a reputation for being a strident royalist and Maoist baiter. Katawal had been adopted by Mahendra, the father of King Gyanendra, whom the Maoists fought hard to bring down in their aim to abolish the monarchy. The army chief has long resisted the induction of the PLA into the Nepal army, and he courted trouble last November by beginning recruitment of 3,000 new soldiers before any former PLA guerrillas had been folded in — a move made without permission from the Ministry of Defense and against the provisions of the peace agreement. Katawal also refused to retire eight monarchy-era generals despite the new government's order. Things came to a head earlier this month when he refused to let the Nepal army participate in the National Games because the PLA was also taking part.
Under King Gyanendra, Katawal led the army during a particulalry brutal phase of counter-insurgency operations against the Maoists in which his troops killed many Nepali civilians.
Last week it was reported in the Nepali press that Katawal and other generals had plotted a coup d'etat against the Maoist and rumors of coup plots continue to circulate. It is against this background that President Obama's surprise decision not to remove the Maoists from the State Department's list of terrorist organizations has been interpreted as giving Katawal and forces in the Army that support him a green light to overthrow the democratically elected government.
The root of the conflict is a simple one. The old parliamentary parties that signed the 2006 peace agreements did not really intend to fulfill their promise to integrate the PLA troops into the old monarchist army, expecting to be free to break the promise after the elections held last year. When the Maoists shocked everyone and won the elections and took over the government the issue became one that would not go away.
The removal of Katawal is not likely to be the end of the story. It may destabilize the government and Katawal is unlikely to go peacefully into the night. The threat of a coup is a real one, only made worse by India and the U.S.'s support for Katawal.