Kathmandu: Maoists in Nepal on Thursday sought dissolution of the multy-party government and re-instated Parliament and asked the Army to return to barracks as part of confidence-building measures to move the peace process forward.
They also insisted that the government should not make any delay in releasing all political prisoners and making public the whereabouts of the Maoist cadre who have been missing after being detained by security forces.
Addressing a press conference, Chief Maoist negotiator Krishna Bahadur Mahara asked the ruling seven-party alliance to dissolve the re-instated Parliament and government, abolish the present constitution and convene a wider political conference to hold the constituent assembly elections, the major demands of the Maoists. He also asked Nepalese Army to return to barracks.
Mahara said the rebels were committed to the 25-point code of conduct they signed during the recent first round of talks with the government.
He dismissed the allegations that Maoists were extorting money but admitted that they had been voluntarily collecting funds from people to feed their army and also raising taxes as they ran a parallel government.
He also did not rule out possibility of mediation in dialogue with the government and said they were also working to form a committee to monitor the ceasefire.
Mahara said they would discuss with the government during the next round of talks the type of mediation they would need to move ahead the peace process.
Mahara said both the seven-party alliance and Maoists were the forces of the People's Movement.
He stressed the need to convene a political conference involving the seven parties, Maoists, the civil society and all other forces that took part in the people's movement to decide the mechanism for holding constituent assembly polls.
Mahara said that now it was time to strengthen unity among the pro-People's Movement forces and not to create crisis of confidence.
He expressed concern over the slow pace of development in releasing political prisoners and other aspects of the agreement with the government.
At the press meet held ahead of the first public meeting of Maoists here after the restoration of democracy, he said that their tomorrow's major meeting would be totally peaceful and nobody would attend it in combat dresses or carrying weapons. He, however, ruled out the possibility of Maoist chief Prachanda appearing at the public meeting.
"We should foil all types of conspiracies that are designed to prevent us from going to the constituent assembly elections," he said.
Mahara also said that the three-month ceasefire the rebels announced last month may be extended depending upon the developments of the present situation.
He alleged that the Army was preventing their public meetings outside Kathmandu and also threatening and beating their cadre.
Regarding UN involvement in resolving the conflict, he said his party would adopt a flexible policy and not a rigid one in this regard. Maoists would accept any verdict of the Nepalese people during the constituent assembly elections, he said.
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