The Wire

In the tiny mountain kingdom of Nepal, the conflict between the democratic government, and the Maoist guerrillas, made headlines last week as the rebels blockaded the capital. The rebels warned all traffic leading into Kathmandu to stay off the roads, resulting in a disrupted economy and a city running on very limited supplies. The Maoists are trying to overthrow the constitutional monarchy, in order to replace the shaky democratic political system with a secular communist state. Whilst the blockade grabbed global media attention, the conflict has been going on for the last eight years, at the cost of around 10,000 lives. The Maoists draw their support from a large rural peasant population, and have taken advantage of the political instability plaguing Nepal in recent years, as well as the relative unpopularity of King Gyanendra, who came to the throne following the massacre of the royal family in 2001. Today, more than one thousand Maoist rebels stormed a district in the country’s north-west, bombing government buildings and killing at least one soldier, while in Kathmandu there was a community protest through the streets against the Maoists. Mahendra Kumar Lamsal is the president of the Nepalese Australian Democratic Forum.

Nepalese Australian Democratic Forum