US wary of Nepal Maoists despite truce: official

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States remains skeptical
about the commitment of Maoist rebels in Nepal to a ceasefire
after a decade of brutal insurgency, the top U.S. diplomat for
South Asia told Congress on Wednesday.

Richard Boucher, assistant secretary of state for South and
Central Asian Affairs, said the Maoists must renounce violence
and lay down their weapons and said Washington was willing to
help Nepal’s security forces if the government requested it.

“Until the Maoists take steps to change their character, we
will not be convinced that they have abandoned their stated
goal of establishing a one-party, authoritarian state,” Boucher
told a hearing of the House of Representatives Subcommittee on
Asia and the Pacific.

After mass demonstrations last month against the absolute
rule he imposed in February 2005,

Nepal’s King Gyanendra, who imposed absolute rule in
February last year, responded to mass demonstrations last month
by handing power back to political parties.

The Kathmandu government and the Maoist rebels have agreed
to a ceasefire and to hold talks to end the revolt in which
more than 13,000 people have been killed.

Boucher said the ceasefire was holding but added that
“there are multiple reports of the Maoists’ continued campaign
of violence, extortion (and) shakedowns.”

He said the rebel group must “enter the political process
without having a gun stashed in their back pocket.”

The Maoists want to be included in an interim government
which would supervise elections for a special assembly to draw
a new constitution and decide the future of the monarchy.

The Maoists have been fighting since 1996 to set up
one-party communist rule in the Himalayan kingdom. But they now
say they will accept any constitution agreed to by the special
assembly.