More than 70 Maoists have been killed in a fierce clash with Nepal's army, an official said yesterday, as the foreign minister warned the world to accept the king's power grab or watch a communist takeover of the Himalayan country.
Four members of the security forces were also killed in the clash on Monday night at Ganeshpur in Bardiya district, 500km southwest of Kathmandu, army spokesman Brigadier General Dipak Gurung said.
"So far the security forces have recovered the bodies of at least 70 Maoists killed in the clash," Gurung said.
The rebels had carried away others of their dead, he added.
There was no immediate independent confirmation of the casualty toll.
The reported death toll is the highest of any clash since King Gyanendra seized absolute power and declared emergency rule last month.
Soon after his power grab he offered to hold unconditional talks with the Maoists, who have been fighting to overthrow the monarchy since 1996 at a cost of some 11,000 lives.
The Maoists, who branded the king a "national betrayer" for the takeover, have not responded to his call, instead staging a two-week transport blockade which ended at the weekend.
The blockade, which the Maoists had said was aimed at getting the king to reverse his seizure of power, reduced transport to a trickle and sent food prices soaring.
Gurung said last month that if the rebels rejected the king's offer of talks they faced a series of military offensives.
"We have to force the Maoists to come to the negotiating table; we are looking for them. Wherever they are we are going to launch offensive operations," he said. "We have to make them weak."
One of the king's appointed ministers, meanwhile, warned in a television interview late on Monday that the world had to choose between supporting the monarch and an eventual return to democracy or allowing Nepal to be taken over by communists.
In the interview, reported yesterday by the state-run news agency RSS, Nepali Foreign Minister Ramesh Nath Pandey staunchly defended Gyanendra's seizure of power, saying it had been done at the express wish of the population because politicians were squabbling among themselves and were not dealing with the Maoist insurgency.
The international community has reacted sharply to the power grab, with India and Britain suspending military aid vital to Nepal's fight against the rebels, while the US has warned it will follow suit if Gyanendra does not restore fundamental rights.
Pandey said however that foreign governments were being convinced that the king's steps had been necessary and were accepting his commitment to restore democracy within three years.
"Although there were some initial misunderstanding in the international community over the decision taken by Nepal, the understanding and clarity regarding this matter is growing at present and it was gradually being realized that Nepal made the right decision," he said.
Foreign governments, he added, had a stark choice.
"The international community should give a clear decision whether it will support safeguarding democracy or [help] in preparing the ground for one-party communist authoritarianism," he said.
Human-rights activists and political parties say scores of their leaders are still in detention while strict press censorship is still in place.
The New York-based rights group Human Rights Watch said in a report released yesterday that abuses by the military since the king's takeover had increased and expressed concern over the increasing number of "disappearances" of political activists.
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