Nepal's communist rebels declared a three-month halt in attacks yesterday, lifting a key burden on the new government poised to take control after weeks of bloody protests forced the king to reinstate parliament.
The elusive leader of the Himalayan country's Maoist rebels, Prachanda, said in a statement that his group's fighters would refrain from any assaults on government targets for three months.
"We declare a unilateral ceasefire for three months through this statement to express deep commitment to people's desire for peace," the statement said.
The announcement came a day before the reinstated parliament was scheduled to reconvene in Kathmandu. The new parliament is expected to elect a new prime minister and initiate the process for electing a special assembly that would write a new constitution.
Until early this week, the country had been rocked by weeks of bloody anti-monarchy protests, organized by the opposition coalition of Nepal's seven main political parties and backed by the rebels, to force King Gyanendra to relinquish control over the government.
Security forces firing on protesters killed 15 people before the king announced late Monday that he would meet a key demand of the parties by reinstating parliament on Friday and effectively handing power back to elected politicians.
The parties welcomed the move, but the rebels initially rejected the overture as a ruse for the king to hold onto his crown. Both of them want to rewrite the Constitution to limit the role of the monarchy -- or eliminate it altogether.
However, by Wednesday the rebels had softened their position, lifting a week-long blockade of key highways. The rebel's ceasefire announcement followed a conversation between Prachanda and Girija Prasad Koirala, the man chosen by the country's political parties to be the next interim prime minister.
The rebels have made it clear that the ceasefire is for three months only, with the intention to encourage the political parties to announce an unconditional special assembly.
"Our fight will continue," Matrika Yadav, the highest-ranking Maoist leader imprisoned by the government, said in an interview on Wednesday, adding that the group's eventual goal remains nothing short of creating a communist state.
The rebels are for now "being flexible in order to trust the parties" to help overthrow the king, Yadav said. "If anyone goes against the people, their downfall is inevitable, whether it is the political parties or the monarchy or any force."
The rebels have declared ceasefires three times, but none of them resulted in any significant progress toward a permanent peace.
The latest was a unilateral ceasefire last September that lasted four months. They pulled out earlier this year, accusing the royalist government of failing to show any initiatives to resolve the conflict peacefully.
Soon after that, the rebels escalated attacks against government targets and troops.
The rebels, who claim to be inspired by Mao Zedong (
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