More than 100,000 Maoist rebels and supporters yesterday thronged Kathmandu where top leaders addressed their first mass meeting here and offered to merge forces with Nepal's army.
The giant gathering swelled to around 180,000 people, according to estimates by diplomats, overflowing a large open air theater earmarked for the event.
People were pushed up against perimeter fences and hanging from trees to escape the crush and get a better view. The army allowed crowds to spill over into an adjoining military parade ground that also quickly filled up.
Adjacent main roads less than a kilometer from King Gyanedra's huge palace were packed.
Security was low-key with few officers visible as rebel leaders who have been underground for years addressed the crowd.
"We are willing to merge with the army if everything is settled with the government," said Maoist military commander Prabhakar who uses one name.
Krishna Bahadur Mahara, the head of the Maoist peace talks team, said the rebels had been complying with a ceasefire code of conduct, but the government had not.
"We have given 100 percent in implementing the code of conduct but the government has not. The government has breached the code of conduct as security forces are manning the streets carrying weapons. We are watching this with suspicion," Mahara said to applause and whistle-blowing.
Maoists sang revolutionary songs and watched traditional dances in between speeches in a largely peaceful gathering.
The event was however marred by some violence with an Agence France Press reporter witnessing one man badly beaten by a Maoist mob who suspected him of being an agent provocateur.
Nepal's insurgents are in a stronger position than ever after King Gyanendra ended 14 months of direct rule last month following weeks of pro-democracy protests organized by opposition parties in concert with the rebels.
The mood was festive as the rebels came into the open, many for the first time in a decade.
Ram Prasad Humayai, 42, has been living in hiding since 1996 and was clearly pleased to be on the streets of the capital carrying a communist flag.
"This is a great day and we are very happy," he said.
The mid-level cadre warned, however, the rebels were ready to return to arms if needed.
Le Tuan Binh keeps his Moroccan soldier father’s tombstone at his village home north of Hanoi, a treasured reminder of a man whose community in Vietnam has been largely forgotten. Mzid Ben Ali, or “Mohammed” as Binh calls him, was one of tens of thousands of North Africans who served in the French army as it battled to maintain its colonial rule of Indochina. He fought for France against the Viet Minh independence movement in the 1950s, before leaving the military — as either a defector or a captive — and making a life for himself in Vietnam. “It’s very emotional for me,”
The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) Central Committee is to gather in July for a key meeting known as a plenum, the third since the body of elite decisionmakers was elected in 2022, focusing on reforms amid “challenges” at home and complexities broad. Plenums are important events on China’s political calendar that require the attendance of all of the Central Committee, comprising 205 members and 171 alternate members with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at the helm. The Central Committee typically holds seven plenums between party congresses, which are held once every five years. The current central committee members were elected at the
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi reaffirmed his pledge to replace India’s religion-based marriage and inheritance laws with a uniform civil code if he returns to office for a third term, a move that some minority groups have opposed. In an interview with the Times of India listing his agenda, Modi said his government would push for making the code a reality. “It is clear that separate laws for communities are detrimental to the health of society,” he said in the interview published yesterday. “We cannot be a nation where one community is progressing with the support of the Constitution while the other
CODIFYING DISCRIMINATION: Transgender people would be sentenced to three years in prison, while same-sex relations could land a person in jail for more than a decade Iraq’s parliament on Saturday passed a bill criminalizing same-sex relations, which would receive a sentence of up to 15 years in prison, in a move rights groups condemned as an “attack on human rights.” Transgender people would be sentenced to three years’ jail under the amendments to a 1988 anti-prostitution law, which were adopted during a session attended by 170 of 329 lawmakers. A previous draft had proposed capital punishment for same-sex relations, in what campaigners had called a “dangerous” escalation. The new amendments enable courts to sentence people engaging in same-sex relations to 10 to 15 years in prison, according to the