Kaski: Maoists attacked Tourist Facilities in Ghandruk (May 2004) US courts Nepal as anti-terror partner (April 2004) UN-interested in mediation (April 2004) Maoist conflict: Victimised victims (April 2004) Myagdi: Report from the Beni battlefield (March 2004) UN Secretary-General appeals for peace process (March 2004) The Maoist strategy: Isolating Pokhara (March 2004) Maoist plan of three-day siege of Myagdi HQ (March 2004) Nepal map Nepal map

The news of the murders of two prominent tourism entrepreneurs in Ghandruk by Maoists has sent Pokhara into deep gloom. Ghandruk is an important trekking stop on the trails to Ghorepani and Annapurna Base Camp and used to house the headquarters of the Annapurna Conservation Area Project (ACAP), which was destroyed by Maoists two years ago.
Maoists took five prominent Ghandruk hoteliers hostage. They locked two lodges and transferred guests from one tea house to another. Then came the news that the Maoists had shot dead two of the hostages. The rebels told villagers not to leave their houses and trekkers are bypassing Ghandruk for now.

The army is to get 20,000 American M16 rifles to update its firepower. The Royal Nepalese Army (RNA) is long on tradition, but short of modern-day weaponry. Most of its rifles are over 30 years old and notoriously unreliable in combat.
Many of the knives look like they belong in a souvenir shop rather than on the battlefield. So the administration of US President George W Bush is investing $17m of military aid in the RNA, mainly to pay for about 20,000 M16 rifles and night vision equipment. The aim is to transform this 70,000-strong force from a parade ground-based army into a modern-day, counter-insurgency unit.

As conflict between the security forces and Maoist rebels intensifies in Nepal, the voice for peace is also getting stronger. Joining the peace chorus last week was UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, who not only called for the end of the conflict, but also offered help to mediate. The offer, however, has sparked a debate in Nepal about the whether the UN can, or should, play such a role.

Last year, Ram Gopal Tamauli was shot and stabbed by a group of Maoists after he refused to join their movement in a village in Banke. He tried to argue that he did not believe in violence, but was attacked with swords and guns. Emboldened by his courage, hundreds of villagers pounced on the Maoists a

The stench of death is overpowering in Myagdi, and the country is sucked into a vortex of violence.
It is the morning after in Beni and a scene of utter devastation. The police station is a blackened wreck. The barbed wire had been clipped away and the perimeter wall blasted open at several points. Sandbags at the sentry posts are torn to shreds. Near the army base, a woman is washing the bloodstain from the steps outside her shop, while her daughter looks on.

March 22, 2004 - Statement was issued by the Spokesman for UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan

The Secretary-General is disturbed by the recent escalation of fighting in Nepal, where the continued instability and conflict is having an increasingly devastating impact on the lives of ordinary people. Civilian casualties and serious human rights violations are a routine occurrence, and the country's economic and social development is being seriously hampered. The Secretary-General does not believe there is a military solution to the conflict. He appeals to His Majesty's Government of Nepal and the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) to take immediate steps to end the fighting and resume the peace process with the participation of all political and civil forces in the country. The Secretary-General continues to be available to assist the search for a solution in any manner the parties consider useful.

The Maoist blockade of more than a dozen districts of central Nepal couldn't have come at a worse time for Pokhara. At the height of the trekking season, hundreds of tourists bound for the Annapurna circuit or taking buses to Kathmandu are stranded. For this tourist-dependant town, when visitor numbers go down everyone from vegetable farmers to paragliding companies are hit.

The Maoists would have captured Beni, the Myagdi district headquarters, for three days and nights, to pressurise the government, had the security forces not fought well continuously for 12 hours, a seized video cassette has revealed.

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