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KATMANDU, NEPAL, February 2, 2003: Since assuming the crown in 2001, Nepal’s King Gyanendra has experienced increased isolation reports this Asia Times article. Frustrated by ceaseless political infighting among Nepal’s elected leaders, the King sacked the government of Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba 16 months ago and appointed his own administration to hold all executive powers. Gyanendra, 56, says his intervention was necessary in order to deal with the country’s greatest threat: a growing insurrection by Maoist rebels, 10,000 fighters whose on-going civil war has claimed 7,500 lives in the past two years alone. Beset by enemies from within and without, with government control outside of the capital slipping away, Gyanendra alone rules a country that foreign diplomats and many Nepalese believe is verging on anarchy, continues this report. The Maoist uprising is currently the deadliest conflict in Asia. It is not just this horror that has prompted international concern. Outside the capital, a dangerous anarchic vacuum is developing throughout the countryside, the majority of which is under the control of neither the Maoists nor the army. Nepal’s civil structure is disintegrating in the face of conflict, weak central control and the absence of local elected leaders. Compelled by a sense that Nepal may no longer be able to save itself, the U.S., Britain and India have begun re-equipping and training the Nepalese army, despite its brutality. Michael E. Malinowski, American ambassador to Nepal, explains, “We have a foreign policy that people who use terrorism should not succeed. But we also have concerns about the failed-state idea and the danger that all kinds of bad guys could use Nepal as a base, like in Afghanistan.” For the full article, click on “source” above.

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