Politic-Economic-Society-Tech

Nepal troops prepare for action against rebels

The Nepalese government says it is preparing to take action against Maoist rebels holding 70 policemen hostage in a remote Himalayan area. 

Officials say government forces have closed in on the rebels who kidnapped the policemen during a raid on a police station in the Rolpa region last Thursday. 

That raid was the latest in a string of deadly raids on isolated police posts. The Maoists stepped up a violent campaign to topple to topple Nepal's constitutional monarchy after the massacre of nearly all of the royal family on June 1. 

Dozens of policemen have been killed in the last few weeks, with the latest raid forcing the government to call in the army to free the policemen and recover arms seized by the rebels. 

"The security personnel have closed in further on the area where the rebels are holding the policemen in their efforts to free the captives," a Home Ministry statement said. 

"They [security personnel] have completed preparations for action." 

The threat of action comes as the stand-off between the rebels and the government forces entered its sixth day. 

The government has demanded the rebels free the hostages and surrender their seized arms but the rebels say they will release the policemen only in exchange for their jailed comrades. 

A government official rejected the rebel terms. 

The ministry did not say what action the army might take but officials said the soldiers were under orders to exercise maximum restraint and free the hostages without bloodshed. 

The ministry did not say when it would begin any operation. 

Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala, who is under heavy political pressure to resign, said his government was ready for talks with the Maoist rebels to try to end the five-year-old rebellion. 

"The government had already taken several initiatives for talks and it is still ready for dialogues to end the violence," Koirala told a business meeting in the capital. 

The decision to send in troops to free the policemen marks the first time the government has mobilized the army against the rebels. 

The police have been responsible until now for fighting the rebels who launched a bloody struggle for a one-party communist republic early in 1996. The violence has so far claimed about 1,750 lives. 

source: cnn.com, 18 July 2001