Nepal celebrates as rebels sign peace agreement

After a decade of armed struggle and the deaths of thousands of people, Maoist rebels entered a peace agreement Tuesday with the government of Nepal that is aimed at bringing onetime fighters into the political mainstream of the state they once swore to overthrow.

As onlookers cheered and Nepalese in the streets celebrated, Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala and rebel leader Prachanda signed an accord calling on the Maoists to surrender their guns and assume positions in an interim government and parliament. In exchange, the Nepalese army is also to lay down some weapons and return troops to their barracks.

“Nepal has entered a new era,” Koirala said in televised remarks, adding that the “politics of killings, violence and terror” had given way to the “politics of reconciliation.”

Prachanda, the nom de guerre of Pushpa Kamal Dahal, declared Tuesday “a day of victory for Nepal and its people’s aspirations for change.”

He and fellow insurgents are expected to participate in elections next year that will determine the fate of Nepal’s monarchy, which the Maoists have long sought to abolish. The rebels have promised to respect the decision of a special assembly to be elected by June, even if the body opts to retain the monarchy in ceremonial form.

The peace accord culminates seven months of turmoil and remarkable change in the tiny Himalayan nation, better known to the West as a backpackers’ paradise, home to Mt. Everest and an easygoing spirituality.

Popular protests in April forced King Gyanendra, who had suspended parliament and authorized troops to meet dissent with violence, to apologize for his autocratic rule and reinstate democratic government. Newly energized politicians then began stripping the palace of various powers and privileges, including command over the army and immunity from prosecution, despite traditional belief in the king as an incarnation of the god Vishnu.

At the same time, the government started negotiating with the Maoists, who had agreed late last year to work with the democratic opposition against the king and joined in the street protests.

Over the course of 10 years of bloody conflict, the rebels had managed to establish control over large swaths of Nepal’s countryside. In the process, more than 13,000 people were killed, and reports of forcible recruitment, kidnappings and extortion abounded.

The peace agreement requires the Maoists to put their guns in storehouses to be monitored by closed-circuit camera by the United Nations. The rebels are to be housed in camps as the country prepares for the special assembly elections.

Both the government and the rebels pledged to uphold human rights and abide by international humanitarian principles. A truth and reconciliation commission is also expected to be created.

“It’s very different from past understandings,” political analyst Yubaraj Ghimire said by telephone from Katmandu, the capital, where celebrations of the peace pact lasted into the night.

“It has all the provisions of a durable peace. They’ve decided to subject themselves to the rule of law for the first time,” he said of the Maoists.

Whether the rebels will exhibit the patience and discipline to stick to that decision is an open question. Hard-line cadres might feel betrayed by their leaders’ rapprochement with the government, and the organization’s top dogs could become disenchanted with how the accord is implemented.

And Nepal’s elected officials, starting as early as next week, will find themselves forced to work with their erstwhile enemies.

“It will be psychologically very difficult,” Ghimire said. Overcoming long-standing enmity, including strong memories of brutality on both sides, “would be a gradual process,” he said. “But I feel that’s possible.”

An even bigger challenge, perhaps, lies in figuring out how to rebuild a shattered nation. Nepal’s farmers are desperately poor, many of them living in almost medieval conditions.

Also, in a land where a majority of the population is younger than 25, the government needs to find jobs for the swelling numbers of young people entering the workforce every year. Discontented Nepalese youths formed the core of protesters who challenged King Gyanendra’s rule in the spring, calling for a republic fit for the 21st century.

henry.chu@latimes.com