KATMANDU, Nepal — Police clashed today with protesting Maoists, who vowed to prevent a new government from being formed unless the president supported the firing of the country’s army chief — the key dispute that has thrown the Himalayan country into crisis.
The clash came after the president on Sunday overruled an order from Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal to fire the country’s military chief. Dahal, a former Maoist guerrilla leader who entered mainstream politics in 2006, accused the army’s leader of refusing to bring former communist fighters into the military. Dahal resigned Monday in protest.
Today, police used tear gas and bamboo batons to break up a protest of about 500 supporters of Dahal’s Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) in the capital, Katmandu. No one was seriously injured. Authorities have imposed a ban on protests and rallies in key areas of Katmandu this week.
Dahal told reporters today that his party only would join the new government if the president reversed his decision to block Dahal’s dismissal of the army chief.
“We will be ready to form the new government or be part of the process only after the unconstitutional step by the president is corrected,” Dahal said.
Maoist lawmaker Barsa Man Pun said the lawmakers would continue to protest and disrupt parliamentary proceedings, making it impossible for a new prime minister to be voted in.
Maoists lawmakers swarmed to the front of the Constituent Assembly today, chanting slogans to denounce the president and forcing the speaker to close parliament for a second consecutive day.
Political parties have held crisis talks in Katmandu to try to form a new coalition government, but the Maoists have stayed away from the meetings.
“There is no meaning of holding these consultations until the issue is resolved,” Pun said.
Dahal’s party is the largest in parliament, but it does not have a clear majority to rule. His resignation this week prompted his party to leave the ruling coalition and caused the government to collapse.
The president — who was elected by parliament — belongs to Nepali Congress party, the country’s second-largest party after the Maoists. The Nepali Congress is now holding coalition talks with the Maoists’ former allies in parliament.
The Maoists fought a bloody 10-year war before laying down their guns in 2006. They won the most votes during parliamentary elections last year and then abolished the centuries-old monarchy.
Many of the movement’s fighters remain confined to U.N.-monitored barracks. Under a peace accord brokered by the world body, they were supposed to be integrated into the military.
Dahal had attempted to fire Army Chief Rookmangud Katawal because he refused to enlist the rebels in the military, but President Ram Baran Yadav overruled the decision.
In his resignation speech, Dahal accused Yadav of “a fatal attack on the infant democracy.” He claimed the president had no power to act as he did without the prior approval of Cabinet.
“The unconstitutional and undemocratic move by the president has pushed the country toward a serious political crisis,” Dahal said.
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