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Mark · Site Admin Joined: 13 Nov 2007 Posts: 1052

US changes terror policy in dealing with Nepal's Maoists

http://rawstory.com/news/afp/US_c...r_policy_in_dealing_05292008.html

Excerpt:

Feigenbaum just returned from Kathmandu after meeting Maoist chief Pushpa Kamal Dahal, who had also prior talks with US ambassador to Nepal Nancy Powell.

The United States adheres to a strict policy of not negotiating with groups designated as terrorists.

"There has been a policy that we had of not making contact with the Maoists. The fact that Nancy Powell met them and that I met them should suggest to you that we have just revised that policy with respect to this group," Feigenbaum said.

The policy shift, he said, stemmed from the Maoist participation in a 2006 peace deal reached between the ultra-leftists and mainstream parties that paved the way for elections last month, which they clearly won.

The Maoists had waged a decade of war to overthrow what they view as a backward, caste-ridden structure that kept most of Nepal's 29 million people living in dire poverty. The war had killed at least 13,000 people.

A new constitutional assembly, led by the former rebels, voted late Wednesday to abolish the monarchy and transform Nepal into a republic.

Feigenbaum said Washington wanted parties in Nepal to embrace a "common vision of a stable, democratic and prospering Nepal and so we thought that our own role of encouraging that is best served by making contact" with the Maoists.