Nepali troops kill 500 Maoist rebels

NEPALI troops killed 500 Maoist rebels in a 12-hour battle yesterday, the army said. It would appear to be the bloodiest single clash since the revolt against the country’s constitutional monarchy began in 1996.

The battle began after three groups of rebels stormed a state bank, a jail and government buildings in a co-ordinated attack on Beni, a district capital in the west of the Hindu kingdom and a rebel stronghold.

Army reinforcements, including night-flying helicopters, were rushed to the remote area, but poor communications meant details remained scarce last night. The Nepalese army said 18 soldiers and police had died in addition to the rebels.

Another Maoist force attacked an airport at a small town south of Katmandu popular with tourists visiting a local wildlife sanctuary, but there were no reports of deaths or major damage there.

"We believe more than 500 rebels might have died in the [Beni] battle," Colonel Deepak Kumar Gurung told reporters in Katmandu. "It is based on what our soldiers saw - they saw the Maoists falling and being dragged off by other Maoists."

Col Gurung said eyewitnesses saw the rebels carrying away dead fighters and even dumping some of them in the river.

The guerrillas also bombed a bridge on the road leading to the town and knocked down the telecommunications tower.

If the reports of the huge death toll are true, yesterday’s battle would be the bloodiest since more than 200 rebels, soldiers and police died almost two years ago when guerrillas overran security posts in one area of western Nepal.

There was no immediate comment from the Maoist rebels about the Beni battle, which raged from midnight into yesterday afternoon, and no independent confirmation of the toll.

Both sides routinely overstate enemy casualties and understate their own.

The Maoists, fighting to replace the monarchy with a one-party communist state, often target banks for cash to buy smuggled weapons, as well as jails to free captured comrades.

Outgunned by the army, they rely on sheer numbers and human shields from dragooned local villagers to overrun security posts, human rights groups say.

The rebels deny using civilians as human shields or forcing stretcher-bearers to carry their dead. More than 9,000 people, mainly rebels, have been killed in the brutal and bloody revolt. Human rights groups accuse both sides of major abuses, including murder and torture.

Several attempts at peace talks have failed over core issues such as the ultimate fate of the monarchy, which has been in the hands of the unpopular King Gyanendra since his older brother, the more popular King Birendra, and several members of the Royal Family were massacred in 2001.

King Gyanendra also faces sustained and destabilising protests from mainstream political parties after sacking the elected prime minister in 2002 and delaying national elections due the same year, saying the rebellion meant it was too dangerous for polls.

Fighting between the rebels and government soldiers has escalated since the insurgents withdrew from a seven-month cease-fire in August after three rounds of peace talks.

The two sides failed to break an impasse over the rebels’ demands for a special elected assembly to draft a new constitution, and to decide if the king should continue as a constitutional monarch.

The rebels say they are inspired by the Chinese revolutionary leader Mao Zedong and have been fighting since February 1996 to replace the monarchy with a communist state.

Col Gurunbg last week said soldiers were escorting buses and trucks and patrolling major roads to prevent attacks by Maoist rebels who have called for a two-week transport halt. He said the army was providing security to hundreds of buses and trucks each day and using army planes to fly stranded passengers.

The attempt by the rebels to shut down trade and transportation has paralysed business and forced vehicles off roads in at least 30 of the country’s 75 districts since 7 March. Businesses are losing about one billion rupees (7 million) a day because of the blockade, which was announced by the rebels when they celebrated the eighth anniversary of their armed rebellion last month.

Since the blockade began, groups of rebels have been stopping vehicles on the roads and ordering them to return. They have burned at least half a dozen buses and trucks for failing to comply.

Industries in many parts of Nepal have been forced to close because of a shortage of raw materials, and agricultural products have been rotting because farmers have been unable to transport their goods.