Armed conflict: violence or people’s war?

Kathmandu, Sept 5: Chairperson of the CPN (Maoist Centre), Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’, has said none is allowed to give expressions going against the Constitution. In his address to a party programme organised to commemorate the memorial day of martyrs Sherman Kunwar and Mohan Chandra Gautam at the party central office, Parisdanda today, he called on the party cadres to resist any expression against the country’s main law.

Stating that the Constitution has addressed the ‘people’s war’ as the ‘armed conflict’, he expressed his concerns over the ‘interpretation’ of it as violence and terror. “The description of the Constitution is that the armed conflict will be understood as the ‘people’s war’ and it was signed by all political parties.

Now some leaders of the ruling parties have insolently labeled it as violence, murder, and terror. This is against the Constitution. Citizens should be well-informed about the reality,” he said. He took time to say that the party is constantly working to recognize martyrs of the ‘people’s war’. He said during his last term in the Prime Minister’s Office, he looked into the old decisions to ensure that the martyrs’ names were published in the national gazette for official recognition.

He reminded that the party has been observing a martyrs’ week from Fagun 14 to 21 each year (the last week of February to the first week of March) since the ‘people’s war’. The erstwhile Prime Minister said the decision of the Council of Ministers to observe the ‘People’s War Day’ on Fagun 1 each year as the national day in commemoration of the official commencement of the ‘people’s war ‘ on 13 February 1996 (Fagun 1, 2052) has not been implemented as it was not entertained by the court citing the peace process is yet to complete. He hoped that the Court would reconsider its decision with the endorsement of the Bill relating to transitional justice. Party vice chair Pampha Bhusal, general secretary Dev Prasad Gurung, and secretary Devendra Poudel were among those present at the programme.