Some of you may have read that in recent days Nepal's government has once again descended into uncertainty. In short, there has been an ongoing issue with the Maoists wanting their former guerilla army (PLA) integrated into the Nepal Army. The Nepal Army has refused to agree to this claiming amongst other things that the PLA are indoctrinated thugs (hard to disagree with this point). For the past year there have been about 19,000 PLA fighters living in UN supervised camps.
Everything came to a head on Sunday when the Prime Minister (Maosit leader Prachanda) attempted to sack the Army Chief. This resulted in immediate demonstrations on the streets of Kathmandu and the city became gridlocked. On Monday the President told the Army Chief not to accept the sacking and things deteriorated from there. Later that day Prachanda resigned from the position of Prime Minister and it became unclear as to whether the Maoists would continue to participate in government. On Tuesday news came that enough of the other parties had joined to form a coalition government.
It is hard to know which way things will turn next. I can't imagine Maoist supporters will accept this new situation so there is a lot of uncertainty about where things are heading. Things have been very tense in Kathmandu since Sunday with a lot of protesters on the streets, sometimes clashing with each other and/or police, and many road blocks disrupting daily life. As usual foreigners are relatively safe however there are clear no-go zones in some parts of the city. For more detailed reports you can check BBC as they have some good coverage of developments so far. Two stories in particular worth reading are:
Is Nepal Sliding Back Into The Abyss?
Nepal Deal On National Government
This is of course the last thing Nepal needs. As always in these situations it is the people of Nepal who suffer the most as nothing progresses in the country whilst all the politicians are consumed with these disputes. Frustration doesn't even begin to explain the feelings of the people here now.
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