Maoist chief offers Nepal opposition top jobs
The leader of Nepal's Maoists proposed a new unity government Tuesday, offering political rivals the pick of the top cabinet posts in a bid to end a deadlock crippling the restive Himalayan nation. Maoist party chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal told AFP he would let his rivals in the two largest opposition parties choose their ministries if they agreed to unite behind a Maoist premier in a cross-party administration. "We are willing to allow Nepali Congress to choose the ministries. Factions within both the Nepali Congress and the Unified Marxist Leninists are positive about this," Dahal said in a rare interview. The deal would provide hope of lasting consensus among Nepal's warring political factions, who have been ordered by the president to form a new unity government by Thursday and end months of uncertainty in the impoverished country. Dahal, better known by his civil war nom-de-guerre Prachanda, or "the fierce one", even entertained the possibility of one of the opposition groups leading a new government. But he added this would be unlikely to work with the parties still squabbling over the wording of a new peace-time constitution. Nepal has been run by a caretaker Maoist-led government since the collapse in May of an interim assembly that had failed in its main task of drawing up the constitution following the 10-year insurgency that ended in 2006. The caretaker administration, unable to win support for a full budget, has so far allocated just 45 million dollars to roads, hospitals, schools and other development projects, a tenth of its normal spend. The government called elections last week to vote for a new parliament in April or May next year. But President Ram Baran Yadav has set a deadline of Thursday for parties to form a unity government and the Maoists have since been in frantic talks to resolve the crisis. Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai said last week he was ready to resign if the opposition parties could come up with a credible candidate to succeed him. "Baburam Bhattarai himself said to me: 'Shall I resign or what?' We discussed this issue in the party and decided that he shouldn't resign now. He will resign some day but only after political consensus," said Dahal. The 57-year-old spent years hiding in jungles and hills, directing a guerrilla war that brought Nepal to its knees. In 2006, he emerged from hiding to sign a peace deal with mainstream parties that paved the way for the abolition of the world's last Hindu monarchy and his own rise to power via the ballot box. Dahal was elected premier in August 2008 but his government collapsed nine months later in a row over the integration of former Maoist fighters into the army, a key tenet of the peace process. Dahal refused to go quietly and has been seen by some analysts as agitating for a return to power ever since. A charismatic leader with a popular touch, Dahal was born a Brahmin, the top of the Hindu caste system. But his family had fallen on hard times and he experienced Nepal's crushing poverty at first hand, spending his childhood herding goats and buffalo. Prachanda joined the communists in 1980 at the age of 25 and worked as a teacher and then on US-funded aid projects. Inspired by the Cultural Revolution in China and by Peru's Shining Path movement, he became convinced that an armed insurgency was the only way to bring radical change to one of the world's poorest countries. Now the father of three grown-up children, he cuts an affable figure although he has faced criticism for his perceived extravagance since emerging from the jungle. A disillusioned former supporter recently slapped Dahal in the face, an incident seen as emblematic of simmering frustration among the public at their political overlords.
