India: People’s Liberation Guerilla Army Carries Out Daring Ambushes in Chhattisgarh

This interview appeared in Maoist Information Bulletin 11, dated October 7, 2009, which is available on Banned Thought.

On 12 July 2009, the PLGA carried out a series of attacks in Maanpur area of Rajnandgaon district in which 30 policemen were wiped out, including the S.P. Vinod Kumar Chaube. After these attacks, some of the media representatives raised a lot of questions before us. This interview given to MIB in the first week of September attempts to answer these questions.

Interview with Gudsa Usendi, spokesperson of the Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee of CPI(Maoist) on the daring Madanwada Ambush

Q: Your party had carried out a big attack in a very planned manner in Maanpur area of Rajnandgaon district. Rather, it should be said that you carried out many attacks simultaneously. In Chhattisgarh, this is the first time that you have killed an S.P. [Superintendent of Police]. This has resulted in a great loss of men and material to the police. This is said to be the biggest attack since Ranibodli. What are your comments? Can you tell us in some detail that how all this happened?

A: Yes, certainly it was a fairly big operation. A special company of our PLGA has successfully carried out this ‘Operation Vikas’. This was actually an ‘area ambush’. Under this operation, four ambushes were carried out at three places. The first ambush was carried out near the Madanwada camp at about 6 a.m. on 12th July. A small team of ours attacked the STF jawans stationed at Madanwada base camp in which 2 jawans were killed. Rest of the policemen ran into the camp. On hearing this, the S.P. came running with his force. Behind him came IG Mukesh Gupta with his contingent. Our second ambush on them was planned near the village Korkotti. Since, Korkotti is merely 5 km from Maanpur and is situated on a metalled road, and also since it is 15-20 km away from Madanwada, we calculated that police will not expect an ambush at that place.

UN Frets Over Stalled Peace Process in Nepal

This article was published by the UN News Service on January 13, 2010.

Nepal peace process close to standstill due to tensions and mistrust, UN warns

The peace process that ended a 10-year civil war in Nepal has remained largely stalled over the past three months, with tensions and mistrust between Maoists, the Government and army threatening its very survival, according to a new United Nations report issued today. “The major disagreements that have brought the peace process close to a standstill remain unresolved, increasing the risk of its collapse,” Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says in the report to the Security Council, referring to the integration and rehabilitation of Maoist army personnel and the democratization of the Nepal Army, the main combatants in the war, and the scope of presidential authority that replaced the monarchy.

“Positions have hardened at the opposing ends of the political spectrum, which has seriously eroded the common middle ground that had, from the outset, defined the peace process and remained its driving strength. There is a growing and worrying risk of the political discourse being dominated by extreme voices and the focus shifting away from the peaceful and democratic path,” he adds, calling on all parties to overcome their differences.