Since the introduction of democracy in Nepal, a series of chaotic and incompetent Marxist-Leninist governments have led the country. Now a Maoist guerrilla force want to overthrow the ruling coalition. Led by well-educated, city-born youths, far different from the rural masses they claim to represent, the movement already controls 20% of rural Nepal, and is becoming a great concern in Kathmandu. The central government is fighting as much an information war, as a physical one. The military is used but in subtle, unofficial capacities, to avoid the term 'civil war' from being used; an academic responsible for informing the UN on human rights abuses brought on by the conflict has been arrested, and his work confiscated; a left-wing newspaper that conducted interviews with the Maoists is left without its editors, detained by the local police. While the government fight the Maoists on the ground, it is just as concerned with stopping the Maoist's sphere of intellectual control from reaching the cities. An insightful report that gains unique access to the notoriously insular Maoist movement.

Produced by ABC Australia