Nepalese hills
Music
00:00
THOMPSON: You wont find places like this in a tourists trekking guide. Nepals remote western hills boast no snow-capped peaks or exotic Buddhist temples. There are no roads, no electricity, just the backbreaking daily grind of rural life. Left abandoned by Kathmandus political elites, another force has taken root in these fertile fields of discontent.
11:06
Members of Maoist movement walk
Here since 1996, the revolutionaries of Nepals Maoist movement have been harvesting political power from the barrel of a gun.
00:44
Procession for Kings birthday
Far away to the east, in the capital of Kathmandu, subjects still loyal to their king are on the way to his birthday celebrations. They queue for hours in their finery for a chance to present bouquets to the worlds only Hindu God-King. For a deity, hes been feeling decidedly mortal a man desperately in need of happy returns.
01:14
Well wisher of king
MAN: Oh my lovely King. My very real King I support king because hes the real leader of our nation.
01:42
Woman well wisher
WOMAN: Only the King can solve our problems -- not others.
01:50
King Gyanendra
THOMPSON: King Gyanendra inherited a kingdom chronically in need of solutions. He was the most senior royal left standing after the rest of the family, including his brother King Birendra were massacred two years ago by an inebriated Crown Prince who then shot himself.
02:02
Military parade
Nepals Royal Army and Police parade before their new King, part of this show of unswerving loyalty to the throne. Notably absent are some of the Kingdoms key political figures.
02:23
Nepal is supposed to be a constitutional monarchy, but when the war with the Maoists escalated last October, King Gyanendra sacked an elected Prime Minister and installed his own government.
02:35
Protestors
Ever since, Nepals political parties have demanded a return to democracy. Once loyal subjects were loyal no more.
02:52
GIRL PROTESTOR: Long live democracy, democracy, democracy. You cannot override the constitution.
03:00
THOMPSON: When people power brought democracy to Nepal in 1990, a culture of chaos came with it. In thirteen years there have been thirteen prime ministers. While the Maoists turned to bullets, other parties stuck with banners like Foreign Minister Ram Sharan Mahat who was once beaten by police.
03:10
Mahat in protest
DR RAM SHARAN MAHAT: Of course, in a fight between the Royal Force and the peoples force, peoples force always wins. So we have no doubt about the ultimate victory.
03:33
Nepalese hills
Music
03:44
Thompson walks through village
THOMPSON: Far away from the cacophony of Kathmandus streets exists a far deadlier confrontation. For now at least a ceasefire has silenced the guns of the government and the Maoists. That doesnt mean the rebel army is easy to find. We are invited to meet with them but only if we are prepared to travel halfway across the country for the privilege, to the poor Midwest District of Surkhet.
03:53
Thompson crosses bridge
The other side of this bridge is a no go area for government forces. We step from a Kingdom into a red republic. This is a life basically unchanged for centuries. If you want to get anywhere, you do it on foot and along the way its easy to see how the communist icons of a hammer and a sickle can have simple appeal. Everything here is driven by the labour of humans or beasts.
04:25
Thompson slips down path and enters camp
The next morning after a few last stumbling steps we arrive at the Maoist camp. Again anointed as fellow travellers we discover a kind of travelling festival dedicated to spreading revolutionary fervour among the rural young.
05:02
Group of singers at camp
Sonog: the flower of unity grows inspiring the boys and girls
05:29
Painting of Stalin, Lenin, Mao
THOMPSON: As the heroes of the revolution loom over the proceedings, twenty five year old district leader, Sudeep, preaches Anti-Americanism in an Eminem t-shirt.
05:39
Sudeep
SUDEEP: If American imperialists come to interfere with Nepalese peoples fundamental rights and nationality they will lose. To regain those rights from the old regime which rules with guns, we also have to have guns.
05:51
Soldiers at checkpoint
THOMPSON: This has been a war largely waged under the cover of darkness. The Maoists rule the countryside. Government forces control the towns, searching vehicles and imposing curfews. The confidence of the military now bolstered by the discrete helping hand of Washington. Last year, the Royal Nepalese Army received twenty-one million dollars in military training and aid from the United States which has also placed the Maoists on its terrorism watch list.
06:23
Malinowski
Super: Mike Malinowski
U.S. Ambassador, Nepal
MALINOWSKI: Well I dont, I dont see the Maoists coming into victory. I dont think the world would allow another Pol Pot, another Khmer Rouge to come into power and theres obvious regional considerations here as well.
06:56
Soldiers at checkpoint
THOMPSON: Washington has raised the spectre of genocide and outside support for the revolution, but these Government troops have found scant evidence of it. Maoism may have sprung from neighbouring China, but Beijing has shown no interest in supporting the Nepalese comrades. This is a home grown revolution, armed with weapons captured from this army it seeks to destroy.
MALINOWSKI: The underlying problem is not the Maoists movement or their half baked ideology.
07:13
Malinowski
I mean, God Maoism in 2003 is a bit hard to take, but that the Maoists have used, have become the vehicle to express discontent and that if it wasnt for the Maoist movement, that this discontent would be expressed in other ways.
07:44
Man preaches at camp
MAOIST MAN: From our side, and from our partys side, the door to the talks is always open.
08:01
THOMPSON: With almost no jobs and little education on offer in rural western Nepal, the comrades have filled the void with a syllabus of ideological indoctrination.
08:08
MAOIST MAN: Comrades, the fact is, to win the war and defeat the old regime or the followers of the State we should follow the peoples way. We should take the people with us and get them to participate in the revolution.
KUNDA DIXIT: I think what the Maoists have done quite cleverly is to use the young,
08:19
Dixit
Super: Kunda Dixit
Editor, Nepali Times
and these are very young people, boys and girls in the villages, who have no hope for a job. They finish school and theres nowhere to go. Either you migrate to India to work or down to the cities, and this offered an exciting way to spend your time. You got to carry a gun, a grenade, you got trained. You were with, you know, young people like yourselves and you walked all over the country, and there was a certain excitement to it, and I think there was a lot of indoctrination as well.
08:44
Young people dancing
Music
09:18
THOMPSON: Mao Tse Tung said that war is politics with bloodshed, and despite their apparent innocence, these cadres have seen their fair share of that. Six thousand people have died in the last two years. One of them was the father of this twelve year old boy. His Maoist codename is Kranti. In Nepali it means Revolution.
09:28
Kranti
KRANTI: My father was also in the struggle. At that time, he was sick and sleeping at home when the enemy came. He was sleeping and they took him away and killed him.
09:59
THOMPSON: Most people in my country would think that you should be in school, going to lessons.
10:19
KRANTI: Even if we go to school, we could get killed there. They have even killed one of my friends studying with me. But why only the elders? We younger ones can also do something. Thats the cause.
10:24
Thompson greets Bhattarai
THOMPSON: The Maoists mysterious brother number one, Prachanda, has never appeared before a television camera. But after months underground brother number two re-emerges to meet with us.
10:46
Dr Barubram Bhattarai is the Maoists front man and ideological torchbearer.
Bhattarai
DR BHATTARAI: Its a distant goal it will take time but our ultimate goal is to raise the red flag everywhere.
11:06
THOMPSON: What do you now mean by Maoism?
11:12
DR BHATTARAI: Maoism is to say in very simple form its an ideology and philosophy which wants to empower the masses of the people, wants to do away with all sorts of exploitation -- class, nationality, gender and all sorts of exploitation -- and create a most democratic and ultimately very classless and stateless society.
11:14
Bhattarai in peace talks
THOMPSON: After weeks of backroom haggling, Dr Bhattarai recently agreed to another round of peace talks. The Maoists are refusing to accept anything less than a new constitution and a radical reduction in the power of Nepals King.
11:45
Many believe the rebels are only talking at all because the Americans have raised the spectre of intervention and the worlds refusal to tolerate another Cambodia. Dr Bhattarai rebuts that claim with bravado.
12:06
Bhattarai
DR BHATTARAI: If Pol Pot committed any massacre, I think Bush has committed more massacre than Pol Pot. So I think he should be compared to Pol Pot, not us. We want American imperialism to be away from Nepal -- take its hand off Nepal -- but if it intervenes then we fight until the end and well show, convert Nepal into another Vietnam.
12:23
City Hall protest meeting
THOMPSON: But there are many government opponents who reject violence and resent attempts by the Kings men to strike a peace deal with the Maoists. At Kathmandus city hall members and supporters of Nepals last elected parliament gather for a protest meeting led by Madhav Nepal. Earlier this year the King refused to anoint Nepal as interim Prime Minister ignoring his endorsement by a majority of the parties. Madhav Nepal may be at loggerheads with the royalists, but he doesnt trust the Maoists either.
12:50
Madhav
Super: Madhav Nepal
Unified Marxist-Leninist Party
MADHAV NEPAL: We are here in the city hall, we are on the street. We are with the people. We are the peoples force. We are a democratic force, but you see the behaviour of the Maoists that, that they harass all those who are critical of the Maoists. They dont give the democratic right or the sovereign right to others to operate among the people. So that is why we suspect on their intention of their commitment to the multi-party system.
13:28
Kamal Thapa on phone
THOMPSON: Busily working the phones, Kamal Thapa is the governments top negotiator in peace talks with the Maoists. He believes that compromise is the last remaining hope.
14:03
Thapa
Super: Kamal Thapa
Information Minister
KAMAL THAPA: I firmly believe that there is no other option left for the Maoists as well as for the government. We can linger with this, but none of the sides can claim a total victory through the violence. So there is no other option than peaceful negotiation. We have to bring them into the mainstream and this is our challenge and well try to convince them.
14:13
Dixit
Super: Kunda Dixit
Editor, Nepali Times
KUNDA DIXIT: Its not inconceivable, especially because the other parties are in such disarray. So they have quite a strong chance. In fact, we did a poll earlier this year, a public opinion poll, in which we asked respondents all over the country if the Maoists lay down their arms, who would they vote for? Twenty per cent said theyd vote for the Maoists with the political parties in the single digits.
14:36
Cadres at camp singing
Song: Hey, young people, hey, young people let us carry the guns. Dont spare the killers.
15:02
THOMPSON: In the hills young spirits are up and utopian dreams are doing a roaring trade.
15:15
Song: We the brave play with guns and ammunition. We now have no time to think of anything else.
15:24
THOMPSON: The Maoists show no sign of giving up the gun before their demands are met. But underneath the ideology those demands amount to little more than the violent insistence that the lives of the rural poor improve.
MALINOWSKI: If you wanted to use one word on why Nepals faced with this insurrection, its exclusion.
15:32
Malinowski
Super: Mike Malinowski
U.S. Ambassador, Nepal
That many of the groups in Nepal have felt that they have been excluded from the process, excluded because of many reasons including geography and history and culture. Things like caste, different ethnic groups.
15:54
Maoists pack up camp
THOMPSON: As the Maoists pack up to move to a new secret location we begin our journey home. Along the way sitting on a pass between the hills, we find the village of Dhah struggling to survive under two regimes. The villagers are regularly exhorted by both Maoist and government forces. The family of tea shop owner, Naar Bahadur, has lived here for generations.
NAAR BAHADUR: I am not happy at all.
16:14
Bahadur
I am not happy at all, but we are ordinary people. We have to respect whoever is in power. If we dont obey them they will punish us.
16:48
THOMPSON: Dhah has no health facilities and Naar Bahadurs three children have no prospect of education after the age of seven.
17:06
NAAR BAHADUR: What can I do if the Maoists come with their weapons and ask for food? Either way I have to give them food. On the other hand, if the Royal Army comes, we cannot say no if they ask for anything. We cannot do anything in the face of their bullets. Everyone wants to live another day. No matter who is in power, no one will help us.
17:15
Slogans painted on village walls
Music
THOMPSON: Lets celebrate the seventh anniversary of the Great Peoples War. Thats what these slogans say on the side of a police post in Meakuna Village. Right on the edge of government controlled territory, it was recently attacked by Maoists. Looking on is fifty-two year old Hira Gurung, but she has little to celebrate. Its been years since shes seen her two sons.
17:57
Gurung
HIRA GURUNG: My two sons are in the Royal Nepalese Army. They cant come home and its impossible to meet with them because the Maoists threaten them. Thats why I dont like Maoists. The Maoists are also our Nepali brothers, so why are we fighting? I want peace in Nepal.
18:27
Queue of people at temple
THOMPSON: The friendliness of Nepals people was what lured so many to this peaceful nation until just a few years ago. That lost innocence may never be regained, as every ceasefire so far has seen a return to war.
DR BHATTARAI: Though we dont want to return to war, if the war is forced on us then well be
18:56
Bhattarai
waging war. Well wage war until the people are totally victorious. This is our stand.
19:26
Dixit
KUNDA DIXIT: That is almost unthinkable because the next time the war starts, if it does, it will be much more vicious, much more brutal. The death toll will be, I mean what happened last year would be a picnic.
19:33
Cadres at camp
Song: We have to wake up and take our guns. What are you waiting for, young people?
19:49
THOMPSON: If the guns are to stay silent the clamour for compromise must get louder because its unlikely the once excluded voice of rural Nepals poor will ever be quiet again.
20:05
NEPAL MAOISTS
Reporter: Geoff Thompson
Camera/Sound: Michael Cox
Research: Campbell Spencer
Editor: Garth Thomas
Music
00:00
THOMPSON: You wont find places like this in a tourists trekking guide. Nepals remote western hills boast no snow-capped peaks or exotic Buddhist temples. There are no roads, no electricity, just the backbreaking daily grind of rural life. Left abandoned by Kathmandus political elites, another force has taken root in these fertile fields of discontent.
11:06
Members of Maoist movement walk
Here since 1996, the revolutionaries of Nepals Maoist movement have been harvesting political power from the barrel of a gun.
00:44
Procession for Kings birthday
Far away to the east, in the capital of Kathmandu, subjects still loyal to their king are on the way to his birthday celebrations. They queue for hours in their finery for a chance to present bouquets to the worlds only Hindu God-King. For a deity, hes been feeling decidedly mortal a man desperately in need of happy returns.
01:14
Well wisher of king
MAN: Oh my lovely King. My very real King I support king because hes the real leader of our nation.
01:42
Woman well wisher
WOMAN: Only the King can solve our problems -- not others.
01:50
King Gyanendra
THOMPSON: King Gyanendra inherited a kingdom chronically in need of solutions. He was the most senior royal left standing after the rest of the family, including his brother King Birendra were massacred two years ago by an inebriated Crown Prince who then shot himself.
02:02
Military parade
Nepals Royal Army and Police parade before their new King, part of this show of unswerving loyalty to the throne. Notably absent are some of the Kingdoms key political figures.
02:23
Nepal is supposed to be a constitutional monarchy, but when the war with the Maoists escalated last October, King Gyanendra sacked an elected Prime Minister and installed his own government.
02:35
Protestors
Ever since, Nepals political parties have demanded a return to democracy. Once loyal subjects were loyal no more.
02:52
GIRL PROTESTOR: Long live democracy, democracy, democracy. You cannot override the constitution.
03:00
THOMPSON: When people power brought democracy to Nepal in 1990, a culture of chaos came with it. In thirteen years there have been thirteen prime ministers. While the Maoists turned to bullets, other parties stuck with banners like Foreign Minister Ram Sharan Mahat who was once beaten by police.
03:10
Mahat in protest
DR RAM SHARAN MAHAT: Of course, in a fight between the Royal Force and the peoples force, peoples force always wins. So we have no doubt about the ultimate victory.
03:33
Nepalese hills
Music
03:44
Thompson walks through village
THOMPSON: Far away from the cacophony of Kathmandus streets exists a far deadlier confrontation. For now at least a ceasefire has silenced the guns of the government and the Maoists. That doesnt mean the rebel army is easy to find. We are invited to meet with them but only if we are prepared to travel halfway across the country for the privilege, to the poor Midwest District of Surkhet.
03:53
Thompson crosses bridge
The other side of this bridge is a no go area for government forces. We step from a Kingdom into a red republic. This is a life basically unchanged for centuries. If you want to get anywhere, you do it on foot and along the way its easy to see how the communist icons of a hammer and a sickle can have simple appeal. Everything here is driven by the labour of humans or beasts.
04:25
Thompson slips down path and enters camp
The next morning after a few last stumbling steps we arrive at the Maoist camp. Again anointed as fellow travellers we discover a kind of travelling festival dedicated to spreading revolutionary fervour among the rural young.
05:02
Group of singers at camp
Sonog: the flower of unity grows inspiring the boys and girls
05:29
Painting of Stalin, Lenin, Mao
THOMPSON: As the heroes of the revolution loom over the proceedings, twenty five year old district leader, Sudeep, preaches Anti-Americanism in an Eminem t-shirt.
05:39
Sudeep
SUDEEP: If American imperialists come to interfere with Nepalese peoples fundamental rights and nationality they will lose. To regain those rights from the old regime which rules with guns, we also have to have guns.
05:51
Soldiers at checkpoint
THOMPSON: This has been a war largely waged under the cover of darkness. The Maoists rule the countryside. Government forces control the towns, searching vehicles and imposing curfews. The confidence of the military now bolstered by the discrete helping hand of Washington. Last year, the Royal Nepalese Army received twenty-one million dollars in military training and aid from the United States which has also placed the Maoists on its terrorism watch list.
06:23
Malinowski
Super: Mike Malinowski
U.S. Ambassador, Nepal
MALINOWSKI: Well I dont, I dont see the Maoists coming into victory. I dont think the world would allow another Pol Pot, another Khmer Rouge to come into power and theres obvious regional considerations here as well.
06:56
Soldiers at checkpoint
THOMPSON: Washington has raised the spectre of genocide and outside support for the revolution, but these Government troops have found scant evidence of it. Maoism may have sprung from neighbouring China, but Beijing has shown no interest in supporting the Nepalese comrades. This is a home grown revolution, armed with weapons captured from this army it seeks to destroy.
MALINOWSKI: The underlying problem is not the Maoists movement or their half baked ideology.
07:13
Malinowski
I mean, God Maoism in 2003 is a bit hard to take, but that the Maoists have used, have become the vehicle to express discontent and that if it wasnt for the Maoist movement, that this discontent would be expressed in other ways.
07:44
Man preaches at camp
MAOIST MAN: From our side, and from our partys side, the door to the talks is always open.
08:01
THOMPSON: With almost no jobs and little education on offer in rural western Nepal, the comrades have filled the void with a syllabus of ideological indoctrination.
08:08
MAOIST MAN: Comrades, the fact is, to win the war and defeat the old regime or the followers of the State we should follow the peoples way. We should take the people with us and get them to participate in the revolution.
KUNDA DIXIT: I think what the Maoists have done quite cleverly is to use the young,
08:19
Dixit
Super: Kunda Dixit
Editor, Nepali Times
and these are very young people, boys and girls in the villages, who have no hope for a job. They finish school and theres nowhere to go. Either you migrate to India to work or down to the cities, and this offered an exciting way to spend your time. You got to carry a gun, a grenade, you got trained. You were with, you know, young people like yourselves and you walked all over the country, and there was a certain excitement to it, and I think there was a lot of indoctrination as well.
08:44
Young people dancing
Music
09:18
THOMPSON: Mao Tse Tung said that war is politics with bloodshed, and despite their apparent innocence, these cadres have seen their fair share of that. Six thousand people have died in the last two years. One of them was the father of this twelve year old boy. His Maoist codename is Kranti. In Nepali it means Revolution.
09:28
Kranti
KRANTI: My father was also in the struggle. At that time, he was sick and sleeping at home when the enemy came. He was sleeping and they took him away and killed him.
09:59
THOMPSON: Most people in my country would think that you should be in school, going to lessons.
10:19
KRANTI: Even if we go to school, we could get killed there. They have even killed one of my friends studying with me. But why only the elders? We younger ones can also do something. Thats the cause.
10:24
Thompson greets Bhattarai
THOMPSON: The Maoists mysterious brother number one, Prachanda, has never appeared before a television camera. But after months underground brother number two re-emerges to meet with us.
10:46
Dr Barubram Bhattarai is the Maoists front man and ideological torchbearer.
Bhattarai
DR BHATTARAI: Its a distant goal it will take time but our ultimate goal is to raise the red flag everywhere.
11:06
THOMPSON: What do you now mean by Maoism?
11:12
DR BHATTARAI: Maoism is to say in very simple form its an ideology and philosophy which wants to empower the masses of the people, wants to do away with all sorts of exploitation -- class, nationality, gender and all sorts of exploitation -- and create a most democratic and ultimately very classless and stateless society.
11:14
Bhattarai in peace talks
THOMPSON: After weeks of backroom haggling, Dr Bhattarai recently agreed to another round of peace talks. The Maoists are refusing to accept anything less than a new constitution and a radical reduction in the power of Nepals King.
11:45
Many believe the rebels are only talking at all because the Americans have raised the spectre of intervention and the worlds refusal to tolerate another Cambodia. Dr Bhattarai rebuts that claim with bravado.
12:06
Bhattarai
DR BHATTARAI: If Pol Pot committed any massacre, I think Bush has committed more massacre than Pol Pot. So I think he should be compared to Pol Pot, not us. We want American imperialism to be away from Nepal -- take its hand off Nepal -- but if it intervenes then we fight until the end and well show, convert Nepal into another Vietnam.
12:23
City Hall protest meeting
THOMPSON: But there are many government opponents who reject violence and resent attempts by the Kings men to strike a peace deal with the Maoists. At Kathmandus city hall members and supporters of Nepals last elected parliament gather for a protest meeting led by Madhav Nepal. Earlier this year the King refused to anoint Nepal as interim Prime Minister ignoring his endorsement by a majority of the parties. Madhav Nepal may be at loggerheads with the royalists, but he doesnt trust the Maoists either.
12:50
Madhav
Super: Madhav Nepal
Unified Marxist-Leninist Party
MADHAV NEPAL: We are here in the city hall, we are on the street. We are with the people. We are the peoples force. We are a democratic force, but you see the behaviour of the Maoists that, that they harass all those who are critical of the Maoists. They dont give the democratic right or the sovereign right to others to operate among the people. So that is why we suspect on their intention of their commitment to the multi-party system.
13:28
Kamal Thapa on phone
THOMPSON: Busily working the phones, Kamal Thapa is the governments top negotiator in peace talks with the Maoists. He believes that compromise is the last remaining hope.
14:03
Thapa
Super: Kamal Thapa
Information Minister
KAMAL THAPA: I firmly believe that there is no other option left for the Maoists as well as for the government. We can linger with this, but none of the sides can claim a total victory through the violence. So there is no other option than peaceful negotiation. We have to bring them into the mainstream and this is our challenge and well try to convince them.
14:13
Dixit
Super: Kunda Dixit
Editor, Nepali Times
KUNDA DIXIT: Its not inconceivable, especially because the other parties are in such disarray. So they have quite a strong chance. In fact, we did a poll earlier this year, a public opinion poll, in which we asked respondents all over the country if the Maoists lay down their arms, who would they vote for? Twenty per cent said theyd vote for the Maoists with the political parties in the single digits.
14:36
Cadres at camp singing
Song: Hey, young people, hey, young people let us carry the guns. Dont spare the killers.
15:02
THOMPSON: In the hills young spirits are up and utopian dreams are doing a roaring trade.
15:15
Song: We the brave play with guns and ammunition. We now have no time to think of anything else.
15:24
THOMPSON: The Maoists show no sign of giving up the gun before their demands are met. But underneath the ideology those demands amount to little more than the violent insistence that the lives of the rural poor improve.
MALINOWSKI: If you wanted to use one word on why Nepals faced with this insurrection, its exclusion.
15:32
Malinowski
Super: Mike Malinowski
U.S. Ambassador, Nepal
That many of the groups in Nepal have felt that they have been excluded from the process, excluded because of many reasons including geography and history and culture. Things like caste, different ethnic groups.
15:54
Maoists pack up camp
THOMPSON: As the Maoists pack up to move to a new secret location we begin our journey home. Along the way sitting on a pass between the hills, we find the village of Dhah struggling to survive under two regimes. The villagers are regularly exhorted by both Maoist and government forces. The family of tea shop owner, Naar Bahadur, has lived here for generations.
NAAR BAHADUR: I am not happy at all.
16:14
Bahadur
I am not happy at all, but we are ordinary people. We have to respect whoever is in power. If we dont obey them they will punish us.
16:48
THOMPSON: Dhah has no health facilities and Naar Bahadurs three children have no prospect of education after the age of seven.
17:06
NAAR BAHADUR: What can I do if the Maoists come with their weapons and ask for food? Either way I have to give them food. On the other hand, if the Royal Army comes, we cannot say no if they ask for anything. We cannot do anything in the face of their bullets. Everyone wants to live another day. No matter who is in power, no one will help us.
17:15
Slogans painted on village walls
Music
THOMPSON: Lets celebrate the seventh anniversary of the Great Peoples War. Thats what these slogans say on the side of a police post in Meakuna Village. Right on the edge of government controlled territory, it was recently attacked by Maoists. Looking on is fifty-two year old Hira Gurung, but she has little to celebrate. Its been years since shes seen her two sons.
17:57
Gurung
HIRA GURUNG: My two sons are in the Royal Nepalese Army. They cant come home and its impossible to meet with them because the Maoists threaten them. Thats why I dont like Maoists. The Maoists are also our Nepali brothers, so why are we fighting? I want peace in Nepal.
18:27
Queue of people at temple
THOMPSON: The friendliness of Nepals people was what lured so many to this peaceful nation until just a few years ago. That lost innocence may never be regained, as every ceasefire so far has seen a return to war.
DR BHATTARAI: Though we dont want to return to war, if the war is forced on us then well be
18:56
Bhattarai
waging war. Well wage war until the people are totally victorious. This is our stand.
19:26
Dixit
KUNDA DIXIT: That is almost unthinkable because the next time the war starts, if it does, it will be much more vicious, much more brutal. The death toll will be, I mean what happened last year would be a picnic.
19:33
Cadres at camp
Song: We have to wake up and take our guns. What are you waiting for, young people?
19:49
THOMPSON: If the guns are to stay silent the clamour for compromise must get louder because its unlikely the once excluded voice of rural Nepals poor will ever be quiet again.
20:05
NEPAL MAOISTS
Reporter: Geoff Thompson
Camera/Sound: Michael Cox
Research: Campbell Spencer
Editor: Garth Thomas