Nepalese Rebels Release 8 Soldiers
Nepal's communist rebels on Saturday freed eight of the 11 soldiers abducted on their way home just hours after the rebels announced a three-month unilateral cease-fire.
The freed soldiers were handed over to representatives of INSEC-Nepal, a human rights group, at Jitpur village, about 310 miles east of Katmandu, on Saturday, the group said in a statement.
The condition and whereabouts of the three remaining soldiers were still unknown.
The rebels had taken captive the unarmed 11 soldiers on Thursday just hours after the rebels declared a three-month cease-fire to give the reinstated Parliament a chance to return peace to the Himalayan country following weeks of often violent protests against the king's royal dictatorship.
Earlier, the National Human Rights Commission issued a statement Saturday urging the safe and unconditional release of the unarmed men.
On Thursday, the Maoist's elusive leader, Prachanda, announced his fighters would not launch any attacks during the three-month period.
The cease-fire announcement followed a near-three-week campaign of protests by a coalition of Nepal's seven main political parties that forced King Gyanendra to give up direct rule over the government he seized last year and reinstate Parliament.
The rebels had backed the campaign and expressed willingness to talk peace with the new government, which resumed its political powers on Friday.
The rebels, who claim to be inspired by Chinese revolutionary Mao Zedong, began their violent campaign to replace the monarchy with a communist state in 1996. The insurgency has left more than 13,000 dead.
On Friday, lawmakers proposed a truce with the Maoists - who have battled for a decade to replace Nepal's constitutional monarchy with a communist state - as they reconvened for the first time in four years after a campaign of street protests forced King Gyanendra to relinquish control. They also proposed elections for a special assembly that would rewrite the constitution.
The speaker of Parliament, Chitra Lekha Yadav, made the proposals on behalf of Girija Prasad Koirala, the newly named 84-year-old prime minister who could not attend because of ill health.
"It is the people who have brought this change and we have to live up to their expectations," Yadav told legislators in the ornate hall.
The proposals, which also included initial talks with the Maoist rebels, were to be discussed in Parliament on Sunday, she said. It wasn't clear how the soldiers' abductions would affect the government's offer of a truce.
The rebels supported the nearly three-week campaign of demonstrations organized by an alliance of seven political parties against the royal government.
The current constitution gives the king broad powers to dismiss governments along with supreme command of the army.
The expectation on the streets - and the key demand of the well-armed Maoists - is that a new charter will limit or eliminate the monarchy's role, ensuring that Gyanendra can never seize power as he did in February 2005.
Legislators also demanded Saturday that the king be stripped of control over the 90,000-strong army, fearing he could use its loyalty to propel himself into power again.
"It is the prime minister who should be the supreme commander of the army and not the king. The existing laws should be amended immediately, and that is what we are going to do," said Shivraj Basnet, a lawmaker from the Nepali Congress, the country's largest party.
Army officials could not be immediately reached for comment, but they have previously insisted they work for the government and would do whatever they were ordered.
Meanwhile, at least five soldiers were killed and nine were wounded in an accidental explosion in an army barracks in the western town of Tamghas. There were no immediate further details on the explosion, said Durga Pokhrel, chief administrator in the district where the explosion occurred.
The rebels, who claim to be inspired by Chinese revolutionary Mao Zedong, began their violent campaign to replace the monarchy with a communist state in 1996. The insurgency has left more than 13,000 dead.