Report: Government, army differences brought Nepal close to coup

Apr 24, 2009, 4:44 GMT

   Kathmandu - Growing differences between Nepal's Maoist-led government and the army brought the Himalayan nation agonisingly close to a military coup, media reports said Friday.

   The revelation came after the government attempted to remove army chief Rukmangad Katuwal, accusing him of disobeying government orders on recruitment and the sacking of eight army generals.

   The issue has divided the political parties that united to oust the government led by then-king Gyanendra in 2006, and is threatening to bring down the Maoist-led government.

   On Thursday, 25 top generals of the Nepal Army gathered at the military headquarters in Kathmandu and vowed to stop Maoist attempts of 'interference' into military affairs, the Kathmandu Post newspaper reported, citing unnamed generals.

   The newspaper quoted a general as saying the army had been close to mounting a 'soft coup,' possibly in the early hours of Wednesday.

   Under the plan, Maoist leaders, ministers and other selected individuals would have been arrested and former king Gyanendra put under house arrest at his Nargarjun retreat on the outskirts of the capital.

   Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Nepali Congress leader Girija Prasad Koirala and a number of other politicians were to be cut off from the public, the newspaper reported.

   The plan also involved the army moving into United-Nations monitored camps of former Maoist guerrilla combatants and controlling the containers in which their weapons are stored.

   'It was a plan that just was not a military coup,' the newspaper quoted the general as saying. 'I don't want to disclose the exact timing of the move as such things are always kept secret.'

   'The pressure on the army was huge,' the officer said.

   The Maoist-led government had planned to integrate 19,000 Maoist combatants into the army and appoint guerrilla commander Nanda Kishor Pun as the army's major general after removing Katuwal, the newspaper said.

   On Thursday, the Nepalese prime minister met diplomats from eight countries, including the United States, India and China, seeking their support for the government action.

   The government then halted action on the army chief, saying they were under intense national and international pressure.

   Relations between the government and the army have been deteriorating since earlier this year when the army recruited nearly 3,000 soldiers, saying it needed to fill vacancies. The army also refused the integration of former Maoist fighters into its ranks, as dictated by a peace deal.

   The recruitment was opposed by the Maoist-led defence ministry but went ahead after the country's Supreme Court said it was legal.

   The Supreme Court also reinstated eight brigadier generals sent into retirement by the Defence Ministry, saying the ministry had failed to give valid reasons for its actions.

   The Maoists and the Nepal army fought a fierce civil war during the communist insurgency which left nearly 14,000 people dead.

   Hostilities between the two sides remain two and half year after the war formally ended, political analysts say.