Why did the King do this? Did he think it was necessary to effectively fight the insurgency, or was it because of some internal power struggle in the goverment?
What does this mean for Nepal’s neighbors, particularly India and China? (The Nepalese rebels are described as “Maoists,” but I’ve never read or heard that the Chinese are actively supporting them.)
Is there any reason the rest of the world should worry about this?
Nepal’s a mess, and has been a mess for the last 15 years. In 1990, the old King announced free elections, and the restoration of democracy. One party, the Nepalese Congress Party, got a majority government in 1991, and then fell apart in internal fighting, which led to a government that didn’t really do anything. In 1994, there was another election, where no party won a majority, and none of the parties would form a governing coalition. So, they had a minority Communist government (the communists had the largest number of seats). This lasted for a few months, until there was a no confidence motion that knocked them out of power, and there was a coalition of the other two major parties (the NC, as mentioned earlier, and a party called the National Democratic Party). Unfortunately, then the NDP split apart for reasons of its own. Since then, there’s been a series of minority or coalition governments that just haven’t been functional.
Combine that with the Maoist uprising and the massacre of most of the royal family by the crown prince in 1994, and you have a mess.
Here’s an analysis of the Nepalese situation, courtesy of a Canadian NGO
As usual, the Economist has a pretty good article on the situaution.
Captain Amazing summed most of the important points - Maoist uprising, the bizarre royal massacre, the collapse of the political system, but the possible fallout from all of this could be alarming.
The rest of the world (or at least South Asia) does need to worry. There’s definite evidence that the Maoist rebels have links with similar groups in India and maybe Bangladesh. If the Indian government decides to do something (like invading Nepal) to stop this, then it could easily be a bad, bad thing. India certainly doesn’t want anything like a UN peacekepping force in Nepal as that could lead to something similar in Kashmir. Any kind os military adventure would also alarm China. That would be a bad thing. It’s a very bad situation.
Let’s hope this doesn’t give King George II any ideas. On a serious note, I second the concern that this is very bad for regional stability. This is just the kind of thing that can drag neighboring countries into a giant mess.
You’re right…I’m sorry, I was doing it from memory and got dates mixed up. It was stupid of me, because I remember what I was doing when I heard about it. The new king really isn’t helping the situation, and hasn’t been.