Q. NC leader Ramchandra Poudel, who also was present in the Godavari meeting, has said that the present House of Representatives cannot be dissolved. Bhattarai: We have already reached an agreement (to dissolve the House). How can he say that now? This will merely be an attempt to block the peace process and invite conflict; it will be suicidal for them (seven parties). Backing away from the agreement would be a violation of the agreement and would mean continuation of the conflict. Q. At the Godavari meeting, an agreement was reached to help rehabilitate the people who have been displaced and whose land and property have been seized by your party during the 10 years of conflict. When will this agreement be implemented? Bhattarai: It has been made clear in the 12-point understanding, eight-point understanding and the 25-point (ceasefire) code of conduct. Its implementation has also begun. Some difficulties have, however, been observed in the implementation process at some places. To address this, an agreement has been reached to form a mechanism at the central level with representatives from all parties. The problems seen in the implementation will be settled by this mechanism as per the 12-point understanding. Q. We have a situation here where the current SPA government has accepted ceremonial monarchy; it has even allocated a certain budget for the royal palace. On the other hand, your dialogue with the government, too, is going side by side. Is it an indication that your party, too, has accepted a ceremonial monarchy? Bhattarai: There is no question of us accepting any form of monarchy. No one should be confused. A democratic republic has been our continuous demand since the royal palace massacre in 2001. Q. What will be the king's situation when you join the interim government? Bhattarai: Our proposal is, let's declare Nepal a democratic republic through the interim constitution itself. But it is still under discussion. Let's see how it goes. It won't be appropriate to say more than this right now. Q. Your party and the SPA were together in the April Movement. The recent political change was possible through your joint efforts. But in the aftermath of the movement, there still seems to be some lack of trust between your party and the SPA. Many times you have acted like rebels and the SPA as the state. What could be the reasons? Bhattarai: The main reason is the seven parties sometimes forget that the main fight is against the monarchy. We realised that we cannot defeat the monarchy by fighting against it separately. Therefore we launched a joint movement. The 12-point understanding was an _expression of this realisation. The movement became successful because of the 12-point understanding. And the movement's mandate is to abolish monarchy and establish a democratic republic. But they (SPA) sometimes forget that the monarchy is our common enemy and start considering us as their enemy. Their lies the problem. At the Godavari meeting, we raised this issue and asked them, "Who do you consider your main enemy- we or the king?" Then they accepted that the king is the common enemy. Q. Isn't your armed force also a reason for their worry and the lack of trust between you? Bhattarai: Our arms are not against them (SPA) and democracy. They are against the monarchy and the royal army. They don't need to fear our arms. We told them (SPA leaders, at Godavari) that they don't fear the weapons of the king, who has cheated them time and again, but always raise the issue of our arms. Then they realised and agreed for the democratisation of the royal army. This has pushed us closer to the meeting point. Q. Some parliamentarians are saying that the dissolution of parliament will create a vacuum which could encourage the regressive elements. Bhattarai: This has no logic. What did this parliament do? Could it stop the King's autocracy? Could it stop his February 1 move? Everybody should be clear that this parliament was reinstated by the popular movement based on the 12-point understanding. This parliament was revived through people power. Thus it is clear that this parliament is nothing in itself; the king can do anything with it whenever he likes. Therefore it's not important whether this parliament remains or not; the most important thing is unity of the people, the unity among the allies of the democratic movement. If the unity among the democratic forces is strong, we can form a body that can exercise sovereignty and state authority. Q. Ambassadors of some powerful countries have said that if the Maoists join an interim government without decommissioning their army, then the interim government formed in this way will not get international acknowledgement and support. What do you say? Bhattarai: This is not based on facts. World history of conflict resolution shows that nowhere in the world- from South Africa to, Guatemala of Latin America to East Timor to Ireland- have the rebels given up arms before the final step of the conflict resolution process. People like Moriarty who are saying so have forgotten world history. We shouldn't be disillusioned by such statements.