Maoists vow to make S Asia ‘flaming field’ BY TILAK P. POKHAREL KATHMANDU, Sept 21 - A South Asian regional grouping of Maoist parties, of which the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (CPN-M) is a founding member, has in its recently concluded meeting vowed to "advance revolutions for the seizure of power by armed force". The Fourth Conference of the Coordination Committee of Maoist Parties and Organizations of South Asia (CCOMPOSA) held in August in an undisclosed location in the region has also vowed to "deepen and extend the links between genuine Maoists of the region". This was stated in the political resolution adopted by the conference. Contrary to what they have agreed with the government on the road to peace, Nepali Maoists - in the joint resolution - have vowed together with their counterparts in the region to "turn South Asia into a flaming field of Maoist revolutions". "US hatched-up conspiracies with Indian expansionism to kill the new democratic revolution in Nepal has been blocked and the revolution continues, giving rise to a wider and powerful upsurge against the hated monarchy and is gaining new victories." Dina Nath Sharma, the Central Committee member of the CPN-M, informed that his party had sent central committee member, "Comrade Satya Prakash", as their representative to the meeting, which had the participation of leaders of nine Maoist parties of the region. Among them are three parties each from India and Bangladesh, and one each from Nepal, Bhutan and Sri Lanka. The resolution, as usual, has remained critical of "expansionist India" and "imperialist USA". "It called on the oppressed peoples of South Asian countries to join the struggles against Indian expansionism and imperialism, particularly against the main enemy US imperialism," the resolution said, condemning "US and Indian expansionist conspiracies" in Nepal. It also termed the proposed reforms by the Bhutanese King as "a sham". CPN-M played an instrumental role in bringing together the Maoist parties of the region, which culminated in the formation of CCOMPOSA in July 2001. Though 13 parties - five each from India and Bangladesh, and one each from the other three - participated in the first meeting of CCOMPOSA initially, only nine parties have remained in the grouping five years later. It's not clear what happened with the two parties from Bangladesh and one from India. Maoist Communist Center and the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist), which was also known as the People's War Group merged in 2004, forming the Communist Party of India (Maoist). The Maoist parties are working to develop a "red corridor" of Maoist insurgency from Nepal to Sri Lanka searing through about a dozen Indian states including Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra, Karnataka and Kerala. Sharma, who is also a member of the Maoist negotiating team, said his party during its second national conference in February 2001 had decided to reach out to their "friends" in the region to build a strong fraternal base. Though the party has a goal of establishing 'the South Asian Soviet Federation', Sharma said, "It's a matter of something too far away." However, he sees CCOMPOSA as the "first step" toward this direction. "CCOMPOSA vows to deepen and advance the new democratic revolutions in different countries of South Asia…Let South Asia turn into a flaming field of peoples' revolutionary upsurges and burn to ashes imperialism (particularly US imperialism), Indian expansionism and all reaction in the region," said the resolution of the 4th conference. Contradictions When asked why his party has adopted the self-contradictory policy of engaging in the peace process on the one hand and vowing to turn the region into a "flaming field of revolutions" on the other, Maoist leader Dina Nath Sharma said his party will try to find "a meeting point" between these contradictions. "We want to explore it positively." Sharma also disclosed, without elaborating, that "some of our friends in the region" [other Maoist parties in the region] have opposed CPN-M's preparations to join an interim government. "We will move ahead through consensus." Posted on: 2006-09-20 21:07:55 (Server Time)