Both the sides are trying to dial it down. The Oli government has asked the US to differentiate between the Nepal Communist Party (NCP) and the coalition government the party leads. By calling on Prime Minister KP Oli on Feb 5, the US Ambassador to Nepal Randy Berry also gave a clear signal: while his country is still mightily displeased with the turn of events in Nepal around Venezuela, it is not in a mood to let this single issue spoil overall bilateral relations either. The ‘centrality’ of Nepal in the Indo-Pacific Strategy adds to the urgency of a quick dispute resolution.NCP co-chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal’s strong statement on the unfolding crisis in Venezuela came only a day after the UN and nine foreign embassies in Kathmandu came out with a strong statement of their own on transitional justice. In their Jan 24 statement the international community had called on Nepal’s government to ensure that conflict victims get timely justice, in line with the Supreme Court verdict. Four years ago, the apex court had ruled out a transitional justice mechanism that provided near ‘blanket amnesty’ in conflict-era rights violations.
Dahal and top leaders of the former Maoist party have always suspected what they see as the ‘needless intervention’ of western powers in Nepal’s transitional justice process. Perhaps their biggest fear is that they could be apprehended and jailed abroad under international jurisdiction. Dahal has already had to cancel some of his foreign engagements in fear of arrest. Interestingly, neither India nor China had signed the joint statement on transitional justice. With these two missing, the former Maoist leaders felt the initiative had to come from the US, the third most important foreign actor in Nepal.
On what many top Maoist leaders see a life-and-death issue, PM Oli is also in no position to backtrack from Dahal’s statement issued on the NCP letter-pad. This is also why Dahal has refused to back down either. As noted in this space last week, there were other reasons behind the communist government’s strong stand in favor of Venezuela, chiefly China (a big investor in Venezuela), Nepal’s perceived ‘centrality’ in the Indo-Pacific Strategy, and Oli’s yearning to assert himself on the global stage.
The whole episode was also a potent reminder of the risks of lingering on transitional justice, the third vital leg of the peace process after the management of the Maoist arms and army and constitution-writing.
