Maoists are full of self-absorbed CRAP

Maoist leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal (right) has urged a halt to international aid for Nepal(AFP/File/Min Bajracharya)

KATHMANDU (AFP) - The leader of Nepal's Maoist rebels urged a halt to international aid for one of the world's poorest nations to pressure the government into peace talks leading to a new constitution.

The Maoists are fighting to topple the constitutional monarchy established in 1990 in a conflict that has claimed more than 10,000 lives since 1996.

"We appeal to the international community to help realize the aspirations of peace and democracy of the Nepalese people by halting all economic, political, military and diplomatic assistance to Nepal," Maoist leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal, alias Prachanda (Fiery One), said in an e-mailed statement on Tuesday.

In 2004 Nepal received nearly 280 million dollars in economic aid, about 60 percent of its development budget, from donors including the World Bank (news - web sites), Asian Development Bank and the United States, according to the country's National Planning Commission.

Japan is one of Nepal's biggest aid donors followed by Britain and Germany, but Tokyo's embassy was not aware of any appeal to halt aid.

"Our embassy has so far not received any appeals from the Maoists to halt all sorts of aid to Nepal," an embassy official said.

Prachanda also accused the government of failing to hold serious talks for a political settlement. Two rounds of peace talks in the past year have failed with the latest cease-fire ending in October and the government rejecting a rebel demand for UN mediation.

"During the present civil war, senior officials of the Royal Nepalese Army (RNA) and royalists have been amassing huge property through commissions and they are intensifying war," Prachanda said.

Maoists began a two-day blockade of traffic Tuesday on a major road to and from capital Kathmandu in protest at the killing of four rebels.

The roadblock is centered where the rebels were killed last week in the district capital of Dhading, 90 kilometers (50 miles) west of the capital on the road leading to the tourist destination of Pokharan.

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