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LEAD: Nepal rebels call off blockade, strike+(Japan Economic Newswire Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)KATHMANDU, March 19_(Kyodo) _ (EDS: RECASTING WITH ANNOUNCEMENT BY REBELS) Warring Maoists have called off their blockade and transport strike imposed Tuesday to exert pressure on King Gyanendra to give up his direct rule, the leader of the rebels said Sunday. "We have withdrawn the blockade and transport strike from Monday, responding to the urging of political parties, professional organizations, and the people in general," Puspakamal Dahal, alias Prachanda, said in a statement. He said all other protest programs announced by the rebels too have been cancelled. The Maoist chief meanwhile appealed to the Nepalese people to help make protest programs of the political parties planned for next month a success. The parties are holding four-day protests, starting April 6, that include a countrywide general strike, civil disobedience movement and popular anti-king demonstrations in the capital Kathmandu. "This joint popular agitation to commemorate the anti-monarchist revolt of 1990 as well as restoration of multiparty democracy in the country assumes special historic importance," Prachanda said of the planned protests. The statement was signed by Prachanda and Baburam Bhattarai, chief ideologue of the Communist Party of Nepal. In a joint statement, the leaders of the seven parties earlier Sunday called on the insurgents to call off their six-day-old blockade of highways in Nepal, which the party leaders said was hurting the Nepalese people. Both sides also renewed their commitment to a recent pact, saying it was key to ending autocracy and resolving conflict in embattled Nepal. The pact, signed by the parties and Maoist insurgents in New Delhi in November last year, undertakes to politically resolve Nepal's decade-old conflict by electing a constituent assembly to draft a new constitution. The constitution would replace the current Constitution of 1990 that provides for multiparty democracy and constitutional monarchy. King Gyanendra, directly ruling Nepal since he seized executive powers in February last year, has flatly rejected the pact. On Sunday, the parties also unveiled what they called the "second memorandum of understanding" with the warring insurgents, reportedly reached in New Delhi last week. The party leaders also made a "special appeal" to the international community for help in their bid to restore peace and establish full democracy in the violence-plagued kingdom. The Maoist rebels have been waging a bloody war since 1996 to overthrow Nepal's constitutional monarchy and set up a one-party communist republic. More than 13,000 Nepalese have lost their lives since the outbreak of the violence. |