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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 KATHMANDU 002079 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL PGOV PTER ASEC EFIN KCRM KHLS AEMR NP
SUBJECT: NEPAL:  2007 COUNTRY REPORT ON TERRORISM 
 
REF: A. STATE 146856 
     ¶B. STATE 145633 
 
KATHMANDU 00002079  001.8 OF 002 
 
 
General Assessment 
------------------ 
 
¶1.  Nepal experienced no significant acts of international 
terrorism in 2007; however, several incidents of domestic 
terrorism and politically-motivated violence occurred in 
urban areas and in the Terai.  None was aimed at U.S. 
citizens or facilities.  Nepal was not a state sponsor of 
terrorism, nor did it offer safe haven to international 
terrorists, but a U.S.-designated terrorist organization 
became part of the interim government.  Despite officially 
ending its ten-year insurgency with a comprehensive peace 
agreement in November 2006 and entering into the interim 
government in April 2007, the Communist Party of Nepal 
(Maoist) -- the only U.S.-designated group of concern 
operating in Nepal -- continued to engage in violence, 
extortion, and abductions.  The Maoists withdrew their 
ministers from the interim government in September but left 
their members in place in the interim Parliament.  The 
government was ineffective at holding the Maoists accountable 
for violating the peace process, and law enforcement efforts 
were minimal. The Maoist People's Liberation Army (PLA) 
ostensibly settled into UN-monitored cantonments but 
circumvented the disarmament and combatant verification 
process to a significant degree.  The Maoist Young Communist 
League, which included former PLA members, grew increasingly 
prominent during the year, carrying on the Maoist militia's 
tactics of abuse, abduction, assassination, intimidation, and 
extortion in cities and villages. 
 
Unrest in the Terai 
------------------- 
 
¶2.  Ethnic tensions in the southern Terai plains increased in 
¶2007.  From mid-January to early March, as Madhesis -- 
Nepalis with cultural and linguistic ties to India -- 
protested against the failure of the interim constitution and 
the interim government to address their concerns, an 
often-violent popular uprising known as the Madhesi Andolan 
wracked the region, leaving at least 42 dead.  Over a dozen 
extremist groups in pursuit of independence or autonomy 
followed the Maoist lead of negotiation via armed struggle. 
Competing factions of Madhesis clashed with each other, with 
the Maoists, with hill-origin Nepalis, and with police, 
instigating numerous rows, strikes, demonstrations, and 
Indo-Nepal border road closures.  The most violent of these 
groups were factions of the Janatantrik Terai Mukti Morcha 
("People's Terai Liberation Front"), which had broken with 
the Maoist-affiliated Madhesi Mukti Morcha ("Madhesi 
Liberation Front") insurgency in 2004 in order to bring about 
the secession of the Terai from the rest of Nepal.  The 
Maoists exacerbated bloodshed in the Terai in a scramble to 
regain influence it had lost in the region.  On March 21, 
confrontation between Maoists and Madhesis at a rally in Gaur 
resulted in the massacre of 27 people -- most of them Maoists. 
 
Domestic Terrorism Risk Increasing 
---------------------------------- 
 
¶3.  The Government of Nepal largely ignored the conflict in 
the Terai, setting the stage for the spillover of violence 
into the capital.  On September 2, near-simultaneous blasts 
in three locations in Kathmandu killed three people and 
injured scores of commuters and bystanders.  There were no 
American casualties.  Two little known groups, the Terai 
Utthan Sangh ("Terai Upliftment Union") and the "Terai Army", 
claimed responsibility.  The Terai Army's claim of 
responsibility, in particular, vowed additional attacks in 
the future.  Separately in December, a faction of the 
Terai-based Nepal Sadbhavana Party - Anandi Devi (NSP-A), led 
by a former Commerce Minister, founded a militant youth wing. 
 
 
U.S. - Nepal Cooperation 
 
KATHMANDU 00002079  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
------------------------ 
 
¶4.  The United States did not request the cooperation of the 
Government of Nepal for any investigation or prosecution of 
an international terrorist act against U.S. citizens or 
facilities in 2007.  Anti-money laundering legislation 
remained stalled in Parliament, although the government 
responded favorably to U.S. requests to be prepared to freeze 
the assets of individuals and entities involved in the 
financing of terrorism when or if such assets were 
discovered.  The United States provided substantial 
antiterrorism assistance and training to Nepal's security 
forces, including courses on crisis management, post-blast 
investigations, and terrorist crime scene investigations. 
 
¶5.  This report has been posted on Intellipedia-S per 
Reftels.  The website link is 
http://www.intelink.sgov.gov/wiki/ 
South Asia Terrorism Reports#Nepal. 
POWELL