Senior Maoist
leaders and political party
representatives held talks in
Kathmandu on July 14, and agreed
to convert the existing House
of Representatives (HoR)
into an interim parliament by
inducting more members. The
interim parliament will be officially
decided on at the second round
of "summit talks"
scheduled for July 21. Maoist
Chairman Prachanda
said the talks were successful
in resolving the confusion that
surfaced after the signing of
the eight-point agreement on
June 16. "The talks have brought about a conducive environment," Prachanda
said, adding that "illusions
and suspicions [over the eight-point
deal] have been eliminated."
Jhalanath
Khanal, a CPN-UML leader who participated in the talks, said
the Maoists were "not negative"
about the parties' proposal
on inducting some outside members
(reference to Maoist members)
into the existing HoR. "There was
a general consensus to have
an 'interim parliament'. But
nothing was decided on its modalities,"
Khanal
said.
Meanwhile, Kantipur reports that in Sankhuwasabha district,
Maoists have started collecting
"donations" from government
and semi-government officials.
The rebels are visiting each
office demanding an amount equal
to their 60 days' salary as
"tax for people's war",
said a government staff.
In Morang
district, business community
and other civilians of Indrapur
VDC on July 14 closed a local
market and disrupted vehicular
movement for two hours along
the Mahendra
highway in protest against the
Maoists' excesses.
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