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| Thursday, 14 October 2004 |
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Maoist leaders vow to resume violence if peace talks fail NEW DELHI, Wednesday (AFP) Leaders of India's oldest and most violent Maoist group, who will emerge from their jungle hideouts for groundbreaking peace talks later this week, said they would revive their struggle if the new initiative fails. "If the talks fail we will go back to our old place and follow our old ways again," said Akkiraju Haragopal alias Ramakrishna, state secretary of the Peoples War Group (PWG) who is leading the Maoist team. The group has been fighting for more than three decades for the economic and social benefit of landless peasants and indigenous tribal people in southern Andhra Pradesh and adjoining states, leaving more than 10,000 people dead. "We have come with faith and hope that the (state) government will address our demands of distributing land to landless farmers. We also want an end to exploitive anti-poor conditions laid on the people by the World Bank," Haragopal said. In July, the government of Andhra Pradesh lifted a ban on the organisation and offered peace talks to the warring rebels. The first face-to-face meeting is due on Friday. On Monday, in a symbolic gesture, the rebels, who have been hiding for almost two decades, changed out of their battle fatigues and handed over their assault rifles to colleagues who then went back into the jungles. Haragopal and others arrived in state capital Hyderabad early Tuesday, said R.P. Singh, police commissioner of Hyderabad. "They are being treated as state guests and we are making all security arrangements to ensure their full safety," Singh told AFP. Hargopal said there was also a need for all leftist revolutionary groups in the country to unite. "The need is to have one revolutionary party in India. Therefore we are already on talks with the MCC, Janashakthi and other such groups," he added, naming the other violent groups active in the region. Haragopal also spoke of the PWGs links with the Maoist groups in neighbouring Nepal where a bloody struggle has left thousands dead over the last few years. "We have close ideological links with them and we support their struggle. However, this talk about a physical corridor that links the Indian Maoist groups to comrades in Nepal is a creation of the media," he said. After coming out in the open, the rebel leaders addressed a large gathering of followers in Guttikonda Bilam, 300 kilometres (188 miles) southeast of Hyderabad late on Monday. Meanwhile nine Maoist rebels were killed in clashes with security forces across Nepal, a security official said Tuesday. "Nine Maoist rebels were killed by the security forces in separate clashes in different parts of Nepal in the past 24 hours," the Royal Army Public Relations Directorate office said. |
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