Nepal Picks Up the Pieces

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Four years after it was dissolved, Nepal's Parliament re-opened on Friday with two minutes of silence commemorating the 14 protesters killed during the weeks of bloody protests against King Gyanendra that finally forced him to relinquish power on April 24. It was a historic occasion, but given how contentious Nepalese politics remain, it may also be the last time for awhile that the halls of Parliament display such tranquility.

The first session ended with an ambitious proposal: to forge a lasting peace with the Maoist rebels who have been fighting a decade-long insurgency against the government, and to establish a new constituent assembly tasked with rewriting the constitution, which could eventually allow the people to decide the fate of the unpopular King. Many observers worry that the Maoists, who announced a three-month ceasefire last week, will never settle for anything less than a pure republic. But with the rebels operating across large parts of Nepal, the new government may have no choice but to cooperate. "The fact that the Maoists have got guns makes it all the more imperative that the new government try and deal with them," says Rhoderick Chalmers of the International Crisis Group. "They have to be brought into the mainstream." The Maoists have offered to lay down their arms as long as the planned constitutional referendum proceeds with no conditions—a demand surely to be rejected by the King, who will insist on keeping at least a ceremonial role. Even if the monarchy and the Maoists can come to an unlikely compromise, Nepal's historically fractious political parties may yet disrupt the process. Should the parties, the King and the Maoists fail to get along, they may find themselves taking orders from the new powerbroker in Nepal: the people.