Splinter Rebel Group to Disrupt Nepal Elections

A Nepali rebel group fighting for autonomy in the southern plains has called for a general strike to disrupt historic elections in Nepal.

A Nepali rebel group fighting for autonomy in the southern plains has called for a general strike in June to disrupt historic elections that will seal a peace deal and determine the country's political future.

The Janatantrik Terai Liberation Front (JTLF), which split from the main Maoist rebel group in 2004, is one of several groups behind recent protests and strikes in the plains of the Terai, home to nearly half of Nepal's 26 million people.

While the Maoists have made peace and joined an interim cabinet, their former colleagues have refused to give up their arms, saying the people of the Terai have been marginalised.

Now they are threatening to disrupt elections for an assembly meant to draw up a new constitution and decide the future of the monarchy. Those elections, scheduled for June 20, form the cornerstone of the 2006 peace deal.

"Let us not get trapped in the conspiracy of constituent assembly elections to be conducted by the Nepalis, and let us strongly and actively boycott it," the Front's chief Jaya Krishna Goit said in a statement late on Monday.

The group called for a shutdown of public transport and businesses for three days from June 19.

"True and permanent resolution of the economic, political, social, cultural and linguistic problems of the people of Terai is not possible until it is free from Nepal's colonial rule," Goit said.

Another faction of the JTLF also launched a general strike in February which shut down life in several districts of the Terai. Neither faction is linked to the Madhesi People's Rights Forum, the main group behind protests in the region this year.

At least 58 people have been killed in unrest in the Terai since the start of the year, violence that has already undermined the peace process.

"There is no alternative to struggle for the liberation and freedom of the Terai," Goit said.

The Terai is landlocked Nepal's bread basket and industrial hub, supplying many essential goods to the capital Kathmandu and the hills.

But its ethnic Madhesi people, who have strong cultural, linguistic and family links with neighbouring India, say they are discriminated against by Nepal's ruling elite, dominated by the people from the northern hills.

On Monday, the interim government, which includes the former Maoist rebels, named a ministerial panel to engage the Front and other insurgent and ethnic groups from the Terai in dialogue.

The government has already promised more seats in the planned assembly for the region.