Nepal sacks army chief

Nepal's Maoist government today sacked the country's army chief for failing to comply with orders, a spokesman said, in a move that could trigger a showdown between the prime minister and the military. The sacking is the latest episode in a worsening power struggle between the leftist former rebels who now rule the Himalayan nation and their one-time enemies in the army. "The cabinet meeting today decided to sack army chief Rookmangud Katawal from his post with immediate effect as his clarification for defying the government orders was not satisfactory," spokesman Krishna Bahadur Mahara said.

Last month, the prime minister, Prachanda, had asked Mr Katawal to explain why government orders on army recruitment and the firing of eight senior army generals had been ignored. The dispute between the army and the Maoists centres around Maoist demands that their former rebel fighters, who are currently confined to United Nations-supervised camps, be fully integrated into the regular army. The army, however, is refusing to take in hardened guerrillas that it views as politically indoctrinated.

The Maoists ended their bloody decade-long "people's war" in 2006, and won landmark elections last year before swiftly ending the world's last Hindu monarchy. They have since been pushing to implement sweeping reforms, which include finalising the peace process by having their former rebel fighters incorporated into the national army. The army, a bastion of Nepal's former ruling elite, accuses the Maoists of not fulfilling its commitments to end the paramilitary structure of its feared youth wing and to return property grabbed during the civil war.

The Young Communist League is a vigilante-style group regularly accused of beatings, kidnappings, extortion and even murder. *AFP