The past week has been a historic week for Nepal. The Maoists made their entrance into Parliament and have begun to disarm and to dismantle their parallel structures of government in the countryside. These are the first concrete steps in the peace process that marks the end of a civil war that lasted ten years and cost over 13 thousand dead. A process that will continue with the entrance of the Maoists in the provisional government and with the election, in June, of a constitutional assembly that will ratify the birth of the “new Nepal.” In the general euphoria of the moment, however, no one has realized that a secessionist faction of the rebels already threatens a new war.

The South paralyzed by new bandh. While all eyes and all objectives were fixed on Katmandu, on the historic entrance of the 83 Maoist deputies in Parliament, on their austere grey suits (even for the Maoist deputies), on the somewhat dazed face of their leader Prachanda (who did not find the right street and who sat in the bleachers among the public because he was not among the deputies), in the south of the country, far from the lights, something disturbing happened.
The entire region of Madhesh (or Terai, “humid lands”)—the flat and fertile plain of Nepal that borders Indian—was paralyzed by a bandh, the traditional form of protest used by the Maoists: a total blockade of circulation and commercial activity, accompanied by public protests that also degenerated into violent actions. For days the streets of the region have been blockaded, shops have remained closed, and various acts of violence and vandalism have been verified.
Saturday evening in the city of Lahan a young boy was killed, and violent clashes followed, with tens of wounded, notwithstanding the ceasefire immediately imposed by the authorities.  This bandh was proclaimed by the Front for Democratic Liberation of Terai (JTMM, Janatantrik Terai Mukti Morcha), an armed group that split from the Maoists in 2004 and which now threatens to not adhere to the peace process.

Madhesi: the Nepalese of Series B. Jai Krishna Goit, the leader of the JTMM, asks for independence for the region of Madhesh/Terai, inhabited by the Madhesi: a Hindi-speaking population that makes up half of the entire Nepalese population, but which has always been scorned and marginalized by the Pahadi, the “people of the hills” who inhabit the central plain of the country, the Pahad, the high plains at the feet of the Himalayas, and who have always controlled Nepalese institutions. From 2004 the JTMM has fought for the creation of an independent Terai State, with its own army, its own police, and its own administration. From July 2006 the guerrillas of JTMM have repeatedly clashed with the Maoists, as well as with government troops. Now Goit, from his hiding place in north India, threatens to destroy the peace process and declare war on the new government of Nepalese national unity.

A problem created by the Maoists themselves. The Maoist leader Prachanda is well aware of the threat represented by the Terai separatist movement, one of so many sub-nationalisms created by the Maoist military strategy of creating for every Nepalese minority of the Mukti Morcha fronts of liberation that would support the Maoist guerrillas in the local environment. For Prachanda, the solution to the Terai question would be the creation of a federal republic that guarantees autonomy and equal rights to the Nepalese peoples. In his opinion the JTMM does not constitute a serious threat to the stability of the new Nepal: “If we must resolve to fight them,” he declared a few days ago, “We will defeat them in the course of a week.” It has been relatively easy for the Maoists to overthrow the king and arrive at power. The true challenge for them will be to govern the country, maintaining promises and satisfying the aspirations of the Nepalese people.