Yard Ape
04-07-2004, 01:18 AM
US courts Nepal as anti-terror partner
By Nick Bryant
BBC correspondent in Nepal (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3593849.stm)
The Royal Nepalese Army (RNA) is long on tradition, but short of modern-day weaponry.
Most of its rifles are over 30 years old and notoriously unreliable in combat.
Many of the knives look like they belong in a souvenir shop rather than on the battlefield.
So the administration of US President George W Bush is investing $17m of military aid in the RNA, mainly to pay for about 20,000 M16 rifles and night vision equipment.
The aim is to transform this 70,000-strong force from a parade ground-based army into a modern-day, counter-insurgency unit.
Washington wants the soldiers to become frontline troops in its "war on terrorism" - not in Iraq, not in Afghanistan, but in Nepal itself.
If the country's eight-year Maoist insurgency were to succeed, US administration officials fear, the kingdom could become a terrorist haven - hospitable to groups like al-Qaeda.
Now that King Gyanendra has lost overall control of 40 of the country's 75 districts, the Bush administration believes it has good reason to be concerned.
It has decided that the only way to prevent Nepal from becoming a "failed state" or, worse still, a "rogue nation" - is to increase the flow of military aid.
...
By Nick Bryant
BBC correspondent in Nepal (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3593849.stm)
The Royal Nepalese Army (RNA) is long on tradition, but short of modern-day weaponry.
Most of its rifles are over 30 years old and notoriously unreliable in combat.
Many of the knives look like they belong in a souvenir shop rather than on the battlefield.
So the administration of US President George W Bush is investing $17m of military aid in the RNA, mainly to pay for about 20,000 M16 rifles and night vision equipment.
The aim is to transform this 70,000-strong force from a parade ground-based army into a modern-day, counter-insurgency unit.
Washington wants the soldiers to become frontline troops in its "war on terrorism" - not in Iraq, not in Afghanistan, but in Nepal itself.
If the country's eight-year Maoist insurgency were to succeed, US administration officials fear, the kingdom could become a terrorist haven - hospitable to groups like al-Qaeda.
Now that King Gyanendra has lost overall control of 40 of the country's 75 districts, the Bush administration believes it has good reason to be concerned.
It has decided that the only way to prevent Nepal from becoming a "failed state" or, worse still, a "rogue nation" - is to increase the flow of military aid.
...