Kathmandu, Nov 14: The Maoists have expressed their commitment to multi-party democracy and said they wanted to compete with ''the political forces after the defeat of the military fascism''. ''We request the pro-people political parties not to suspect our commitment to political pluralism. We want to compete with other political forces after the defeat of the military fascism,'' CPN (Maoist) chairman Pushpakamal Dahal alias Prachanda said in a statement.
The statement has come at a time when the five political parties are meeting to discuss the next phase of the programme ''to restore democracy in the country".
Ram Bahadur Thapa, politburo member of the CPN (Maoist), in an interview with a weekly, Maoist mouthpiece, also stressed the need for a working alliance between the Maoists and the five political parties to defeat the ''reactionaries".
Mr Prachanda, criticising the American intervention in Nepal's internal politics, said ''The US decision to include our movement in its terrorist list at a time when we have attacks shows their ill-intention.''
US Secretary of State Colin Powell had ordered a few weeks ago to freeze the Maoists assets in the United States and urged the friendly countries to follow suit. Bureau Report