Nepal is a country located in South Asia, bordered by India and China. It has a population of around 28 million people and the official language is Nepali. The majority of the population are Hindus, with some other religious denominations also present.
The military of Nepal consists of three branches; Army, Air Force and Armed Police Force. The total active personnel in the military are around 100,000 people. The Army has around 95,000 personnel with a focus on ground operations and border protection. It also has an Air Force with 4,500 personnel for air support operations as well as 1 combat aircraft for air defense missions within Nepal’s borders. The Armed Police Force has 10,000 personnel for internal security and law enforcement missions.
Nepal is not a member of any international military or defense organization but does maintain close ties with other countries in the region such as India and China. See naturegnosis to learn more about the country of Nepal.
Defense
Under the civil war-like conditions, the defense has increased from 46,000 men enlisted to 69,000 men. It is (2008) organized into 8 infantry brigades. Fighter aircraft missing. Half-military police forces amount to 62,000 men. The material is of Western and Chinese origin.
Defense of Nepal costs rose from 1.5% to 2.0% of GDP in 1985-2006. To see related acronyms about this country, please check ABBREVIATIONFINDER where you can see that NPL stands for Nepal. Following the 2006 peace agreement, the UN is represented in Nepal with observers from 28 countries. Nepal participates in UN peacekeeping operations in Congo (Kinshasa) (MUNOC), Haiti (MINUSTAH) and Lebanon (UNIFIL) as well as with observers in eight countries.
As part of the coup, the king at the same time declared the country in an emergency, suspended civil rights – including freedom of speech – and placed hundreds of political leaders (including the deposed prime minister), union leaders, student leaders and journalists under house arrest. In March, representatives from the main parties (Nepal’s Congress Party, Nepal’s Democratic Congress, Maoist Communist Party, People’s Party and Sadbhavana Party) signed an agreement calling for a constitutional assembly and overthrowing King Gyanendra. Politicians thus backed the guerrilla’s demand for the establishment of a republic and the convening of a constitutional assembly.
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The Maoists launched a 3-month ceasefire in September, which was answered by the king with a statement that he would crush the rebels by force. It merely strengthened the cooperation between the legal political parties and the Maoists, and in the spring they jointly initiated a strike against the king’s dictatorship. After 19 days of fighting between this political coalition and the king’s security forces, on April 24, 2006, the king had to give up and declare that he gave up his sole power and gave it back to the people. At the same time, Parliament would be called 4 days later. Parliament immediately implemented a number of further restrictions on the king’s powers: he was deprived of control over armies, was deprived of his title as a descendant of the Hindu god, and the country’s government was no longer called “the majesty’s government” but the “Nepal government”.
The Maoists in particular have been greatly strengthened politically as a result of the events of spring 2006. Many Nepalese regard them as the main reason for the overthrow of the royal tyranny, and the movement’s moderation makes them likely participants in a democratically elected government in the future.
In April 2007, 5 of 21 transitional government ministerial posts were handed over to the Maoists. The purpose was to take the decisive steps towards final peace in waiting for the election to the Constitutional Assembly at the end of the year.
HISTORY
The tiring process of internal democratization started in 1990 with the transition from absolute monarchy to constitutional monarchy and with the introduction of multi-partyism, had failed in the following decade to consolidate itself or to create the conditions for improving the economic conditions of the country, on the threshold of the Two thousand still one of the poorest in the world.
Governments, of moderate orientation, which had succeeded one another almost continuously in power since 1991 and which revolved around the Nepali Congress (NC), had been paralyzed by the onset of continuous internal conflicts and delegitimized by the poor successes in the field of social reforms and the struggle to corruption. Inequalities, discrimination and chronic poverty had thus remained unchanged and constituted the ground on which the propaganda of the Communist Party of Nepal – Maoist (CPN-M), a guerrilla formation that starting from 1996 it had started a ‘people’s war’ to obtain, among other things, land reform and the abolition of the monarchy.
The clashes with this formation and the inability to find a compromise solution that channeled the discomfort of the poorest strata in the institutional sphere made the internal situation particularly critical, which suffered a collapse starting from 2001, following the tragic events in which it remained. the royal family involved. In June of that year, Crown Prince Diprenda Bir Bikram killed the king, his father, queen, sister and other members of the royal family, attempting to commit suicide and dying a few days after the massacre. The throne passed to the brother of King Gyanendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev who aimed to strengthen the powers of the monarchy, intervening more and more heavily in government affairs. In May 2002 the king unexpectedly dissolved Parliament, entrusting Prime Minister SB Deuba (in office since June 2001) with the task of calling new elections. Condemned by all parties, the ruler’s decision actually involved the suspension of constitutional guarantees and the return of power to the monarchy.
The new government led by Deuba (who in the meantime had been expelled from the NC) remained in office for a few months: in October 2002 the king assumed executive power and postponed the political elections indefinitely. In the following months, the protest of the political forces, united in the condemnation of the king’s actions, grew and the idea of abolishing the monarchy and proclaiming a republic began to gain ground. Despite the harsh repression of the police, the demonstrations organized by the parties and the student movement continued throughout 2004, eventually leading Gyanendra to a cautious opening: in June Deuba was again called to lead the government, which they entered beyond to the new party he headed, the Nepali Congress – Democratic (NC-D, founded in 2002), also the Unified Marxist – Leninist (UML) and other minor formations. Opposed by the king and weakened by the severe blow inflicted on his authority by the siege imposed by the Maoist guerrillas on the capital from 18 to 25 August, the new executive was short-lived: in February 2005, the king took back power, forcing Deuba to resign. The opposition responded immediately and, once an agreement was reached with the Maoist groups, the mobilization resumed. In April 2006the tension reached its peak: the harsh repression of a new general strike by the armed forces, responsible for eighteen deaths and hundreds of wounded, provoked a real popular uprising which finally forced Gyanendra to yield. In May a broad coalition executive headed by GP Koirala (NC) was formed; followed in November by the signing of a peace agreement with the Maoist guerrillas which provided for their entry into the Legislative Assembly, called to redesign the country’s constitution, and put an end to ten years of civil war.