Among a class of 12 students on an engineering coursedesigned to help them rejoin civilian life after the war ended in 2006, thereis deep resentment and a sense of betrayal that the sacrifices they made havebeen forgotten. "Party cadres and supporters have begun to question whatthe party has achieved. What have we got?" said Ratna Kumar Century, astocky 28-year-old, as he fumbled with a computer mouse.
"The establishment faction has betrayed thepeople," he said. "They said we will create a new Nepal whichwill be inclusive and reformative. But they seem content with the statusquo." The former rebels at the Jiri Technical Institute innortheast Nepal are among thousands of Maoists offered a new startafter living in UN-monitored camps for five years when peace was declared. Theyare being taught to design the roads, buildings and canals that will form thefuture of a state they waged a guerrilla war against for a decade, but it isnot a future they look forward to with much hope.
Instead they see their leaders talking politics in mansionsin Kathmandu, and they complain that they are an ignored and inconvenient partof the past. Pushpa Kamal Dahal, the Maoist chief known as Prachanda ("thefierce one"), once inspired devotion among his fighters as they broughtthe government to a standstill in a civil war that claimed 16,000 lives. Hebecame prime minister for eight months after the Maoists won elections in 2008and his party oversaw the abolition of the monarchy, but is now held in littleesteem. "People placed their hopes on Prachanda. But he drifted from hispath," said Century, who was attracted to Maoism's aim to destroy elitehierarchies such as Nepal's Hindu caste system. "If the sacrificesand struggles were just for elevating leaders to power, was it worth it?"he said.
Century was among 19,000 Maoists confined to cantonmentsbecause of disagreements between Nepal's political parties over the futureof the former fighters after the war. A deal was reached last year that 6,500fighters would be integrated into the national army while the rest would begiven money or vocational training courses like the one in Jiri.
