Nepalese Maoists 'ill in camps'

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/world/south_asia/6173621.stm

Version 0 of 1.

Hundreds of Maoists being housed in temporary camps under peace moves in Nepal have fallen ill, the rebels say.

Bad weather and a lack of proper sanitation and medicines were to blame, a Maoist leader, Krishna Bahadur Mahara, told the BBC.

At least 300 Maoists drank contaminated water in one camp, while elsewhere others have pneumonia, the rebels say.

The rebels agreed to end their armed struggle and join an interim government in a historic deal signed in November.

Plummeting temperatures

Their fighters are being kept in seven main cantonments around the country, where they will be monitored by a tripartite team comprising the government, the Maoists and UN representatives.

Mr Mahara said a recent cold spell and heavy rainfall had worsened the situation in the camps.

He said the worst-affected camp was in the far-western district of Kailali, where at least 300 Maoists had been reported sick after drinking contaminated water.

Due to rainfall in almost all parts of the country on Monday, the temperature has fallen to as low as 4C in some hilly cantonment sites.

A Maoist commander in Chitwan in central Nepal, Bibidh, told the BBC that hundreds of rebels had also fallen sick in a camp there after the cold spell.

The Maoist leaders have blamed insufficient resources and a lack of proper sanitation facilities for the sudden rise in the cases of diseases.

Bibidh said the most common ailments were fever and pneumonia.

Money

The Maoist say 30-35,000 rebels are in 28 camps around the country.

Human rights activists say more than half of them could be child soldiers below 18 years of age or new recruits who might be willing to return home.

The peace deal hammered out last month between the rebels and the multi-party government is aimed at ending nearly 11 years of insurgency that has claimed the lives of more than 13,000 people and hit an already impoverished economy hard.