Nepal's prime minister fires army chief

Nepal's army chief was fired after a struggle over admitting former Maoist rebel fighters to the military, sparking mass protests and possibly jeopardizing the survival of the country's first elected government.

President Ram Baran Yadav has rejected the decision made by Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal to fire army chief, Rookmangud Katawal, and wrote calling it unconstitutional. The letter was delivered to Katawal's office late Sunday night and copies were also sent 's residence. Last year, when the monarchy was abolished after being in control for centuries, Yadav was elected as president in this Himalayan country. The army is officially under the president's command, not the prime minister. Nepal's constitution is being rewritten and so there are areas were some issues are unclear, for example, who has the power to fire the army chief. The president is a member of the Nepali Congress, the main opposition party, which vowed to fight the decision. The firing has caused a key political party to withdraw from the ruling coalition and increased tensions between the government, dominated by former Maoist rebels, and the military they long fought. Nepal's troubled leaders are new to politics and already struggling to provide basic services in the impoverished country. They may now be facing a major challenge The prime minister is a former Maoist rebel leader and his dispute with Katawal centered on the difficult question of how to integrate former rebels as required by a U.N.-brokered peace agreement into the ranks of the army they fought for a decade. Since giving up their bloody rebellion in 2006 and joining the political mainstream, the Maoists have confined their fighters to U.N.-monitored camps and locked up their weapons. Dahal wanted them freed and admitted to the national army but Katawal resisted the move and clashed repeatedly with the government over the issue. The government is also claiming Katawal ignored orders to stop recruiting soldiers, boycotted last month's national games, and allowing eight army generals to continue working past their tenure. "The army chief was removed because he failed to give a satisfactory explanation on why the government orders were ignored," said Information Minister Krishna Bahadur Mahara. The Communist Party of Nepal (United Marxist Leninist), the second largest party in the coalition government, withdrew from the coalition Sunday "to protest the prime minister's unilateral decision," the party's general secretary, Ishwar Pokhrel, said. After Dahal announced his decision, leaders from several smaller parties walked out of the Cabinet meeting and are deciding whether to withdraw their support completely. "It has become almost impossible for the Maoists to remain in government in the present situation," said Ameet Dhakal, editor of Republica, a leading newspaper in the capital Katmandu. "It's a big crisis for the country now." People took tot he streets to demostarte in support of both sides; Maoist supporters, waving red flags, called the army chief's sacking a "victory for people's rule" while the opposition blocked traffic and burned tires in protest. The Maoists are still revolutionary heroes to many, especially among rural villagers who voted them into power last year in Nepal's first elections. . Krishna Khanal, a political science professor at Tribhuwan University in Katmandu, said the Maoists could still survive the crisis. "If the smaller parties decide to support the Maoists, then they can still run the government," he said. "But there is no immediate solution to the present political crisis."