Military

DATE=1/19/03

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=NEPAL / UNITED STATES (L-ONLY)

NUMBER=2-298538

BYLINE=ANJANA PASRICHA

DATELINE=NEW DELHI

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: A team of U-S military experts is visiting Nepal to train the army to help fight Maoist rebels. Anjana Pasricha reports the rebellion flared six years ago in the mountain kingdom.

TEXT: The team of 49 U-S military experts is in Nepal to train Nepalese soldiers, and to teach them how to operate arms recently acquired from Washington.

The United States supplied the Nepalese army with about three-thousand (M-16) rifles earlier this month.

The Nepalese army was deployed to crush the rebellion an year-and-a-half ago after the Maoists broke a ceasefire and walked out of peace talks.

But the Nepalese government says troops are in

urgent need of modern equipment to fight the rebels -- and has been appealing to Western

governments for assistance.

Several countries have responded, after expressing concern at the upsurge in violence in the mountain kingdom.

The U-S has approved 12-million dollars in military aid to Nepal. It has also warned the rebels that it could include them on a list of terror groups.

Britain has promised to provide aid and equipment to the Nepalese government. India has supplied helicopters and night vision equipment, and promised more support to the government to end the rebellion.

Robert Boggs, deputy head of the U-S embassy in Kathmandu told the French news agency that the

U-S military experts will stay in the country for a few weeks. He strongly denied reports in the local media that the the U-S team would launch a joint operation with the Nepalese army against Maoist rebels.

Maoist rebels are fighting to end the constitutional monarchy and establish a communist republic in the mountain kingdom. More than seven-thousand people have been killed in the rebellion. Human rights groups say nearly half of those killed are civilians -- the army says most of them are rebels.

(signed)

NEB/AP/RH