by Kedar Man Singh
KATHMANDU, Aug 24 (AFP) - Maoist rebels Tuesday called off a week-long blockade of Nepal's capital Kathmandu but warned they would launch major attacks if their demands were ignored.
The guerrillas, who are fighting to overthrow the monarchy and already control much of the countryside, had since last Wednesday used threats but little physical presence to halt traffic into the Himalayan capital.
They said in a statement the blockade, which had created panic in the city of 1.5 million, would be over from Wednesday "for about a month." The decision was in response to appeals by civil society and human rights groups, the statement said.
"If the government ignores our demands, we will launch protests and blockades more serious than the present ones," it said.
The blockade sent prices of essential items soaring but failed to bring the city to a standstill or cause shortages. More than 3,000 vehicles entered or left Kathmandu Tuesday, some with military escort, an army official said.
The rebel turn-around came after a day of violence in which at least five soldiers were killed in an ambush on an army vehicle trying to secure a road near the Tibetan border, which the Maoists have vowed to close in a separate blockade from Saturday.
The rebels claimed to have killed another 24 soldiers in the incident, although the army said the missing troops had jumped into a river for safety and not made contact since.
Lok Raj Baral, a political scientist at Kathmandu's Tribhuvan University, said it was no coincidence the bloodshed came on the same day the blockade was withdrawn.
"They have shown both sides. They showed their strength on one hand and also that they are responding to the wishes of the general people," Baral said.
The largely symbolic blockade was seen as an attempt to prove the weakness of the shaky royal-appointed government and force it to the negotiating table on the rebels' terms.
A cabinet official said the government had seen the Maoist statement but would study it before making comment.
Security remained tight throughout the capital, with armed police and soldiers patrolling key intersections and guarding government installations.
Some 10,000 people have died since 1996 in the Maoist "people's war", with the rebels known for ruthless attacks on police, landowners and other perceived "class enemies" in rural stretches of one of the world's poorest countries.
But attacks have been rare in Kathmandu, a cosmopolitan city where there is little open support for the Maoists.
Suspected rebels gunned down a policeman at a Kathmandu cinema and a pedestrian during the blockade, but the guerrillas used little physical intimidation around the capital.
The government conceded to one specific demand of the Maoists to end the blockade by agreeing to probe the whereabouts of an unspecified number of rebel supporters who the guerrillas say have gone missing in the conflict.
But the government did not budge on another key rebel demand -- that it stops calling the Maoists terrorists, a classification that has kept the guerrilla leadership in hiding fearing arrest.
The rebels want peace talks to focus on redrafting the constitution, in which the Maoists are sure to press for the abolition of the monarchy.
Government refusals to discuss a new constitution helped scuttle two previous rounds of peace talks.
The Maoist statement, which was signed by six rebel leaders based around Kathmandu, made no mention of the blockade planned from Saturday on the Tibetan border.
Nepal each year imports some 72 million dollars' worth of goods from China, mostly manufactured products at prices affordable to the poor in the agrarian kingdom.
The rebels claim inspiration from the Chinese revolutionary Mao Zedong but they are disavowed by Beijing which this month hosted Nepal's Crown Prince Paras.