KATHMANDU, 7 November (IRIN) - Durga Shrestha and her children have been living in fear since a group of Maoist rebels arrived at her house on Monday demanding shelter and food for 20 of their cadres, in the capital Kathmandu to attend a huge Maoist assembly scheduled for Friday.

"We have been so horrified. My children are even afraid to return home from school," exclaimed Shrestha, looking scared and helpless. She called the local human rights groups who told her that they would address the problem with the Maoist leaders.

Shrestha is not alone. Thousands of families in the capital have been calling rights activists to seek their protection after the rebels marched into their homes demanding food, shelter and donations to make their huge political assembly successful.

According to the Community Party of Nepal (CPNM - Maoist) office, the rebels aim to assemble 1 million villagers in Kathmandu where Maoist leader Prachanda will make a speech.

The Maoists had been waging an armed rebellion over the last decade against the Nepalese state. They declared a ceasefire in April following the end of the absolute rule of the Nepalese monarch, King Gyanendra, due to the mass uprising led jointly by the seven main political parties and the Maoists. Peace talks have been under way to reach a consensus on arms management, forming a new interim government and holding elections for the constituent assembly.

But activists are concerned that the government has not been able to raise the issue of human rights abuses and ceasefire violations with the rebel leaders. Violations by the Maoist rebels have been increasing every day, according to National Monitoring Committee on the Code of Conduct for Ceasefire, formed five months ago to monitor ceasefire violations.

"Rights violations still continue at the hands of the junior cadres; they are not serious about the ceasefire code of conduct," said Kapil Shrestha, a member of the committee.

Shrestha explained that despite committee reports of violations, the Maoist leaders have failed to control their cadres, who have been increasingly involved in human rights abuses, abductions, extortions, and defying the rule of law. He added that the committee has received over 1,300 cases of ceasefire violations in the last five months and has addressed them with rebel leaders but without success.

"The cadres have turned a deaf ear to their own leaders who issued a directive on Monday to stop making any demands from local civilians," said Subodh Pyakhurel, a prominent activist and member of the committee.

Meanwhile, the Maoist rebels deny forcing anyone to feed or shelter them. "All we have done is made simple requests to some people but that should not be considered as a threat," claimed Maoist leader Ananta.

But local residents are unconvinced.

"What if they put bombs when we refuse? Many rebels came to my house this morning and asked me to shelter 50 of their cadres," maintained one local resident in the Nakhu area of the capital, requesting not to be named.

"All we want is to live in peace without any political forces coming to our houses and threatening innocent people," said Subina Rai, a mother of two who has been asked to shelter at least 20 Maoist members in her tiny house in the capital on Friday.

A large number of local residents have been organising their meetings in their own neighbourhoods to show their unity against Maoist oppression. Around 100 local people stormed into the Maoist office in the capital on Tuesday morning to ask them to leave civilians alone.

The civilians who participated in the protest said that they were now pinning their hopes on the rights workers and the leaders of the Seven Party Alliance (SPA) to pressurise the Maoist leaders to stop violations by their local cadres.

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