Kathmandu: Michael E Malinowski, who was the US ambassador to Nepal from 2001 to 2004, the peak time of Maoist insurgency in the wake of palace massacre, passed away on Monday, the US Ambassador to Nepal Dean R Thompson confirmed on Monday on social media platform X: “I am deeply saddened by the loss of former U.S. Ambassador Michael E. Malinowski… His commitment and service made a significant and lasting impact on the U.S. mission in Nepal. My deepest condolences to his loved ones during this difficult time,” he wrote.
Malinowski was provided with three individual Superior Honor Awards for his work in Kathmandu, on the Gulf War, and in Peshawar and was included in two group Superior Honor Awards for his work in Kathmandu and Peshawar, according to the US Department of State archive.
Many Nepalis on social media paid tributes to him, others also recalled the tenure of Malinowski.
Journalist Dhruba Hari Adhikari mentioned him as a diplomat who “left a lasting impression by the end of his stay in Nepal.” Political scientist and scholar Hari Sharma called him a good friend of Nepal: “Michael was a good friend of Nepal first as DCM in the 1990s and later as the Ambassador during difficult period of violent political conflict.”
Businessman Binod Chaudhary called Malinowski “a dear friend and a remarkable diplomat.” “His contributions to the world were immense, recognized by numerous awards for his exceptional services. We were honored to have him inaugurate the CG Golf at the CG Industrial Park in 2002, a memory that I will forever cherish,” he wrote.
Malinowski has been cited in literature as someone who cared about Nepal but who was also deeply concerned by the state of armed insurgency which was at peak during his ambassadorship in Kathmandu.
A paper published by Wilson Center in June, 2003 mentions him as saying that “even in the best times, Nepal is a difficult country to govern.” The high mountains of Nepal make it difficult to provide services, communicate, and move goods, he has been mentioned as saying. “If you combine these obstacles with the dynamics of rapid population growth and a lack of arable land, you are left with a nation of impoverished and suffering people.”
Back then he considered information explosion of the 1990s, people’s exposure to the outside world, social and economic unrest among the people as root causes of the Maoist problem. “The goal is not to kill the Maoists but to reintegrate them into society,” the paper mentions him. According to the paper, Malinowski identified four areas to address to address Maoist problems. First, consensus building among the legal forces in the country—the palace, political parties, civil society, and journalists. “In this area the US wants to have influence, but it is here where the Nepalis must figure it out for themselves,” said Malinowski. Second, he stood for addressing the root causes of the conflict by making Nepal a fairer society. He believed that it could be achieved by creating jobs, for which the US had increased aid from $24 million to $38 million. Third solution proposed was about strengthening security for the people of Nepal: “A government’s first responsibility is to provide security for its people. The government needs to step up security, particularly in the rural areas where citizens are most vulnerable. Military pressure needs to be put on the Maoists.”
He said the US should and will play a positive role in the effort to stabilize Nepal. However, he also stated that the US would not be the appropriate mediator in the negotiations with the Maoists, given that the Maoist rhetoric is anti-American and anti-west.
Elsewhere, Malinowski’s perception about the Maoists seems to be different. In his 2006 book titled Armed Conflict and Peace Process in Nepal, Bishnu Raj Uprety has published an excerpt of Malinowski’s interview dated April, 2004:
“Terrorism in Nepal is of great concern to the United States. We have been a friend of Nepal for many years. We root your democracy but the democracy is being threatened by the Maoists. We don’t want to see the democracy brought down by the groups that use terrorism as tactics anywhere in the world. In this region and other, we have decided to provide considerable amount of assistance. In the last two years, we have increased our economic development budget from US $ 24 million a year to 40 million. We also have developed security relationships, which has risen from maybe a couple of hundred thousand dollars a year to package that now totals over the last two years about little over US $ 22 million. We developed programme and training including anti-terrorist training, anti-crime training and Human rights training…”
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