A BRIGHTLY painted lorry loaded with apples chugged through the mists on the winding highway, stopping by the sandbagged checkpoint in front of the sign: “Welcome to Kathmandu.”

It was the only supply vehicle to make it along this jugular road into the Nepalese capital yesterday morning. “There have been no lorries but this, nothing either way,” the policeman at the checkpoint, surveying his near-empty ledger, said with a sigh. “The people are too afraid.”

Kathmandu is a city under virtual siege. For three days now, Maoist rebels have blockaded the capital, bringing the flow of supplies to the 1.5 million people to an almost complete halt. They have done so without firing a shot or putting up a single roadblock, but by fear.

Roads that are usually choked with lorries were empty and silent yesterday as drivers and merchants stayed at home, unwilling to test the rebels’ threat to attack any supply vehicles on the road.

Soldiers patrolled the highways, trying to persuade drivers that it was safe to travel. The lorry at the checkpoint did so only because its Indian driver was unaware of the threat and was told by an army desperate to break the blockade that it was safe.

Nepalis are less easily convinced. They have lived with the insurgency for the past eight years, during which time the Maoists have gradually taken over large swaths of the countryside in their bid to overthrow the monarchy.

Kathmandu has remained largely unscathed, bar the odd explosion or general strike, but now the rebels are closing in, trying to bring to the capital the same fear that won them control of rural areas. With their military strength sapped by recent assaults on their central command, what has become known here as “fear psychosis” has become their most powerful weapon. The Government has resisted peace talks, though it did make one concession yesterday by agreeing to investigate the fate of 30 disappeared left-wing activists.

After just three days, the blockade is starting to pinch. Petrol rationing has begun. In the markets, customers listen in disbelief to the trebled prices being cited for vegetables.

While they blame the rebels, there is just as much criticism of the Government. “I cannot afford any of this,” Pranita Shresthi, a student, complained as she surveyed the rows of glossy aubergines, up from 10 rupees to 40. “People will only have rice to eat if this goes on. The Government has no choice, they will have to negotiate with the rebels. It’s the only answer.”

But if the rebels are relying on popular pressure on the Government, they also risk alienating those they claim to represent. The blockade is an expensive inconvenience to the middle classes, but the poor are hurting the most.

Kandini Tamang, 40, walked all night in the rain from her village 15 miles outside Kathmandu to bring her vegetables to the market because the bus she usually takes had been halted. Yesterday the tiny, wizened woman pulled the huge empty basket back onto her back and set out, exhausted, for home. As long as the blockade remains, she will not be back for another ten days.

“I am crushed by this huge load,” she said. “And I only got a little more for my vegetables. It’s the sellers that make the money, not us poor people. The Maoists should not have done this. If they hadn’t done this, we wouldn’t be suffering like this.”

The Government is trying to play down the crisis, insisting the security forces can defend the people. “We want to tell vehicle owners to be free from this slavery mentality of terror created by threats,” Rajendra Bahadur Thapa, an army spokesman, said. “We have enough security to protect them.” As if to refute that, rebels detonated two bombs yesterday, not along the now- heavily patrolled highways but in the city centre.

The psychological warfare has begun.

REBELS' PROGRESS

• The Maoist rebels appeal to Nepal’s poor by promising to overthrow the monarchy and abolish the caste system
  
  
• They staged their first operations in 1996, attacking six government and police outposts
  
  
• Their insurgency has since claimed more than 10,000 lives and has battered Nepal’s already weak economy
  
  
• With an estimated 10,000 to 15,000 fighters they claim to control 70 per cent of the country

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