Nepal ethnic group warns fresh protests in south

KATHMANDU (Reuters) - An ethnic Madhesi group that organized bloody protests in Nepal's southern plains this year said on Monday it would launch a fresh campaign to press for regional autonomy.

Dozens were killed in protests by the Madhesi People's Rights Forum, which says it represents the Madhesis, an ethnic group that dominates the plains, called the Terai, that are home to nearly half of the Himalayan nation's 26 million people.

The group says the ruling elite in Kathmandu, dominated by the people from the mountains, had discriminated against the Madhesis in parliamentary representation, government jobs and development of a region known as Nepal's bread basket.

"Only the establishment of an autonomous state within a federal structure will end the discrimination," forum chairman Upendra Yadav told reporters.

"We want Nepal to turn into a land of equal rights and equal opportunities for its entire people."

The forum and the government signed an agreement earlier this year under which Kathmandu agreed to resolve most grievances of the Madhesis. But Yadav said the government had failed to live up to its promise, forcing fresh protests.

He said his group had set up a "Joint Madhesi Front" with a splinter group of a local party to fight for the interests of the people, who are closer to those living across the border in India in terms of language, culture and ethnicity than to Nepalis from the mountains.

The group plans a series of protest rallies in the Terai starting on December 26. Another round will start in January to mark the first anniversary of violent protests in the area, according to a statement.

"All our protests will be peaceful but if the state tries to suppress them the Madhesi people know how to retaliate," Rajendra Mahato, a former minister representing the restive region, said without elaborating.

More than a dozen ethnic and armed rebel groups are active in the Terai, where local human rights groups say more than 200 people were killed in violent protests, clashes or in local disputes since a peace deal with the Maoist former rebels was signed last year.

Officials said nearly 100 people were detained in recent weeks as authorities deployed hundreds of extra police to maintain security in the region.

(Reporting by Gopal Sharma; Editing by Y.P. Rajesh and Alex Richardson)