With each passing day in this terrible conflict, one wonders if the two sides are competing to see who can punish the people more.

The Maoists blast a bus in Sindhupalchok. Six passengers are killed, the arm and head of a 14-year-old boy are found 100m away. Children are killed by roadside bombs on their way to school. The Maoist website 'takes credit' for the murder of Ganesh Chiluwal. Take credit for killing a man committed to non-violence, a victim of violence himself-just because he diagrees with your methods?

Security forces surround a house in Makwanpur on a tip-off and apparently mow down everyone inside. And on Wednesday, when there was full-scale conventional warfare in progress in Mudbara with air support and artillery, the rest of the army was on Tundikhel simulating helicopter-borne assault on a mud hut. What were onlookers outside the fence supposed to think?

If the political parties ever trusted the Maoists' pledge not to target their workers, after this week's murders they won't do so again.

We are now in the same notorious league as Guatemala or Colombia for human rights violations. If the military and the guerrillas can't stop fighting, they can at least pledge to fight by the rules. Signing the human rights accord would mean ensuring that innocent Nepalis who do not agree with this slaughter and want no part in it, are not harmed.

The Maoist leadership must now acknowledge that the path of armed struggle they embarked on eight years ago has degenerated into mayhem and violence. All this has achieved in eight years is militarise the country and spread misery. It has strengthened the army, tripled its budget in three years. It's time for the comrades and the generals to ask themselves: what is the point?