KATMANDU, Nepal - Nepal's royal government offered amnesty, cash, jobs and land Monday to communist rebels who surrender in the next three months.
Senior Maoist rebel leaders will be given up to $14,000 if they surrender and guerrillas will receive up to $7,000 if they hand over their weapons by mid-June, the government said.
"The main purpose of our offer is to restore peace in the country," said Home Minister Kamal Thapa. "We expect a huge number of them to answer to our offer and surrender."
The guerrillas, who say they are inspired by Chinese revolutionary Mao Zedong, have fought for a decade to replace Nepal's constitutional monarchy with a communist government. The insurgency has claimed nearly 13,000 lives.
Thapa said all arrest warrants and legal cases against rebels who turn themselves in would be withdrawn.
Surrendering rebels would be housed in rehabilitation centers for six months and then released with security guarantees from the government, he said.
Authorities have made amnesty offers before but without the lucrative incentives.
The rebels have escalated violence since the guerrillas pulled out of a unilateral cease-fire in January and resumed attacking government positions and troops.
The government said it has heightened security and arranged adequate food supplies for major cities and towns ahead of a planned blockade of highways by the rebels. That did not stop suspected communist guerrillas from robbing a bank in a southwestern Nepal town Monday.
Five armed men burst into the Karnali Development Bank in Nepalgunj, a town bordering India about 310 miles west of the capital, Katmandu.
No one was hurt and the robbers fled with about $25,000 in cash.
The guerrillas have said the indefinite blockade of key highways will start Tuesday and be followed by a nationwide general strike beginning April 3.
The government urged people to defy the blockade threat. During previous blockades, rebels have shot drivers, burned trucks and buses, and abducted passengers.
The government said it would provide compensation for any vehicles damaged and any loss of life or injuries caused by the blockades.
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