'Show' of Force: Transcript

Nepal's Maoist rebels put on a pre-planned display of arms, but their commitment to the cause is real.

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We drive about an hour and a half away to a village called Chainpur, and out of the woods starts streaming these fighters of the People's Liberation Army, the military wing of the communist party.

Some are wearing civilian clothes — tennis shoes and flip-flops. Others are in camouflage, carrying bolt-action rifles and Chinese-made assault rifles.

They're coming into a schoolyard, an opening in this village where obviously the villagers have seen them come and go many times before.

We saw one young rebel that we thought had to be in her early teens. She ended up being 16 years old, a girl named Janaki, very shy but carrying an automatic weapon. She said she's not afraid to fight.

Now eventually the fighters gathered under a tree, they began performing some drills. At this point i realized they had gathered, really, solely for my camera. I had asked for a meeting with them, but I thought I might see them in their natural environment. Instead it was kind of this staged drill. But it was still a chance to see them and put a face to this unit, to these people that have been attributed both good and bad deeds within this 10-year war they've been fighting.

The People's Liberation Army is said to be about 20,000 strong, and there have been 13,000 deaths resulting from this war. Human rights abuses are said to have gone on and been attributed to both sides, both the Royal Nepalese Army and the communist party forces.

But while their drilling was a bit imprecise, there certainly was an intensity to what they were doing. Many of them repeated the mantra that they were there to liberate their country. When I asked the commander why there were so many women within the group, he said that they are there to fight for their own rights.

This brigade is usually about 4,000 to 5,000 strong, according to the commander. It's called the Lokesh Memorial Brigade. But now they only have about 1,500 fighters because many of them are going home, rotating home during the ceasefire.

Just as quickly as they entered the school grounds, after the drilling they exited. Their commander said that they will go back into the woods, and wait, and be ready. If this movement towards democracy doesn't work, they'll be willing and ready to return to the fighting if necessary.

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