11 policemen killed in Kalikot

By Kashi Chandra Baral

MANMA, Kalikot, Nov 30 - Maoist rebels killed 11 policemen in a four hour-long gunfight in a remote part of Kalikot district early Thursday. The attack, which began from late Wednesday, also seriously injured seven policemen.

The rebels launched the raid on a police striking force stationed at Kotbada Area Police Station, about seven hours trek north of the district headquarters of Kalikot. There were about four dozen policemen in the station when the attack came. The dead includes an Assistant Sub Inspector and two Head Constables.

According to the District Administration, the police personnel killed in the Maoist attack have been indentified as ASI Prakash Thapa (Dhankuta), Head Constables Ashman Gurung (Gorkha) and Prem Bahadur Singh (Bajhang) and police constables Upendra Sijwal (Salyan), Prem Bahadur Shahi (Jajarkot), Pushpa Raj Bhatta (Baitadi), Ajaya Basnet (Banke), Kasiram BK (Bardiya), Num Bahadur KC (Dang), Dil Bahadur Basnet (Rolpa) and Kagendra Karki (Rolpa). One policeman, Surya Prasad Rijal from Rolpa, has reportedly been missing since the attack. However, sources said that he was led away by the rebels. The bodies of all the policemen were air-lifted to Nepalgunj by a Royal Nepal Army helicopter today.

An unconfirmed report said that five other people, including two women, were also killed during the overnight encounter.

After blowing up the police post, the rebels looted 31 303 rifles, 7 magnums, 4 shot-guns, 4 Chinese-manufactured pistols and a stack of ammunition before they fled the scene. The police striking force could retrieve only three rifles from the rebels.

Police sources said that Kotbada police station had live communication with the district headquarters during the early hours of Thursday morning. However, communications were disconnected when the rebels bombed the station.

Now safely in Kathmandu, Police Inspector Bishnu Govinda Thapa said that he had asked for reinforcement during the rebel fire. "Sentries have already been killed; we are still fighting. But I have been hurt," Inspector Thapa informed the district headquarters before being tied up by rebels.

When the attack came, the Royal Nepal Army was patrolling around the district headquarters. The army was not requested for assistance by the Chief District Officer of Kalikot, however.

Late on Wednesday, rebels disconnected the 17 VDCs from the district headquarters by destroying three suspension bridges over the Karnali river before finally attacking the police station. The rebels destroyed a 310-metre-long suspension bridge at Ryangil, Badalkot VDC-2, a 210-metre-long suspension bridge at Lalighat, Manma VDC-1, and another bridge at Khulali that links Manma with Humla district. Maoist rebels opened fire on a local man, Kamal Bahadur Shahi, 22, from Badalkot while destroying the suspension bridge at Ryangil. Shahi has also been air-lifted to Nepalgunj for treatment.

This is the third time that the Maoist insurgents have killed such a large number of police personnel in two months. They attacked Dunai, the district headquarters of Dolpa, on September 25 killing 14 policemen there. Another eight policemen were shot to death at a police station in Bhorletar, Lamjung, on September 27.

The seriously injured Police Inspector, Bishnu Govinda Thapa, has been air-lifted to Kathmandu for treatment and other policemen are being treated in the Nepalgunj Zonal Hospital, police said. Other policemen to sustain injuries in the gun-fight were two head constables Bamdev Rijal and Mohan Regmi, constables Jagat Shahi, Durga Bahadur Oli, Bhim Bahadur Thapa, Harilal Mahato and Raj Rawal.

Police said that a total of 45 police personnel had been deployed at Kotbada area police station under Police Inspector Thapa’s command. Out of the total police force, 26 policemen reportedly surrendered after the rebels pounded the police station with home-made socket bombs and opened fire for four hours during the night.

On receiving information about the midnight attacks, a team of senior police officials, including the Deputy Inspector General of Police, Amar Singh Shah, flew to the site by a helicopter on Thursday morning to assess the situation.

Attack highlights failure of coordination

Post Report

KATHMANDU, Nov 30 - Coming as it does in the wake of the Dunai incident in Dolpa two months ago, the latest rebel attack in Kalikot district has again trained the spotlight on the lack of coordination between the various security and administrative arms of the government.

According to reports from Kalikot, the attack occurred at a police strike force unit stationed at Kotbabda, several hours trek north of Manma, the district headquarters. An army barrack is located inside the district headquarters. But like in Dunai, the army did not dispatch reinforcements to aid the beleaguered policemen. What went wrong?

To begin with, there was no prior intelligence about the impending attack. Furthermore, the rebels, who numbered about 400-500, had cut-off three access bridges leading to the police station. And most important of all, high-level government officials said that the Chief District Officer of Kalikot did not call for help from the army.

Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Ram Chandra Paudel told The Kathmandu Post that the local CDO had no time to call for help from the army. "It wasn’t a situation where he could have had the time to call for help," he said. Paudel also confirmed that the police had no prior intelligence of the attack, and that none of the policemen at Kotbada had any of the modern semi-automatic rifles recently given by the army to the police.

Asked if the army could have helped, even though they had not been requested for assistance, the Deputy Prime Minister said, "if the attack was in the district headquarters, they would have helped the police. But there is no arrangement for the army to assist the police in case of attacks outside of the headquarters."

Defense Minister Mahesh Acharya also said that the army’s role in the Kalikot incident should not be made into an issue. "If the army had been requested, it would certainly have taken steps (to help the police.) There is no question of non-cooperation from the army’s side."

RNAC on the verge of violating House orders

Post Report

KATHMANDU, Nov 30 - The national carrier RNAC is about to add one more sobriquet it could do without - it is on the verge of becoming the first government-run body to violate the will of the nation’s sovereign parliament.

Despite repeated directives from parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) not to proceed with the aircraft leasing deal with Lauda Air, the jet is arriving sometime tomorrow after all -in contravention to the PAC instructions.

With PAC members saying that the body has the same force as the full-fledged parliament, the violation of the PAC directive is a violation of parliament itself, say lawmakers.

The Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation will have a lot of explaining to do as it too had been asked by PAC to ensure that the deal "does not move an inch forward".

According to a top executive at RNAC, the Boeing B-767 jet is arriving as PAC has not "issued a directive to RNAC not to bring the plane. Only the Supreme Court can stop the plane from coming".

Hari Bhakta Shrestha, Executive Chairman of RNAC, declined to state categorically whether or not the plane is coming "I cannot say anything now. I have no comment, please," said Shrestha Thursday at the Ministry premises.

Similarly, Kumar Prasad Poudel, acting Secretary at the Ministry had only one answer to these three questions - whether the jet was coming, whether the Ministry had asked RNAC again to abide by the PAC directive, and most importantly, whether the Ministry is aware of consequences of violating the PAC order. Poudel repeated his stock reply : "I don’t know anything."

Minister for Civil Aviation, Tarini Datt Chataut, could not be contacted despite several attempts to reach him.

Meanwhile, at the Supreme Court the debate on the lease deal raged on and looks set to resume again. Noted advocate Ganesh Raj Sharma, who has been hired by RNAC to present its case, told the Court Thursday that the jet was arriving with passengers on Friday.

The reason the jet is arriving tomorrow is because the leasing agreement signed by RNAC and Lauda Air on September 27 says that the agreement would commence from December 1. RNAC has already sent over a million US dollars as advance money to Lauda Air, and another million dollars in bank guarantee - also against PAC directives.

Special clinic for AIDS patients

Post Report

KATHMANDU, Nov 30 - Sukra Raj Tropical and Infectious Disease Hospital today announced a special clinic that will provide medical and counselling services for the patients infected with HIV and AIDS.

The clinic which will be the first of its kind is being launched at the hospital at Teku to mark the World AIDS Day that is being observed with the theme "Men Make A Difference" on Friday.

The hospital, which was founded in 1990, so far has been catering clinical care to the HIV-infected patients in out-patient department (OPD).

According to the hospital, the clinic will provide ambulatory care for the HIV/AIDS patients. Under this care, the patient will need to stay in the hospital for few hours only. This care facility will be more convenient and cheaper for the patients.

"In the long run, we aim to become a referral centre for HIV/AIDS affected individuals," said Dr. Achyut Bhattarai, who is associated with the clinic.

"We are planning to coordinate with other hospitals to train various categories of health workers to create greater awareness among people about the disease," he said.

According to the National Center for AIDS and STD Control (NCASC), there are 1,778 reported HIV positive cases in Nepal. Among the infected, injecting drug user and commercial sex workers have the highest rate of HIV/AIDS positive cases.

Since HIV/AIDS was first detected in Nepal in 1988, experts estimate the disease has infected about 34,000 people and already claimed 2,535 lives.

The government, when formulating the National Strategy to Control AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs) in 1995, clearly stated that "His Majesty’s Government will accord high priority to controlling AIDS and STDs".

Apart from this, the government also showed its commitment in its current (Ninth) Plan, which has put special emphasis on the multi-sectoral responses to minimise the socio-economic impacts of the epidemic.

Contrary to such commitments, officials say, the Finance Ministry, for the current fiscal year, has allocated only Rs. 1.6 million to NCASC, the government’s only body responsible for controlling cases of HIV/AIDS and STDs. Worse, ignorance and indifference surrounding the issue, by men in particular, has exacerbated the epidemic.

More threats come from country’s open border with India - the country with the second largest number of reported HIV/AIDS cases in the world. The World Health Organization estimates that there are almost 3.7 million HIV/AIDS victims in India.

It’s all about highland issues at the mountain film festival

By Satish Jung Shahi

KATHMANDU, Nov 30 - If Nepal’s very own Oscar nominated Caravan took the capital’s movie fans by storm with its picturesque visuals along the mountainous Dolpa region, then what else the four-day-long International Mountain Film Festival being held here will do, is certainly worth watching.

To add to that, the 49 films, documentaries and features from 20 countries, lined up for the festival being launched here on Friday, are eagerly awaiting to whet the appetite of movie goers here. But what is going to be more special, its organizers say, is that most of the movies are related to highland issues, particularly faced by developing countries as Nepal.

"Apart from enjoying the film, we want to make our audience more aware on mountain environment and the rich culture which has been far neglected from main stream development in these areas," says Ramyata Limbu, director of Kathmandu International Mountain Film Festival 2000. The festival will be held in two halls at the Russian Cultural Centre, Kamal Pokhari.

"A few showings of the movies will even be attended by some of the casts and crew members involved in the film. A question-answer session will be held where the people directly concerned will clear the doubt of the audience related to film making," Limbu says. "It is the first-ever festival of its kind being held here."

Out of the total movies being presented, the festival has 15 movies related to Nepal — many of which have been made by foreigners. Even after Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala unveils the festival tomorrow, the event is slated to launch with Chikenshit and Ash - A Visit to Paradise. The movie, which will be showed again on Monday (3:50 p.m.), records the visit of two Nepali Tamang men from Dolakha district to the Austrian capital of Vienna, and is a subtle provocation of Western, modern culture.

However, the major highlight of the festival happens to be the exhibition of well-known Himalayan photographs of Nepal at the festival venue. On Sunday evening, Harish Kapadia, noted Indian climber and author of various mountain-related books, will also be holding a lecture cum slide presentation on War and Mountaineering in the Karakoram, west of the Himalayas. Of the 31 expeditions Kapadia was part of and in which he climbed 33 peaks, 21 of them were first ascents.

And not to forget, the festival on Saturday at 6:15 p.m. will also be hosting Mukundo (Mask of Desire) - a Tsering Rhitar Sherpa film that is competing in the Best Foreign Film category from Nepal in the Academy Awards this year. The film, inspired by a true incident, explores the delicate relationship between the mystical and the modern contemporary in Kathmandu.

However, the real crowd-puller still happens to be Caravan, the Eric Valli directed Oscar nominated film that introduced Nepal’s beautiful mountainous regions to international film-goers. On Saturday’s showing of the movie and a preview of The Making of Caravan, Jean Tregomain, executive producer of Caravan, along with a few other casts will answer queries from the audience.

Another movie, not worth missing is also both the British and American versions of Lost on Everest, which depicts an expedition’s search for the body of Mallory - whose mystery of whether he was the first one to conquer Everest still remains unsolved. Both the versions are being shown on Saturday 11:00 a.m. and 12:20 p.m. respectively.

Meanwhile, the inaugural show stealer on Friday is bound to be Genghis Blues, an Oscar nominated film, that tells a story of cross-cultural Friendship, in which a blind, black, Blues musician journeys from San Francisco, USA to the lost land of Tanna-Tuva in the Asian Steppes. Two other Nepal related movies — The Fish of Gods and Yeti: The Call of the Snowman - will also be presented tomorrow.

According to the organizers, among the films being screened, 3 are feature films, 2 are docudramas, and 44 are documentaries. Of the latter, 14 deal with mountain people, 7 are on climbing, 6 highlight extreme adventures, 5 are alpine documentation, and eight have development and nature-related themes. Four are experimental films.

The festival, organized by Himal Association in association with Eco-Himal, an Austrian organization, will end with an award ceremony in which the film judged for the best overall excellence by the viewers, will receive a Viewers’ Choice Award. Ticket prices for all shows have been fixed as Rs. 20 per head.