US proposes way out of refugee imbroglio Nepal accepts, Bhutan...

By Suman Pradhan

KATHMANDU, Dec 1 - The US government has come up with a fresh proposal in an attempt to jump-start the long stalled repatriation of nearly 100,000 Bhutanese refugees who have been languishing in Nepal for a decade.

Visiting US Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia Karl Inderfurth and Assistant Secretary of the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration of the US State Department Ms Julia V. Taft disclosed the new US proposal to journalists here at a news conference Friday.

Ms Taft said that Nepali authorities had endorsed the proposal. "Our challenge now is to make the proposal attractive to the Bhutanese authorities," she said.

Both the senior US officials, who are being accompanied by other officials from the US National Security Council and State Department, unveiled the new proposal during a meeting with Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala shortly after arriving in Kathmandu today.

Though primarily a farewell call before the change of administration in Washington, the out-going Clinton administration is making one last bid to get the refugee verification process moving with the Inderfurth-Taft visit, and their new proposal.

"Before verification teams decide the eligibility of refugees according to the four categories agreed by both Nepal and Bhutan, there needs to be (some) initial steps," Ms Taft said.

She explained that those steps involved the need to first identify the refugees, like determining who the head of a nuclear family is. This head would then identify the members of his/her family. Having agreed upon this, the two nations then could proceed with the actual verification, the process that determines which of the four categories the members of the nuclear family so identified by the family head falls into. For that to occur, Ms Taft said, "we need to get the Bhutanese team working in Nepal, with Nepali and UNHCR officials."

The US officials hope that Bhutan will accept its proposal to begin the refugee verification process, an issue which has stymied Nepal-Bhutan dialogue over refugee repatriation for years. The two sides have already hammered out four categories to put the refugees into, but the verification of refugees into those categories await agreement on how to go about it. It is here that the US proposal comes into play.

On the surface, the new US proposal is not much different from an earlier proposal floated by the UNHCR which was accepted by Nepal but rejected by Bhutan a few months ago. The bone of contention then was the definition of a refugee "family", the unit that would need to be verified.

Government sources said that Nepal at the time wanted everyone in a family over the age of 18 to be counted in the family unit. Bhutan wanted a case-by-case identification irrespective of age. The UNHCR convinced Nepal to raise the age to 25 years to make the proposal palatable to the Bhutanese. Nepal agreed, but Bhutan rejected even that.

Now the US proposal tries to combine both the Nepal and Bhutan positions. According to a senior government official familiar with the proposal, Nepal has always stood for the verification to revolve around a family unit. Bhutan on the other hand wants individual verification. The new US proposal does both - it identifies both the individual and family unit. In essence, a refugee who is 25 years old or above will be interviewed for categorization. Such a refugee will be identified by the family head.

The Foreign Ministry has calculated that, even by such standards, at least 60,000 of the nearly 100,000 refugees languishing in camps in eastern Nepal could be repatriated. "Basically, the US proposal is close to our position," says a senior government official on condition of anonymity.

Taft and Assistant Secretary for South Asia Inderfurth are both scheduled to travel to Bhutan Monday after completing their visit to Nepal. The timing of their visit - coming as it does just when the ministerial-level talks between Nepal and Bhutan is to begin sometime later this month - is also an indication of US interest.

"We want to see this resolved by both countries in a way that is satisfactory to both," Inderfurth said at the news conference. "...The Bhutanese refugee issue is in the category of unfinished business."

Though the Bhutanese refugee imbroglio clearly is high on the agenda of the US delegation, they also made it clear that other areas of special interest was the treatment of Tibetans who cross into Nepal on their way to India, economic development of Nepal, and the on-going Maoist insurgency.

Inderfurth declined to talk in detail what he discussed with Prime Minister Koirala about the Maoist problem, saying only: "We are obviously concerned about that."

Taft however went into greater detail about the problems faced by Tibetans crossing into Nepal. Referring to an incident a few weeks ago when two Tibetans were killed in a clash with police in Dolakha, Taft said, "there are a number of procedures in Nepal to make the passage (of Tibetans to India) safer." She also said that the US government would try to free 19 Tibetans jailed by the Nepal police. These Tibetans were arrested while trying to return to Tibet, she said.

The visiting US officials also delivered a letter by US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to Prime Minister Koirala. Sources say that Albright was herself scheduled to visit Nepal, but had to drop the plans to deal with the deteriorating security environment in the Middle East.

Nevertheless, in her letter, she reaffirmed that US policy in South Asia would continue despite the change of administration in Washington. This was a point which was also hammered forcefully by Inderfurth. "Whether Republican or Democratic administration (in Washington), I expect a continuity, not a shift in US policies (in South Asia)," he said.

RNAC gets its controversial jet

By Damakant Jayshi

KATHMANDU, Dec 1 - The Lauda Air B-767 jet leased by Royal Nepal Airlines Corporation landed this morning at Tribhuvan International Airport and has been pressed into the Corporation’s flight schedule today itself.

The widebody jet touched the runway at 7.39 a.m. Friday without any passengers on board. In a few hours time, some RNAC personnel pasted an RNAC sticker on the aircraft.

The RNAC-Lauda Air deal is still under investigation by the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC), which had asked both the government and RNAC to freeze the deal. Some Corporation executives and a majority of RA employees too had opposed the deal.

The jet took off for New Delhi for its inaugural flight as flight number 217-218 at 7.15 p.m. with 218 passengers. Tomorrow it is scheduled to fly to both New Delhi and Bangkok.

According to a high level source, two Nepali pilots were also on the flight as observer pilots. Other crew included six RA air hostesses, in addition to Lauda Air’s own cockpit and cabin crew. He added that Letter of Credit (LC) as advance payment for one month (amounting to 1,005,000 US dollars) was released today through Himalayan Bank which will be credited at a New York branch of Citi Bank.

Speaking to The Kathmandu Post, Hari Bhakta Shrestha, Executive Chairman at RNAC, said that a new dimension has been added to the Corporation with the incorporation of the widebody jet in RA’s fleet.

"Now RNAC, termed a weakling by many, will be able to successfully compete in the international sector," added Shrestha. "It will have a positive impact on Nepal’s travel and tourism industry. It will usher in an era of RA’s progress."

Chairman Shrestha declined to comment on PAC’s directive and whether the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation has given the green signal to go ahead with the deal.

However, Tirthalal Shrestha of RNAC Board of Directors, said the Corporation management was caught in the cross-fire between the government and PAC. "The government asked us to go ahead with the deal, while the parliamentary body told us to freeze the deal. What could we have done?"

Minister Tarinee Datt Chataut could not be reached even today despite several attempts to contact him.

Krishna Lal Maharjan, a member of PAC who was in the sub-committee that recommended the cancellation of the deal told The Kathmandu Post that the government’s attitude was questionable. "Where is it heading to?" he queried.

Bridge damage in Kalikot leaves many high and dry

By Kashi Chandra Baral

MANMA, Kalikot, Dec 1 - Children of 17 VDCs of the district will be deprived of polio vaccine programme scheduled for December 9 due to the demolition of three major suspension bridges over the Karnali river by Maoist rebels early on Thursday. Movement of people and goods is impossible without the bridges over the snow-fed river, locals said.

Late on Wednesday, rebels disconnected the northern 17 VDCs from the district headquarters by destroying three suspension bridges at Ryangil (310m long), Lalighat (210m long) and Khulali, all of them over the Karnali river. The Maoists had poured acid to corrode the steel cables of the suspension bridges. The suspension bridge constructed over the river at Ryangil is the oldest in the district.

Local people are now pressurising the administration to initiate an early re-construction of the damaged bridges. A technical team from the district irrigation office, the member of Parliament and district level officials inspected all the demolished suspension bridges today.

Engineer at the Irrigation Office in the district headquarters, Nur Mohammed Khan, after making an on-the-site inspection, roughly calculated that more than Rs 40 million would be required to reconstruct all the bridges. Khan told The Kathmandu Post that cost for the reconstruction might escalate as the foundations of all the bridges need to be dismantled. The cables have been cut too close to the foundations.

Yesterday, Maoists killed 11 policemen in a four-hour long gunfight in a remote Kotbada Area Police Station, about seven hours trek north west of the district headquarters. Eight policemen were seriously injured during the encounter.

The condition of seven injured policemen who are undergoing treatment at the Nepalgunj-based Birendra Police Hospital is normal, the hospital source said.

The insurgents also looted 31 pieces of 303 rifles, 7 magnums, 4 shot-guns, 4 Chinese manufactured pistols and a stack of ammunition before fleeing the scene.

More than 3000 people are still stranded in the district headquarters due to the downing of the bridges. Manma’s total population is equal to the number of stranded population.

A group of six women, including a 15-day old nursing mother and six children, who came to a water mill for grinding grain at Lalighat bridge, 20 minutes walk on the opposite bank were stranded on Thursday night due to the demolition of the bridge. To reach home, they had to trek for 20 hours just to cover the previous 20 minutes-long journey.

Army, police discussed intervention during attack

Post Report

KATHMANDU, Dec 1- Kalikot District Security officials say that it was impossible to dispatch immediate police and army reinforcement from district headquarters Manma to aid the troubled policemen, following the Maoist attack at the Kotbada Police Station late Wednesday.

Talking to The Kathmandu Post over phone, the officials informed that the attack started at 11: 30 p.m. and argued that it would have been impractical to sent a quick reinforcement, "since it would reach the site only by next morning."

"Further, it was unanimously agreed among all the district security officials that the Maoist could have ambushed and created other obstacles along the way to Kotbada," said a senior security official in Manama.

Sources said that the district’s senior police officers, senior army officers in the barracks located in Manma and the Chief District Officer all participated in a security meeting immediately after reports of the attack on Kotbada started coming in the night.

Kotbada Police station is located at a distance of over seven-hour trek along the narrow and difficult trail from the district headquarters. "Taking all these factors into consideration we decided not to seek army assistance and to send additional enforcement only on Thursday morning through helicopters," said the official.

According to the officials, Deputy Inspector General of Police Amar Singh Shah inspected the Kotbada Police Station Thursday and ordered that three remote police stations - Sieuna, Rosa and Mumara, each comprising of 15 policemen - be merged into a single one to be stationed in the northern part of Kalikot.

The officials also informed that an Royal Nepal Army general also visited Kalikot and inspected the Kotbada area but they declined to identify the army official.

Hospitals limp without key services

Post Report

KATHMANDU, Dec 1 - Despite government ban on strike in accordance to the Essential Services Act-2041 B.S., the technicians working in the radiology and the pathology departments of various government hospitals suspended their services today.

The technicians of Kanti Hospital, Teku Hospital, Maternity Hospital and Bir Hospital launched their strike protesting the government decision to cut down Hazardous Compensation Allowance.

The pathology and radiology departments of these hospitals remained closed except for the emergency services. As a result, patients seeking medical attention in the government hospital could not avail treatment including in the Out Patient Department (OPD).

According to secretary of Nepal Radiology Society, Bhakti Man Subba, an action committee was formed today to decide the future course of action.

Meanwhile, hospital staff working in various department of Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital (TUTH) today staged a protest against the discrimination in granting Attraction Allowance, which is only granted to the doctors.

The TUTH staff, however, continued their hospital rounds with black arm band as a protest against discrimination in granting allowances. TUTH granted additional attraction allowances to the doctors after the non practising allowance given to the doctors for not working in private clinics was discontinued.

Vehicle ban agitates entrepreneurs, pleases environmentalists

By Surendra Phuyal

KATHMANDU, Dec 1 - The government’s recent decision to ban vehicles older than 20 years from the Kathmandu Valley from mid-November next year has agitated transport entrepreneurs - even though commuters and environmentalists welcome the move.

Left with no alternative and no facility to import new vehicles, the transport entrepreneurs are stating their case loud and clear: Either the government provide us with some facility or subsidy to import new vehicles or we will be forced to take to the street in protest.

The Federation of Nepalese Transport Entrepreneurs (FNTE), an umbrella body of the country’s transport entrepreneurs, has already described the decision as "one-sided and oppressive", and has requested the government to review its proposals.

"The government’s sudden announcement has agitated and terrorized us," says FNTE Chairman, Sarad Upreti. "It is totally one-sided. The entrepreneurs have been left helpless with no alternative or facility (given by the government) in sight. If the government does not agree to reconsider, we will be forced to launch agitation programmes."

FNTE has already called an emergency meeting of its central members for this coming Tuesday, December 5. The meeting is expected to chalk out future programmes and strategies to press the government for reconsideration of the decision.

The government on November 10 published a notice in the Gazette announcing that it will impose a complete ban on the registration and operation of all the vehicles - both diesel and petrol-operated buses, minibuses, minitrucks, mobile trucks, tankers, vans and taxis owned by both government and private enterprises and individuals - from Mangsir 1, 2058 B.S. (mid-November 2001).

Surprisingly however, a few days later the Ministry of Population and Environment (MOPE), the concerned ministry, relaxed the decision saying that the ban will not affect vehicles owned by private enterprises and individuals "as they are regularly maintained by their owners and tend to be in good condition".

The Gazette notice also announced that all the petrol and gas-operated three wheelers (with two-stoke engines) owned by both government and private enterprises and individuals will be banned from operating in the Valley.

The third ban which will come into effect from Shrawan 1, 2058 B.S. (mid-July 2001), will ensure that none of the diesel-operated three-wheelers (Vikrams tempos) that were banned from operating inside the Valley last September, will be allowed to operate in the municipal areas of the country.

The government last year banned over 600 Vikrams tempos from the bowl-shaped Valley in what came as the government’s first ever crackdown on polluting vehicles.

The then (K P Bhattarai-led) government also exempted value-added tax (VAT) and custom duty by up to 99 per cent on the import of micro-buses that, albeit late, have finally hit the streets of the Valley as an alternative to the Vikram tempos.

Government officials cannot say for sure as to how many vehicles running on the streets of the Valley will be phased out by next November. They say figures are currently being drawn up. But, according to FNTE estimates, the owners of around 5,000 vehicles - including buses, mini-buses, trucks, tankers and taxis - will be left to bear the brunt of what they describe as a "one-sided and sudden" ban.

MOPE officials say that the decision was taken in line with recommendations made by a task force formed to carry out a study on the carrying capacity and vehicular emission problem in the Valley. Headed by MOPE Joint Secretary Janak Lal Joshi, the task force members included scientists and transport entrepreneurs.

However, FNTE’s Upreti asserts that the government took the November 10 decision in haste, and that it did not take the task force recommendations into consideration while doing so. "The government could have targeted only those vehicles which fail the emission tests conducted by the traffic police," he says.

Since World Environment Day on June 5 1995, the government has been conducting emission tests of the vehicles on the streets of the capital city. Those failing such tests are not allowed to operate in certain pockets of the city which have been designated as Emission Free Zones.

MOPE Secretary Dr Govinda Bhatta says that before taking the decision his ministry had asked the Finance Ministry if the government could provide duty-free facility to transport entrepreneurs willing to import new vehicles as a result of the ban. "But they (the Finance Ministry) did not agree, saying that the government cannot afford such a measure," he says.

Commuters who regularly travel by minibus or taxi welcome the government decision, but insist that the government should ensure viable alternatives to the old vehicles. "It’s a great decision, but we need better alternatives," says Sumita Upreti, a housewife from Thankot who regularly commutes by mini-bus or tempo.

Adds Krishna Bahadur Shrestha, 32, a porter from Dolakha who can be seen walking around the capital’s old bus park: "The old vehicles have not only caused pollution in the city they have also led to the untimely death of many people. They should go. But we need better and cleaner ones as replacement."

Necon Air resumes Janakpur flights

Post Report

JANAKPUR, Dec 1 - Necon Air, a private airline, resumed its regular flights from Kathmandu to Janakpur on Friday, the auspicious day of the Bibah Panchami. Bibah Panchami is believed to be the wedding day of Lord Ramchandra and Sita, the daughter of King Janak.

"We have resumed our flights to and from this holy city," Station Manager of the airline, Basant Kumar Singh, said, "The airline will run four flights a week."

From December 1, the airline will operate flights on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Singh said that there would be daily flights when a new aircraft is added to the fleet at the end of December.

Regular Necon Air flights to Janakpur were stalled after one of its aircrafts collided with an airport vehicle owned by Mountain Air, another private airline, at Tribhuvan International Airport a month ago. The plane made a test flight to Janakpur after repairs on November 23. When the flights of the airline, regular for the last six years, stalled, the hotel business in this ancient city slumped by 30 per cent, according to hotel entrepreneurs.

Meanwhile, the state-owned Royal Nepal Airlines Corporation, which discontinued its flights to Janakpur last year has closed down its city office indefinitely from this week.

According to RNAC’s city manager, Ram Ratna Raut, the office was closed down as per instruction from its central office in Kathmandu. All the RNAC staff have been transferred to other airports and Raut has been posted to Biratnagar airport effectively from December 16. However, local tourism entrepreneurs have demanded that the Ministry of Civil Aviation should arrange RNAC’s flights to India’s religious cities such as Patna and Varanasi, with Janakpur as a stopover.