One policeman dies in Lumjung in insurgency-related violence

By a Post Reporter

KATHMANDU, Feb 13 - As reports of Maoists rebels intensifying their "People’s War" continue to pour in from different parts of the country, at least one police personnel was shot dead by suspected Maoists in Lamjung, early today.

According to our reporter, Head Constable Kamal Bahadur Thapa of Palpa was killed in Besisahar Village Development Committee (VDC) ward no. 9 at about 2:30 am Sunday.

Though his death was caused by bullet wounds, it is unclear whether the gunshots were fired by rebels or the police. Locals suspect police inadvertently shot one of their own men, but hushed it up.

The police, who have not yet begun an investigation into the case, are silent. Deputy Superintendent of Police Dipak Kumar Thapa at Lamjung District Police Office (DPO) refused to comment on the incident.

According to eyewitnesses, incident occurred on the roof of a bus. At least six rounds of shots were fired from behind, killing Thapa. The deceased’s body has been sent to Palpa.

Likewise, in another incident in eastern Lamjung last night, Maoist rebels torched all the documents and furniture of Small Farmer Development Project and District Veterinary Service Centre, police said.

Similar incident has been reported from our Pokhara reporter. About a dozen armed Maoist rebels torched all the documents of Small Farmer Development Project last night. They also fired blank shots, according to Agriculture Development Bank Supervisor, Kapil Bahadur Singh.

In Chitwan, two incidents of bomb explosion have been reported. According to our reporter, two bombs went off inside a few seconds in the premises of the Nepal Electricity Authority office building at around 7:45 pm.

Though no one was injured, the blast has left the office building wall badly damaged. The building is located barely 500 meters from Bharatpur District Police Office.

Another explosion occurred at Baruwa Bazaar in Madi in southern Chitwan. More details about the "mild intensity explosion" were not immediately available.

In Kalika VDC of mid-western Terai’s Bardia district, Maoist rebels celebrated the fifth anniversary by setting off firecrackers and firing blank shots, according to our Bardia reporter. The rebels were seen revelling on the Nepalgunj-Gularia road, eyewitnesses said.

Likewise, Maoists set off a bomb on the roof of Banke Land Revenue Office, Nepalgunj, in the wee hours this morning. The roof-top explosion has not caused any damage, police said, adding that parts of an unexploded bomb were recovered from the spot.

Reports of explosion and firing were also reported from mid-western hills, the Maoist hotbed. A police personnel was seriously injured in a police-Maoist exchange of fire near Dillichaur police post in eastern Jumla last night.

Though similar incidents were reported from a number of villages of Rukum and Dang last night, no one was injured, according to the police in Nepalgunj.

Meanwhile, reports of Maoist activities have come in from far western Terai district of Kailali, Kanchanpur and north-eastern hill district of Tehrathum.

A group of masked men, suspected as Maoists, looted cash and property worth hundreds of thousands of rupees in two separate incidents in Krishnapur and Pipaladi VDCs of Kanchanpur, Friday night.

Likewise, in Myanglung Bazaar of Tehrathum, a bomb went off in a bamboo grove after it rolled down the roof of a house located 50 meter away from police post. The house was rented by civil servants. No one was injured in the explosion that occurred about 6:30 pm today.

In Ramechhap and Sindhuli no untoward incident was reported except a few reports of sporadic explosions.

According to a dispatch from Sindhupalchok, a group of Maoists led by Krishna Prasad Sapkota, brother of Maoist leader Agni Sapkota, today manhandled former Chairman of Phulpingdanda VDC and his aides.

Today marks the beginning of the fifth year since Maoist rebels first hit the national scene in 1996. Since then, more than 1000 people have been killed, including rebels, police and innocent civilians.

AI warns Nepal on rights

By a Post Reporter

KATHMANDU, Feb 13 - Amnesty International has warned that Nepal is courting a human rights disaster as the face-off between the government and an armed Maoists movement hardens into patterns recalling other regional conflicts.

"Sri Lanka, Kashmir, Karachi...Nepal must not go the same way," pleads the report released today as the Maoist "people’s war" enters fifth year as the spiral of violence that began on Feb 13, 1996 deepens.

The London-based human rights group has listed a chilling catalogue of violations, by both the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) and security forces over the years.

The CPN (Maoist) has deliberately killed at least 200 people since the start of its "people’s war" - many of them were civilians branded "enemies of the people" for their links with the ruling Nepali Congress, says the Amnesty report.

Of these 200, at least 80 were killed in just the last 14 months. The Maoists have also handed out summary justice, including cruel forms of punishment, through kangaroo courts, according to Amnesty.

Police, on their part, executed hundreds of people in disputed circumstances, including those they could instead have arrested and others who had already surrendered, says the Amnesty report, adding courts lack the teeth to prosecute such crimes.

At least 400 out of nearly 800 killed by police in these four years may have been deliberately executed. Forty-four others have "disappeared", according to Amnesty.

Reports of political and other prisoners being tortured are common, Amnesty has found out after several field trips. A 21-year-old man died last summer after six days of torture and the government later admitted he was a victim of "heavyhanded treatment."

"It is tragic that such crimes should be taking place at a time when Nepal is celebrating its first decade of multi-party democracy after the end of Panchayat rule," said Amnesty in its report. "The Nepal government looks set to follow the mistakes of its neighbours by pushing through laws giving the police and administration sweeping powers."

Amnesty recognizes the security threat posed by the "people’s war", and other challenges facing the government "in one of the world’s poorest countries". "But draconian laws lacking human rights safeguards are neither a just nor an effective way of meeting them. As experience elsewhere has shown, they further brutalise opponents and lead to a spiralling violence. They are also liable to be misused against civilians and to erode the rule of law."

Amnesty has appealed to the government to back up recent initiatives for dealing with the conflict with a clear signal that human rights violations will not be tolerated, whether they are committed by the Maoists -- or the police.

It also urges the government to set up new mechanisms to ensure that all allegations will be independently investigated and to speed up its long-delayed move to set up a human rights commission.

Amnesty Secretary General Pierre Sane will later this month deliver these appeals in person to government ministers in Kathmandu. An Amnesty team led by Sane will also meet NGOs, students, academics, refugees and other groups to discuss human rights challenges facing Nepal.

"It is vital that Nepal government takes these warnings seriously and acts to ensure that Nepal does not turn into another South Asian war zone -- and human rights disaster zone," says the Amnesty.

LDCs expect much from UNCTAD-X

By Prateek Pradhan

KATHMANDU, Feb 13 -The tenth session of United Nations Conference on Trade and Development taking place in Bangkok from 12-19 February is expected to open new vistas of development and globalization for the least developed and developing countries.

It is presumed that the significance of UNCTAD-X rose substantially after the failure of World Trade Organization’s Seattle round aimed at beginning the new rounds of trade negotiations. All the developing countries, which have been alleging WTO as the club of developed countries, are trying to reinvigorate the role of UNCTAD in global trade regime.

The countries looking for more effective role for the tenth session are considering the event as an ample opportunity to develop it as the potential competitor of the World Trade Organization. Whereas, the developed countries are trying to limit UNCTAD’s mandate to research and policy analysis, consensus building, and the provision of policy advice and technical assistance aimed primarily at capacity building.

However, projecting UNCTAD as a friendly organization for developing countries, Secretary General Rubens Ricupero said that any economic system that fails to offer poorer countries and the poorest parts of the populations within them will inevitably lose its legitimacy in much of the developing world. Ricupero also vows to develop UNCTAD as a "world parliament on globalization".

The statement of the Secretary General proves that UNCTAD is set to go beyond the traditional inter-governmental discussions on UNCTAD’s management and work program for the next four years. The Conference aims at producing an international consensus on policies and concrete actions to be implemented at the national and international levels to promote sustainable and equitable growth.

All the least developed countries including Nepal expect the UN body to work in the areas of trade facilitation, transport, transit, customs, banking and insurance, human resource development and business information. Moreover, Nepal would also spell out the need of land-locked countries.

The tenth session of the UNCTAD has brought together some 3000 participants, which include ministers and senior government officials from 190 member-countries and representatives of intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations and other segments of civil society.

The on-going quadrennial ministerial conference is the highest decision-making body of UNCTAD, a Geneva-based international organization which is the United Nations’ main instrument for the improvement of the socio-economic situation of the developing world.

The theme of UNCTAD-X — "Developmental Strategies in an increasingly interdependent world: applying the lessons of the past to make globalization an effective instrument for the development of all countries and all people" —has shown the commitment of the UN’s trade conference to justifiably disburse the benefits of globalization to all the countries of the world.

When the whole world is raising question about the need and effects of the rampant liberalization and globalization, it is expected that the developing countries will come out with a common understanding on the problems. They should also agree to prepare themselves to pursue the issues in the international fora like the United Nations, the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and WTO.

If the UNCTAD really establishes itself as "Parliament on Globalization" and if it becomes successful to work for the welfare of least developed countries, the tenth session should be considered a successful one.

At the moment when rampant globalization is also questioned by President Clinton during WTO’s Seattle Conference and World Economic Forum’s Davos meeting, by asking to listen anti-globalization voice, the importance of UNCTAD has certainly been elevated.

Bad impression thing of the past

By Gopal Tiwari

SEOUL, South Korea, Feb 13 - More than 1000 Nepalis and Koreans made a combine effort to append the bad impression left by the Nepali workers’ strike in Korea back in 1995.

Nepali and Koreans held a cultural and interaction programme in the capital of this Tiger Economy, which is rapidly brushing aside its wounds of South East Asian crisis.

On the occasion, talking to The Kathmandu Post, Young Soo Jun, chief of Lumbini Overseas Concern, associated with DASA Development Co, Inc. said, "There is a great opportunity for Nepalis to work in Korean companies, however, they should not undermine the rules and regulations of the companies they are employed with."

As increasing number of Nepalis are being employed in South Korean companies since 1994, we need to go further in building up relations between the two countries as well, said Jun.

Citing the reason for organizing such programme, Jun said it was an opportunity for Nepalis and Koreans to exchange their views. " If we got an opportunity for get-together once a year, we could easily understand the problems of the Nepali employees and their Korean employers," said Jun.

When asked to comment on the quality of Nepali employees here, Jun affably said that Nepalis are capable of working here and they could suit as well jobs in the global market.

However he was worried that some illegal Nepalis working here have joined hands with ‘churches’ for campaigning on religious activities that could ultimately jeopardize the friendly relationship between the two countries.

Babu Ram Bajgain, liaison officer working under the Lumbini Overseas since last six years in S Korea said Nepali cultural programmes here would help build up mutual relations and will ultimately open doors for Nepalis to land here for work in various global companies. He informed that more than 1000 Nepalis have been engaged in 300 different Korean companies in wide sectors like textile, steel, motor, electric, garments, among others.

Bajgain informed that Nepal, Myanmar and Philippines come under DASA Development Co Inc, which looks after employment related issues.

"As more Nepalis are working here for their livelihood this will ultimately help Nepalese government to ease out unemployment problem in the country and assist to boost economy."

Madhu Lamsal, Managing Director of Lumbini Overseas, Kathmandu office who looks after job opportunities in South Korea opined that the main objective of organizing Nepalese cultural programmes here is to make Nepali employees feel happy and know their problems closely. He said we organize cultural programmes and food festivals every year.

Our concern is to help Nepalis working in SKorea and try for more employment opportunities in the days ahead, Lamsal said.

A Korean national Jung Jea Sung commented that the Nepali cultural programme was very good and he enjoyed a lot throughout dances and songs performed by Nepali actress Bipana Thapa and Geeta Swar respectively. The singers group led by popular youth singer Ram Krishna Dhakal comprised of Sachin Singh, Sushil B K, Phadindra Rai, Rajendra Karna and Sunil Aryal. Two Nepalis working here namely Laxman Pandey and Prakash Budhathoki also danced on the occasion.