Hijack probe report made public Panel implicates 18 TIA officials

-By a Post Reporter

KATHMANDU, Jan 27 The investigation committee formed to look into the alleged security lapses at TIA on the day of Indian Airlines hijacking has recommended that the government take strong action against 18 officials posted at the airport.

“If officials at TIA had been adequately vigilant, the hijacking could have been possibly avoided,” Minister of Civil Aviation Bijaya Gachchhedar told reporters today after he read out parts of the commission report.

The offending officials include six Civil Aviation Authority officials, including the TIA General Manager Medini Prasad Sharma; nine security personnel including chief of the airport Superintendent of Police Binod Singh; and three National Investigation Department officials, including Deputy Superintendent of Police Damodar Das Shrestha.

Eleven of the 18 officials indicted for the hijacking are non-gazetted.

“Procedures required for the strong departmental action, which may include firing to filing criminal cases, will start from today,” Gachchhedar said at a press conference here Thursday.

The report, however, has stated that the security arrangements at the country’s only international airport on December 24 were in keeping with the ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) standards.

Gachchhedar said the investigation committee has also concluded that the five hijackers -- A.A. Shekh, S.A. Kaji, Jahar Ibrahim Mistri, Said Sahid Akhtar and Rajesh Gopal Verma -- could have slipped into the aircraft through the regular route which is followed by every departing passenger.

He said, “While their (the hijackers’) flight coupons and embarkation cards show that they are Indians, the developments that followed after the hijacking do not rule out chances that they registered under fake names and nationality.”

According to the probe report, there are no adequate evidences to establish that the hijackers were carrying sophisticated weapons and that they had entered the IC 814 from Kathmandu. The only death - of Indian national Rupin Katyal - aboard the ill-fated flight has been attributed to knife wounds.

The report maintains that the porous Indo-Nepal border has become vulnerable to terrorist activities and the possibilities of criminals from third countries (with similar appearances) abusing the open border were high.

The Minister, however, remained silent when asked whether the open border should be regulated in view of such developments.

The New Delhi-bound IC 814 was hijacked 40 minutes after the aircraft took off form Kathmandu. An emergency cabinet meeting held immediately after the hijacking on December 24 had formed a high-powered five-member investigation committee headed by former police chief Hem Bahadur Singh.

The committee was asked to submit its findings detailing the circumstances leading to the hijacking - first international flight to be hijacked in Nepal’s history - within 15 days. The report was submitted on Monday, a month after the hijacking.

When asked to elaborate the recommendations made by the committee, Gachchhedar said other major recommendations range from updating metal detectors, x-ray and other devices at the airport to removing duty-free shops and restaurants from the departure lounge. The committee has also recommended a fool-proof partition wall to separate incoming and outgoing passengers.

“We have already started the updating works in line with the recommendations,” Gachchhedar claimed.

According to him, the long term recommendations among others include, imparting special type of training to all the employees -- such as security personnel, customs and immigration officials -- staffed at the airport.

He said that the probe report is silent on the alleged involvement of a Nepali national in the hijacking, and the possibility of the hijackers slipping into the Indian Airlines aircraft from the airport tarmac, shortly after arriving on a Pakistan International Airlines flight from Karachi.

“That’s not possible,” he said when asked to comment on a claim made by India’s Zee News which telecast in graphic details the strong possibility of the hijackers going aboard the Indian Airlines plane after arriving on a PIA aircraft earlier on the same day, hinting that anything is possible at Kathmandu airport.

While parts of the much awaited report submitted by the investigation committee was publicised today, more will be announced “with the cabinet’s approval on different phases on coming days”, said Gachchhedar.

He said he would not rule out lapses on the part of Indian Airlines officials.

The hijacked plane made stops in India, Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates before landing in Afghanistan’s Kandahar on December 25. On New Year’s eve, the hijackers freed the remaining 155 hostages in exchange for three Kashmiri militants imprisoned in India.

Info-Tech 2000 opens in capital

-By a Post Reporter

KATHMANDU, Jan 27 - Hundreds of computer enthusiasts today began flocking the sixth annual information technology show which opened today.

Visitors will be able to browse through the latest technology has to offer for them over the next five days where over 50 exhibitors are showing off their goods and services related to computers and modern information technology.

The Computer Association of Nepal (CAN) for the past six years have been organizing the country’s largest information technology show to popularise computers among the masses.

Contrary to the belief that this year’s show would be dominated by talks about the Year 2000 or millennium bug better known to the world as Y2K, focus has been on the Internet as a path and infrastructure for communication development. Y2K has now become the thing of the past.

Fearing negative reactions, organizers had changed their original plan to name this year’s show as Into-Tech Y2K to Info-Tech 2000.

Despite the fact that a part of media sensationalized the issue of Y2K without gaining much understanding of the problem even as computer companies and programmers ruled out panic there was not much damage done by the so called bug apart from spoiling many people’s new year’s eve celebration.

The fear was that computer would go berserk when the clock hit the first second of year 2000 since most of the computers were programmed to recognize only last two digits of the year. Computers that were not fixed would have calculated the year 2000 as 00 and interpreted it as year 1900. For these computer February 20, 2000, would have been 20/02/00, and interpret it as a date out of the year 1900 — a whole century behind.

Over a thousand people visited the show today said organizers.

NCP(Maoist)  shuns NC

KATHMANDU, Jan 27 (PR) - The underground Nepal Communist Party (Maoist) has decided to initiate dialogue with political parties other than the ruling Nepali Congress(NC).

According to a press release signed by the party’s general secretary, Prachanda, the party’s plenum has felt the strong need to bring about sweeping change while still preserving the achievements of the historical “Popular Peoples Movement” of 1990.

“The plenum pointed out that there is a need for an integrated movement against the fascist Nepali Congress that thrives on corruption, bloodbath and treason,” the press release states. “That is why it stressed on holding dialogue with parties other than Nepali Congress.”

The press release has stated that it will sit for dialogue with the government only if it meets the party’s condition.

According to the press release, the conditions are: information about the real situation and the whereabouts of the missing Maoist leaders and cadres and immediate halt of merciless killing and kidnapping.

The press release also states the plenum has given top priority to bring into existence its concept of revolutionary government formed together with the patriots, pro-people and leftists. 

Koirala turns non-committal

KATHMANDU, Jan 27 (PR)  - Even a month after Nepali Congress (NC) President Girija Prasad Koirala reached an agreement with Prime Minister Krishna Prasad Bhattarai for transfer of power, Koirala today refused to offer details of the agreement.

 “Transfer of the premiership is a internal issue of the party and will be dealt within the party,” Koirala told reporters today.

After over half the lawmakers from the NC rebelled against Bhattarai seeking his ouster, an agreement had been reached between the two senior most leaders of the party.

Bhattarai had agreed to step down after the winter session of parliament paving way for a new prime minister.       Koirala however told reporters today that he has no desire for positions like that of the prime minister or the party president.

When asked about cabinet reshuffle, Koirala said he had no interest on that issue and it was the prime minister’s prerogative. Koirala said he was leaving on a tour of Maoist insurgency hit areas to draw a solution to the problem.

 “I am no magician but I will try ... I have gained national consensus to resolve this problem,” Koirala said. He said the main purpose of his visit beside getting first hand information and understanding of the problem will be to review the implementation of various packages announced by the government.

3 cops killed in Maoist raid

SALYAN, Jan 27 (PR) - Three policemen were killed and over a dozen seriously injured in a violent clash with Maoist rebels in a remote village late Wednesday.

A senior police officer in Rapti zone, meanwhile, suspects that about 10 rebels might also have been killed in the same incident, but the toll on the rebel side could not be verified. According to information provided by eyewitnesses, Maoist rebels surrounded the police post in Kalimati, Rampur VDC in Salyan district at about 10 pm Wednesday night and attacked the post with bombs and rifle fire. The site is about 7 hours walk from Khalanga, the district headquarters.

The rebels are said to have first flood-lit the police post and asked the policemen inside to lay down their arms and surrender. The bombing and firing began when policemen refused to surrender, eyewitnesses said.  About 25 policemen trapped inside the post returned fire but ultimately the rebels overran the post, according to reports.

Shedding light on the incident, senior police officers at the Regional Police Headquarters in Nepalgunj said that three policemen died in the attack and 14 were injured. The dead were identified as constables Mohan Thapa and Ekraj Oli of Surkhet and Narendra Thapa of Dailekh.

Among the injured is Inspector Thaneshwar Regmi who commanded the police post. He and the other injured policemen were airlifted to Nepalgunj for treatment today, police said.

Meanwhile, Rapti Zonal Senior Superintendent of Police Basudev Oli said that about 10 rebels could also have been killed in the battle. But the information could not be verified. In another Maoist-related incident, a young man carrying explosives was blown to bits just about 500 metres from Khalanga Bazaar, the district headquarters of Rukum. Our reporter in nearby Jajarkot, citing police sources, said the incident took place Thursday morning.

Police suspect the man was carrying the explosives to blow up the police post in Khalanga Bazaar but the bombs somehow went off before he could reach the bazaar.

With this incident, the toll in the ongoing Maoist insurgency has reached 1128, Home Ministry officials said. Home Ministry spokesman Gopendra Pandey said that 115 policemen, 836 rebels and 177 innocent people have died in the insurgency so far.

Reports from Nepalgunj, meanwhile, said that police have thrown a tight cordon around the injured policemen. A journalist was manhandled and a news photographer's newsreel confiscated by police when they tried to gather information about the incident.

Activists suggestive of legalising flesh trade to give it a human face

-By Sanjeev Ghimire

KATHMANDU, Jan 27 Perhaps the world’s oldest profession, flesh trade will continue to exist as long as human civilization does.

The least a state can do, therefore, is to manage it. The idea of legalizing prostitution may sound “revolutionary” to most Nepalis but it is time the profession was viewed in a different light altogether, suggest experts.

“Sex workers are labourers - just like any other labourers,” says Dr Renu Rajbhandari, chairperson of the Women Rehabilitation Centre. “Why stigmatise the profession?”

There is almost a consensus among health workers that prostitution, especially the heterogeneous kind, should be legalised. Eighty-seven percent of the invincible HIV/AIDS enters the human body through heterogeneous sex (mostly through prostitution) and males have higher chances of being infected than females - almost 69 percent. The Indian sub-continent has a booming HIV infected population.

Since both prostitutes and their clients are mostly illiterate, educating and even assisting them with quality contraceptives for “safe sex” is “the practical way” to overcome the threat of HIV/AIDS.

“Moreover, regular monitoring of the restricted red light area will drastically reduce the threat of the deadly disease,” says Dr Benu Bahadur Karki, Chief of the Policy Planning Division at the Ministry of Health.

The experience of the Badi community, who traditionally operated as sex workers at Gagangunj in Nepalgunj, may be an eye-opener. Once living in close-knit clusters, the Badis were gradually displaced by other orthodox communities. They have now settled in different parts of the country and are believed be active in underground prostitution. “We used to provide them with regular counselling and high quality contraceptives,” says Purna Shrestha, officer with Enhanced Support for HIV Prevention in Nepal, working under Save the Children US, an INGO. “Now we don’t know where they are.”

Police officials agree that the establishment of red light areas would help regulate prostitution and reduce various forms of abuses. “It will provide security to the sex workers who are often defenceless and routinely abused,” says Deputy Inspector General of Police Govind Prasad Thapa.

Not every official is comfortable with the idea of “legalizing prostitution, though. “As far as establishment of brothels for the prevention of HIV/AIDS and other forms of deadly diseses are concerned,” says Chief Secretary Tirtha Man Shakya, “the government may develop separate HIV/AIDS Prevention regulations to focus on the very serious crisis.”

There are contradictions in the present legal system about the status of sex workers. The article on Human Trafficking in Muluki Ain (2020) and Human Trafficking Act (2043), legislations that deal with sex workers, do not reprove either the prostitutes or their clients except in case of forced practice and trafficking. But the conservative state mechanism succeeds in executing them through other legal tools.

Most sex workers are charged of “displaying vulgarity at public places” and hence executed under the Public Offense Act. This despite the fact that the sex work is accomplished at private residences of either the prostitutes or their clients, or at hotels and lodges - none of which is a “public place” as the law defines it.

Many argue even the police, local administrators and their associates are resorting to the Public Offense Act to exploit sex workers. “Any prostitute who does not comply with their demands is threatened with various forms of prosecution,” says Advocate Sapana Pradhan. “In most cases they are forced into sex for nothing. Virtually, their is no legal armour for them.”

Social boycott is another serious problem sex workers face and this is again due to criminalisation of their occupation. The social tendency to mix voluntary prostitution with forced sex or trafficking appears to be responsible for this. Prostitution is just another enterprise and every one should have the right to choose his occupation unless they are against the interest of their society or the state.

“It is a fundamental human rights,” argues Dr Rajbhandari. “They (prostitutes) should be free to practice their vocation. De-criminalisation of sex work would empower them against all the offenses they have to face for choosing the occupation, generally under frail financial situation.”

International Labour Organisation (ILO) Core Conventions do not disapprove of any form of labour unless it is child labour or forced labour. On the other hand, criminalisation of sex work has deprived prostitutes of their basic rights to associate, one of Core ILO Conventions.

The countries, especially in Europe, where prostitution is legalised, sex workers are empowered with the law and live much prosperous and healthy life.

“But there is a vast difference between our context and that of Europe,” says advocate Pradhan. “The success of legalizing prostitution will depend largely on effective enforcement of legislations and regulations related to the profession. Since our implementation capability is weak, the results (of legalizing prostitution) may even be adverse.”

“Prostitution should be legalised but the laws governing prostitution should be very seriously thought out and rigorously implemented,” says a high-ranking official with the Ministry of Law insisting anonymity.

IC 500 bank notes not accepted in India

-By Madhav Dhungana

BHAIRAHAWA, Jan 27 - The seizure of counterfeit Indian currencies (IC) in the capital early this month has had a direct bearing on businesses in border areas as the Indian Reserve Bank has stopped accepting IC with 500 denomination from Nepal.

Although the banks in Nepal had stopped accepting Indian Rs 500 notes since few years back, the banks, money exchange counters and shopkeepers on both sides of the border continued to use these notes.

However, security officials at the Indian side have started seizing Rs 500 notes at the border point these days. According to Dinesh Shrestha of Amarpath, Butwal, who trades in radio and television sets, the security officials at Customs in Sunauli seized IC worth thousands of rupees from him. “They (security) took away IC 47,000 I possessed and IC 85,000 from my cousin,” he said.

“The Indian security personnel at first demanded half the amount of money we carried but when we refused they seized all of it,” he said. “We were heading towards Gorakhpur to procure clocks, radio and TV sets.”

When asked about the incident, Dipankar Airan, Assistant Commissioner at Sunauli Customs at the Nepal-India border, said the money was seized as per the policy of stopping the dealing of IC 500 from Nepal.

Even the money exchange counters on both sides of the border have stopped accepting the notes. “We have stopped taking IC 500 notes after we came to know of the rule,” said Manager at Lumbini Money Exchange Counter in Bhairahawa Chandrakant Adhikary. “This will have a great impact on Nepali economy.”

The branch office of Nepal Rastra Bank too refuses to accept IC 500 notes that Nepalis possess. Khumanand Gautam, Manager at Nepal Rastra Bank’s Bhairahawa branch, said the bank had stopped taking IC 500 since five years back. “If people keep IC 500 with them despite our notice that we will not accept it, then they themselves are to be blamed for the present situation,” he said.

The decision to stop taking Indian notes with denominations higher than 100 from Nepal was published in one of the Indian daily newspaper on January 22 which quoted a press release issued by the Auxillary Border Fees Committee in Nautanwa, Maharajgunj. The news states that trade among businessmen from Nepal and India in IC Rs 500 will be considered a crime under the Customs Act 1962.

Airan said although the policy to ban IC 500 from Nepal was implemented in 1989, it is being implemented strictly these days.

According to an official at the Sunauli Customs, the rule was implemented after the arrest of Saboor Asam, a Pakistani diplomat, with counterfeit Indian currencies in Kathmandu in January 2.

Businessmen estimate there are IC 500 notes worth millions of rupees floating in Bhairahawa. Sanjog Bajimaya, proprietor of Daily Needs Departmental Store said “the total IC 500 notes with Nepalis in Bhairahawa could be worth Rs 25 million”.

“Most of the readymade garment stores in Bhairahawa do business in IC 500,” said Bajimaya. “Most of the customers are Indian so people from faraway Indian villages bring Rs 500 as it is easy to carry.”

Likewise, since the food grain traders in Galla Mandi too do business with their counterparts in India, businessmen suspect they could have a substantial amount of IC 500. The Indian businessmen across the border too are not happy with the strict implementation of the policy. Nand Kishor Sharma, who runs a store infront of the Sunauli Customs, said business has dipped ever since this rule was imposed.

While Gautam states the government has to take initiative to change the stock of IC 500, Airan maintains it’s the problem of Nepal only.

Despite the new rule, The State Bank of India, Sunauli, still cashes Nepali account holders in IC 500. The SBI Bank Nepal, however, does not deal in it.  

More on incident of double cremation

-By a Post Reporter

KATHMANDU, Jan 27 - Relatives of Shyam Karki, who died in a bus accident Monday, will soon be performing his last rites again, two days after they cremated the dead body of Tanka Bishwakarma assuming that the corpse was Karki’s.

Karki’s relatives took away the corpse of Tanka Bishwakarma, who had hanged himself to death on Sunday, from Bir hospital’s mortuary, where corpses taken for post-mortem are piled up in wrapped plastic packs.

While Bishwakarma’s relatives got a rude shock Wednesday to know that his body had already been taken away for last rites, Shyam’s body was lying unclaimed at the stinking mortuary.  

Bipin Ojha, a security personnel at Bir Hospital said Thursday that the relatives of Karki, rushed to the hospital to check the corpse this morning. They had arrived there hoping that the unclaimed body could still be lying at the mortuary as reported by Kantipur and The Kathmandu Post.

Karki’s brothers, who had returned to their village in Charikot after performing last rites of their beloved brother, re-turned up at Bir Hospital this evening to re-claim Karki’s corpse. Police plan to handover Karki’s corpse to the relatives after retrieving Bishwakarma’s asthu from them.

CBS report on labour force released

-By a Post Reporter

KATHMANDU, Jan 27 - Nepal’s unemployment rate has drastically dropped from 4.9 percent to 1.8 percent, and under-employment from 47 percent to a mere 4 percent, according to a newly released report by the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS).

The drastic drop in unemployment and under-employment has made some changes in how it defines the “labour force”.

CBS says international definitions and standards, strictly recommended by the International Labour Organisation (ILO), have been adopted for the first time.

The percentage rates “drastically dropped”  because household activities like fetching water and collecting firewood,   now come within the boundary of economic activity. The latest report was by CBS in collaboration with the UNDP and ILO.

However, if the old definition of “labour force” is to be continued, the unemployment rate would jump from 4.9 percent to 5.2 percent, according to the CBS report. The last unemployment rate calculation done in 1996 under the “Nepal Living Standard Survey” had come across the figure of 4.9 percent unemployment by using the old definition of “labour force”.

Senior Specialist in labour statistics at ILO Bob Pember said that it was normal that the unemployment and the under-employment rate is very low in the country.

“No one in this country can afford to survive with out work. The very few who are unemployed or under-employed survive because they are supported by their families who in turn work hard.”

According to the new definition of unemployed, it is those who are “currently unemployed”.  Or those who were available to work and did not look for work because they thought no work was available, or they were awaiting the results of previous enquiries, or waiting to start work, or considered that it was the off-season for, say, fishing and agriculture. This is according to the ILO definition. Special feature of the survey is that it has additional information about various non-work activities like cooking, cleaning and child-minding so as to measure the contribution of men, women and children for household maintenance.

The survey reveals that though men and women spend roughly same amount of time doing work activities (216 million hours a week, for men and 197 million for women in aggregate), women spend 132 million hours a week on these household activities while men spend only 25 million hours.

Economist Meera Acharya lauded the report for encompassing the “non-work activities” of housewives into economic activities.  General Secretary of the General Federation of Nepalese Trade Unions (GEFONT) Bishnu Rimal says, defining household work as economic activities.

Over 14,000 households comprising almost 72,000 people around the country were used as sample population for the survey.