Deuba decides to write to the Maoists

KATHMANDU, July 28 (PR)- The High-level Consensus Seeking Commission to resolve Maoist insurgency has decided to send a formal letter to the underground Nepal Communist Party (Maoist) for dialogue, according to Sher Bahadur Deuba, former prime minister and head of the Commission here today.

The Commission had decided on Thursday to send a letter to the rebels.

"The draft of the letter is being prepared," Deuba told The Kathmandu Post today. "We believe the date of the talks will be decided, acceptable to both the sides," added Deuba.

Deuba also urged the rebels to sit for talks and added that small hitches should not impede the dialogue. On Monday, Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala had sent a letter to Deuba giving him full authority to pursue dialogue with the rebels.

Minutes before landing, how dreams were shattered...

By Narayan Wagle

DHANGADI, July 28 - All that the Royal Nepal Airlines Corporation (RNAC) Twin Otter which Captain Wangdi Lama was piloting needed was to cross the last Chure hill for a safe landing.

"Crossing Last Ridge...descending, 12,500 feet," Lama had radioed the control tower in Dhangadi airport at 10:31 am. Raghubar Singh Yadav, technician at the airport, immediately responded, saying: "Runway 09...(enter runway from the West towards the East)."

The airport air was soon interrupted with a wailing siren signalling an aircraft landing.

RA-9NABP, the aircraft, was slated to land here at 10:36...But, it was then that the aircraft soon lost radio contact. All that remained was an eerie silence.

Alas, the last word that the airport control tower ever heard from the plane was the voice of a confident captain preparing to land. But, who would have guessed? The captain would soon be down with 24 others "with the ship" amongst the pine trees at a hill in Dadeldhura.

"Technicians say that the aircraft could have easily entered the Terai if it only was 10 feet higher," said Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Tarani Dutta Chataut, who is here in this far-western district coordinating the rescue operations.

According to a technician, the Captain must have "descended early" being too confident that the plane had already crossed the hill and felt he was real close to Dhangadi. Or, the aircraft could have also entered a cloud patch.

The aircraft had chopped off a pine tree before it banged into a second one, scattering its pieces across both sides of the Chure hill about some 4,300 feet. The second tree was ripped off its roots and thrown off some 15 feet away. However, all the bodies were found intact and close to the crash site. The plane engine was found some 100 meters down on a cliff.

Technicians also said that the aircraft could have chosen to fly a little away from its normal route to spot the banks of Mahakali river. The ill-fated plane then must be planning to fly along the river up to Kanchanpur's Mahendranagar and then move eastward towards its destination in Dhangadi, they said.

Technicians even speculated that the pilot could have moved immediately westward after he received the command, "Runway 09," meaning to approach the runway from the west towards the east.

State Minister for Local Development Suresh Malla, Minister Chataut and Director of RNAC Hari Bhakta Shrestha all categorically denied that the aircraft was overweight during the flight that ended in a crash at the Chure Hill.

According to Dhan Bahadur Bista, Himmat Bista and Govind Bahadur Bista, the locals who were witness to the entire crash scene, all the passengers were already dead when they reached the scene minutes after the crash.

Bodies of all crash victims recovered 

By Surendra Phuyal and Man Mohan Swar 

NEPALGUNJ, July 28 - Dead bodies of all the 25 victims on board the ill-fated Royal Nepal Airlines aircraft have been recovered. Most of the bodies have been handed over to their relatives, according to officials.

Bodies of 22 victims were airlifted to Dhangadi by a Karnali Airways helicopter at about 3 p.m, Dr Krishna Kumar Rai, Medical Superintendent at Seti Zonal Hospital, Dhangadi said. The bodies of co-pilot Darshan Shrestha and air hostess Tina Baba Shrestha were brought here at 11 a.m on Friday.

The body of pilot Wangdi Lama was recovered yesterday.

All were aboard the ill-fated RA 9NABP Twin Otter that crashed en route to Dhangadi from Bajhang at about 10:31 a.m on Thursday. The aircraft met with the fatal accident when it crashed on the pine trees atop the 4,300 ft high hill on the Churia mountain range in Dadeldhura district.

Police sources said that the bodies of all the victims except that of ASI Shiva Singh Dhami (Darchula) and Rameshwar Paneru (Kailali) have been handed over to the relatives.

Officials in Dhangadi said the last rites of the 14 victims from Bajhang were performed at Mohanaghat on the bank of Mohana river in the presence of their relatives. The near and dear ones of the 14 from Bajhang had been flown to Dhangadi at 3:44 p.m in a RNAC aircraft. According to Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, the bodies of the three crew members were flown to Kathmandu later today.

Similarly, the bodies of Assistant CDO Upendra Dhakal (Syangja), LDO of Bajhang Roma Ram Pokharel (Dang), Women Development  Officer Sunita Kafle of Syangja and her daughter Sanskriti Kafle, NFC's Bungal, Bajhang food depot chief Yubaraj Ghimire (Lamjung), and Divisional Engineer Mahendra Lal Karna (Mahottari) were also flown to their respective districts.

RNAC Executive Director Hari Bhakta Shrestha said the government would hand out compensation of Rs. 25,000 each to the families. Family members of more than half of the victims received the amount today, he said.

Meanwhile, Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Tarini Dutta Chataut awarded Dhan B Bista, Hikmat B Bista and Govinda Bahadur of Jogbuda VDC-9, the first persons to inform police about the accident, with Rs. 5,000 each in Dhangadi. He also announced that the government had awarded the locals of Jogbuda, who helped carry out the search operation successfully with a lumpsum amount of Rs. 10,000.

Most of the air crash victims were from Bajhang. Of the 14 Bajhangis, five were from Luyota VDC. It has been learnt that they were college students on their way to Dhangadi. Two of them - Keshav and Krishna Khadka - were brothers.

Assistant CDO Upendra Dhakal was on his way to the capital city, it is learnt. He was scheduled to attend an important meeting at the Home Ministry. LDO Pokharel too was due to attend an important meeting in Kathmandu. Women Development Officer Kafle was also on her way to the capital together with her two-year-old daughter, Sunita.

According to MP Yadav, CDO at Bajhang, Bajhang Drinking Water Supply Engineer Karna was also on his way to the capital. While ASI Dhami was on his way to Dhangadi for medical treatment.

Similarly, Department of Hydrology and Meteorology staff Surya B Bhandari was on his way to Dhangadi from his home, where he was based.

Acting Engineer at Housing and Urban Development Office Bharat Bahadur Thapa was on his way to the capital for official work together with his youngest son, Gyanendra Thapa.

NFC's depot chief Ghimire was leaving Bajhang for his new office after he was transferred. Agriculture Inputs Corporation staff Paneru too was leaving Bajhang for Baitadi where he was transferred.

An official in Bajhang's Chainpur said the news of the air crash left most people in Bajhang restless all day yesterday and today. The exact cause of the accident is not clear, but officials said the aircraft could have crashed due to bad weather.

Govt urged to tax multinationals 

By a Post Reporter

LALITPUR, July 28 - Hydro-power experts today pointed out the need to make the multinational companies that take on the hydel projects to pay income tax for the electricity they produce and export.

They also urged the government to produce electricity as a development tool for the country rather than a commodity.

At a programme that discussed the draft on Hydro-power Development Policy organised by Nepal Engineers' Association (NEA), political leaders as well as hydro-power experts said that the provision of "no-tax" to foreign agencies basically generating electricity for export purpose should be dropped.

"The provision to make electricity production and its selling tax-free should be omitted from the policy," said Ram Sharan Mahat, NC lawmaker.

"The arrangement to allow multinational companies to produce electricity for export purpose for a certain period of time is not right, said Hari Darshan Shrestha, general secretary of NEA.

"By the time the projects come to the government, the technology becomes almost unsupportable and the government would have problems only maintaining the construction."

The draft on Hydro-power policy is currently awaiting the Cabinet's final approval to gain the status of policy. According to the draft, Nepal holds a potential to generate around 4,200 megawatt of electricity.

The draft has emphasised on rural electrification and has made provision for a regulatory body that would determine the electricity tariff and supervise, protect and make sure that the electricity flow is not interrupted. The other suggested promotional body, that would look into the entire process of attracting private sectors, is to invest in hydro-power projects and handover the projects through competition.

Earlier, inaugurating the symposium, Deputy Prime Minister Ram Chandra Poudel said that development of the country was stagnated due to "very expensive electricity".

"We buy electricity at Rs 8/9 from foreigners and sell it back to them at Rs 4/5," said Poudel. "How much dollars are we paying to the foreigners in Khimti, Bhote Koshi and Modi hydel projects?" Poudel asked.  "If we can meet the national demand of electricity from small hydel projects then we should opt for it," said Poudel.

Mahat said that the ultimate burden of paying such "high prices" to produce electricity goes to the consumers and tax-payers. "There is a huge loss of electric power and we should be able to tap the 24 percent pilferage."

"We have been cheated. We are not even able to capitalise the water that flows from Nepal to India for irrigation because India opposes it," said Mahat.

PM Koirala's visit dubbed as 'most important one'

By a Post Reporter

KATHMANDU, July 28 - In the series of discussion and debate being held prior to Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala's visit to India, foreign relations experts today said that this will be the most important such trip to India by a Nepali PM in the recent years.

The proposed visit by the prime minister early next month comes nearly four years since then Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba had stepped on the Indian soil and after few strains in the relations between the two neighbouring countries.

"This visit is not only important for the relations between the two countries but will be the most important visit by a Nepali PM to India so far," said Som Nath Pandey, Chairman of the Parliamentary Foreign Affairs and Human Rights Committee.

Pandey said the Committee has invited Koirala later this week to discuss the upcoming visit. He said issues like review of the outdated 1950 Peace and Friendship Treaty and the border issues should be given priority during the visit.

"The recent agreements may have settled the issue of 917 kilometres of border but the question and debate remains on the 700 kilometres or so of the border," Pandey said.

He said that it is not just Nepal but India that needs to take up the concerns raised by its smaller neighbouring country.

"India needs to seriously take up the problems raised by Nepal. In the past, India has been creating confusion by not taking up the matters in good faith," Pandey alleged.

Former Nepalese Ambassador to India Prof. Lok Raj Baral said that the past four years of gap has led to break in preparation works over many issues.

"The tendency to do homework on the very last minute will be the main hurdle in resolving the problems faced by the two nations. The fact that there has not been a visit in so many years itself is a serious issue," Baral said.

Former Foreign Minister Prakash Chandra Lohani suggested that the prime minister clearly specify the "laxman rekha" (boundaries) of what is acceptable and what is not to Nepal during the visit.

"The prime minister should be able to clearly take stand on issues of vital national interest and should not hesitate to speak out all the issues of concern," Lohani said.

Nepal should also ask India clearly what its security perception is that it has been raising time and again. India in the past has voiced concern over alleged actiivities by Pakistani agents in Nepal targetted India. And since an Indian Airlines passenger jet was hijacked minutes after taking off from Kathmandu airport, India has been pressing for increased security.

SC justice's resignation sought over rape case

By a Post Reporter

KATHMANDU, July 28 - Upper House lawmakers raised the issue of rape and murder of Sarita Rimal and demanded that the government seek the resignation of Supreme Court Justice, Bhairab Prasad Lamsal and ensure strict punishment for the culprit.

"This ghastly incident of rape of a 14-year old took place in the house of Justice Lamsal and his son has absconded since then," said Goma Devkota, CPN-UML MP. "The government should investigate the matter and punish the guilty and ask Lamsal to resign."

Sarita Rimal, 14, from Khandbhanjyang village of Nuwakot district was found dead on the morning of July 14. Police investigation and post-mortem report showed that Rimal was raped before being strangulated to death the previous night.

However, the Lamsal family had claimed that she committed suicide consuming Metacid, a pesticide.

According to a Police source, evidences of male semen and blood in her bed were found. The post-mortem report mentioned marks on her neck and a broken bone, proving that she had been strangulated to death after being raped.

"It is a matter of shame that the rape and murder took place in the house of a judge," said MP Devendra Ghimire, also of CPN-UML. "What is the Home Ministry doing?" she asked.

Another CPN-UML MP Tham Maya Thapa alleged that there were attempts to "cover up" the entire incident. 

Police had summoned Justice Lamsal's son, Ashok Lamsal, for inquiry on July 19.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, Sahdev Mandal, father of Samod Mandal, another minor working in the Lamsal household, said his son was framed in the case to protect the actual criminal. Samod, a 13-year-old, was arrested earlier this week on charges of committing the crime.

According to police sources, Rimal's soiled panty and blood sample of Justice Lamsal's son had been sent to the laboratory for tests at the Police Headquarters. The blood report has still not been made public.

Although it is illegal to make children below 16 years work, Rimal and Mandal, both below that age, were working in Justice Lamsal's house.