Planetary Alignement billed safe

By a Post Reporter

KATHMANDU, May 4 - NASA scientists have said that the unusual alignment this week of eight major bodies in the solar system, including Earth, is no cause for panic, according to information culled from the Internet.

The Earth will join the Moon, Sun, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn in an approximate line for several days beginning Wednesday. The grouping will come closest to forming a straight line on Friday at about 2:00 p.m Nepali time.

The statement contradicts with that of prophets of doom who expect the worst: cataclysmic floods, earthquakes, tidal waves and volcanic eruptions triggered by gravitational forces from Earth neighbours.

Roughly speaking, the inner six planets are aligned every 50 to 100 years or so, a newsreport available at the website - CNN.com - quoted David R Williams of NASA Goddard Space Flight Centre as saying.

The report, however, added, "But the configuration of these eight bodies is more rare of a rarity. They lined up in a somewhat similar fashion in 1962 and won’t do so again until 2625, according to Don Yeomans and Steve Edberg of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory."

Talks for refugee verification soon

By a Post Reporter

KATHMANDU, May 4 - Foreign Ministers of Nepal and Bhutan are meeting this month to discuss the verification process of the Bhutanese refugees languishing in the camps in eastern Nepal since the past one decade.

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Sadako Ogata, the meeting will be a harbinger of the refugees repatriation.

"The two governments at the ministerial level are slated to have a meeting before the end of this month," said Ogata at a press conference organised here today. "And ...I hope we can start very soon, (verification process) within a month"

Bhutan agreed to go for verification for the first time after four rounds of futile bilateral talks in Kathmandu on September last year during the 8th Joint Ministerial Level Committee (JMLC). The bilateral talks had failed to make a headway after the third round of negotiation held in April 1994 in Kathmandu.

After four rounds of unproductive negotiations, the seventh round of JMLC meeting had ended in a deadlock that led to a hiatus of more than three years in the refugee talks when the then Foreign Minister Dr Prakash Chandra Lohani insisted on forming the verification team in April 1996.

The Kathmandu meeting on September broke the long spell of silence but did not yield any concrete results as the two sides could not agree on the modality of the verification process. Though Bhutan agreed to go for verification she objected to Nepal’s proposal of going from camp to camp.

Bhutan then stressed on taking the list of 3,000 persons prepared by an individual from UNHCR as the basis for verification.

Ogata today said the two governments would take the database prepared by UNHCR as the base for the verification but added the database have not yet been shown to the two governments. UNHCR officials kept the record of all refugees who entered Nepal at Kakarbhitta immediately after the ethnic cleansing.

Ogata, who visited the Druk Kingdom famous for legendary hospitality and savvy diplomacy prior to her visit here said she was optimistic that the joint field verification will pave way for the repatriation of refugees after talking to Bhutanese authorities.

"I have had intensive discussion with both the governments," she said. "I am optimistic. I’m not saying very optimistic... There maybe difficulties but there seems to be some kind of commitment."

When asked about Bhutan’s position in the issue, she said, "Bhutan is willing to discuss all claims."

As to the query questioning the sincerity of Bhutan since she has been saying she is open to the idea of repatriation ever since the problem arose in late 1990, Ogata said, "There has been a change in Bhutan’s stand since 1998."

Although Ogata expressed UNHCR’s willingness to act as a facilitator and welcomed any other international mediation, she said there was a need for political will in both the countries "to push us through."

"India with its presence, interest and influence would be very welcome to lend its support," she said while answering a question on whether the solution could not be reached bilaterally. "I will convey (during the visit to India) the feelings and expectation of the countries to have India’s support, especially, in the implementation," she said.

To the question on what she thought of the refugees in the camps, Ogata said, "Most of them had documents and most of them wanted to go home." But when asked if that was a qualification for them to go back she said, "Return is voluntary and both the governments have to understand this." She visited the camps in Goldhap and Beldangi in Jhapa the very first day she arrived here.

The 8th JMLC meeting that concluded in September 16 was followed by two rounds of secretarial talks both in Bhutan and in Nepal to prepare groundwork for the ministerial level meeting. The secretarial level meeting worked on verification modalities, terms of reference, proforma and the composition of verification team.

Ogata left for New Delhi, India this morning.

Meanwhile, on the last day of Ogata’s visit today, Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a joint press communique.

According to the communique, Minister for Foreign Affairs Chakra Prasad Bastola reiterated Nepal’s keen desire to end the unfortunate plight of the Bhutanese refugees at the earliest.

"Minister Bastola also stressed the crucial importance of political will in the dialogue to resolve the problem and expressed the view that such political determination would lead to an evolution of a mechanism to carry out understanding reached between the two governments without serious difficulties," states the press release.

According to the release Ogata told the Foreign Minister that Bhutanese authorities had assured her that Bhutan was prepared to display a flexibility necessary for an early solution to the problem of Bhutanese refugees in Nepal.

Union leaders flay vested interests

By a Post Reporter

KATHMANDU , May 4 - A pro-left labour leader today said political parties do not want trade unions to unite due to their own vested interest.

Speaking at a press conference after the conclusion of the Third National Congress of General Federation of Nepalese Trade Unions (GEFONT), a pro-UML workers union, Mukund Neupane, the newly elected Chairman, said political parties would not support the move of unification of trade unions fearing the united body would become too powerful. "They fear a single united labour force may act against them," he said.

Neupane said GEFONT has called upon pro-Nepali Congress union Nepal Trade Union Congress (NTUC) and Democratic Confederation of Nepalese Trade Unions (DECONT) to unite into a single body. However, he said the plan is not moving forward as "other union bodies are not showing seriousness."

According to Neupane, the reason why GEFONT was making the call was because too many programmes were being duplicated like taking to streets, protests and strikes on the same issue(s).

Stating that absolute non-alignment has lost its importance and involvement and resistance have become inevitable, Neupane said his federation would neither be a unit of any political party nor be an absolutely independent entity. "We will follow a middle path," he said. He also added that GEFONT would join hands with any party, including Nepali Congress on pro-worker issues and policies.

10th Raid Gauloises Trans Himalayan 2000 Leading teams head towards Harkapur

By Tika Bhatta

MANTHALI, Ramechhap, May 4 - Drenching themselves on the swirling white waters of Sunkoshi river, five teams of the on-going 10th Raid Gauloises Trans Himalayan 2000 left for Harkapur on their canoes early today.

Divided into 69 groups, some 500 athletes from 15 countries are participating in the 827-km action-packed event that started from Tibetan Autonomous Region of China’s Shegar Dzong, 450 km south of Lhasa, early this week.

While the five members of the Solomon Landrover team, with athletes from USA and New Zealand, were the first ones to canoe down the river, the French Ertips Solomon team and the Finnish Nokia Adventure team were the second and third teams to embark on the 12 day-long race’s second leg today.

The first team set out at 5:30 am, the second team at 5:34 am and the third team at 5:35 am Thursday morning. The teams had arrived here Wednesday night covering a 86-km trekking distance from Dolalghat at 10:38 pm, 11:03 pm and 2:58 am, respectively.

Convinced that the teams would arrive as early as 6:00 pm in the evening Wednesday, the organizers had even arranged a welcome at this central hill district hub. But the programme was later cancelled.

They, however, welcomed the members of the French Intersport and Gtm Pizzorno teams both of who arrived at 7:30 am today. Both teams left for Harkapur half an hour later--at 8:05 am.

Sharing their experiences in climbing up and down the Dolalghat-Manthali trail which passes through rugged hilly terrains and through dense forests, members of the Solomon Landrover team said that they found the trail "extremely difficult to walk through."

"We were extremely tired while hiking on these trials," said an athelete, "but the warm welcome and affection shown to us by some Nepalis along the trail energized us." The athletes, however, said that they found the trail on the Nepalese side comfortable compared to that on the Tibetan side.

While the assistants and helpers of some of the participating teams are waiting for their teams to arrive braving the sweltering mid-day heat here, the assistants of the five teams who set out today have already left for Sibai, Udaypur, by cars via Kathmandu.

Besides canoeing, the participants of the multi-disciplinary race are due for rafting, kayaking and canoeering sessions along the Sunkoshi river. The event will come to an end sometime on or after May 12 in Janakpur in Nepal’s central Terai (plains) after the athletes mountainbike through a Terai trail starting from Sibai.

Three teams--a Swedish, an American, a German--give up the race Wednesday, Raid Gauloises officials told reporters here last evening. In addition to this, eight French, two Belgian, one American, one Dutch (Netherlands), and one Swedish teams have been disqualified from the race previously.

Besides local media personnel, 120 journalists from around the world are covering the adventure- and fun-filled event. Nepal’s state-owned Nepal TV, Euro Sport International Channel, ABC of the US, NHK of Japan, and other international TV channels are beaming the megaevent to an international audience each day. The event is being webcast live on the Internet (www. raid-gauloises.com).

Journos suggest non- partisan reporting

By a Post Reporter

KATHMANDU, May 4 - Senior mediapersons have suggested journalists to uphold unbiased and non-partisan reporting and educate the masses on the issues of grave social and national concerns.

At a programme organized by the Reporters’ Club to celebrate World Press Freedom Day, on Wednesday, senior journalists and publishers of the country’s leading media houses spoke at length on the need to protect among others the freedom of speech and uphold each individual’s constitutional right to information.

"Unlike in many other countries the right to information is provided for by the constitution," said Harihar Birahi, President of the Nepal Press Council. "But it needs to be defined and made into a law."

All speakers reached a consensus that the flow of information was fundamental to democratic institutions.

"In ten years of democracy, we have gained a measure of freedom and for this we should be glad," said Hemraj Gyawali, Chairman of Kantipur Publications, the publisher of this newspaper. "The achievements are satisfactory, but there are still room for improvement."

He flayed the government’s discriminatory policy that tends to promote government-owned media at the cost of private or non- governmental sector media. "We have many instances which have seen representatives from the non-governmental sector return with little or no information," he said. "This has disappointed many."

Touching upon the financial and practical aspect of newspaper publication, he said that since 50 percent of the paper’s income is spent on the press, this makes it difficult to bring out papers of superior quality.

Somnath Ghimire of the Nepal Press Council questioned how much effort journalists in the country had put into the dissemination of unbiased information. He said Nepal’s journalism sector has not yet witnessed a qualitative growth.

"There must be less of speculative news," said Durganath Sharma of Nepal Television. "In this era of Information Technology, journalists must broaden their horizons."

He criticised the print media for only listing factual figures of the number of dead in the Maoist crisis. The public expects more, he said.

"The problems facing the country will not be solved by just veering away from the problems and only listing accusations without subjecting them to analysis," said Malla K. Sundar, a senior left journalist, referring to a report prepared by Amsterdam University on the state of Nepalese media.