Dramatic finale to Maoist ultimatum
Key rebel leader free, development raises further questions

By Damakant Jayshi

KATHMANDU, Nov 3 - Two top Maoist rebels were presented before the press by the government on Friday, fulfilling one of the key demands put forward by the rebel group.

But soon after captured rebel leader Dinesh Sharma and Dinanath Gautam were made public, the two rebel leaders were freed. It is unclear whether the government released them or they were facilitated to "escape."

Deputy Prime Minister Ram Chandra Poudel, who is the government's point-man in negotiations with the Maoists, refused to comment on the latest developments.

But sources indicated that Sharma's and Gautam's freedom later in the day was part of a "face saving" strategy employed by the government. It is unclear at this moment whether the Maoists are also involved in this "face saving" strategy.

The two rebels were paraded before the press, and made to renounce violence, just when the 3 p.m. deadline set by top Maoist leader "Comrade Prachanda" was nearing expiry today. Making public Sharma, who is a central committee member of the Maoist party, and other captured rebels' whereabouts was one of the key demands put forward by Prachanda in his ultimatum.

Sharma and Gautam are not only free, but they have also refuted the earlier statement made Friday while being presented to the press. At the time, both Sharma and Gautam had said that they were renouncing violence.  

Sharma told journalists that both he and Gautam were wedded to Marxism, Leninism and Maoist philosophies. "However, we found that the citizens were not able to live safely due to sharp rise in incidents of murder, terror, loot, rape in the last five years."

Sharma went on: "Since the nation's integrity was being undermined, we have decided to forsake the policy of violence and terror and raise the problem openly by uniting the people."

Answering the questions, Sharma denied that they were tortured and expressed ignorance as to how many more were being released.

"We have not yet received the release order," said Sharma, adding "they had made up their mind to leave the party and shun violence some 20 days ago. We told the police administration and they approved of our decision, which we had taken after coming to the conclusion that violence was not the answer and weighing national and international situations."

Sharma had added that he will consider going back to his home after assessing the possible threat to his life. He added that he would first see his partymen's reaction and then decide the future course of action. "We have not yet decided if we will join any other party."

He also denied that he had abandoned Marxist philosophy. He declined to comment if his earlier means (of violent struggle) was wrong.

"We will not fight the government illegally, but politically," replied Sharma, answering if they would take the government to court for their illegal detention.

But later in the day, after regaining his freedom, Sharma issued another statement that picked apart the statement he made before the press while still in government custody.

Sharma claimed that he was "nearly fatally tortured by the reactionary government which made him disappear during the last 11 months".

Sharma also said that the earlier press conference, in which he denounced his party and its violent struggle, was made under duress. "After soul-searching, I apologise to all my party supporters, sympathesizers and public for publicly speaking against the party and the revolution," wrote Sharma.

Sharma accused the government of "murdering, raping, looting and kidnapping thousands of people". Throughout the 11 months, Sharma said he was brutally tortured at the Armed-Police Training Centre, Kakani. Sharma revealed that he was arrested on December 3 last year from Dhungedhara bus stop at Vanasthali, Swoyambhu.

The other arrested Maoists - Dandapani Neupane, Milan Nepali, Palsang Lama, Gore Bahadur Khurkhutte, Kamala Sharma, Matrika Yadav, Ishwari Dahal - "are either killed or on their way to be killed," he claimed.

"Therefore, I deny the press conference and vow that I will fulfil the responsibility to the best of ability bestowed on me by NCP (M)," Sharma added.

Meanwhile, Maoist sources have castigated the Koirala government of "exposing its true identity through conspiracies." They have also indicated that they are not keen to talk with the government any more since "the Koirala government has failed to fulfil the minimum conditions for talks. The clamour for talks was used by the government only to hoodwink the people."

NTC monopoly on cellular mobile ends

By Ram Sharan Sedhai

KATHMANDU, Nov 3 - The entry of a private operator into the cellular mobile phone service has ended the monopoly of the state-owned Nepal Telecommunications Corporation (NTC), heralding a revolution in communication sector in Nepal.

While the Khetan Group Pvt Ltd, the winner of the covetous bid, is planning to expand its network across the kingdom within five years, its lone rival NTC is also gearing-up to face the new competition. NTC has already called tender for the distribution of 50 thousand cellular mobile connections, which will definitely precipitate the newly acquired bid of the Khetan Group.

Rajendra Khetan, Executive Director of the Khetan Group says that they are going to distribute 100 thousand cellular phone connections within five years, starting from Kathmandu and expanding on to other major cities where NTC is currently operating. This brings to a total of 150 thousand mobile connections to be distributed by the two operators, which is more than sixteen times the current lines in operation.

NTC so far has distributed a little over 7500 lines in four major cities of the country. In the new situation, neither of them can survive unless they reduce the prices and provide other additional facilities to the cellular mobile phone subscribers. Both the parties are busy preparing  fresh strategic plans in order to capture the market.

But what is yet to be envisaged is how far this competition would render the service to be more efficient and remain with the reach   if the common mass. And, the role of Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA), a regulatory body which oversees all telecom-related services is also to be seen. 

Speculations are rife that the competition between the two players would make the service more efficient and diversified and help to lower the prices making it affordable to greater chunk of populace. But, according to NTA Chairman Bhoop Raj Pandey, if both the parties --- NTC and Khetan Group fail to fulfill the demand and attempt at distorting the market, NTA can take action against them and even go to the extent of issuing fresh license to another operator for the operation of the service.

General Manager of NTC Raghubar Lal Shrestha says that NTC does not fear the entry of private party in the cellular mobile phone business. We were aware of it and have prepared ourselves accordingly to face the challenges. Speaking about the possible price cut, Shrestha said, "We will lower the price once our customers rise".

Madhusudan Karmacharya, Spokesman at NTC says that the price of cellphone to be distributed in the second phase would definitely go down because of the downward trend in the prices of such phone sets in the international market. However, unless the government makes us autonomous it would be very difficult for us to compete with the private sector as we have social obligations to meet, he added.

In this regard, Bhoop Raj Pandey says that NTC too has to make efforts to convince the government on making them an autonomous entity.

If NTC can't upgrade and diversify its mobile business, it will receive a severe blow from the private competitor  as it is entering the service with a very aggressive marketing. S Venkataraman, Chief Operating Officer of Spice Cell Ltd., the Indian partner of the Khetan Group says, they are going to invest Rs 1.5 billion in the first year itself. Talking about affordability, he said the entry barrier would be substantially lower. This clearly hints at a price cut soon.

Furious Tuladhar blasts Govt

KATHMANDU, Nov 3 (PR)- While the freedom of two rebel leaders clearly translates into victory for the Maoist rebels, the person who is apparently left out in the cold is none other than Padma Ratna Tuladhar, the former lawmaker and human rights activist, who set up last week's meeting between the government and Maoists.

As news of Sharma and Gautam's dramatic press conference and freedom raged like wildfire towards the evening, Tuladhar was left fuming for being left out of the game - both by the government and the rebels.

A furious Tuladhar, who termed today's drama as an "unfortunate development," told The Kathmandu Post that the government had hatched a conspiracy against the nation.

The government has squandered its chances of negotiations with the Maoists by this surprise move, Tuladhar said, adding that even Maoist rebels were angry at the government for the "sham" press conference.

"I was in DPM Poudel's office at 2 p.m. and he did not utter a word about the government's impending move," Tuladhar told The Kathmandu Post. "It is a conspiracy by the government. They do not seem interested in bringing an end to Maoist insurgency. Maoists have told me that today's development will hamper the peace process and it is in violation of the spirit of talks. They said they will rethink their strategy now."

Bhattarai urges fair play from Koirala

Post Report

KATHMANDU, Nov 3 - Senior Nepali Congress (NC) leader Krishna Prasad Bhattarai today asked Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala to sincerely implement the agreements reached by the party.

"I urge the party president to first implement the understandings and agreement reached by the party and then only conduct the party election at the village, town and district level," Bhattarai said in a statement to the Prime Minister asking him not to reschedule the party's General Convention slated for January.

In the statement to the prime minister, who is also the party president, Bhattarai said it was the duty of the party president to ensure that the party elections are free of foul play.

Bhattarai and his supporters have been accusing Koirala of using his dominance in the party office to issue active party membership against the agreement reached between the two factions of NC.

"If there are indications of any foul play during the elections, the results would not be acceptable for NC workers," Bhattarai said in the statement.

In August, Koirala faced a rebellion from anti-Koirala lawmakers and bowed to four out of their five demands. One of them was renewal of active membership of all the old members and an agreement that no new memberships would be issued.

Now, the rebels are accusing the Koirala camp of totally violating the agreements and denying his opponents in the party active membership.

This week the tussle between the Koirala and the rebels over active membership worsened with former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and three prominent party members issuing a statement accusing the central leadership of disregarding the agreement reached in a working committee of the party.

House bodies struggling to gain effectiveness

By Binaj Gurubacharya

KATHMANDU, Nov 3 - When the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) succeeded in blocking the government's shady deal to purchase an over-priced jet for the army, the parliamentary committees rejoiced the moment calling it a victory for the democratic parliamentary system.

However, not all the directives and suggestions made by these parliamentary committees are implemented or even given any attention.

These committees which have been each assigned to different fields of topics often investigate on both old and new issues and then pass on their findings and recommendations to the government.

At times, more aggressive committees like the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) or the State Affairs Committee (SAC) even go to the extent of directing the government and the Cabinet on certain issues.

Though the regulations and the Constitution allow these committees to review issues of their concern and pass on their findings to the government, there are no clear grounds of what happens when their recommendations are not followed by the government.

These committees often complain that their recommendation either fall on deaf ears or their report are piled to collect dust at the government offices.

"All we can do is make recommendations and that is it. If the government does not follow or implement them there is not a thing we can do about it except push more suggestions to implement our suggestion," said a lawmaker who did not want to be named.

For over a month, PAC has asked the Ministry of Civil Aviation to submit details on the proposed deal to purchase two aircraft to be added to the fleet of Royal Nepal Airlines (RNAC).

Even after the deadline set for a week, the ministry did not bother to reply to queries that PAC had asked for the investigation on charges that RNAC violated financial regulation in the process of buying two French-built ATR aircraft.

"The question here is whether the government and its agencies are compelled to reply to our letter promptly or can they get off just ignoring it," asked PAC member Lilamani Pokhrel.

The House of Representatives (the Lower House of Parliament) has nine committees, each assigned with certain number of ministries and issues concerned with it. In theory, these committees also represent the Parliament.

"These committees are not just a part of the Parliament but also represent the Parliament itself... so how can the government defy the legislature," CPN-UML's Rajendra Pandey said.

Pandey said that if the ministries were beginning to ignore their directives, then soon other wings of the government could begin to do the same. "And some day nobody may comply by the directives and recommendations of the committees," Pandey said.

For example, during his last tenure, Gajendra Narayan Singh -- who was the Minister of Supplies -- refused to come to PAC even though he was repeatedly summoned.

The problem then was that PAC was chaired by Hridyesh Tripathi who had broken off from Singh's Nepal Sadbhawana Party to form his own party.

In the clash of egos, Singh never showed up for the meeting and the most PAC could do was issue a statement condemning the act of the minister.

It is not that all the recommendations and reports of these committees fall on deaf ears. These committees have been able to check on the activities of the government.

Besides blocking the government's shady deal to purchase the RJ100 jet for the Royal Nepal Army, it has been able to even put the prime minister on the questioning stand.

'Nepal, India should work to eliminate trafficking'

By Meena Kaini

KATHMANDU, Nov 3 - The scourge of women trafficking has long been under the microscope, but are concerned governments doing enough? Yes and no.

Yes, says UN Special Rapporteur on Vilence Against Women Radhika Coomaraswamy, because the government has shown commitment to control the social malaise. And no because, prosecution of trafficking crimes is still far too less in Nepal.

Coomaraswamy, who was here this week to investigate trafficking issues, told The Kathmandu Post that the problem of trafficking can only be controlled if there is collaborative efforts of the countries that are affected by it - in this case, Nepal and India.

"Both the countries should work to improve the horrendous situation," Coomaraswamy said. "The government should do some collaborative programme with India since this is an organized crime and affects both the countries. An active and effective role of police can play a pivotal role in controlling the situation."

Citing the statistics provided by the non-government organisations, she said that 10,000 to 15,000 girls are trafficked from Nepal to India every year. Coomaraswamy said that there is a need of "conceptual clarity" about trafficking itself since trafficking in the South Asian region has been dealt more as a law and order issue, which in fact should have been dealt from a human rights perspective.

Coomaraswamy expressed her reservations about the proposed SAARC convention on trafficking of women, where she said that lack of conceptual clarity about the issue of trafficking is very evident. "There is a need to separate trafficking from prostitution, which has been the case," she said. "SAARC convention should fall in line with the new international standards."

According to the international standards, when people are taken from one country to another by fraud, deception, coercion, intimidation, it is called trafficking. She also said that the SAARC convention needs to separate women and children since the issues concerning the two are different.

"Trafficking can be controlled if the government's commitment is strong enough, which seems the case here but when it comes to practice there is no prosecution," said Coomaraswamy. "We need to somehow jumpstart the system to force that the commitments is expressed in some forms of enforcement as lots of programme and policy remain only in the paper and are not actually delivered."

She stressed on the need of researches to find out how many women are trafficked, who are the traffickers what is their profile, where are the girls being trafficked so that the programmes could specifically address the issues.

Coomaraswamy strongly recommended sending women to work in  foreign countries including the Gulf adding that they should be trained before going to those countries making aware of the probable difficulties that could be faced in those and how to deal with them.

"Response to trafficking in the region is further curtailing the rights of women like freedom of movement," said Coomaraswamy. "Women should absolutely be allowed to go to Gulf countries, which would enable them earn far more than they do in their countries and better their lives."

"Even if you do not send them to those countries where they can be independent, what is the reality here?" she questions. "They live in extreme poverty and their living conditions are worse."

Countdown to the 'Journey to Kathmandu' begins

Post Report

KATHMANDU, Nov 3 - Countdown to the 39th Annual Conference of World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) scheduled for 13-17 November has finally begun.

Over 500 wildlife experts, religious leaders belonging to 12 different faiths and WWF officials from around the world will participate in the five-day event; which is expected to boost Nepal's image as one of the finest tourist destinations in the world.

Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh and the Prime Minister of Mongolia, Enkhbayar - who will represent Buddhism - will also participate in the "largest ever Annual Conference" on the theme - The Journey to Kathmandu: Sacred Gifts for a Living Planet.

"This will be the biggest event in the three-decade-old history of conservation in Nepal," Dr Chandra Gurung, WWF Country Representative for Nepal told reporters, adding that the event will be broadcast live on the state-owned Nepal Television and the Internet. Also invited are international media personnel from BBC and CNN to cover the event.

WWF and the Alliance of Religions and Conservation (ARC) have joined together to encourage, secure and celebrate significant new conservation actions - called Sacred Gifts For a Living Planet - by the world's major faiths, said a press release issued today.

The faiths involved are Bahai, Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Islam, Jain, Jew, Shinto, Sikh, Tao and Zoroastrian.

While the Conference will formally begin on the morning of November 14, the celebration of Sacred Gifts will be staged in the historic Bhaktapur Durbar Square, a UNESCO World Heritage Centre on November 15. His Majesty King Birendra is scheduled to grace the celebration.

Other highlights of the Conference include the release of four commemorative postal stamps on wildlife by Prince Gyanendra on November 14. The prestigious WWF Award will also be presented the same evening.

Likewise, on the evening of November 16 Prince Philip, WWF President Emeritus and founder of ARC, will honour one recipient with the Duke of Edinburgh Conservation Medal 2000, according to the release.

WWF President Ruud Lubbers who has been recently appointed to the post of UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) will also attend the meet along with WWF Director General Claude Martin.

Some of the delegates are also expected to witness the rhino translocation program from Chitwan to Shukla Phanta and Bardia after the conference on November 19. The programme aims to establish a second viable rhino population in Nepal.

PAC flays govt rationale behind petro price hike

Post Report

KATHMANDU, Nov 3 - The parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) today said that it was not satisfied with the rationale stated by the government for the recent price hike of petroleum products.

PAC questioning officials of the Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) and the Ministry of Supplies has asked for further details and data on the supply and distribution of petroleum products.

NOC is the sole authority in importing and distributing petroleum products in the country. It buys the products from Gulf countries, sells them to Indian Oil Corporation at the sea ports and takes the products from IOC depots near the border.

The government had hiked the price of petrol to Rs. 47 from Rs 40 per liter, diesel from Rs. 23 to Rs. 27.5 and kerosene from Rs. 13 to Rs. 26 per litre just few weeks back that followed series of protests against NOC and the government.

"We buy the product at US dollars 335 which is much higher compared to US dollars 205 last year for metric tonne and the exchange rate for dollar has also gone up from Rs. 69.5 to Rs. 74.4 in the same time," Secretary at the Ministry of Supplies Mohan Dev Pant said.

He said NOC has to cross subsidize between one product and another to keep up. At present, it costs NOC Rs. 26.32 to get one liter of kerosene to the consumer, Rs. 32.41 for diesel fuel and Rs. 41 for  petrol.

NOC is accused of gradually increasing the prices of petroleum products and not reducing its prices when the cost fell in the international market.

Last year, it hiked the price of kerosene and diesel and this year it again increased prices of kerosene, diesel and petrol.

"The prices in the international market had dropped last year but we had to use the profit to make up for the nearly Rs. 1 billion in loss," Pant said.

In its review of the price hike, PAC has also asked NOC to reveal the amount of fuel that they import, the costs, the amount they pay to IOC for transport, storage and processing and the profit it makes.