Govt begins talks on army mobilization

Post Report

DHANGADI, Sept 30 - Deputy Prime Minister Ram Chadra Poudel today said the government has started high level discussion on army mobilization to quell the Maoist insurgency.

Replying to a query here, the DPM, who is also holding the Home Ministry portfolio, said that a serious discussion on the army mobilization was going on at "a high level." He, however, added "any concrete decision is yet to be made".

Poudel also said that the government has finally cleared its official stand on the five-year-old insurgency. "Maoist activities are terrorist acts and are targeted against the country, democracy and the Constitution", the DPM told the journalists at a local function.

Criticizing the stand taken by a faction of the ruling Nepali Congress led by Sher Bahadur Deuba that the problem should be settled only through peaceful dialogues, Poudel said, "It is too unrealistic to talk only about the talks (with the insurgents) and nothing else." 

There is a sharp difference of opinion regarding Maoist insurgency within NC with one side labelling the problem as political while the other maintaining it as "terrorism".

When asked to comment on the differences between the government, police and the army regarding the Maoist rebellion, Poudel said "The problem had arisen due to lack of coordination and dialogue between the security wings of the government. But the problem is not so grave."

Differences between the security units of the government was highlighted when the just resigned Home Minister Govinda Raj Joshi on September 29 openly criticized the Royal Nepal Army for its alleged non-cooperation during the Maoist's daring raid at Dolpa district headquarters Dunai on Sept 25.

Joshi alleged that had the army provided the committed weapons to the police the tragedy could have been averted. Fourteen policemen were killed while at least 40 more were injured, and 11 more abducted by the insurgents in the incident. 

Addressing party workers at Kanchanpur today, Poudel said that the country was "passing through an adverse situation".

"Elements who want to foil democracy are assaulting the Constitution and the system," said Poudel, urging all the political parties committed to the Constitution to come together to meet the challenge".

He also stressed on the need to develop consensus between the democratic parties for the "co-ordination of all the security units of the government (to crush the insurgency)."

Raising  serious concern over the NC intra-party strife which is growing by days, Poudel urged the warring factions to consolidate under the party norms and to address the challenges facing the party and the country. "People had promoted NC to the power because of its commitment to the national stability," he said.

Rebel attacks ignite debate over army role

By Suman Pradhan

KATHMANDU, Sept 30 - One of the enduring questions in modern Nepal is the role of the Royal Nepal Army. It is one of the oldest institutions in the country, and yet not much is known about its workings.

Its role in the early days of unified Nepal, when it was often used by one faction or the other in conspiratorial games of power, and the decisive role it played in the 1960 coup against the nation's first elected government have all combined to give the army a mysterious, if somewhat a suspicious, aura.

That was underscored again this week in the aftermath of the raids in Dunai and Lamjung by Maoist rebels. As a result, one of Nepal's most powerful and feared institutions is under the media spotlight, and no one is feeling comfortable about it.

Generals have been known to grumble about the intense scrutiny they have received in the press after the Dunai incident. Government leaders are loathe to speak their mind publicly and directly about the army. And the public, who just celebrated the 10th year of multi-party democracy, are still wondering why a state organ refuses to help other arms of government.

"The army has landed right in the middle of a controversy, and all because of itself," says Krishna Hachhethu, a political analyst with the Tribhuvan University affiliated think-tank, Centre for Nepal and Asian Studies (CNAS). "The things that are occurring now does not bode good".

This is not the first time that the army has been under scrutiny. But perhaps never before has its role and chain of command been put under the microscope as now. That the elected civilian government has no control over the armed forces was evident in the immediate aftermath of the Dolpa massacre.

Despite an agreement between the army and the police brokered by Prime Minister G P Koirala in a high powered meeting one day after the Dolpa massacre, the army failed to block the escape routes of Maoist guerrillas in the district.  The police were assigned the role of going in with an "operation" against the rebels after the escape routes were blocked, but that strategy never materialized.

Such incidents lead analysts to state the obvious. "The army is excluded from the chain of command of the executive," says Hachhethu. "The constitution has in-built flaws over this issue. Maybe at the time of framing the Constitution, such provisions were necessary."

Outgoing Home Minister Govinda Raj Joshi kicked up a furore over the army's apparent lack of cooperation when he indirectly blamed the soldiers for the Dunai incident. Despite having been paid Rs 170 million through government coffers, the army failed to supply Self Loading Rifles to the police, which could have been effectively used against the rebels in Dolpa and Lamjung.

When he was ultimately forced to resign Friday, the blow did not come from Nepali Congress dissident leaders or from the clamour for his resignation by the press and public, but from the army. Sources say, Joshi was moved out on the insistence of the army which was angry with his outspokenness.

Whatever the reason for his resignation, the rebel attack on Dunai and Joshi's public airing of grievances did ignite a much-delayed debate over the role of the Royal Nepal Army, something which ought to have been done, and settled, in the early days of democracy.

In these ten years ten governments have come and gone and Premier Koirala has been on the helm of power for the longest in his four terms. Preoccupied with infighting, none found time to pay attention to define army's role. Says Dr Dhruba Kumar, Defense analyst of CNAS: "During the last ten years governments didn't try to define the role of the army. They were busy fighting with their party colleagues or political rivals."

 Now the debate over the army's role has forced the Defense Ministry's hand. After a silence of five days, the Defense Ministry issued a statement late Friday saying there was no question the army would not cooperate with the government. But it also said: "the stance of His Majesty's Government is that resolution of the Maoist problem without mobilizing the army and through other appropriate alternatives would be in the overall interest of the nation."

If that is the "stance" of the government, then it is news for government officials. Since Prime Minister Koirala came to power in March this year, he has aired an intention to activate the National Defense Council (NDC) to deal with all security issues, including the Maoist issue, they point out.

Moreover, only a few days ago, the high-powered meeting chaired by Koirala and attended by the Home Minister, Chief of the Army General Staff, the Inspector General of Police and others did agree to mobilize the army in blocking the rebels' escape routes in Dolpa. That the agreement was not followed through raises troubling questions about the Defense Ministry's statement.

Defence Ministry has slapped govt: Deuba

By Tilak Pokharel

BHAKTAPUR, Sept 30 -  Former prime minister and chairman of High Level Consensus Seeking Committee to resolve Maoist problem Sher Bahadur Deuba today said the present government should measure its moral responsibility with the same yardstick which they applied to K P Bhattarai while ousting him from the premiership.

"This government came to power by ousting the Bhattarai-led government alleging the latter of failing to maintain peace and order in the country after Maoists attacked two or three police posts" Deuba said. "Doesn't the present government feel same kind of moral responsibility which declared maintaining law and order in the country as one of its major agenda? he asked.

He also said he hadn't asked Govinda Raj Joshi to resign from the post of Home Minister."We had not asked for his resignation but we meant to condemn the killing of 22 policemen in the span of three days," Deuba said, adding "if he (Joshi) gets political benefit by drawing my name in controversy, my best wishes to him...."

Eight top-notch Nepali Congress leaders including Deuba had issued a press release condemning the government and urging it to take "moral responsibility" for the killing of the policemen Thursday. Home Minister Joshi resigned from his position with outbursts against Deuba and the army at a press conference Friday.

Deuba was also critical of his party president and Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala. "Defence Ministry which is headed by no other than PM Koirala has slapped the government," he said.

Defence Ministry yesterday issued a press release saying Royal Nepalese Army (RNA) had no such history of disobeying His Majesty's Government in the matters of national security. The release followed the allegations against RNA made by the then Home Minister Joshi for not cooperating the police force in Dunai of Dolpa where Maoists killed 14 policemen.

Deuba was speaking at a seminar on "A Decade of Democracy and Economic Development" organised by Thimi Jaycees.

Meanwhile, presenting a paper at the seminar, an economist Dr Prakash Sharan Mahat said, "There is vast economic inequality between the people living in rural and urban areas."

"The economic status of the people living in the city, which comprises only 20 per cent of the total population, increased unexpectedly while living standard of 80 per cent of the people who live in the villages decreased," Mahat said.

Shey Phoksundo eyes world heritage status

KATHMANDU, Sept 30 (PR)- One more natural heritage site of this Himalayan Kingdom is hopefully waiting to be enlisted in the World Heritage List.

Senior Advisor of World Heritage Committee (WHC) Dr James Thorsell today indicated that Shey Phoksundo National Park might be honoured with the title of World Heritage Site this year. He said, "Right now, I cannot give any conclusion but big chances are there."

He further added that his group is at the end of completing all necessary work before the site is enlisted.

He admired that in Asia it is difficult to separate nature from culture. "Shey Phoksundo is a valley between nature and culture."  It will be decided in the 24th session in Cairns, Australia in November-December this year.

Ex-chairman of Nepal Heritage Society Karna Shakya said that from Nepali side, there is no danger of unfavourable human activities. "Still, cars from Tibetan side and encroachment to Lokta shrubs might become a problem in future," he said.

The 3,555 sq km area of Shey Phoksundo National Park, located at far western region, was proposed to be nominated for World Heritage Site two years ago. There are over 200 monasteries and Phoksundo Lake is at 12,500 feet altitude in the area. It is particularly popular for snow leopards and blue sheep, now in the verge of extinction.

Sagarmatha National Park and Royal Chitwan National Park are enlisted as Natural World Heritage Sites presently.

Dumping airlines & Pashupati area along capital's garbage...

n By Surendra Phuyal

KATHMANDU, Sept 30 - With Royal Nepal Airlines Corporation (RNAC)'s jet plane facing second major bird-hit at Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) within a week on Friday morning, deep concerns are being raised about the country's civil aviation safety.

Seven days back, on the afternoon of Saturday 23 September, coincidentally it was the state-owned RNAC's another jet, Hongkong-bound Boeing, that had been forced to make emergency landing after suffering a major bird-hit immediately after take off.

Likewise, on the afternoon of Sunday August 20 , a beechcraft plane on domestic service belonging to Buddha Air had escaped a fatal air mishap after being hit by a bird while it was preparing to land at TIA.

Safety concerns voiced by experts, airline pilots and the general public today are loud and clear: that the government should take up anti-bird-hit measures and comply with the international air safety regulations before it will be too late.

Also, it is high time that the government introduce a legislation prohibiting the establishment of new dumps close to airports and shift the existing ones to safer places.

"The proximity of the new dump site has added to the seasonal problem (autumn-winter) of noon-time bird hazards," said a senior pilot of the national flag carrier today seeking anonymity.

Added Rajaram Dhakal, a lawyer with Inhured International Nepal: "No Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) study -   something which is legally mandatory before selecting certain land for garbage dumping purpose - was done before selecting the holy site (the Pashupati area). The government is creating terror."

Until last year, the capital's dump--the Gokarna dumping site--was located five kilometres away from the country's only international airport. But since July this year, despite opposition from locals and environmentalists, Ministry of Local Development has been using the "holy banks" of "sacred" Bagmati river north of the airport as the Valley's new dumping site for the last three months.

The move, environmentalists say, is a blatant violation of ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) regulations which states that no dump site should be established within the 13 kilometre radius of an international airport.

Coming down heavily on the Ministry of Local Development for daring to start a garbage dump along the Bagmati river banks, which lies barely 500 metres away from TIA runway's northern end, experts and entrepreneurs demanded that the Valley's supposedly new dump site be shifted elsewhere and that the city be cleaned up properly.

Conceding lack of coordination between the concerned ministries --ministry of Tourism, Culture and Civil Aviation and Ministry of Local Development in this case -- Rajesh Raj Dali, General Manager of TIA, blamed the season, open slaughter-houses and the city's poor solid waste management as the contributing factors.

"We had seriously objected to the local development ministry's move to establish a dump site along the Bagmati banks three months ago," he said. "But nothing has been done till now."

Meanwhile, at an interaction programme organized here by The Explore Nepal group, experts said thorough studies on the habitats of the birds and sanitation situation in and around the airport should be carried out to gauge the severity of the problem and ways to control the same.

Said Bharat Basnet, tourism entrepreneur and General Sales Agent (GSA) of Lauda Air: "Nepal's tourism will be hit if the problem is allowed to linger. Emphasis should be laid on better solid waste management and cleaning up the Valley."

Questioned lawyer Dhakal: "If the government is that serious about safety, why it does not develop the country's only international airport's vicinity - which also encompasses the UNESCO World Heritage, Pashupatinath temple area - as an Environment Conservation Area. The Environment Protection Act has a provision for this. What is Ministry of Population and Environment doing and what are others doing? It is time they woke up."