Rival NC camps agree to end House session
Ordinances to be re-promulgated

By Damakant Jayshi

KATHMANDU, April 4 – The least productive session of parliament is about to end. Senior Nepali Congress leaders have decided to end the current Winter Session of parliament immediately, and re-promulgate the controversial ordinances dealing with the Armed Police Force and regional administrators.

The royal announcement of the session’s proroguement could come as early as Thursday, highly placed NC sources told The Kathmandu Post late Wednesday after a four-hour long meeting of over a dozen senior NC leaders at the residence of former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba at Budhanilkantha. This meeting in itself was held after a meeting of Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala and former Prime Minister and his bitter rival Krishna Prasad Bhattarai at the latter’s residence at Bhainsepatti.

"There was agreement to end this session of parliament immediately," a top NC leader, requesting anonymity, said after the meeting at Deuba’s residence. "The ordinances which could not be passed in this session will be re-promulgated as soon as the House is prorogued." Sources also said that it had been decided not to turn the ordinances into bills for tabling in the House without first getting the support of the opposition.

The Winter Session of parliament has been disrupted since the very first day in early February by the opposition parties, mainly the CPN-UML, who have been demanding that PM Koirala step down for his alleged role in the controversial Lauda Air deal signed by national flag carrier RNAC. No bills have been tabled, and no discussions carried out in the House. Even the two ordinances are about to lapse in the absence of parliamentary approval.

The decision to end the session comes as a temporary relief for PM Koirala since it allows him to reintroduce the ordinances again, and therefore keep it into force for at least six months.

The meeting at Deuba’s residence where the agreement was reached was attended by NC heavyweights aligned to both Bhattarai and Koirala. The Bhattarai side is represented by Deuba, Purna Bahadur Khadka, Khum Bahadur Khadka, Bal Bahadur K.C., Chiranjeebi Wagle and Bijay Kumar Gachhaddar. Koirala is represented by ex-NC general secretary Sushil Koirala, Deputy Prime Minister Ram Chandra Poudel, and ministers Mahesh Acharya, Dr Ram Sharan Mahat, Ram Krishna Tamrakar and Omkar Shrestha, among others.

After the meeting, Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Ram Chandra Poudel said, "the Congress has decided to go unitedly in the face of attacks on parliamentary democracy by the Maoists and other forces."

The latest development gives an impression of unity inside the always-warring Nepali Congress, but that is still far from the truth. Sources said, the meeting at Deuba’s place could not reach an agreement on the resignation of Prime Minister Koirala, whom the rebel camp charged of failing in every front of governance. Though many of the leaders from the Koirala side did not refute demands for the PM’s resignation, Sushil Koirala strongly disagreed, sources said.

When asked to comment on today’s meeting, former PM and vehement Koirala critic Deuba said: "We all had an open heart-to-heart meeting. I am optimistic that we are headed in the right direction, and that we will find solutions satisfactory to all sides, including the opposition." He refused to elaborate further.

Meanwhile, most of the senior NC leaders denied that the government was contemplating declaring emergency, as provided for in the Constitution, in four or five Maoist-infested districts. Such rumours have been circulating in the Capital since yesterday’s meeting of the National Defense Council. But on Wednesday, Defense Minister Mahesh Acharya flatly denied that such plans were in the offing. "There is no such plan," he said.

Maoists contact Royal nominee

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KATHMANDU, April 4 - Chairman of Nepal Communist Party (Maoist) Prachanda and Maoist leader Dr Babu Ram Bhattrai met Ramesh Nath Pandey, the King nominated member in the Upper House.

When contacted, Pandey admitted that he met both the leaders together but declined to comment on the time and venue of the meeting. He also declined to comment on the content of meeting.

Sources say, this move by the Maoists leaders is an attempt to establish a contact with the Royal Palace.

Meanwhile, in a statement issued here today the Maoists have claimed responsibility over the attacks on the police posts in Rukum, Dolakha, Palpa and Dhading. The release signed by the Prachanda states that Maoist movement has scaled new heights following the successful attacks in these police posts.

About 46 policemen and 10 rebels have been killed during the latest series of attacks in the last two days by the Maoist rebels.

Prachanda, in his statement, has also hailed the daring escape by the six Maoist women rebels from the Gorkha jail. The rebels had escaped from the jail last week after digging a tunnel. Prachanda has also urged all the "progressive" and "democratic" forces to support the Maoist call for Nepal Bandh on April 6. He has also urged the police force not to support the ruling establishment.

Daytime power cuts from today

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KATHMANDU, April 4 - Last week there were hitches in the power supply only during the night. Now expect interruptions in the supply of electricity during the day, thanks largely to the reduced water flow in the country’s snow-fed rivers.

Beginning Thursday, Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) will start cutting off daytime power supplies on the basis of a fixed schedule, but this will not affect the supply of electricity during peak hours, Executive Director of NEA, Bishnu Bam Malla told The Kathmandu Post Wednesday.

"Power generation in both run-of-river and reservoir-type hydro electricity projects has substantially gone down since last week owing to the reduced water flow," he said, adding that the hitches in power supply could "last for the next 10-12 days at the most".

He added, "Never before has the water level in our rivers gone down so low in my memory...Every thing will be alright after the temperature starts rising paving the way for melting snow in the mountains, or a good rainfall."

NEA has not termed such forms of interruption in power supply "Load Shedding" this time around. Rather, officials at the state-owned power monopoly have given a new name to it - Load Management.

Nevertheless, the hundreds of thousands of electricity consumers across the country have not been made to live under absolute darkness during peak hours. Thanks mainly to new power plants like the 60-megawatts (MW) Khimti, 36-MW Bhote Koshi and 14-MW Modi plants that started generating power in the recent months - although these plants too have been affected significantly by the reduced water flow.

NEA is currently facing daily power shortfall of about 500,000 units. NEA needs some 4 million units of electricity daily, out of which 450,000 to 500,000 units are contributed by its diesel-run multi-fuel plants.

According to Malla, Marshyangdi Hydel Plant is currently generating only 38 per cent of its installed capacity, Trishuli-Devighat 74 per cent, Sun Koshi 40 per cent, Jhimruk 40 per cent, Khimti 33 per cent and Bhote Koshi 33 per cent.

While most of the plants are generating only one third of their capacity, water level in the Kulekhani reservoir—the only peaking power plant in the country—has dropped to 1491.66 meters, meaning "only 10 meters of water is left to generate electricity". If used up, the reservoir will need to wait for another monsoon to get enough water for power generation.

"But there is another way to escape such interruptions in power supply," Malla said. "Users should start conserving power—by switching off unnecessary electricity-run equipment, machines, household appliances or even lamps...."

7 Maoists killed in Sunday’s Rukumkot assault

By Rudra Bahadur Khadka

RUKUMKOT, Rukum, April 4 - At least seven Maoist rebels were shot dead in Sunday’s battle, bloodiest so far, between the rebels and police at Rukumkot area police striking force post.

According to a source close to the Maoists, five more rebels were also seriously injured in the incident. The source also said that all the rebels killed in the gun-battle between the police and the Maoists were members of the underground army company and platoon of the Maoists.

The source declined to disclose the names and addresses of the rebels killed during the 45 minutes long fierce exchange of fire between the two sides.

The source also disclosed that about 300 Maoist guerrillas were involved in the attack that killed 30 policeman and smashed the hilltop-based post where 76 policemen were stationed. Other two dozens were abducted by the rebels.

Maoist chief of the neighbouring Pokhara Village People’s Committee, Comrade Adarsha, said that details of the arms and ammunition seized from the police during the attack is yet to be assessed as the attacking squad has not submitted its final report.

He also admitted the abduction of 23 policemen following the raid on the post and said that all of them would be released within a few days on condition that they would never join the police force in future. The source also claimed that the abducted policemen have not been killed and are kept at a undisclosed Maoist control.

The insurgents had released 12 policemen after keeping them in captivity for about a week following their daring raid on Dunai, the district headquarters of Dolpa, on September 25, 2000.

Verification euphoria wanes
‘Too slow, could take decade’, say refugees

By Bhaskar Sharma

DAMAK (Jhapa), April 4 - The initial euphoria of the Lhotsampa refugees, languishing in seven camps in eastern Nepal for the past one decade, which had heightened after the launch of the verification process, is now on the wane.

Many refugees, who faced the Joint Verification Team (JVT), consisting of five members each from Nepal and Bhutan, say they have developed apprehensions over early repatriation. Beside the snail’s pace of the verification process, the cause of new anxiety is the "unnecessary questions" asked by the Bhutanese JVT members during the interview.

"Who is your father? What proof do you have to establish your claim?" are some of the questions that Dhanapati Poudel (male-35, hut No. 9) and many others from the Khudunabari camp Sector 5/A1 where verification started Monday last week had to answer.

"If time is spent on such unnecessary questions, the chances are we will not return (to Bhutan) in the foreseeable future," says Poudel. "It only shows the time-buying tactics that the Bhutanese regime is playing. Asking to prove my relationship with my father is ridiculous."

And it is not just the questions in the interview that refugees are vexed about.

Another issue that has come as a major irritant lately is the need of signatures and thump-prints of even minors in the Performa that their parents fill up on their behalf prior to facing the JVT.

Not only Poudel’s young son had to sign in the Performa, even the month-old daughter of Suk Man Subba (hut No. 3), Khudunabari camp, had to give her thumb impression, not to mention a year-old Adarsha Sharma (hut No. 11) and two-year old Ravi Bhattarai (hut No. 10)

"Asking to prove the father-son relation and the need for signatures and thumb prints of minors, which is against international child rights, are outrageous. These are some issues that need to be properly and promptly addressed before the verification process is really pursued," says the Chief Coordinator of Association of Human Rights-Bhutan (AHURA Bhutan).

Despite the claim of all good will so far, given the current pace of the verification process, many refugee leaders say that actual repatriation is unlikely before the next decade. The JVT is currently interviewing ten families (ten huts) per day. And to verify over 15,000 families from the seven camps, considering a 260-day working per year would mean atleast another six years.

So far the JVT has interviewed 44 families, including ten today. Five families who had been brought to Damak from Khudunabari yesterday were not interviewed owing to the confusion that rose at the JVT office after Usha Nepal, former head of the Nepali JVT members retired. Sushil SJB Rana, Chief District Officer (CDO) of Jhapa, was appointed the Nepali team head, while Dr Sonam Tenzing, Dzongda (CDO) of Sarbhang district in Bhutan continues to lead the Bhutanese team.

Against the backdrop of the criticism over the slow verification process, media shy Bhutanese officials’ tried to convince that the verification process would gear up once things get into place. "We have worked for only five days since Monday (last week). However, we interviewed 34 huts (34 families). It isn’t a bad start at all," said Dr Tenzing, talking to The Kathmandu Post on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the newly appointed head of the Nepali JVT team, who assumed office today, said that he is assessing the current situation and declined to comment further.

Notwithstanding the Bhutanese JVT members’ assurances, refugees are skeptical that a resolution to the decade-old refugee impasse, even if the verification is completed soon, would be that easy. And since Nepal and Bhutan are yet to come up with a modality to pursue the repatriation process after the completion of the verification, a question has arisen: "What follows the completion of the verification?"

The real ordeal of segregating the refugees into genuine Bhutanese forcibly evicted, Bhutanese who have emigrated, non-Bhutanese and Bhutanese with criminal records lies not with the JVT, but with the Joint Ministerial Level Committee (JMLC).

"The verification process itself is giving rise to problems. Not only the time frame for carrying out verification remains unclear, the conditions of repatriation after its completion too is obscure. The refugee impasse is unlikely to end until the work is done with clear-cut vision," says SB Subba, Chairman of Bhutanese Refugees Representative Repatriation Committee (BRRRC).

Refugee leaders and activists say that the verification process must be expedited and the work of segregating the refugees into the earlier agreed classes should be done simultaneously.

Troubled youths seek solace in suicide

By Deeleep Dhakal

KATHMANDU, April 4 - The 11th of March will forever live in the troubled memories of Samjhana, Bhagwati and Devika, three friends who successfully passed this year’s School Leaving Certificate examinations sent-up tests. They are unlikely to ever forget the date, for that is the day when their friend Renuka, who flunked the tough tests, took her life by jumping into the raging Sunkoshi river at Dolalghat, east of Kathmandu.

"She always told us that she would commit suicide in case she failed in her exams," says Bhagwati. "We took that for a joke, but apparently she was serious. We failed to inform her parents and avert the ensuing tragedy."

Renuka’s suicide reflects the unstable mental state of a small but growing percentage of Nepali teenagers, who don’t even hesitate to take their own lives under extreme circumstances. Such cases are already on the upswing in Nepal, notably in Kathmandu where more and more cases of suicide are being recorded in recent years. And, failing sent-up tests and SLC is just one of the causes that can trigger depression, and suicidal tendencies. Above all, patients rarely seek medical assistance for depression.

Says Dr Nirakar Man Shrestha, the director of the Mental Hospital in Patan, "Our society still think people need to visit a psychiatrist only when they go insane. This way, depression becomes complex and people begin to harbour suicidal tendencies."

Everyday the Capital’s Bir Hospital records one or two cases of attempted suicide. Most of them are youth between the age group of 18-25. Doctors say that easy accessibility to various drugs and chemicals is one of the key reasons behind the rise in such cases.

According to the Bir Hospital Emergency Ward data, the number of males consuming poison for suicidal purposes is higher than the females, and the survival record of those hospitalised here is over 95 per cent. Only a few victims succumb to poison primarily due to late arrival and delayed medical assistance, the doctors’ claim.

In 1998/99, the Capital’s District Police Office, Hanumandhoka recorded a total of 188 suicide cases in the Valley. Out of that, the highest number of people committed suicide by hanging themselves, while the rest either consumed poison or used various kinds of weapons on themselves. A few resorted to jumping off the higher grounds or killed themselves by jumping into the rivers, records reveal.

The number of suicide cases increased to 224 in 1999/2000. Of them, 109 persons hanged themselves, 93 died of consuming poison and 19 persons set themselves ablaze while three jumped into rivers to kill themselves.

In last eight months of current fiscal year 138 cases of suicide were reported. Of the total, 63 persons hanged themselves, the same number chose to consume poison and ten persons died of self-immolation. In August, over 26 cases of suicides were reported, while 15 cases were registered in February.

Alarming increase of depression among the youth is one of the main reasons of the suicide cases, experts reveal. At least 15 per cent of the population suffer from depression once in the lifetime, they add.

However, a survey reveals that the chances of depression among women are twice as high as that in men. "In case of suicide by elderly men, the reasons include lack of family, mental and physical support," says Dr Bishwa Bandhu Sharma, a psychiatrist. According to a World Health Organisation report, depression is going to be the second leading morbidity factor by 2005, Dr Sharma further adds.

But interestingly enough, oriental cultures have also permitted suicide under certain social conditions. The Chinese commit suicide for reasons of revenge against an enemy. Such ritual suicide called Harakiri and Seppuku was popular even in Japan.

Other Asian cultures also have not disapproved of such cultural suicides. Even Hindu culture permitted a person to jump into the Ganges at Prayag (Allahabad) or Manikarnika Ghat in Varanasi in case they suffered from incurable diseases or were unable to pay the fines imposed by the government. Globally, however, the east European nation Lithuania leads the world as the country with the highest suicide rate. In 1996, the suicide rate hit an all time high of 46.4 per 100,000 people.

Safa tempos refuse concession to students

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KATHMANDU, April 4 - A day after the government, student leaders and transport entrepreneurs agreed to provide 30 per cent concessions on public transport fares to students, Nepal National Microbus Entrepreneurs’ Association (NNMEA) today urged the government to immediately provide facilities to the entrepreneurs as agreed upon during Tuesday’s meeting.

Meanwhile, the organization of the owners of battery-powered Safa Tempos, Clean Locomotive Entrepreneurs’ Association of Nepal (CLEAN), refused to provide the concession to students, and urged the government to put Safa Tempos in the category of Meter Taxis and Tempos.

The agreement was reached between the officials of the Ministry of Labour and Transport Management, representatives of various transport entrepreneurs’ federations - mainly the owners of long and short distance buses, and the leaders of All Nepal National Free Students Union (ANNFSU), the student wing of CPN-ML, Tuesday.

The agreement came a day before a two-day nation-wide transport strike called by the leftist students.

According to the agreement, operators of the short and long distance buses agreed to provide 33 per cent concession to all students nation-wide. The provision is however"only for the time being" and in order to get the agreement implemented the government will need to provide facilities to the entrepreneurs as provisioned under the Industrial Enterprises Act. A task force comprising representatives from the three sides was to be formed to this effect, which will submit its report to the government within a month.

4 suspected Maoists held

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JANAKPUR, April 4 - Police today arrested four suspected Maoists at Janakpur airport shortly after they landed from an ATR aircraft of privately-run NECON Air, according to an eyewitness. The aircraft had left Kathmandu for Janakpur at 2 p.m.

The air passengers said that the police raided the aircraft and carried out extensive search before the suspected Maoists were arrested based on tip-off received from Kathmandu.

Two of the arrested were bearded terai men and the other two pahadis, the passengers said.

When asked to comment on their arrest, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Surendra Pal, expressed his ignorance about it. "It would be better to ask the district police office," he said.

Deputy Superintendent of Police in the District Police Office could not be reached for comment.

Other low ranked policemen at the airport declined to say any thing on the incident. A source, however, said that the arrested persons were taken to an unknown destitution after keeping them for sometime in the District Police Office.

2 minute House sitting

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KATHMANDU, April 4 – The House of Representatives today witnessed one of the briefest periods this Winter Session after the opposition boycotted it as soon as the Speaker convened the House today.

Even while Speaker Taranath Ranabhat was remarking that the opposition was rather quick (in boycotting the House today), the members filed out. The Speaker adjourned the House, which could not last even for two minutes, until 4 p.m. tomorrow.

Territorial sky sovereignty threatened

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KATHMANDU, April 4- Ninety nine per cent of the people in Nepal do not know they have a territorial sky overhead, said Jhala Nath Khanal, former Minister for Information.

Speaking at an interaction programme on "Electronic Media in Nepal - Development and Problems" organized by Rural Area Development (RAD) Nepal and the Federation of Nepalese Journalists, Khanal said that Nepal has not been able to make use of its Orbital Slot because nobody knew it existed.

The five-member delegation headed by the then minister for Information to the 1994 World Conference did sign an accord but didn’t know why he had signed it and the two years deadline given for ratification by the Parliament for the use of Nepali Orbital Slot elapsed after the parliament didn’t ratify the treaty, said Khanal. "We lost our voting rights," added Khanal saying the given time had expired.

It was only in 1997 that the Parliament did pass a resolution and sent a letter of requisition for the use of Orbital Slot, and restored back some slots but no one gave a serious thought on it, Khanal continued.

Leaving aside fifty municipalities, there are four thousand villages in Nepal badly in need of electronic media, said experts."There is an urgent need to take electronic media to the villages," said Mohan Hari Sharma of Nepal Television, NTV.

The experts also outlined the need to reform the media by curtailing repetitions of programmes featured in television, filtering obscene foreign entertainment programmes and providing information rich in educational and cultural values conducive to the indigenous Nepali standards.

The state must allow greater freedom and liberty of press for the survival of democracy. "Democracy translates itself into mobocracy should government tyrannize the media," said Prem Quidy, senior journalist.

Expressing their resentments, experts accused the government of not allowing them to use their creativity and knowledge. "There’s a need to block managerial intrusion through employees union to allow greater freedom for enterprising engineers to create new and better programmes," said Sharma.

The speakers also stressed the need to disseminate credible information to the masses and media free from being politically motivated by some self-seeking politicians.

The lack of right policy, inappropriate representations in international meetings, lack of technical-know-how and bureaucratic bottlenecks were cited as some of the serious obstacles to take electronic media to the villages that are in bad shape due to unavailability of information in the age of information revolution, say experts.