NC endorses Premier Deuba's peace bid

Post Report

KATHMANDU, Aug 3 - The Nepali Congress (NC) today gave its go   ahead to the initiatives made by new Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba to hold peace talks with the Maoist rebels.

The party’s Central Working Committee (CWC), in the first meeting since Deuba replaced Girija Prasad Koirala, discussed the new Prime Minister’s call for ceasefire and peace talks with the rebels which has been accepted by both the sides.

"Today’s meeting has granted permission to Prime Minster Sher Bahadur Deuba to move ahead with the process for peace talks by supporting his initiative and attempt for a peaceful resolution to the Maoist problem," said a decision reached by the party’s apex body.

The endorsement by the party’s CWC would make it easier for Deuba to move ahead his peace proposal to end the Maoist insurgency that in the past five years, has claimed over 1,700 lives since the rebels began waging a guerrilla war from the hills of central and mid-western part of the country.

Immediately after he was elected the Prime Minister, Deuba called a unilateral cease fire and asked the rebels to come forward for peace talks. Rebel leader Prachanda immediately agreed to the proposal and suspended all offensives leading to a conducive environment for dialogue with the government.

The government has already released nearly two dozen Maoist rebels who were in custody as a goodwill gesture. The rebel leader, as a pre-condition to the peace talks, has sought release of the rebels from custody and government makes public the whereabouts of those reported missing.

According to NC General Secretary Sushil Koirala, the decision to support Deuba was unanimously endorsed by all the members of the CWC. Party President and the head of CWC Girija Prasad Koirala who, during his last days in office, had resorted to using the Royal Nepal Army against the Maoists.

Koirala told the meet that both the party and the government need to fully support Deuba in his attempt as the time was favorable to strike a resolution to the problem.

Deuba, complying to demand by Shaileja Acharya to provide the CWC with details of his initiative, detailed the proposal for the peace initiatives. Most members agreed that the Prime Minister should be given a free hand to persue the initiatives.

Replying to concerns raised by Govind Raj Joshi, Home Minister Khum Bahadur Khadka, said that the government and party should concentrate on the peace moves and give priority to issues like the Armed Police Force as of now.

Besides Koirala, senior NC leader Krishna Prasad Bhattarai and Prime Minister Deuba attended today’s meet.

The CWC meeting will continue on Monday at the party’s central office, Teku, where it will take up the amendments to the party’s constitution adopted during the party General Convention in Pokhara earlier this year.

Once mighty DNC crumbles from in-fighting

Post Report 

KATHMANDU, Aug 3 – At one time not too long ago, the Druk National Congress (DNC) was one of the best known Bhutanese pro-democracy groups in exile. Thanks to the relentless campaign by the DNC and its president Rongthong Kuenley Dorji, and the subsequent arrest of Dorji by India at the request of Bhutan in 1996, the DNC helped to train international spotlight on the atrocities of the royal Bhutanese regime.

Just three years after reaching that high water mark, the once venerable party is a shell of its former self. Torn apart by internal squabbling and corruption, the DNC today resembles a direction-less political force, interested more in settling personal scores than the larger issue of restoring democracy in Bhutan.

This sad saga came to the fore early this week when Dorji was unceremoniously ousted as president of the DNC. A rival faction led by Gub Khilla and Choeku Drukpa called an abrupt party meeting in Jhapa and expelled Dorji from the party’s presidency. Now it is the turn of the other side to act.

In a press statement issued today, Dorji’s supporters said they had suspended Khilla, Drukpa and a host of other partymen from the DNC for "anti-party activities."

"The DNC, in its emergency session, resolved that Gub Khilla, Choeku Drukpa, Lama Jigme Gyamtsho, Narad Adhikari, Sangla Drukpa and Jarjey are suspended from the party until further notice," read the statement signed by Tom Adhikari, who claims to be the DNC "general secretary cum spokesperson."

The heart of the rift appears to be charges and counter-charges of corruption, misappropriations of DNC funds and, what is euphemistically described by both sides as "anti-party activities."

That it should come to this is a sad commentary not just on the DNC but also on the entire Bhutanese refugee groups in exile who have been operating from Nepal and India to restore democracy and human rights in Bhutan. Observers who have long watched the dozen or so Bhutanese groups over the years have always held that they were far too bitterly divided among themselves to ever form a credible threat to the Bhutanese royal authorities. The DNC caper serves as proof, they point out.

It wasn’t always so, however. The year 1996 was the DNC’s hey days. Its choosing of Dorji, an ethnic Sarchop, as its president effectively blew the Bhutan government’s argument that the pro-democracy movement spearheaded by exiles was the handiwork of Lhotsampas (Bhutanese of Nepali origin), and as such did not have wider ethnic support. As the public face of the DNC, Dorji helped debunk that argument.

Moreover, his arrest by India at the request of Bhutan in 1996 and subsequent incarceration in Tihar Jail , had the unintended effect of training the international media spotlight on the Bhutanese problem. The Indian press, which had largely ignored the refugee crisis till then, suddenly woke up to the issue, and a spate of media coverage followed in respectable Indian dailies and the international press.

The heat that was generated forced the Indian government to delay extraditing Dorji to Bhutan, where the royal authorities had brought up trumped up charges of corruption.

Indian rights activists jumped in to support Dorji, challenging his arrest in the courts in Delhi. A Delhi court agreed with their arguments and released Dorji, though he still can’t venture out of Delhi without the court’s permission since the case is still continuing.

Export surge features, talks congenial

Post Report

KATHMANDU, Aug 3 - The Indian side raised the export surge as the main agenda in Friday’s secretary level talks, but the Nepalese side stressed that copper wires, zinc oxide, vegetable ghee and acrylic yarn are being exported to India as per the 1996 Nepal-India Trade Treaty.

India had proposed to impose Value Added Tax (VAT) on those items to contain their export to India, however, Nepal said that due to a huge trade deficit between Nepal and India, VAT should not be imposed. India also proposed to decide on the issue within two months, but according to the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies, the issue will be decided on Saturday.

Similarly, according to the source at the ministry, Nepali side raised the issue of Railway Agreement and recognition of Nepal Standard Mark and India has shown positive gesture on these issues.

The Indian side has assured that it would initiate necessary actions on the Railway Agreement once Nepal replies on the latest draft of the agreement. Similarly, they have also stated that they would request the concerned body to decide soon on the recognition of Nepal Standard Mark.

India also complained Nepal for not responding to the issue of certificate of conformity of production (COP) for over a year.

Officials, attending the Nepal-India trade talks, have said that the two countries, on the third day of the talks, have sorted out most of the contentious issues plaguing bilateral trade but declined to divulge any concrete information.

"The two sides today discussed all the topics that were included in the comprehensive trade agenda", said Bhanu Prasad Acharya, secretary at the ministry talking to The Kathmandu Post, adding that the review of the bilateral trade will conclude on Saturday.

He also said, "The talks were held in the most congenial atmosphere and the two sides are satisfied with the proceedings."

Over two dozen topics, including the much disputed issue of export surge, had been included in the comprehensive trade agenda that was set up Thursday.

It may be recalled that India and Nepal are currently discussing on the pertinent Nepal-India trade issues. The two sides are meeting to identify and resolve the contentious issues that stand in the way of effective implementation of the Nepal India Trade Treaty 1996.

Though the Treaty has a clause for automatic renewal after its expiry every five years, the two sides meet annually to take up the trade issues of mutual concern. However, the latest meet is being held after one and half years. The previous meet was held in New Delhi in 1999.

The visiting delegation is led by the Prabir Sengupta, Indian Commerce Secretary, while the Nepalese side is headed by Bhanu Prasad Acharya, Secretary at the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies.

Meanwhile in Parliament, lawmakers accused neighboring India of indulging in "difficult activities" that would hamper Nepal-India relations, especially targeting the southern neighbor’s unilateral move in constructing the controversial Marchawar barrage as well as the move to naming "surge items" on goods exported from Nepal.

"India is complaining on the rise in goods exported from Nepal despite the fact that the goods imported from India amounts to Rs 20 billion more," said Bharat Mohan Adhikari, former finance minister from CPN-UML.

Adhikari, quoting official records, said that Nepal exported goods amounting to Rs. 25 billion to India whereas India exported goods worth Rs. 45 billion to Nepal every year. "Plus there are a lot of Indian goods being smuggled into Nepal," he said.

Likewise, Prakash Chandra Lohani, a former foreign minister from RPP, accused India "of having no sensitivity" upon Nepal when the country is in crisis.

"It is now Marchawar after Laxmanpur," said Lohani. "Even in trade, India just wants to pull us back to where we had begun before signing the Treaty."

Lohani also urged the government to pressure India to give a go ahead on the Railway Agreement to activate the dry port in Birgunj, further demanding dialogue between Nepal and India at a "political level" rather than at an administrative level.

"Our incompetent government is also silent when India is building barracks for its paramilitary forces along the Nepal-India border," he said.

NRB likely to facilitate money transfers

Post Report

KATHMANDU, Aug 3 - The thousands of Nepalis working as labours in Japan are facing problems to send their money back home and if the remittance were channelled officially, the state could earn millions of dollars in foreign exchange, officials said today.

"There are estimated 7,000 Nepalis working in Japan as labourers and we estimate that they save enough to send home at least US$ 3 million or more every month," said Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) Governor Dr Tilak Rawal.

Rawal was summoned by the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) today to discuss the difficulties faced by Nepali workers abroad in transmitting their money back home to Nepal.

PAC Chairman Subash Nemwang said that during his recent trip to Hong Kong, Nepalis working there complained about the difficulties they are facing. Many of these people depend on businessmen to transfer their money through hundi, where they deposit and their relatives are paid in local currency in Nepal.

Many of them are duped and lose their life saving to these businessmen. There is no official guarantee on the transfers which are illegal by the foreign exchange regulations.

Governor Rawal said, NRB is in the process of granting permission to any individual who is interested in opening up a money transfer center in Japan and in Malaysia.

He said, this problem does not exist in the Middle East countries as there are exchange houses which have contacts with the banks in the country transferring the money.

The Nepal Arab Bank has made agreement with six of these houses operating in the Middle-East, while the Standard Charter has one, Nepal SBI has four, Everest Bank has four, Himalaya Bank has six, Rastriya Banijya Bank has two and Nepal Bank Limited has seven. The total remittance from these agents for the year 2000 totalled US$33.7 million and US$23.6 million a year before that, said Rawal.

However, there are no records of transfer from the United States and Europe as these transfers are through banks mixed with business transactions. The Western Union is the only company which provides such services.

PAC has given a month to the officials of NRB, the Finance Ministry and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to report back with the possibly of the government to open up a center at the Royal Nepal Embassy in Japan where workers could deposit money and have it withdrawn back in Nepal.

UML lawmaker seeks transparency in Palace affairs

Post Report

KATHMANDU, Aug 3 – Two months after the untimely deaths of King Birendra and nine other members of the Royal Family, Nepal is still reeling in its aftermath. That was evident today in parliament when a prominent opposition lawmaker demanded that the late king’s property be bequeathed to the state, and that the Royal Palace be more transparent in its workings.

Pradip Gyawali of the main opposition CPN (UML), referring to media reports about the transfer of late King Birendra’s property to His Majesty King Gyanendra, demanded that all the personal property belonging to King Birendra be handed over instead to the nation as "state property."

"All this (the property handover to the present King) does not give a clear picture of the workings of the Palace that has already been tarnished by the June 1 massacre," said Gyawali. "All the possessions of the late King should now be the property of the state."

According to Gyawali, the property in the name of the late King includes Palaces in Gorkha, Hanumandhoka and Patan; Gokarna Safari Park; Ratna Mandir of Pokhara; Nagarjun Hill; and large tracts of land in the Capital’s Kalimati, Tahachal, including others in Pokhara and Nuwakot.

Gyawali also demanded that the affairs of the Royal Palace be made more transparent and the Heir to the Throne Act be amended to allow even daughters to ascend to the throne.

"The Parliament should also get the opportunity to discuss how the workings of the Royal Palace should be," he said. "Isn’t it discrimination when the Heir to the Throne Act still requires the son to be announced as the heir, though we are presently discussing on providing equal rights to women in the Parliament?" he questioned.

Siamese twins to return home soon

SINGAPORE, Aug 3 (AP) - Nepalese twin girls whose brains were separated in a landmark surgery in Singapore could leave the hospital and return home as early as October, hospital officials said.

Fourteen-month-old Jamuna Shrestha has shown "satisfactory" neurological development, Singapore General Hospital said in a statement Friday.

Her sister Ganga is making progress but still "not able to focus very well," the statement said.

The twins were born joined at the tops of their skulls in a remote Nepalese mountain village. A team of 20 Singapore doctors separated the girls in a grueling and risky five-day operation in April.

The surgery was one of very few of its kind to succeed.

Both twins have been hospitalized since their separation. They have battled a number of serious infections as their skulls, which had to be rebuilt with synthetic materials, healed.

Jamuna, who had earlier been described as the more bashful of the two, "is responsive and very expressivm of her likes and dislikes," the hospital statement said.

Ganga is now "less irritable and likes to be cuddled by her parents," the statement said. Before the separation procedure, doctors had said Ganga was the feistier twin.

Ganga’s "neurological status has improved, although she is still not able to focus very well," the statement added.

"We are now training the parents on how to take care of the twins when they are on their own," the hospital said. The twins’ father, 24-year-old Bushan K. Chatria, works at a small business in the village of Khalanga where the twins were born.

Their mother Sandhya Shrestha, also 24, is a kindergarten teacher. The twins are the couple’s only children.

Doctors have said they believe the twins will be able to lead normal lives, but they will need more plastic surgery to reshape their heads as their brains grow.

The twins captured the hearts of Singaporeans, who donated hundreds of thousands of dollars for pay their medical expenses. Doctors performed the surgery for free and the country’s national carrier, Singapore Airlines, paid for the family’s trip from Nepal.

Singapore’s government has recently been promoting the wealthy but resource-poor city-state as an Asia-Pacific hub for "life sciences," including medical services and biotechnology research.

KMC facing uphill task re-naming streets

By Razen Manandhar

KATHMANDU, Aug 3 -  For two hours, a first time visitor to Kathmandu, Indra Man Tamang of Dhading searched for his son’s rented room.

But like many people who come to the nation’s Capital he could not find the room even though he had an address with him.

Finding a house in this crowd metropolis with estimated 7,000 streets and 100,000 houses is not an easy task, specially when only a few of the streets and places have names.

"My son said that he lived at Baneshwor, but it seems this Baneshwor is bigger than my district," he expressed in bewilderment.

Urban planners say that in the course of development, the ancient city of Kathmandu has expanded 20 times or even more. The number of the houses and roads have also multiplied proportionately in the last four-five decades.

However, the urban development agencies have not been able to implement a system to manage the names and addresses of these streets and neighbourhoods.

"Of course, the city streets are in need of new names. I know only the main streets but one can find dozens of new streets and narrow alleys if one follows them," said Hutaram Baidhya, 81-year-old social worker.

Like any or most of the cities, Kathmandu is no longer what it once used to be. With new settlements developing and streets coming up, the time has come to Christen these streets that have sprouted all over the city.

"There are scores of settlements yet to be named in the new residential areas of the Capital," he says.

It has become a new trend to name streets without following the proper guidelines. It has also been found a single street has been named by the Metropolis and then again with a different name by the locals.

Adding colony or nagar as suffix has become fashionable to name small localities of the city.

"Many streets were found named after King Birendra and Queen Aishwarya after their demise in the June 1 massacre," said Mayor of Kathmandu Keshav Sthapit. "We do respect the people’s love for the Royal Family but that is neither reasonable nor practical to name streets on their own."

So much so that KMC officials say there could be thousands of Ganesh Toles, Kumari Toles and Bhagwan Toles in the periphery of the city.

Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) has been making a complete list of new names for the new settlements for the past last six months. But their efforts have been hitting snags all over and over again.

Infrastructure Engineer of Kathmandu Valley Mapping Programme (KVMP) Dwarika Shrestha said that some two dozen people are working on this project. However, local participation is poor eventhough naming of their locality should be based on their suggestions.

"We try to collect all the possible suggestions for the street names. But our teams are not received well when they are invited for suggestions but later turn up to express their objection after the name is fixed," he said.

"This is a very serious issue. Once the name is set, it is part of history. We pass each name at the KMC board before putting it in the system and a very lengthy process will be required to change it later," Shrestha said.

KVMP has just completed the road maps, street names and is presently distributing house numbers for central sector, which comprises of ward Nos. 1, 5, 11, 31,32 and 33 of the municipality.

The 35 wards of the metropolis are divided into six sectors for the naming purposes.

In one of the sectors with six wards, the team found six Kumari Gallis, two Ghumti Margas, two Laligunrans Margas, two Lalupate Margas, two Bikalpa Gallis, two Simrik Margas and two Sri Kumari Margas.

Shrestha says that this problem will not repeat in core areas as all the places except courtyards have their old names and only they need to be turned into street names.

KVMP targets to distribute street names and house numbers for the rest of the area within a year.

Koirala vows to strengthen party

Post Report

KATHMANDU, Aug 3 – Former prime minister and President of the Nepali Congress Girija Prasad Koirala announced today that he has vowed not to rest until the Nepali Congress is brought to its past glories.

Koirala was speaking at a function organized by Nepal Prajatantra Senani Sangh, to mark the release of a book "Aja ko Nepal" written by Hem Raj Adhikary – Sastri, here in the Capital today.

Explaining why he resigned from the post, Koirala said that he was in dilemma whether to fight the problems of the country staying in power or to stay away from power and support the party. "I finally decided on my own, without consulting anybody that I would quit from the government and strengthen the party," he said.

Koirala, further said that because of the Maoist problem and June 1 incident Nepali Congress was in a very difficult position at present yet he added that the party had been able to deal with many grave difficulties. "This is a very big test for NC which it has to pass."

Koirala also declared that he would visit village to village and form "Village Security Councils" comprising the local youths, which would help protect the people of the villages. "I believe I can return NC its lost glories," he said.

Professor Dr.Govinda Dhakal, speaking critically on the released book, said that the book consisted of parts of history never printed before. The book Aja ko Nepal, covers Nepali history from the Licchavi period to the recent carnage of the Royal Family.

Former ministers Bal Bahadur Rai and Yog Prasad Upadhyay and other personalities such as Bekha Ratna Shakya and Sharada Prasad Upadyaya were present at the function.

Equal rights bill flayed

Post Report

KATHMANDU, Aug 3 - Different religious organisations have launched a bitter attack against the bill of equal rights on parental property, on which discussion is under way in the Parliament.

Issuing a joint press release here today , religious organisations accused the bill for being against the sentiment of the Hindu religion.

"It is an attempt of different international forces to destabilise the religious tolerance in Nepal," said the release.

The release also said that the bill would aggravate the problem of gender discrimination rather than solving it. It said that, domestic violence is likely to increase with the husbands demanding more dowry from the wives.

They have urged the government to mull over this issue and take immediate action.