Trade, security top Nepal-India talks

By Damakant Jayshi

KATHMANDU, Aug 18 – Trade and security issues prominently figured during Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba’s meeting with the visiting India’s External Affairs and Defence Minister Jaswant Singh today, according to highly placed sources in the government.

While PM Deuba called for the renewal of the 1996 Trade Treaty whose review India has sought just days before Singh’s visit, the Indian Minister said his country too had genuine concerns regarding the treaty, reiterating a call for its review. The treaty, with an automatic renewal clause unless one of the parties renege it with a three-month advance notice, expires in the first week. "But we are not asking to change the basic spirit of the treaty," said Singh.

The sources said that the Prime Minister also raised the inundation caused in the Rupandehi district caused by the now-stopped construction of a link bund just 200 metres away from the Nepal-India border. Deuba expressed his concern about the possible inundation of Lumbini, the birthplace of Lord Buddha.

Singh "assured" the Prime Minister that India had no intention of inundating Nepali territory. He also "reminded" the PM that India had stopped the construction as soon as Nepal asked for it. Trying to allay Nepal’s concerns, Singh also assured that India would take a final decision on the construction once their technical team submitted the report.

Singh who came here yesterday on a two-day official visit of Nepal with a slew of high-ranking officials met a cross section Nepalese leaders today, discussing the entire gamut of bilateral relations.

Although both the sides were tight-lipped about the security issue, sources said that India’s security concern figured prominently during Singh’s talks with the Prime Minister, Sher Bahadur Deuba and other leaders.

The Indian Minister’s day started with his meeting with the ruling party president and former prime minister Girija Prasad Koirala.

According to sources close to the former PM, several issues of bilateral concern was discussed during the meeting. Koirala also urged Singh to ensure the continuation of the Nepal-India Trade Treaty.

Soon after the meeting with Koirala, Singh met another NC leader former PM Krishna Prasad Bhattarai at his residence in Bhainsepati, Lalitpur. Bhattarai too urged the need of giving continuity to the trade treaty and the problems created by the construction of embankments by the southern neighbour near the international border.

The Indian ambassador Deb Mukharji was present during the courtesy calls. The Indian Embassy in the capital hosted a luncheon for the visiting minister in the afternoon. Besides Singh, several high-ranking ministers of Nepal government also attended the luncheon.

The government sources said that at a luncheon meet, Singh raised India’s security concern. India has been raising the issue of "anti-Indian activities carried out by Pakistan’s ISI from the Nepalese soil".

But the Nepal government has, time and again, given assurance to her southern neighbour that anti-Indian activities will not be tolerated inside the country.

The visiting dignitary also met opposition party leader Madhav Kumar Nepal, General Secretary of Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist). A press release issued by the party said that issues of mutual concern were discussed during the meeting.

‘Treaty should remain unchanged’

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KATHMANDU, Aug 18 - Experts have reiterated that Nepal-India Trade Treaty, first signed in 1991, and later modified in 1996, should be extended unchanged.

This Treaty between the two neighbouring countries is expiring this December.

"The spirit of the Trade Treaty should remain unchanged. However, Nepal should address the genuine Indian concerns," said Purushottam Ojha, Joint Secretary at the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies.

India has recently put forward their demand to review and revise certain provisions mentioned in the Treaty. Apparently, the Indian call for review in the Treaty trails the failure of the recent secretarial level trade talks between the two sides to reach a consensus on the contentious issue of export surge.

India, during the talks, had tabled its concern on the increasing export of Nepalese goods to India, especially that of five products. The products include acrylic yarn, zinc oxide, copper twines, vanaspati ghee and steel pipes, which it claimed to have fallen under the surge net.

Businessmen and government officials, at the interaction program organised today by Reporters’ Club, said that the Treaty should not be amended with the sole intentions of curtailing Nepalese exports to India. "The government is trying to find an amicable solution to the concerns showed by the Indian side," said Ojha.

The Nepalese side in the recent talks had failed to buy the Indian idea of curtailing Nepalese exports, especially those of the five items, by either imposing quantitative restrictions or by tying Nepalese exports to a 30-per cent value addition slab on labour and raw materials. India too did not agree to Nepal’s proposal to curtail the export of the five products by raising the export duties. Speaking on the occasion, Mohan Dev Pant, former secretary at the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies, said, "The change in the Treaty must be averted."

Stressing that since the Treaty was signed with the intentions of accelerating Nepal’s industrialization and providing a conducive environment to capital investment, Pant said that the Treaty should not be changed in such a short period.

Rabi Bhakta Shrestha, President of the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI), said that the provisions contained in the Treaty that comes as a threat to exports should be corrected rather than curtail the exports. "A longer term solution to the existing problems need to be sought for ensuring that the business climate is not affected," he said.

Similarly, Padma Jyoti, former President of FNCCI, said since Nepal’s trade deficit with India is not balanced, there is a need to bridge the gap. "Newer provisions in the Treaty should lead to a surge in trade.

On the same occasion, industrialist Diwakar Golchha stressed that a change in the Treaty might bring economic crisis in the country. "New investment into Nepal would be deterred if the Treaty after amendment would check Nepalese exports," he said.

Surendra Bir Malakar, Vice President of Nepal Chamber of Commerce, and Rukma Sumsher Rana, Vice President of Nepal India Chamber of Commerce and Industry also spoke on the occasion.

However, if the intentions are to curtail exports, the very objective of the Treaty will be defeated," he said.

Nepal backs Deuba, raps conservatives

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KATHMANDU, Aug 18 - Leader of the main opposition party and General Secretary of CPN-UML Madhav Kumar Nepal today said conservative forces are still eager to pull down the welcome steps of Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba.

While speaker of the House of Representatives Taranath Ranabhat called for radical steps to address the problems of women and children as well as social reforms.

They were speaking in the capital today at a workshop on " Role of lawmakers in the protection of rights of women and children and its promotion" jointly organized by Foreign Affairs and Human Rights Protection Committee of House of Representatives and Gender Mainstreamisation Program of Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare.

Speaking at the program justice of the Supreme Court, Laxman Prasad Aryal said the constitution has expressly guaranteed equal rights to women but the lawmakers are lacking to cater this.

Opposition leader Nepal further said adding that feudalism is the main problem of the country and also an obstacle on the way to ensure the rights of women and children.

The leaders and justice also stressed on the need to materialize the special provision of Article 11 (3) of the constitution that provides for protection and advancement of the women and children.

Speaking on the same occasion leader of Nepal Sadbhawana Party, Badri Mandal flayed the land ceiling proposed by Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba.

Resident Representative of United Nations Development Fund, Henning Karcher said UNDP has located gender mainstreaming as one of its priority area within its overall mandate of poverty alleviation.

Other speakers of the program were, Dr Ram Man K.C. of CPN-ML, whip of Rastriya Prajatantra Party Krishna Charan Shrestha, Lila Mani Pokharel of United People’s Front. The program was chaired by Narayan Man Bijukchhe of Nepal Workers and Peasant Party.

Refugee leaders submit memo to FM Mahat

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KATHMANDU, Aug 18 - Bhutanese refugee leaders submitted a 12-point memorandum to Finance Minister Ram Sharan Mahat on Saturday. Minister Mahat is leading the Nepali team to Thimpu, Bhutan for the 11th round of Nepal -Bhutan bilateral talks on refugee problems scheduled to begin from Monday.

Issuing a press statement, refugee leaders expressed deep concern over the unacceptable pace of the verification exercise in the course of last 88 days of Joint Verification Team’s (JVT) work.

The release also pointed out that 11th round of bilateral negotiations would be a fresh impetus for resolving the on-going refugee crisis.

Meanwhile, the memorandum signed by the heads of seven refugee camps and the Bhutanese Women Focal Point expressed hope that the 11th bilateral talks would significantly contribute towards ending the decade old refugee problem.

The memorandum also calls on the government to form a task-force comprising intellectuals, members of parliament, government officials and journalists and form an appeal court to decide on the problems of those refugees not verified as Bhutanese citizens.

It further requested the Nepali side to seek clarification on the recent deliberation of Bhutanese National Assembly (Tshogdu) on the ban imposed on refugees’ return.

The refugees urge both the parties, Nepal and Bhutan, to begin the work of verifying 50-100 families a day in spite of 10 families, which has been the main reason in slowing down of the process.

They also asked the two governments to express publicly their positions on the status of 5,957 refugees who have so far been verified during the last 88 days.

"None of the 939 refugee families verified from Khudunabari camp have been informed of whether they can return or not," the memorandum addressed to the heads of the Joint Ministerial Committee states.

The representatives of the joint organisation of the of Bhutanese refugee NGOs also appealed both the governments of Nepal and Bhutan to make necessary arrangement for the repatriation of 100,000 plus refugees to their original homes under the protection of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and guarantee their fundamental rights including reinstatement of citizenship and property rights upon their return.

Mentally-retarded continue to end up in streets

By Tashi D Thinley

KATHMANDU, Aug 18 – Bikram, a mentally ill person, slept under a concrete table tennis board at Chabahil Chowk in the capital for two days without food and shelter. People eagerly flocked to look at him, called him pagal or bahula (means mad) and then went away.

When Dhyan Kumar, 22, goes out of his house, children and neighbours flock to deride him, chase him and call him by different names. In a fit of anger, he breaks neighbours’ windowpanes, beats small children and at times even breaks cars with stones. His family of seven is always troubled by complaints.

As mental illness has a social stigma attached to it, many patients and especially, their families suffer from shame, guilt and hopelessness. "It has been difficult for us to live in the society," laments Gita Kumari, mother of Dhyan. "People do not invite us for social gatherings and they think that it is due to big sins committed by us in our previous life for which our son became a pagal."

Most patients feel it’s a curse as a result of crime committed in the previous life and do not seek medication due to fear of the society. Instead they seek help of dhami jhankri (witch doctors).

Dr Dhruba Man Shrestha, Senior Psychiatric Consultant of Patan Mental Hospital says, "People still shy away from mental illness instead of going to a doctor." Shrestha says that medication can help recover from 60 percent of mental illnesses.

While there has been some significant and important developments, health services have remained limited or concentrated in the Kathmandu Valley. Currently, various government hospitals and private clinics provide psychiatric treatment and services. But Asha Deep is the only rehabilitation center for mentally ill people, which can house about 32 patients at Sundarijal. Asha deep is run by Mary Knoll Nepal, a non-governmental organization affiliated to the Department of Health Services.

But as there are thousands of mentally ill people, expansion of rehabilitation centers has been felt urgent. Since only medicines and cursory psychiatric treatment services are available at government hospitals with no provisions for long-term counseling and rehabilitation. These patients are generally landed in prisons without any crime. Many of such patients are also sent to institutions of far off places like Ranchi, India.

In the name of rehabilitation, prisons throughout the country were used as dumping places for men and women of mental illness since there are no mental health services available in rural areas. Over the years, mentally ill women had been living and dying in prisons. So Asha Deep, with the consent of the Home Ministry, since 1994, has continued to rehabilitate chronic mental patients who are released from jail.

"However, even today, few mentally ill people are kept in prisons," says Kumar Dahal, programme manager of Asha Deep. According to him, the prisons offer no more than minimal medication, no activities nor counseling but a dreadful living condition under which patients have little or no chance of recovery.

Shiva Karki, a mentally ill patient, who has been in the capital’s Central Jail serving his term for the last five years for murdering his wife, says, "Here I get a daily square meal, but then I wish they would take us out sometimes."

But, as the government does not take care of mentally ill people, and due to the lack of rehabilitation centers, they are released from various jails and left in the streets. Dr Shrestha says, "The government should immediately take step to make some arrangement for these people."

According to the data provided by Patan Mental Hospital, there were 13,038 mentally ill patients in 1995 and the number has risen to more than 20,000 today. Out of them, 51 per cent mental cases are maniac, 20 per cent schizophrenic and 20 per cent acute psychotic patients. Other illnesses are neurosis, drug abusers, alcoholics, mentally retarded and epileptics.

Psychiatrists say the number is fairly larger because many people in the country today are mentally disturbed either due to sudden changes in social and economic norms or due to migration from the villages. Some are victims of torture, marital disharmony and particularly due to the daily violences. "The mental hospital has been visited by a number of patients who have been suffering from acute insomnia since the time of the Royal massacre in June," said Dr Shrestha.

"In a single word, the cause of increase of mentally ill people is prevailing tension in once-peaceful Nepal. Mental vulnerability of the people also plays a major role in determining the state of mental health" said Dr Shishir Regmi, psychiatrist in the teaching hospital. Other reasons are stress, environmental degradation and genetic disorders.

425 lawyers might plead against contempt of court

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KATHMANDU, Aug 18 – Four hundred twenty five lawyers have shown interest to plead in the same single case related to a contempt of court making it first ever move in Nepal’s judicial history.

The story goes like this. Three bench assistants of the Supreme Court had filed a lawsuit on a contempt of court case eight months ago against four lawyers for using intimidating languages while pleading before a Supreme Court justice. Ironically, these lawyers then were pleading in another contempt of court case related to Members of Parliament (MPs) using offensive words in the Parliament against the Judiciary.

The lawmakers of the CPN-UML last June had used offensive words in the Parliament undermining the dignity of the Judiciary after the Election Special Court, Patan then had declared Rastriya Prajatantra Party’s Prakash Chandra Lohani winner by a margin of one vote ousting CPN-UML lawmaker Rajendra Prasad Lohani.

Senior Advocates Chudamani Raj Singh Malla, and Advocates Rabi Raj Bhandari, Sushil Pant and Dhurba Lal Shrestha, against whom contempt of court case was filed by the bench assistants, last Thursday filed a written statement listing 425 lawyers who could plead for the case. It took as long as nearly as eight months for the court summoning the respondents.

The written response to the court stated that there was not any contempt of court from their side. "We had not used any intimidating language then," said Bhandari. "All I did was asked the Judge’s permission to call other pleading lawyers then," Bhandari added.

Usually such permissions are granted by the court but it was denied in our case, lamented Bhandari.

Advocate Bhandari had filed a writ petition earlier on June 29 claiming that MPs had used offensive words during the deliberation in the Parliament. But the petition then was not accepted by the court. Later in July 3, Bhandari filed a petition against such denial.

Mahottari witch-hunt brings widespread social ill to the fore

By Seema A Adhikari

KATHMANDU, Aug 18 – The witch-hunting act in Mahottari district once again brought to the fore the deep-rooted malaise affecting the rural parts of the Kingdom where superstition continues rules the roost.

The latest incident comes at a time when masses are sloganeering for gender equity and denouncing male supremacy over women.

Despite occasional reports hitting the headlines in the newspapers, the witch-hunting incidents continue to occur literally everywhere across the country. Women rights activists charge that the district administration as well as the police have always been found wanting to prevent such incidents simply because they fail to book the guilty.

The latest incident that struck Simardahi in Mahottari district proved to be the biggest such crime in which more than 1,500 women were humiliated and one was severely beaten up.

According to human rights activists, Mahottari, Sarlahi and some parts of Dhanusha have suffered the most from the atrocities related to women accusing them of witches.

Hardly a few years after a woman was forced to eat human excreta at Buddhanagar, Morang, in 1995, the incident again reflected in its worst form in Mahottari - another district that saw 1,500 woman beaten and one seriously injured.

Krishna Pahadi, President of Human Rights and Peace Society (HURPES) said the practice of flogging women on charges of witchcraft has assumed a common tradition in Mahottari, Sarlahi and some parts of Dhanusha.

"This is a crime against humanity and we condemn it in all forms," said the human rights activist. Mangal Raj Joshi, a prominent astrologer said that such a practice is not conducive to the changing times. "Science of astrology does believe in tantric healing but not in this kind of abuses," he added

Sabitri Thapa of Minbhawan, who was stunned to hear the incident, reflected the sentiments of the city women who were asked their opinion on the ghastly incident. She demanded that those involved in committing the heinous crime against women be fined rupees 50,000 for every 1,500 women, just like the perpetrators of the crime had threatened to collect from the villagers if they failed to parade the womenfolk.

Thapa added that all the city women should march to Simardahi to protest against derogatory superstitious belief. "I am willing to that."

Phul Maya Yadav who hails from the austere Yadav society that believes in dhami jhakri (witch doctors) blames the women largely for inventing and spreading such rumours that witches do exist.

Despite the fact that a large number of urban populations have denied the existence of such evil practices, a number of women in remote villages are still looked upon with suspicion and doubts.

Landlords have, at times, attacked the women and secluded them from the society baselessly charging them of witches and without scientific evidence. The society has largely remained mute to the suffering of this kind.

Recently, human rights organizations and civil society have been clamoring against this evil practice but they say a major reform towards ending this evil would come only after a sterner law is enacted.

Father beats daughter on witchcraft charge

SINDHULI, Aug 18 (PR)- A villager here beat his own daughter up charging her of practising witchcraft.

Yogeswor Pahadi of Kholagaon VDC Ward-9 beat his daughter Radha "to remove the so-called ‘witch’ from her." The 14-year-old girl is said to be on a critical condition.

Locals say that Radha started to behave abnormally for sometime, showing signs of being mentally unstable. She was suffering from respiratory problem over the last few days. But, when she began to shout, bite and even claw people, locals thought that this girl has become a witch. They called a local dhami who declared that she has become the victim of a witch. Under his direction, she was beaten to ward off the spell.

As her condition started to deteriorate, Radha was taken to Kathmandu for treatment on the advice of local intellectuals.

However, Radha’s father still does not believe that doctors can cure his daughter. According to a local journalist, he is still showing his daughter to the dhami jhankris (witch doctors) at the premises of Pathupatinath temple. The journalist said the condition of Radha is worsening.

According to doctors, Radha has been deeply hurt at her brain. As a result of the torture she has been meted out in the name of driving out the ‘witch’ from her person. She will recover to a great extent the moment she gets warm and affectionate treatment, they opine.

There are many other women, in remote areas of this district, who are also subjected to this type of torture in the pretext of driving out the evil spirit or ‘witch’.

Absence of health manpower in the health posts compels villagers to trust the dhami jhankris. Moreover, many dhami jhankris also use medicinal herbs along with their ‘jharphuk’ to cure the patients and win the trust of the people, according to Dilli Prasad Neupane, chairman of Dudbhanjyang village.

Seeing the faith of villagers on dhami jhankris, Nepal Red Cross Society last year collected all the dhami jhankris of the district and provided them training. After the training, they have started sending people to the health post when they fail to cure them. Despite this, the belief of the rural people on them still remains unshaken.