Army defends its role in Holeri operation

By Satish Jung Shahi

KATHMANDU, Aug 25 – More than a month after the Royal Nepal Army (RNA) was sent into
action against the Maoist rebels in Holeri, Rolpa, a top army commander familiar with the operation has said the army did exchange fire with the rebels.

He told The Kathmandu Post that at least "a few rebels might have died" in the operation.

The revelation comes at a time when there still is widespread apprehension about the RNA’s role in the Holeri Operation, which was conducted with such secrecy that even top government leaders believed they were kept in the dark by the army top brass.

To this day, aides close to Girija Prasad Koirala, who was the Prime Minister at the time, believe that it was the army’s "uncooperative attitude" during Holeri that forced the septuagenarian leader to quit office a few days later.

The RNA, however, denies any such duplicity. The top commander who spoke to The Kathmandu Post, strictly on condition of anonymity, said that RNA officials constantly provided true information to both the Defence Minister and the Prime Minister. "We are not the reason for Koirala’s resignation," the high-ranking officer flatly said. But ministers who were in the Koirala cabinet continue to charge top army brass of misleading the then government throughout the entire Holeri episode.

Whatever the case, new information is coming to light about the operation itself, mostly from the army side. In the absence of any concrete information from the Maoist side, the latest information coming out from the RNA side could not be verified for its authenticity.

According to RNA provided information, the story begins on July 13 when an army platoon consisting of 40 soldiers under the command of a second lieutenant was air-dropped in the jungles near Holeri. Their mission was to scout the countryside for the dozens of policemen abducted a day earlier from the Holeri police post by Maoist rebels, and if possible, to rescue them.

At about this time, "hundreds" of Maoist rebels had gathered at Nuwagaon near Holeri to hold a large rally. The purpose of the rally was to parade the trophy of abducted policemen. Army intelligence also believed that the major objective of the rebel’s program was to declare a "central government."

The airdrop itself did not go smoothly. Rebels hiding in the jungles below began firing at the RNA MI-17 helicopter hovering above, seriously wounding three soldiers, including a co-pilot. But somehow, the platoon managed to land in the jungles, the officer said.

Though the RNA did try to dispatch reinforcements later, they were unsuccessful due to bad weather that lasted for most of the week. During that time, the rebels were against only the 40 soldiers of the platoon. The soldiers had been given clear rules-of-engagement that authorised them to return fire if attacked upon. It is unclear whether soldiers immediately began shooting on July 13, but later they did.

But before it could come to that, the Maoist rebels first tried psychological warfare. Experienced guerrillas that they were, the Maoists began using boom mikes and loudspeakers to call up non-existent phantom rebel units to scare off the platoon still holed up in the jungles adjoining Nuwagaon. "They wanted to give us the impression that they had many more colleagues who had already surrounded us," the army commander goes on narrating the story.

The rebels also used the villagers to shield them from any possible army action. RNA officers said, the rebels had put the village women and children on the frontline. Behind them were the abducted policemen. The rebels stayed in the rear. It was clear, the RNA said that the rebels were using the villagers and the abducted policemen as "human shields" to deter army action.

As the stand-off between the platoon and the "thousands of rebels" holed up in Nuwagaon dragged on, the soldiers began to get nervous. Bad weather was already hampering efforts to reinforce them. The weather was so bad that even supplies could not be air-dropped for days, almost starving the soldiers, said the officer.

In these fidgety times, as both sides’ nerves were on tenterhooks, firing began. The RNA officer said that the rebels were the first to fire at the soldiers. The platoon immediately returned fire with mortar shells. "We have information that at least a few rebels were shot and killed at this instance," the officer said. "But we did not make the information public and neither did the rebels."

Soon after the soldiers began firing, according to the RNA officer, the local rebel commander began calling for a cease-fire. "They began to shout ‘cease-fire, cease-fire’ from their loudspeakers," said the officer. "And we ordered our soldiers to hold fire."

According to the officer, the rebels then sent a negotiating team to talk to the soldiers. "We told them to release the abducted policemen, and to negotiate with the government, which they promptly agreed. Their only demand was to be allowed to leave the area unharmed."

Some senior rights activists such as Padma Ratna Tuladhar and local representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross did meet top army commanders in Kathmandu while the Holeri stand-off was still continuing. They pleaded with the army to refrain from bloodshed and respect even the rebel’s human rights. A top army commander is said to have replied to them: "You talk of human rights. But the Maoists are using women, children and abducted policemen as human shields. What sort of respect for human rights they have?"

After several rounds of negotiations, the crisis blew off. Exactly what happened next is murky, but the truth is that the rebels, from the hold up in Nuwagaon, got away. By the time a group of human rights activists from Kathmandu landed in the area to help in the negotiations, Nuwagaon was already a deserted village.

Govt announces measures to control liquor sale

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KATHMANDU, Aug 25 - A long-standing dialogue between the government and Maoist-aligned organisation has come to a decision to take various measures to control the rampant consumption of alcohol in the country.

The government agreed to restrict the sale of liquor for four days in a month, the main demand put forth by the Maoist-aligned All Nepal Women’s Association (ANWA- Revolutionary).

As per the agreement reached today between the two sides, the distributors and retailers will now be prohibited to sell liquor on the first two days and the last two Saturdays of the Nepali month.

The government and ANWA finally arrived to an agreement after six rounds of dialogue.

ANWA had put forward 22-point demand, with a major one for the total ban on liquor sales. But the government refused to meet their demand of abolishing Public Security Regulation, ban on beauty pageant and the ban on importing foreign liquor.

The final round of dialogue was held between Home Minister Khum Bahadur Khadka and a three-member delegation of ANWA, which was led by its chairperson Rekha Sharma.

Both the sides also agreed on limiting the liquor retailing shops. According to the Home Ministry, only four liquor shops will be issued license in each ward of the Kathmandu Metropolis, three shops in each ward of Sub-Metropolis and only two in each entire Village Development Committees.

Likewise, the alcohol sale has been limited to the people of over 21 years of age. Those who flout the regulation will be penalised in accordance with the law, the Home Ministry statement said.

The two sides have also agreed to stop issuing the liquor industry license for next five years.

Other consensus include, ban on advertisement from both the electronic and print media, only the license holders will be allowed to sell liquor for four hours a day, restaurants will not be allowed to keep the cabins, drivers of the public transport will not be allowed to consume alcohol while driving, ban on the prostitution, ban on pornographic materials, ban on indecent uniform for the restaurants employees, utilization of the revenue collected from the liquor to set up women’s colleges, etc.

The business community earlier had flayed recent attack on the Nepalgunj-based Shah Distillery Pvt. Ltd., in which property worth around 30 million rupees was gutted allegedly by the Maoist workers.

PM asks Maoists to uphold peace

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KATHMANDU, Aug 25 – Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba today appealed to the Maoists to stop "violent terrorist acts" and to follow the government declared ceasefire. He specifically asked the Maoists to immediately stop extortion and cease holding mass meets with armed cadres around.

Inaugurating the "Peace March" organized by World Hindu Youth Association in the Capital today Deuba said-"the government has now stopped all operation against the rebels but they have been carrying on violent acts in many places. I appeal to ‘Maoists friends’ to stop these actions immediately."

Deuba also said that in Nepali context, political system with Constitutional Monarchy was the best system and added that many countries where monarchy was thrown out have now become victims of violence, poverty and division. He also urged all the people to see the monarchy, which was the symbol of national unity, with faith and trust.

On the occasion, Chairman of Rajparishad Standing Committee, Dr Keshar Jung Rayamajhi and leader of the main opposition party in the parliament CPN-UML, Madhav Kumar Nepal also appealed to the Maoists to stop violence. Nepal also added that if the Government was really serious to bring peace in the country then it had to fulfill the wishes of the general public.

"The ‘peace march’ has been organized to pray that the ongoing violence in the country comes to an end," said Jedu Pokhrel, Chairman of the World Hindu Youth Association.

Will Deuba implement NC directives?

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KATHMANDU, Aug 25 – The government should take the help of existing laws and enact new laws, if necessary, to take action against the illegally amassed wealth in the post-democracy period, said Nepali Congress leaders, a day after the party’s highest decision-making body directed the government to take action.

Both party General Secretary Sushil Koirala and former party spokesperson Narhari Acharya said the party had taken the decision to clamp down on illegal property according to the wishes of the general public. The Nepali Congress Central Working Committee (CWC) meeting on Friday directed the government to probe and take action against the unaccountable wealth amassed by those who have held high level offices in the government since 1990, after the restoration of democracy.

The CWC directives comes in the wake of agitation by the Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) and Nepal Sadbhawana Party (NSP) both inside and outside the parliament. These parties have also demanded a ceiling on personal property, besides the proposed land ceiling announced by Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba.

The two parties and a section of his own party leaders have termed Deuba’s decision as a move against the farmers in the Terai region. NC leader Shailaja Acharya has even gone to the extent of accusing Deuba of trying to become a hero through this popular gimmick. However, her threat of "fast-unto-death" was withdrawn after the CWC decision to look into the illegal property, which too seems ambitious.

But former spokesperson Acharya does not think it as an ambitious directives. When asked how the government would accomplish the task, Acharya told The Kathmandu Post, "The government will have to set a mechanism to do that with the help of existing laws and enact new ones if necessary to do the needful."

Acharya added that it was upto the government whether it wanted the probe body to be made constitutional or a legal one. However, he said that whatever the nature of the investigative body, it would have full authority to go about its task. He also mentioned some Bills pending in the parliament that aim to uproot corruption, including the one whose passage would add more teeth to the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA).

Acharya said the government has full support of the party in its endeavour to bring the guilty to book. But he did not deny that the government could run into rough weather if it went ahead with the move.

A similar sentiment was expressed by the NC General Secretary Koirala who emphasized that the party was not only behind the PM for his land reforms measures but it would also fully support the government in probing and seizing the illegally amassed wealth and punish the guilty.

"The party will support the government whoever is caught, even if the person belongs to our own party," Koirala told The Kathmandu Post. He too said it was upto the government to decide how to accomplish the task.

He denied the party had given the directives to the government to neutralize the protests launched by the RPP and the NSP against the land reforms and their call to impose ceiling on property. "This is not a compromise; land reforms and wealth amassed through corruption are two separate issues," added Koirala.

However, Pashupati Shumsher JB Rana, General Secretary of the RPP, and one of the most vocal opponents of Deuba’s announcement on land reforms, expresses his skepticism. He was in the forefront asking for "an immediate crackdown on wealth amassed through corruption, smuggling and Mafia network".

Referring to the NC directives to the government, Rana told The Kathmandu Post that the party had done nothing new. "NC is known for its anti-corruption policy but they have always limited to slogans only."

Despite claims and counterclaims, the general public has welcomed the Nepali Congress decision.

Sindhupalchwok landslides affect 200 households

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CHAUTARA, Sindhupalchwok, Aug 25 - More than 200 households have been affected by the landslides triggered by torrential rains in many Village Development Committees, officials here said Saturday.

The local administration said that around 80 families at a remote Hapra village of the Hagam VDC have abandoned their houses and are taking refuge to their relatives or in jungle after there occurred deep fissures in their villages on Thursday.

Chief District Officer Madhav Prasad Ojha said that a government team had been sent to the village to take stock of the situation. Similarly, around 100 families from the eastern VDCs of this hill district have become homeless due to heavy landslide during this year’s monsoon rains and floods.

Police at Bahrabise said Listi, Dhumthang, Marmin, Chokati, Bahrabise and Gati are the worst landslide affected VDCs located close to the Nepal-Tibet border. A total of seven people were killed when two separate landslides washed away their houses on Monday night. Currently, the displaced families are staying in makeshift shelters along the Araniko highway for fear of further landslides in their villages.

The landslide victims said that they had not yet received any form of relief - in cash or kind - from the government agencies. CDO Ojha, however, claimed that the District Natural Calamity Relief Fund provided the bereaved family members and homeless people immediate relief fund for the last rites of the deceased and other materials.

Likewise, around 300 ropanies of cultivated land has been washed away by mudslide in the Sipal Kavre, an adjoining VDC of the district headquarters. Five houses are reported to be on the verge of collapse due to the mountainslide.

Local administration said that a technical team has gone to the Tatopani customs point to assess the damages of the 26 km section of the Araniko highway which has remained blocked for over a week due to the landslides in several places.

The section of the only surface route to connect Nepal with that of the Tibet Autonomous Region of China remains blocked during the rainy season as the rugged mountain is fragile.

‘Stick to radical land reforms’

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KATHMANDU, Aug 25 - Central Committee member of the main opposition, Communist Party of Nepal - United Marxist Leninist, Keshav Badal warned the government Saturday that the "revolutionary" land reforms must not be changed from what the Commission for Land Reform stated while implementing it.

"The much-praised land reform program would be meaningless if it is brought in different attributes to benefit the rich landlords at the cost of the thousands of the landless poor in the country," said he, while addressing an interaction program.

Badal was the coordinator of the High Level Commission for Land Reform, formed in 1995 during the period of CPN-UML government.

He said the slogan would remain only a slogan if the government decides to distribute land among 12-year old children as separate family.

"The land ceiling alone does not mean land reform programme. It needs a lot of more supplementary programs without which the special land reform programme will not reach the target groups," he said.

On the amassed property of public figures, he said the government should nationalize all the property earned illegally and should levy progressive tax on the legal earnings of the people.

Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba had announced for implementation of land reform in his 8-point special programme last Thursday.

Secretary of Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) Pashupati Shamsher Rana charged the government that the program was brought overnight without any homework and constitutional procedures.

"The programme should aim to comfort the landless people of the Terai who do not even have citizenship cards. The effectiveness of the programme will not be seen if the people are deprived of citizenship cards," he said. Rana clarified that the RPP was never against the programme itself but it opposed the unconstitutional way it was presented.

Central Committee member of Nepali Congress Narahari Acharya said the government is coming up with Bills before the parliament for the enactment of laws on land reforms.

Pointing out that the accumulation of landed property is centered in the Capital in these days, he said ceiling on property is not possible in the democratic system.

"Still, we can implement strong taxation and regulate it in the case of the people who have acquired public position in the last decade," he said

Ganga, Jamuna expected to return home in October

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KATHMANDU, Aug 25 – They left Nepal in November last year, their heads conjoined. Now
that their heads have been separated and are fast recuperating in Singapore, former Siamese twins Ganga and Jamuna Shrestha are all set to return home.

Now 15 months old, the twin sisters who were separated in April following a marathon surgery at the Singapore General Hospital, are expected to leave Singapore by October 1, said a press release issued here Saturday by M.N. Swami, the Royal Nepalese Consulate General to the city state.

After they were separated following the marathon surgery that lasted for several days, they created medical history. Thanks largely to Dr Keith Goh and his fellow surgeons at the Hospital, the twins are considered among the rare twins who have survived after the tiresome and complicated separation operation.

"Jamuna is active and responded to the doctor while Ganga was sleepy, Swami said in the statement. "The doctors had assured … that the children may need pediatric help and support from family members. Doctors have said the twins will be able to lead normal lives back in their village, but they will need more plastic surgery to reshape their heads as their brains grow."

The girls were born in the Indra Rajya Laxmi Maternity Hospital on May 10, 1999, to Sandhya Shrestha-KC and Bhusan KC, who hail from remote Salyan district in the impoverished mid-western region of Nepal. They were flown to Singapore six months later, on November 10.

Consular General Swami has expressed his gratitude to the staff of the Hospital, people of Singapore and the Gurkha community living there who were instrumental in supporting the girls and their parents through thick and thin.

MN Swami, Consul General, who had made arrangements for the accommodation, supply of provision and transportation for the parents and the grandfather together with the then Commander of the Gurkha Contingent of the Singapore-based Police Force, among others. They had become successful in raising at least Singapore $ 650,00 (Rs 27,950000). The money was spent on the operation and living expenses of the girls and their parents.

However, "The medical costs may surge to a $600,000 or more inspite of the fact that the Surgeons, the doctors and other professionals had waived their fees." According to him, Ajambar Basnet working in the Travel Industry and Bishwa Giri had assisted the parents by collecting $3,000 towards the fees. Fellow Nepalese had provided other assistance to the family of the twins.

Soon after their picture was published by The Straits Times, a Singapore daily newspaper, they captured the hearts of Singaporeans who donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay their medical expenses. Doctors performed the surgery for free and Singapore’s national carrier, Singapore Airlines, paid for the girls and their family to make the trip from Nepal

The Gurkha Police had accommodated the parents of the twins and their grandfather at their quarters as per the request of Swami till June this year. Thereafter the Singapore General Hospital has been providing the accommodation for the parents till now. Other than the assistance from Ajambar and the Gurkha Contingent, the assistance rendered by other fellow Nepalese were insignificant, says the release.

"The Consul General recognizes the services rendered to the success of the world’s first such separation surgery to Dr. Upendra Devkota, the neurosurgeon in Kathmandu who referred the twins to the Singapore hospital," the release said, adding: "As the children would soon be returning to Nepal we look to Dr. Devkota and his associates to look after the children"

The release added, "Dr. Champon Chan, the leading Vascular Neuro Surgeon and Dr. Keith Goh, the Co-ordinator and others at the Singapore General Hospital were informed that further evaluation would be made after a period of few years for the reconstruction surgery on Siamese twins."

Swami had drafted and submitted a ‘Draft Trust Deed’ to the Singapore General Hospital to hold the balance sum in Trust until the children reach the age of five subject to further decision to made by the Trustee including himself after the period of five years. Doctors have said Ganga and Jamuna will have to undergo reconstruction surgery of their heads after they become five years old – and as their brains grow.

Effective implementation of decentralization stressed

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KATHMANDU, Aug 25 – Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba today said that effective implementation of decentralization and self-governance can also ease the Maoist problem to a considerable extent.

PM Deuba made this remark while inaugurating a one-day workshop on Decentralization, Local Self-Governance and Equality: Nepal’s Experience and Challenges, jointly organized here by Development Committee of the House of Representatives (DCHR) and Association of District Development Committees of Nepal (ADDCN).

"Not only should we involve participation of local people in development initiatives, we should also leave the right to prioritize, choose and implement development programs to the local governments, said PM Deuba, asking the people’s representatives to "work faithfully to win the hearts of the people".

"Unsuccessful implementation of decentralization and self-governance is one of the major factors behind the rise of Maoist problem. Decentralization and self- governance must be operative effectively if we have to stop people from being Maoists any more," PM added.

He also underlined the need for the participation of local people in local bureaucracy, including active involvement of women in development initiatives to see the vision of decentralization and self governance be effective and fruitful.

Meanwhile, participants of the workshop said that the implementation of decentralization and self-governance have not been effective due to lack of mechanism needed for decentralization and self-governance. They also lambasted the government for not being able to implement the laws advocating autonomous regime of the local government.

Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives Chitra Lekha Yadav, presenting a paper on Women Representation in Local Governance, said that the empowerment of women is a must to keep decentralization and self-governance working effectively. " Gender equity is the basis of the success of decentralization and self-governance," said Yadav, adding that "we talk high of gender equity but we do not practice it". She also demanded the government to form a "women development fund immediately".

Krishna Prasad Sapkota, president of ADDCN, deplored the government for not implementing administrative, political and economic decentralization as provisioned in Local Self-Governance Act. He also criticized bureaucracy for interfering in the works of the local governments, which, according to him, is the major challenge that the local governments are facing at present.