Maoists hurl bombs at Tumlingtar airport

KATHMANDU, Dec. 11 (PR)– Maoist rebels threw two socket bombs at Tumlingtar airport in the eastern hill district of Sankhuwasabha Monday night, security sources said.

But the explosion targeted at the police post near the airport did not cause any damage, our Biratnagar report quoted the security sources as saying.

About a dozen Maoists hurled the bombs at the police post, about two hours walk from the district headquarters of Khandbari, but they fled after the police opened fire at them.

More security personnel were sent to the site immediately from the headquarters, the report said. The Maoists also exploded bombs in Dhupu and Ramche VDCs of the district the same night, according to the locals arriving from the village.

Meanwhile, a group of army men travelling from Benibazaar to Babiyachaur of Myagdi district survived an ambush laid by the Maoists Tuesday afternoon, our reporter in Myagdi said, quoting local army sources. The explosion took place in Singha VDC-4 but no one was injured, the report said.

The Maoists fled the scene after the army opened fire after the explosion. The army men were going towards Babiyachaur village in connection with their search operation. After the incident, more personnel have been sent to the area, further tightening the security there.

Similarly, Royal Nepal Army personnel arrested 10 Maoist rebels in different places during their cordon and search operation on Monday, the Defense Ministry said here today.

The RNA men arrested four "terrorists" in Motipur VDC of Kapilbastu district, two in Nuwagaun village of Rolpa district and four in Samudradevi VDC of Nuwakot district, according to a press release issued by the Defense Ministry.

Oppn demand end to emergency

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KATHMANDU, Dec 11 – Prominent opposition parties today handed over a memorandum asking the government to end the state of emergency as soon as possible and cautioned the government against misusing the authority.

"Suspending peoples’ right gained by the popular movement of 1990 makes the people weak. We urge the Prime Minister to end this situation as soon as possible," said the memorandum signed by opposition parties including the main opposition CPN-UML, Rastriya Prajatantra Party and CPN-ML among others.

Other parties signing the memorandum include Nepal Workers and Peasants Party, United Peoples Front, and National Peoples Front. These 13 opposition parties handed over the memorandum to Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba today.

Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba after receiving the memorandum said he has taken the oppositions’ move as a positive one.

"The state of emergency has definitely curtailed some fundamental rights of the people. But it (the emergency) is not meant for the general people but it is for the terrorists only," PM Deuba told the opposition leaders after receiving the memorandum. "I have taken your move as a positive one."

The memorandum stated that the government should hold regular all party meetings at the district and central level to hear their side of the voice so as to cease the existing non-transparency and mistrust.

The memorandum also stated that the government should make provisions confining itself with the Constitution to allow political parties and general public to function without any fear. It further said that the government should make immediate provisions to reinstate press freedom as envisaged in the Constitution.

Meanwhile, the CPN-ML also handed over memorandum to Prime Minister Deuba and Home Minister Khum Bahadur Khadka today asking the government to end the state of emergency soon.

"We expect that the Prime Minister would take the initiative to find a political way out of the present crisis through national consensus," stated the memorandum.

The memorandum stated that it was more important for the government to seek support from other political parties. "It is equally important that the government share information of the events unfolding after the declaration of emergency to political parties and communicated to political parties through all party meet which could be held once a week," said the memorandum.

The memorandum further said that the government should allow the private sector to freely print and broadcast the news gathered by them, and the government should even initiate on taking journalists to the sites. Through the memorandum, CPN-ML has also asked the government not to take undue advantage of the present emergency period and that the government should not beat and arrest other political parties cadres.

An all-party meeting initiated by Speaker of the House of Representatives Taranath Ranabhat and National Assembly Chairman Mohammed Mohsin was also held today.

During the meeting attended Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, General Secretary of the main opposition CPN-UML Madhav Kumar Nepal and Rastriya Prajatantra Party’s Pashupati Sumshere Rana, the government was asked to take the highest precautions to ensure that innocent people are not victimized by the government.

According to officials, the opposition parties raised concern with the Prime Minister over if the state of emergency was imposed to suppress the other opposition parties with the excuse of controlling the Maoist insurgency.

Prime Minister Deuba assured the participants that the government was fully alert to ensure that the authorities do not abuse their power in the new situation and the army is fully competent not to mistreat the general public since they have already served in peace keeping missions abroad.

"With the exception of the Maoists no one will be effected or deprived of the rights guaranteed by the Constitution," Prime Minister Deuba said.

US reaffirms support to Nepal government

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KATHMANDU, Dec 11- A senior official of the U.S. State Department met with several top government officials in the capital and reiterated U.S. support for government efforts against the Maoist insurgency.

In an informal meeting with senior Nepali journalists, the deputy assistant secretary of state for South Asia, Donald A. Camp, however, refused to be drawn into the details of the talks he held with them.

"I am here on behalf of the U.S. Government to express our support to the government of Nepal in its efforts against the Maoists", he said.

But when asked if this support extended to curbing of civil liberties including press freedom under the emergency provisions, he replied in the negative but said the U.S. support was for "democracy and democratic dispensation".

He said, "We appreciate the efforts made by Prime Minister Deuba to solve the Maoist problem through talks but we regret very much the unilateral break off talks by the Maoists and their resumption of violence."

"We want to help Nepal in its efforts to solve the Maoist problem," he said.

Donald A. Camp met, among others, the Chief of Army Staff General Prajwalla Shumshere Jung Bahadur Rana. When asked if military assistance in the form of hardware was discussed, the U.S. official did not want to be drawn into discussions about his talks with the army chief.

Camp who is on a tour of some South Asian countries visited India before coming to Nepal and he left Kathmandu today for Sri Lanka.

Eleventh Summit: An opportunity to ease tension

By Binaj Gurubacharya

KATHMANDU, Dec 11 - Though the SAARC charter does not allow taking up bilateral issues, the meeting of the heads of all South Asian countries could give an opportunity to ease tension in the region.

"The heads of states should use the opportunity to ease the tension in the region," said Minister Mahesh Acharya, who just returned after trips to Bangladesh and Pakistan to extend invitation for the Kathmandu summit. "The leaders should be able to take advantage of the situation."

The Charter of the SAARC or South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation does include discussion of issue concerning two or three nations but takes up issues that concern the whole region which is home to a fifth of the world’s population.

However, the three-day summit leaves one day in the middle for the leaders to spend time at a resort talking to each other taking up bilateral issues. In the case of this summit, January 5 would be spent at the hill resort of Nagarkot for the leaders of the seven nations to informally meet with each other.

"Nepal would be happy to facilitate bilateral issues," Minister Acharya told The Kathmandu Post. "The opportunity will be there during this informal retreat."

Despite taking up regional issues, the focus of most of the previous SAARC summit have been concentrated on the uneasy situation between India and Pakistan, the two South Asian giants which have now catapulted to become the newest members of the nuclear club.

India and Pakistan have fought at least three wars and mainly over the issue of Kashmir. Even now tension remains high over the border issues, which in the past have even threatened the existence and future of SAARC.

"In the three SAARC summit I have participated, I have seen that the meeting has helped ease the conflicts in the region even though no bilateral issues are formally taken up in the summit agenda," said former foreign minister Shailendra Kumar Upadhyaya. "The biggest achievement of the summit is the chance that the leaders get to sit down and talk with each other to attempt and sort out differences."

Upadhyaya was the foreign minister during the SAARC summit held in Kathmandu in 1987.

"There had been times when the situation was not just limited to conflicts but reached to a point close enough to a war. But leaders who came to the summit did manage to take advantage and ease the misunderstandings," Upadhyaya said.

He said that even during the Kathmandu summit, the issue of Maldives and allegations that India was trying to take over the island nation was resolved after the Maldivian president cleared the issue up.

During the last SAARC summit in Sri Lankan capital Colombo held in July 1998, Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee met with Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif which was the first meeting after the nuclear tests by the two countries in May that year.

The tests had sparked fears of war in the region and worldwide condemnation and even economic sanctions by the western nations.

The longstanding question has remained on whether bilateral issues should be taken up in the agenda during the SAARC summits and discussed by all the member states.

"SAARC is still in a fragile state so bilateral issues should not be included in the agenda. Maybe after some years when SAARC is strengthened then should it be considered," said Upadhyaya adding that first it has to concentrate on trade and economic cooperation in the region.

India-donated choppers arrive

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KATHMANDU, Dec 11 – Two Cheetah helicopters donated by the Indian government to Nepal landed in Kathmandu Tuesday.

These helicopters which have been previously used by the Indian army were built in Bangalore under the license from a French company. The Royal Nepali Army (RNA) in the ongoing operation against the Maoists will use these five-seater helicopters.

These crafts can be fitted with GPMG or General Purpose Machine Guns.

The assistance was in response to a call for help by Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba who had said that the RNA has only two helicopters in its possession and immediately needed new crafts to ferry both personnel and supplies to the areas hit by the Maoist insurgency.

Using the land routes would have been risky since they have been booby trapped with land mines and threats of ambush.

Since a state of emergency was declared two weeks ago and RNA ordered to sweep the Maoists, RNA helicopters have been raiding on the Maoist hideouts and training camps.

Whiplash awaits Nepali illegals in Malaysia

By Manoj Rijal

KATHMANDU, Dec 11 - Thousands of Nepali working in Malaysia - both legally and illegally - are most likely to be affected with the Malaysian government announcing to take tough measures to strongly regulate immigrant workers and whip those working illegally.

Last week, the Malaysian government announced a proposal to punish foreign employees physically by whipping them if they are arrested without valid document. It also warned of deporting all the illegal workers after penalizing them with a huge fine or detaining them for a period of one month.

According to data made available by the government’s Department of Labour, over 28,000 Nepali are currently working in Malaysia and all of them are staying there legally. The government has no knowledge about the illegal Nepali staying there, but those closely following the developments related to overseas employment say over 7,000 Nepalis are working there illegally.

"Every single Nepali we send there through official channel is working there legally. Therefore, there will be no problem for them. But there could be some illegal workers as well. We don’t have any idea about them," said Lalit Bahadur Thapa, the Director General at the Department of Labour, which is responsible for sending Nepali workers abroad.

However, citing the information made available by the Honorary Consulate Office under the Royal Nepali Embassy in Thailand, Thapa informed that a total of 150 illegal Nepali were rescued from Malaysia and returned to Nepal only in last year.

The overseas employment agencies and experts flatly reject the government version, and argue that there should be thousands of illegal workers in the East Asian country. According to estimates based on a recent study carried out by Nepalese Forum, an NGO, more than 7,000 Nepali are working in Malaysia illegally.

"And it is sure that they will fall the prey to the recent tough measures of Malaysian government to oust illegal migrant workers," said Keshar Karki, President of Nepalese Forum.

Yet, government officials express their ignorance about such measures being adopted by the Malaysian government. "In fact, I did not know about the new steps being taken by the Malaysian government," said a high level official at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who preferred to remain unnamed.

Karki, who is also a foreign employment expert and who just recently returned from his 45-day trip to Malaysia, informed that the government there is "mostly rude" to the illegal migrants most of the time. And "if the Malaysian government is preparing to whip the illegal workers, then the condition of illegal Nepali working there is sure to worsen," he said.

"During my trip to Malaysia, I found many Nepali in miserable condition, living in poor mental and hygienic condition," he added. "They were deprived of many facilities promised to them by their Nepali agents. Even if they have complaints, they could not proceed for justice as most of them are straightforward rural folks, who are either illiterate or high school dropouts."

Under the Malaysian law, even those who change their working company are also considered illegal. "And this will add to woes of the increasing number of Nepali illegal workers resulting in detention, torture and sufferings," Karki expresses fears.

The Agency France Press (AFP), quoting the New Straits Times, a Malaysian newspaper, said on December 10 that amendment in the Malaysian Immigration Act was expected to be finalised within this March and the new Act aims at tightening Immigration laws to prevent more-than-necessary flow of immigrant workers.

According to the news agency, 450,000 foreign workers out of 1,050,000 working there are illegal. Most of the illegal workers come from Indonesia, Bangladesh, India, China, Thailand, Sri Lanka and Myanmar, including Nepal. Only on Sunday, more than two thousand Indonesian illegal migrant workers were deported to native country.

A Royal Nepalese Embassy is yet to be established in Malaysia.

Dozens of tourists stranded in Pokhara

By Kul Chandra Neupane

POKHARA, Dec 11 – Dozens and dozens of tourists have been stranded in this panoramic town after flights haven’t been resumed since Saturday due to bad weather.

According to an official at Pokhara Airport, the tourists specifically wishing to go to the Muktinath Temple in Jomsom and sight seeing in many other places have been stranded. Going to the airport and coming back has become a sort of daily routine for the tourists, according to the official.

Flights to Kathmandu have also been suspended due to the same reason from Sunday, said Tri Ratna Manandhar, the Airport Manager. But he is optimistic that the flights could be resumed from Wednesday. "There are indications that the flights could be resumed from tomorrow. The weather is improving," Manandhar told The Kathmandu Post.

Different airlines including the state-owned Royal Nepal Airlines Corporation (RNAC) operate 10-12 Pokhara-Jomsom flights daily. During the "pick season" (September- December first week), the airlines operate almost 50 flights from Pokhara to Kathmandu, Manang and Jomsom.

Manandhar said the tourists were still pouring into the Pokhara Valley from the first week of December. "But the weather has become the major barrier for the development of the tourism here," he added.

On Tuesday, there were six RNAC flights, three Buddha Air flights, six Cosmic Air flights, three Necon Air flights and three mountain flights to be operated. But not even a single flight was operated, according to him.

"Most of the tourists come to Pokhara for the sight-seeing of the panoramic scenery of different Himalayas; but they definitely must be betrayed by the bad weather," said Prabhat Shrestha of Base Camp Resort. Tourists from Japan and Korea have shortened their stay in Pokhara, said Shrestha.

"The tourists who came here for long stay and trekking have also not moved away to the destination," he added. Madan KC, a trekking entrepreneur says the beautiful scenery of the Himalayas are the centre of attraction for trekking. "If it is not available, the over all trekking remains uninteresting," said KC.

It has been weeks the tourists have not been able to see the Machhapuchchhre (Fish-Tail Himal) other Himalayas. Thick fog and mist has covered it, said Shrestha, adding, "Many tourists have returned back with desperate mood."

Khudunabari refugee verification to conclude Friday

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BIRTAMOD (Jhapa), Dec 11 - The verification process of over 12,000 Bhutanese refugees in Khudunabari refugee camp will complete on Friday, officials at the Damak-based office of the Joint Verification Team (JVT) said here today.

The JVT, comprising officials of Nepal and Bhutan, started the refugee verification process on March 26, 2001 as decided by the 10th Nepal-Bhutan ministerial joint committee meeting.

The verification began from Khudunabari camp, which is the smallest refugee camp compared to other six camps located in Jhapa and Morang districts. About 100,000 Bhutanese refugees have been living in refugee camps in east Nepal for more than a decade.

Nepal has been emphasising for the repatriation of the already-verified refugees based on the official documents of the Druk government. Whereas, the Bhutanese side has been insisting on "harmonisation and classification" of the refugees even after their thorough verification.

Both Nepal and Bhutan had earlier agreed to classify the refugees into four categories - genuine Bhutanese, Bhutanese willingly leaving the country, Bhutanese with criminal records and non-Bhutanese. But the Nepal government later tried to convince the Bhutanese government on bringing down this categorisation into two- Bhutanese and non-Bhutanese.

But the joint secretary-level talks, held in Kathmandu about a month ago, ended inconclusive with both the sides sticking on their respective stance.

Refugee leaders in exile suspect that it would create new complexities if the verified refugees were not repatriated immediately. General Secretary of the People’s Forum for Human Rights of Bhutan D P Kafle said that population of the already-verified refugee families would keep on increasing if they were not returned to their homeland. "We should create an international opinion in favour of the refugees if the Bhutan government is not ready to accept its bona fide citizens."

Balaram Poudel of Bhutan People’s Party believed that the Bhutan government would have to face pressures from the international community if former remains reluctant to repatriate its citizens.

PM opens South Asia Foundation meet

KATHMANDU, Dec 11 (PR)– Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba said conferences being organised close to the SAARC summit are very timely as it strives to draw the attention of the region’s policy makers to the importance of education and development at the grassroots.This remark was made by the Prime Minister while inaugurating the two-day conference of South Asia Foundation Rainbow Partnership here today.He said that the SAARC secretariat should be able to take advantage of the resources provided by organisations like the Foundation whose Internet data-based portal provides a powerful tool in promoting SAARC programmes especially among the youth "since computer is becoming part of the young people’s life and culture."Organisers said the theme of the Kathmandu conference was education through development and co-operation and their portal aimed at the youth and the poor to give the news and views from the SAARC countries was already in existence. The aim is to reach the remotest parts of South Asia.