Government, rebels declare cease-fire

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KATHMANDU, July 23 – Urging the Maoists to come for negotiations,  newly-appointed Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba declared a government cease-fire today. His move was quickly reciprocated by the Maoists' leadership asking its guerrilla fighters to suspend all activities.

The cease-fire announcements came hours after the rebels massacred 17 policemen, out of a total 53, on Sunday night at a police post in Bajura district in far-west Nepal, the region from where Deuba hails. Even the Maoists have lost around 30 of their cadre in the clash that lasted for three and a half hours, claimed the Central Police Headquarters.

However, while Deuba urged the security forces and the Maoists to "stop" all their activities, Comrade Prachanda, the President of the underground Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), asked his guerrilla fighters to "postpone" all their pre-planned offensive action while remaining alert. While directing the security forces, Deuba said he was taking the step in the hope that the rebels would comply with his request and not indulge in violence. He urged the Maoists to take into consideration the difficult political situation prevailing in the country. The PM also assured the Maoists that he would soon take other steps to create an atmosphere of trust.

Soon after, Comrade Prachanda responded in kind. Prachanda directed all his guerrillas in the country "to postpone all their activities". Issuing a press release today, the Maoist leader said he was responding to the cease-fire offer of the Prime Minister. He also asked the Prime Minister to declare the whereabouts of the "missing" Maoists, exchanging prisoners and annulling anti-people’s war laws.

Prachanda also said that the Maoists have taken Deuba’s victory "over the fascist Girija faction" as a positive move. He also cautioned his cadre to guard against the reactionary forces which could conspire against the rebels by using the "liberal" face of Deuba.

The news of the attack in Bajura came as a surprise as the Maoists had evinced interest in holding talks with the new government after the then Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala quit. Among all the top Nepali Congress leaders, PM Deuba is considered to be more open to hold the talks with the Maoists.

He was the convenor of the 9-member high-level committee formed by former Prime Minister Krishna Prasad Bhattarai to resolve Maoist insurgency. During its tenure, the Deuba committee had held several secret meetings with the Maoist leadership and submitted a report to the then PM Koirala.

17 policemen killed in Bajura; 30 rebels presumed dead

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KATHMANDU, July 23 - At least 17 policemen including three Assistant Sub-Inspectors of Police (ASI) were killed on Sunday night after around 1,000 Maoist rebels attacked a police striking base at Pandavsen in the far-western hill district of Bajura, according to the police.

Police Headquarters in the Capital, however, claimed that around 30 rebels were also killed during the encounter.

Locals also said that the rebels carried "a large number of fallen comrades" on bamboo baskets along with the looted fire-arm.

There were pools of blood and some scattered body parts around the area from where the rebels had hurled home-made socket bombs at the outpost, according to them. However, the Maoists have not claimed any responsibility of the incident and the number of casualties on their side until Monday evening.

Police said that 31 security personnel, five of them seriously, have been wounded in the four hour long gun battle. Two constables were reportedly missing after the battle was over.

The police outpost is located about 25 km north of Martadi, the district headquarters, which lies two-day walking distance from the nearest airport at Kolti.

Meanwhile, our reporter from Terahthum said that death toll from Maoist attack climbed to four after two policemen were killed in a Maoist-laid land-mine blasts near Poklabang outpost in Simale VDC.

Those killed in the land-mine blast have been identified as Bali Kumar Rai of Morang and Phurba Chhiri Sherpa of Bhojpur. This brings total number of people killed in police-Maoist encounters in two days to 51.

Superintendent of Police (SP) in the regional police office in Dipayal, Lok Bahadur Karki, suspected that there could be "heavy casualties" even on the Maoist side for his "boys fought fearlessly until they (rebels) ran out of ammunition" Monday morning.

"The rebels shot dead 15 policemen at a point-blank range," police quoted the doctors carrying out their post-mortems as saying.

Locals said that the rebels had already destroyed a suspension bridge at Damsagun connecting the Kolti-based airport in order to prevent another police reinforcement from arriving at the battle side.

It is difficult to establish communication with the district headquarters from the outpost as it is located deep in the valley. One has to climb up a high hill for about 45 minutes even in emergency to make communication with the district police office in Martadi.

Four seriously injured policemen have been airlifted to Nepalgunj and another one to the Capital in critical condition. Those policemen to be airlifted to Nepalgunj and the Capital for treatment are in-charge of the post Sub-Inspector Gyanendra Chaudhary, head constable Khagendra Prasad Ojha and constables Khem Nepali, Ganesh Thapa and Bharat Khatri.

There were a total of 53 policemen stationed at the post under the command of SI Chaudhary when the rebels stormed the outpost during the night.

This is the largest ever casualty on the police side in the Far-Western Region since the Maoists began their armed struggle six years ago during which more than 1,700 people including the police, civilians and rebels have lost their lives from across the country.

None of the high ranking police official wished to reveal why the insecure outpost was not removed from there in spite of receiving repeated warnings of attacks from the rebels.

After all the policemen were forced either to surrender or to flee the post, the rebels looted a total of 28 three-knot-three rifles, 18 shot guns, two pistols, one revolver, 24 grenades and two communication sets.

Those killed in the brutal Maoist attacks have so far been identified as three ASI Surat Bahadur Kunwar from Achham, Tulasi Prasad Dhakal from Banke and Harka Bahdadur Bohara from Darchula.

Two head constables shot dead by the rebels have been confirmed as Sampatlal Rajbansi of Jhapa and Gupta Narayan Chaudhary of Sunsari.

Similarly, the constables killed in the battle are Kamal Subba (Sunsari), Khem Narayan Magar (Khotang), Indrajit Rai (Okhaldhunga), Hari Basnet (Dolakha), Chakra Bahadur Shahi (Kanchanpur), Jahendra Mahata (Achham), Shushil Badu (Darchula), Khadga Dev Giri (Bardiya), Birendra Bahadur Chand (Baitadi), Dambar Bahadur Chand (Baitadi), Dipendra Nath (Kanchanpur) and Sitaram Budhathoki (Sunsari).

Police source said that eight of the total dead bodies have been brought to the Seti Zonal Hospital in Dhangadhi for post-mortems. Authorities said that the policemen's bodies would be handed over to their respective relatives at their home addresses to carry out their last rites.

Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) in Martadi, Uttam Bahadur Karki, flew in a helicopter to the clash incident on Monday morning and took stock of the situation.

Meanwhile, our Mahendranagar based reporter said that last rites of the three dead warriors - ASI Bohara, constables Dipendra Nath and Chakra Bahadur Shahi - were performed at their respective home villages on Monday.

Another report from Dolakha district said that the rebels abducted five newly-recruited policemen from Mudhe, a rural market on the Kathmandu-Jiri road that lies a few km west of Charikot, the district headquarters.

Deuba expected to take oath tomorrow

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KATHMANDU, July 23 – Newly elected Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba refused to take the oath of office today which according to his close aides was not auspicious as advised by his astrologers.

He is expected to take the oath on Wednesday, three days after being appointed as the new prime minister replacing Girija Prasad Koirala, who resigned last week bowing to pressure.

Deuba spent most of the day today consulting with his advisors and party leaders on the formation of his new cabinet, which is the biggest challenge for him after taking over the reign of power.

Trying his best to bring a balance in his cabinet, he met Koirala today who reportedly told him that it was the prerogative of the prime minister to make the appointments to the Council of Minister but they should be capable and clean people.

Though Koirala has moved himself out of the race, he still remains the president of Nepali Congress commanding a big influence in the party. It would be impossible for Deuba to operate without taking Koirala into his confidence.

Deuba also met with other contenders for the cabinet like Khum Bahadur Khadka, a strong member in the party who had a big role in Deuba’s ride to power and former Deputy Prime Minister Ram Chandra Poudel, who had abandoned Koirala about a week back that made the government’s position weak compelling Koirala to quit.

Other strong faces in the party like Chiranjivi Wagle and Bijaya Gachchhedar were also consulted. Khadka, Wagle and Gachchhedar had all served under Deuba during his tenure as the head of a shaky coalition government between September 1995 and March 1997.

These people were also accused of widespread corruption, which made Deuba’s government target of sharp criticism before it crumbled following deception by his party lawmakers during a parliamentary voting.

Former Defense Minister Mahesh Acharya today moved out of the minister’s official residence at Pulchowk and said he had not been approached about joining the new cabinet.

"There has not been any discussion on me joining the cabinet and I have not given it much thought," Acharya said.

Acharya, a close aide of Koirala, has remained Finance Minister much of the years NC has been in power.

NC General Secretary Sushil Koirala who lost to Deuba in a 72-40 vote on Sunday, said Deuba had not talked to him at all about formation of the new government.

"I have no plans to compel Deuba to make changes in the proposed cabinet. The only thing is that he should take the party into confident first while he plans out the new government," Koirala said.

Taking the party into confidence would translate as keeping Girija Prasad Koirala happy.

Kathmandu population up by 62.4 pc

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KATHMANDU, July 23 - It seems that Kathmandu will end up being the most populous district in the country as the Census 2001 recorded a whopping 1,096,865 persons living in the Capital, showing a growth of massive 62.4 per cent. "Within 10 years, there has a substantial growth in the population of the Kathmandu district with 52 per cent being males and the remaining as females," said Krishna Prasad Shrestha, deputy director of Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS).

"Till now data collected in over 50 districts have been processed and analysed and Kathmandu has recorded the highest figure till now."

According to the initial result made public by the CBS, Kathmandu municipality recorded 701,962 with 381,161 male and 320,801 female population while Kirtipur billed 40,378 with 21,920 male and 18,458 female.

There has been a considerable growth in residential families in this Census than the last one. The 1991 Census recorded 127,194 families were found residing in the Capital but this Census has recorded a growth by 92 per cent at 244,416 families.

Among the total families, 70 per cent are residing in Municipality while the rest are in Village Development Committees.

However, when everything seems to be rising, household size came down from 5.3 per family to 4.5 per family. CBS said that the result of total population of the country is likely to take at least a month to made it public. The result are slowly coming out since the census officials completed their hectic and strenuous task of compiling population data.

NTC to introduce Pay Phone soon

By Ram Sharan Sedhai

KATHMANDU, July 23 - Nepal Telecommunications Corporation (NTC), the lone state-run telecom operator, is going to introduce Pay Phone within a couple of months, which would be a relief to callers due to its efficiency, fixed rates, easy availability and low tariffs.

Pay Phone a service is run without the assistance of an operator by using coins or cards. NTC is going to introduce Pay Phone that uses smart card Callers can buy smart cards and use them whenever they want to make a local or a trunk call.

In the absence of such a service as NTC-run public call offices (PCOs) open only during office time and they are limited too, thousands of callers are forced to depend on private communication centres which charge high tariffs are also reportedly cheating customers.

NTC spent Rs 125 million in buying 200 phone sets and 200-rupee smart cards from Greece a year ago, but a debate followed regarding the enlisting of pay phone new service by which required NTC to cough Rs 3 million as licence fee. It took some months to end the row as Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA), the regulatory body of telecom services, finally waived the fee assuming Pay Phone as a part of basic phone.

As NTC does not have to pay any licence fee and no deposits for phone connection being itself an operator, it can give the service at an affordable rate, say customers. Now the Corporation is discussing to bring down the tariff to Rs 2 per a local call, according to an NTC source. NTC run public call offices (PCOs) charge Re 1 for a local call of three minutes.

Callers have been paying a minimum of Rs 3 and a maximum of Rs 5 for three minutes local calls, but NTC charges just Rs 1 for the same.

Renuka Pokhrel, a resident of Thapathali who does not have telephone connection says, "we are forced to pay a minimum of Rs 3 and a maximum of Rs 5 per local call of three minutes, while those having phones pay just one rupee."

Sugat Ratna Kansakar, Regional Director of NTC, says cases of cheating have been reported to the Corporation and the tariffs vary depending upon the communication centres. After the service comes into operation, this will end the problem of unequal charges and cheating as the call charges are fixed automatically, he adds.

NTC is making plans to commence the service within one or two months from the capital city. We expect to cater the need of domestic and foreign tourists, people sans phones and for emergencies. They will be installed at hospitals, army barracks and other public places and expanded to other areas later, he says.

Nepal's per capita telephone is extremely low. NTC, the sole operator of telecom services till date, has distributed a total of 282,194 basic phone lines plus about 14,000 cell phones and there are 295,501 people in the waiting list, according to its latest data.

NTA has opened the cellular mobile phone based on the Global System of Mobile Communication (GSM) technology and the basic phones to the private sector, but the private operators are yet to commence their services.

"We opened the service to the private sector with an objective of enhancing efficiency, rendering price competitiveness and providing quality service to more people", says Bhoop Raj Pandey, chairman of NTA.

NTA opened Pay Phone to private sector more than a year ago and two private companies had applied, but none of them approached for licence, most probably scared by the high licence fee of Rs 3 million. The deposit that NTC demands for connectivity is as high as Rs 5,000 per lines which also discourages the private firms, say entrepreneurs.

Rape victim, mother struggle for survival

By Tashi Dolma Thinley

KATHMANDU, July 23 -Kamala Budathoki's   frequent visits to the hospital, Non Governmental Organisation (NGO) offices, police stations and the courts with her 9 year old daughter has given her nothing but humiliation, tears and a shredded dignity.

On a hot humid afternoon of May 1999, three senior schoolmates raped Kamala’s daughter Sanjana Budathoki a student of Senior Kindergarten at Sungava Boarding School, Bhaktapur, who was then 7-year-old.

Having gone through the torture and turmoil at so tender an age, a sobbing Sanjana told about the incident to her mother who in turn was left helpless not knowing what step to take next. And the story was hushed up both at home and school for weeks and months, until Legal Aid and Consultancy Service (LACC), a local NGO, approached Kamala.

The school principal however, denied the rape had taken place in his school. But when advocates from LACC visited the school for further queries, few staff admitted that the whole tragic incident as true. The boys, fourth graders, Saimon Rai, Dane and Aditya had already left the school. And more information regarding the boys couldn't be gathered as the boys are from Sikkim, Darjeeling and Bhutan, respectively.

Because rape cases have to be reported within 35 days to get the perpetrators trailed in courts, the NGO was of little help for Kamala and her daughter.

"How is a 7 year old girl supposed to know that a rape has to be reported in 35 days and for that matter what happened to her is called Rape?" Kamala laments. "My daughters uterus is spoiled, she is psychologically disturbed, socially neglected and emotionally confused".

Sanjana's is not the only case pending legal remedies and lacking prosecution against the offenders of such heinous social crime, which experts say is "all-pervasive" in most of Nepal's conservative societies. In a society where sex and issues related to that are taken as taboo, parents and relatives, let alone victims, do not report the case to the police on time.

However, the law cannot fully be blamed for the consequences. According to Durga Singh, Inspector of Women and Children Unit in Jawalakhel, a rape can be reported even after 20 years in the west because they have various scientific equipment to prove things. "But here, it is not just the strict laws but also the social pressure that makes a person think twice before reporting rape cases" she adds.

But unfortunately, the law is blind and is blindly followed by all citizens, assert lawyers. Says advocate Shashi Adhikari of Justice for Children (LACC), "The law is insensitive towards male sexual harassment and attempt to rape and we can't go beyond the law. So all we can do is to mentally prepare the society that consequences of rape are greater than the rape itself."

Young Sanjana today is paying the price for mother's silence and her father's irresponsibility. Moreover, the rape victim and her family members were continually abused by her husband, landlord and neighbours and were nearly ostracised.

Today, with such a big turn in their lives, they have reached a dead end. They have no shelter, no social respect. While a frantic search for shelter continues, Kamala is losing control of the gears in life and silently turning psychic.

Sanjana is today a victim not only of a rape but also of insensitive law and the often-cynical social pressure. Today Kamala continues her search for a shelter and survival with much hopes and aspirations in the dusty pavements of Satdobato, Lalitpur, as she takes her three children on a cart to destinations unknown.

PM urged to make clean, compact cabinet

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KATHMANDU, July 23 - Intellectuals and industrialists today urged Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba to form a small-sized cabinet with lawmakers who have clean public image.

They also stressed that the new government should place security issues on "top priority" and implement the 14-point agenda put forth by former PM Girija Prasad Koirala.

"Deuba’s success depends largely on how he executes the 14-point agenda and that his commitment to good governance depends on what sort of people he appoints in the cabinet," said former secretary Bhoj Raj Pokharel speaking at an interaction programme held here today.

President of the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) Ravi Bhakta Shrestha said that security should be the main concern of the new prime minister and that he should give continuity and implement the 14-point agenda.

Former Nepal Bar Association president Harihar Dahal pointed out that the future of politics would be very complex if the new government fails to resolve the Maoist problem.

"Lets hope that the Maoist problem which first began during Deuba’s earlier tenure as the Prime Minister is settled in his present term," said Dahal.

Last year, Deuba was co-ordinator of the high level commission formed by the government to solve the Maoist problem.

Economist and intellectual Durgesh Man Singh said Deuba replacing Koirala was a "peaceful transition of power from older generation to younger one".

On the occasion FNCCI president Shrestha said that FNCCI would also prepare a white paper to solve the existing problems faced by the economy in co-operation with the government.

Speaking on the occasion, economist and former National Planning Commission vice-chairman Mohan Man Sainju stressed the need to draft a "white paper" and seek consensus within the parliament to solve the Maoist problem.

Referring to the Maoist problem as an indigenous problem, intellectual Yadav Kant Silwal said that the new government should, in a transparent manner, voice out its agenda setting a time frame for its implementation. "Let the Maoist feel that there is a commitment from the other side," said Silwal.