Govt deny long-term visas to ICRC officials
Tactic aimed at hiding rights abuses, some fear

By Ameet Dhakal and Damakant Jayshi

KATHMANDU, March 20 - For reasons inadequately explained, the government has been denying long-term visas to some delegates of the International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC), the renowned rights and humanitarian group.

This has left about 15 delegates of ICRC with no options but to fly back to New Delhi, India, and renew their 30-day entry visas every month.

According to a highly placed government official, the ICRC has repeatedly approached the Home and Foreign Ministries for extension of visas for at least another six months. Their requests have been turned down each time by these two ministries.

Gyan Chandra Acharya, Spokesman at the Foreign Ministry said that the visas were denied to the ICRC from Nepali soil on "technical grounds." Since they do not have the resident office here Nepal cannot grant long term visas to them, he said.

However, the ICRC has housed its resident office in Kathmandu since last two years but the government is yet to recognize it, despite repeated attempts by the ICRC to reach an agreement with the government. When asked why the government has taken such a long time to recognize ICRC resident office, Acharya said, "they have applied and it is in the process."

A highly placed government official, requesting anonymity, however, said that government’s reluctance to deny visas to ICRC delegates could be a strategic one. The government fears that once the ICRC gets a foothold in the human rights domain in the country, the government may not find it too palatable a proposition, especially when reports of human rights violations by security forces in the Maoist insurgency are in the upswing, the official said.

For one, the international organization may eventually come into mediating between the government and the Maoists rebels. And once that happens, the utter secrecy, surrounding the talks with the rebels or the lack of such dialogue ,would be difficult for the government to maintain.

Moreover, the ICRC delegates, as they are known here, can visit any insurgency-hit area and prisons. Their questions about the "missing" Maoists rebels could be too hot for the government to handle. Under the Geneva Convention, the two sides in a conflict will have to recognize its presence and abide by many rules and restrictions.

When contacted, Jean Jacques Bovay, Head of the Mission, ICRC, Nepal told The Kathmandu Post, "I am not going to comment on this issue...at least not immediately."

Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister, Ram Chandra Poudel, while speaking to The Kathmandu Post, denied any knowledge over the delay of visas to ICRC delegates. "I have not received any application for visas, so where is the question of granting them or rejecting them," he said.

When asked whether the government was unwilling to give the visas to ICRC officials fearing their mediation regarding the talks with the Maoists, DPM Poudel replied, "Where is such an agency that can mediate between the government and the Maoists?"

Replying to a question whether the government’s hesitation stemmed out from the fact that the ICRC convention allowed it to visit prisons and demand any information on "missing" rebels, Poudel said, "We too have our own Constitution as a sovereign nation; we will have to work according to our convention."

ICRC, the institution that champions international peace and human rights, had decided to set a resident delegate office in Kathmandu two years back foreseeing an increased role in the wake of evaporating peace and increasing violations of human rights in this Himalayan Kingdom. Prior to that it was Regional Delegate Office in Delhi that used to oversee ICRC operations in Nepal.

$ 100M funding for Nepal

KATHMANDU, March 20 (PR) - The United States government officials today revealed a new five year country strategy funding for Nepal in tune of $100 million, a press release issued by the Ministry of Finance states.

The funding strategy was revealed during the second Nepal-USAID Program Consultations Meeting held today at the Ministry of Finance. The purpose of the meeting was to review the process made over the past year in the ongoing bilateral programs, the release adds.

The programs under implementation with the assistance from the government of United States cover agriculture, forestry, irrigation, family planning and health, women’s empowerment and hydropower development.

Some of those programs, started since 1995, are expected to be completed by 2002. Representatives from both governments expressed their satisfaction on the overall performance of the programs under implementation, the release adds.

The freshly revealed new country assistance strategy for 2001-2005 is to lay emphasis on the important sectors like health, natural resources management, hydropower development and democracy and governance. It is expected that funding levels in these areas would be in the tune of approximately US$ 20 million each year for the next five years.

The US team was led by US Ambassador to Nepal Ralph Frank and USAID Director Joanne T Hale and other USAID officials were also present at the meeting. Nepali team was led by Madhav P Ghimire, Joint Secretary of Ministry of Finance, and the representatives from different line of ministries were also present at the meeting.

Afghan envoy to India rues Bamiyan destruction

By Surendra Phuyal

NEW DELHI, India, March 20 - Afghan diplomats, if there are any left around the world, might be finding it difficult to defend their rulers’ drastic action to destroy the famed Buddha statues of Bamiyan, but at least one Afghan envoy is being praised for his role as an accuser, not a defender, of his own government.

That is because Masood Khalili, the Afghanistan Ambassador to India, does not represent the Taliban rulers of the battle-scarred nation. Instead, he is the plenipotentiary of the former government of Burhuddin Rabbani which was chased out from Kabul by the Taliban a few years ago. India, as much of the world, has not recognized the Taliban as Afghanistan’s legitimate rulers, and Khalili therefore continues to represent the former rulers.

In that capacity, Ambassador Khalili has expressed horror and shock at the ghastly destruction of the giant Bamiyan statues, a stand for which he has been winning wide-spread acclaim among scholars of Buddhism.

On Tuesday, Khalili was the chief guest at an international gathering of Buddhist monks and scholars that began here in New Delhi. The summit vows to promote peace and religious tolerance. The monks not only felicitated Khalili by presenting him a Khada (plain white shawl which is offered during worshipping or to honour someone) and a miniature of the ‘Light of Asia’, but also bestowed him with an opportunity to light a traditional oil-fed lamp and declare open the religious meet.

Khalili together with a few other prominent personalities formally opened the Third Millenium Human Rights and Religious Freedom Summit, organized by Dorje Shugden Devotees’ Charitable and Religious Society, here Tuesday. The summit is being attended by about 200 Buddhist monks and the followers of Dorje Shugden, who lived in Tibet 300 years and is considered a deity by many.

And the reason why they honoured the Afghan diplomat becomes evident during the opening session when he says that Afghanistan loves Buddha as much as the rest of the world. And he is of the view that "all of us are in search of one light irrespective of our religions or background."

"The day when the Taliban regime announced that it would demolish the statues was indeed the darkest day in Afghanistan," an emotional Khalili told the Buddhist gathering. "And the day when Taliban demolished the Buddha statues, the world was horrified, and my people were weeping about the statues..."

Said Pro. Dr Kundeling Tagtsha, who is venerated as the 13th Kundeling Rinpoche of the Gelugpa school of Tibetan Buddhism: "The Taliban’s act is of course appalling and disgusting. But they are not the only extremists who are blatantly violating people’s rights of religious freedom. Such violators are every where, even within Buddhism."

Ambassador Khalili later said that the issue of Taliban demolishing the Bamiyan Buddha is "complicated and highly political. It is not that the government (of President Rabbani) did not try to stop that. We did try a lot to stop the demolition, but the foul weather conditions obstructed our army’s efforts from reaching there," he told The Kathmandu Post.

Mainali’s case questions justice system in Japan

By Chikako Mogi

TOKYO, March 20 (AP) - He was an illegal Nepali immigrant working in a restaurant in Tokyo and sending money to his family back home.

She was a Japanese woman with an unusually successful career in a male-dominated society.

Ever since their paths crossed in a seedy area of Tokyo where she was secretly working as a prostitute at night, the murder case that resulted has fascinated Japan.

It also has opened the country’s legal system to criticism about its fairness and treatment of foreigners, and focused attention on Japan’s unusual attitudes toward sex.

On April 14, 2000, a lower court acquitted Govinda Prasad Mainali, a 34-year-old Nepali, of murdering Yasuko Watanabe, 39, in a shabby Tokyo apartment three years earlier, citing lack of evidence. At the time of the crime, Mainali was overstaying his Japanese visa and illegally working at an Indian restaurant.

Acquittals in criminal cases are extremely rare in Japan, where officials usually only indict suspects they are nearly certain of convicting. Reports say that police also have been known to relentlessly pressure and sometimes beat suspects to win confessions.

Mainali was accused of strangling and robbing Ms. Watanabe of 40,000 yen (dlrs 324). He eventually admitted having sex with her and paying her money, but denied killing her.

Despite the innocent verdict, Mainali was held in prison as the prosecution appealed the case, something that wouldn’t have happened to a Japanese defendant.

The move led to widespread criticism by Japanese human rights activists, who called the case further evidence of the legal system’s discrimination against foreigners, who are often viewed as second-class citizens in homogenous Japan.

"Police detained him even after his acquittal. This in itself is injustice," said Shinichi Sano, who wrote a best-selling book about the murder case and its unusual victim, who worked during the day for Tokyo Electric Power Co., a leading utility company, and at night as a prostitute in the Shibuya area of town.

"It’s discrimination against foreigners, particularly those from developing countries," Sano said in an interview on Tuesday. He also said that police beat Mainali and his former Nepali roommates to extract confessions.

Big questions also emerged about the evidence in the case.

Police believe that Ms. Watanabe was having sex with four men a night, including when she was killed. Nevertheless, authorities are accused of ignoring pubic hairs and condoms found in the apartment where the killing took place that didn’t implicate Mainali.

In December the Tokyo High Court sided with the prosecutors, overturned the acquittal and sentenced Mainali to life in prison. The ruling generated widespread media coverage of the case, its two victims and the fairness of Japan’s legal system.

Mainali maintains his innocence and has filed an appeal with Japan’s five-justice Supreme Court. But it isn’t expected to hold a hearing for two years.

Meanwhile, the case continues to draw a lot of media attention to pornography and the unusual life led by Ms. Watanabe, a successful career woman and graduate of prestigious Keio University in Tokyo.

Japan has long been famous for its reserve and its belief that appearance and propriety are important. But it also developed professional prostitutes such as geisha who were trained to entertain and serve men.

Today, pornography has become ubiquitous at all levels of Japanese society.

"Love hotels" that cater to illicit affairs are common, and women often are fondled by strangers on crowded subway and train lines.

Yet there is little sex education in Japan and few strong feminist groups.

Like Ms. Watanabe, some women also serve as hostesses in bars and clubs, earning money to flirt and serve drinks to salarymen who work long hours and rarely spend time with their own families. More and more lonely housewives are earning money by flocking to Japan’s telephone sex industry, which brings strangers together for late-night calls.

But that wasn’t supposed to be for women with successful careers like Ms. Watanabe.

Many people are puzzled about what motivated Watanabe to lead a double life.

But Sano and others believe that her unusual success as a careerwoman in Japan was set back when another woman bypassed her in promotions. They say that prompted Ms. Watanabe to turn to a nightlife that began in a hostess bar and led to prostitution.

All six oppn boycott House

Post Report

KATHMANDU, March 20 - The day after the ruling Nepali Congress "officially" decided to close ranks and face the opposition unitedly in the parliament, all the six opposition parties boycotted the House of Representatives today.

There were unconfirmed reports that the Speaker would employ the marshals to remove the agitating five opposition parties, banking on the presence of Nepal Sadbhawana Party (NSP) to get two of the ordinances - Armed Police Force and Local Administration - adopted.

Giving credence to the plan of using the marshals, the government had gathered a number of them throughout and especially in the Well of the House, something not seen during this Winter Session.

However, Hridyesh Tripathi of NSP rose up as soon as Speaker Taranath Ranabhat declared the starting of the Zero Hour. Tripathi said that his party opposed the ordinances which have such far-reaching effect and were promulgated just a day before the commencement of the current 19th Session was announced.

NSP had maintained a distance with other parties in the parliament, despite lending its support for the call for Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala’s resignation. With today’s development, the government is in a tight corner as to the passage of the two ordinances.

Earlier today, before the House convened, there was an unofficial all-party meeting in the Speaker’s chamber in which the ruling side said that it would agree to the opposition’s demand regarding the Prime Minister listening to the statements of the opposition and responding to them. In return, the government asked the opposition to guarantee the functioning of the House so that the process of getting the ordinances passed could be initiated. The opposition refused and there was the deadlock. As a result, the House has been adjourned until tomorrow.

Hefty commission detected in TCN deal

By Bikash Thapa

BIRATNAGAR, March 20 - A fresh investigation on a shady timber deal revealed that the management committee of the Timber Corporation of Nepal (TCN) ordered 200,000 cubic feet of timber sold making a hefty commission of Rs. 24.2 million.

The timber was sold at Rs. 121 per cubic feet over the price fixed by the TCN’s Biratnagar branch to local wood traders.

The wood traders had struck a deal with TCN’s officials at the branch purchase of the sal logs for Rs 540 per cubic feet, which includes the Rs. 121 per cubic feet as commission.

It has also been revealed that the money indirectly charged as surcharges was distributed among the TCN officials proportionally.

Of this money, high level officials related with the forest received two thirds of the total amount while the remaining employees at the branch office received the rest.

News reports last month said that TCN General Manager, Ganesh Upadhyaya’s direct order of selling 160,000 cubic feet bore the losses of millions of rupees in the national exchequer.

This is the latest in the series of cases of shady timber deals by the high level officials from the TCN and Ministry of Forest, who directly ordered to sell the logs, fallen in the lush forest in Morang district by the hurricane in April last year.

Wood traders told The Kathmandu Post that they purchased sal timber at the rate of Rs 540 per cubic feet in which Rs. 121 per cubic feet as an additional fee was also included. The wood should have actually been sold for Rs. 419 per cubic feet in the local market.

Source said that high level officials shared the amount with the low level employees as they also assisted the wood traders in the selection of the best timber. Wood traders said that they would have a margin of profit if they could extract at least 80 per cent fine wood from these logs.

The traders, who agreed to purchase the sal logs at the said rate, selected sal logs from three area forest offices and 15 range posts.

According to regulations, a single wood trader is not allowed to choose logs from various timber stations.

The TCN’s management committee ordered on the first week of January to sell the timber, provided by the District Forest Office to the TCN, as per the direct order of the then State Minister for Forest (currently the State Minister for Land Reforms), Mohammad Aftab Alam.

The committee, in its separate dispatches to the Biratnagar-based branch office, had ordered to supply 100,008 cubic feet each to 66 people at the rate of 2,000 cubic feet to each of these people on January 23 and 26.

The TCN management committee’s over night decision has decided to provide thousands of cubic feet to a single person. It was also revealed that the official signatures on these order forms were also forged.

The genuine firms paying taxes to the tax office were denied the timber and a handful of people were supplied the timber.

A high powered investigation committee from the Ministry of Forest initiated its investigation at the TCN’s branch office, District Forest Office and District Administration Office on March 6.

CPN-ML demands national govt

Post Report

KATHMANDU, March 20 - Leaders of the Communist Party of Nepal (ML) today reiterated their demand for national government and said that the Maoists should also be included in such government.

"This is the only way to stabilise the presently fluid political scenario," said Sahana Pradhan, President of CPN (ML).

Pradhan was addressing a press meet organized by the party at its central office here today.

Pradhan said that the impasse in the parliament clearly reflects the deteriorating political scenario. She accused both the government and leaders of the main opposition party CPN-UML as responsible for the chaotic situation that the country is currently facing.

The CPN-ML leaders, however, said that the current problem facing the country will not be solved only through the resignation of Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala. "The Prime Minister’s resignation alone will not resolve the present political turmoil," said Pradhan. She emphasized that the only way out of the present political instability is the national government formed through national consensus among the main political forces.

CPN-ML has thrown itself behind the demand for national government at a time when the Maoists, who have been waging "People’s War" for the last five years, has also demanded the formation of interim government including all the major political forces. However, unlike the Maoists, the CPN-ML did not demand the election for constitutional assembly to redraft the Constitution.

When asked about the mid-term poll, Politburo member of the CPN-ML, Radhakrishna Mainali, said that if it is considered as the last resort to the present political turmoil, they are prepared for it. However, he also said that it is not in the interest of the country.

Meanwhile, according to our correspondent in Dang, General Secretary of CPN-ML, Bam Dev Gautam said today that the main opposition party CPN-UML was the main hurdle in the way of forming a Left Alliance to fight the present problems.

It was CPN-UML that provided a lease of life to Koirala government by opposing the ‘Nine Leftists’ when we demanded the Prime Minister’s resignation few months ago but UML has stalled the House since last one and half month on the same issue.

Student unions: root cause of college problems

By Deeleep Dhakal

KATHMANDU, March 20 - The actual number of seats for Bachelor of Science (BSc) Microbiology at Kathmandu’s Tri-Chandra College stands at 20. However, there are five times more students in the classroom. It is the same situation in the BSc Environment class. The reason for this unfortunate state of affairs - no other state run college offers these courses.

But there’s more. The recently held student elections across Tribhuvan University (TU)-affiliated colleges nation-wide provide a glimpse to the underlying cause. In their dash to win students’ support, student groups aligned with various political parties promised the moon. Most delivered.

Crammed classrooms are just an example. Failed the entrance exam? Couldn’t sit for the tests? No problem. Approach the student union of the respective college and presto, you are admitted.

At Shankar Dev Campus, the college normally grants admission to about 360 students for Masters in Business Studies based on their entrance exam scores. But the roll of students during the college elections showed 935 students admitted and voting.

Students claim that the entrance exam is just a formality. A visitor who witnessed this year’s MA (Sociology) entrance exams at Tri-Chandra College says that within five minutes, more than half of the admission seekers had submitted their answer-sheets and left the exam hall, although the question paper was meant for one and half hours. "One just needs to sit for the test, then, the union will do the rest", says Harsha Neupane, a first year M A Sociology student.

It is not that the Free Students Union (FSU), as they are called, does not understand the problem. But in their race to win support, they will do anything.

"We have 200 seats but there are 2,100 students studying. So we need to hire more teachers and expand our existing facilities. Act of admitting more students than the seat capacity is not good, but the students’ demand compels us to do so," says Tri-Chandra College, Free Students Union (FSU) Vice President, Subodh Acharya.

Smriti Dhungel, an alumnus of Kathmandu University, is against the idea of FSUs. "Because of the FSUs, government colleges have become a breeding ground for political party activists. They serve the interests of political parties rather than that of the students". "FSUs are not really necessary because students can at any time talk to the management directly about their problems," says another hassled college student.

The state-run colleges, as per the government academic calendar, should have a minimum of 180 academic days per year. However, these colleges hardly conduct regular classes for more than 120 days. Most colleges run classes about 100 days a year. There are various reasons behind this. And, one of the main reasons, many cite, is the politicization of government-run educational institutions.

The TU has been the center of union activity and its satellite colleges are like wings where students’ bodies flex their muscles. As a result, classes are often hampered and the government has taken no action to prevent this. Instead, political leaders both in power and in the opposition, encourage students to launch strikes and disrupt the academic calendar for their own political mileage.

Dr Shekhar Gurung, principal of Kirtipur Campus says they have, time and again, been saying that excessive union activity has disturbed the smooth functioning of the colleges. "I have faced pressure from students and survived assault attempts ". Unions in the valley put pressure on the college management to admit an unmanageable number of students, he adds.

"The FSUs are not unnecessary but their activities should be directed towards the welfare of students rather than that of the political parties," says Vice-Chancellor of TU, Navin Prakash Jung Shah.

"The present state of affairs is the result of immature democratic practice. The political parties should stop referring and flaunting the FSUs as their sister organizations," adds Shah.

Five-year sanitation campaign to be launched

Post Report

KATHMANDU, March 20 - At least 800,000 families in Nepal are expected to construct and use new, permanent and sanitary latrines and adopt a sanitary and hygienic life style by the end of 2005.

This was revealed at a press conference organised by Media for Study of Environment and Child Awareness, (MESECA) Nepal in the capital today.

It was announced at the program that Nepal would be launching a five - year long National Sanitation Campaign (2001-2005) to improve hygiene and sanitation practices on March 22. The move is expected to generate positive impact on healthy living, especially for children.

Each year, the unhealthy situation contributes to 10 million cases of diarrhoea among children under five and the death of approximately 28,000 children.

The Campaign with a theme "Build a latrine with what you have now, start using it today and upgrade soon" is planned to be launched with a week long program, National Sanitation Action Week (22-29 March). The program will mainly focus on promoting toilets and the habit of using soap to wash hands before meals and after defecation.

The campaigns will be led by the Steering Committee for National Sanitation Campaign (SCNSC) under the coordination and guidance of the Environmental Sanitation Section(ESS) of the Department of Water Supply and Sewage (DWSS).

Addressing the function, J.A Speets, Sanitary Engineer from World Health Organization (WHO) said that local groups, teachers, leaders, Non Governmental Organizations and media people would be involved for the implementation of the program.

Similarly, Nawal Krishna, Chief, Environmental Sanitation Section of Department of Water Supply and Sewerage said, "The aim of the action week is to motivate 40,000 families in 1,000 Village Development Committees to build sanitary latrines."

Minister of State for Housing and Physical Planning Suresh Malla said "The government has planned to build public toilets in different places of cities under the sanitation week giving priority to the airports."