Princess Prekshya hospitalized

KATHMANDU, Oct 29 (PR) - Her Royal Highness Princess Prekshya Rajya Laxmi Devi Shah has been admitted in emergency ward of Birendra Police Hospital, according to hospital sources.

Her Highness had returned at her residence, ‘Jeevan Kunj’, Mahargunj, from her pilgrimage in Mukti Nath located in Mustang district. Hospital sources say, her health condition is normal now.

King Gyanendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev and Queen Komal Rajya Laxmi Devi visited the hospital on Sunday and inquired about her health condition.

Rare Everest portrait bearing Hillary's signature fascinates Europeans

By Manish Gautam

GEVEVA (Switzerland), Oct 29 - The photograph looks like a portrait at first sight. But if one looks deeply into it then it’s more than that: It’s a superb work of photographer Roddi Makenji. And in focus is Mt Everest, the highest mountain in the world, while the other higher mountains, Lhotse, Makalu and even Kanchanjangha, stand at the backdrop.

The photograph would not have been so eye-catching had there been no signature of Sir Edmund Hillary, the Newzealander who, together with Tenzing Norgay Sherpa of Nepal, scaled the mountain for the first time, 48 years ago, on May 29, 1953. Thanks to Paperwork, an Australian company, which printed and marketed the photograph. The picture is available for US$ 495 (NRS 38,000).

Bookstalls across Europe are full of advertisement pieces that try their best to get the attention of mountain-lovers focussed on the picture of Mt Everest. Or to be precise, the poster bearing the signature of mountaineering legend Sir Hillary. This may be the reason why the picture titled "Hillary’s View from Everest" is at the center of attraction at most of the bookstalls and poster shops in Geneva, and in a number of other European cities.

"The copies are limited; we only have 750 copies," reads an advertisement piece published in the Living Planet, an Australian environmental magazine. According to an advertisement published in the four-monthly magazine, the money collected from the sale of the rare pictures will be channeled to Nepal, where the money would be spent on the upliftment and development of Khumbu region through The Himalayan Trust.

Set up by Hillary in 1960, the trust has been working in the field of education, health and community forestry in the Everest region, which is an important natural site recognized by United Nation’s Education, Science and Culture Organization (UNESCO).

Hillary has said in the Living Planet article (Planet People - Dedicated to Conservation): "I don’t want to talk about my achievements. And there is no doubt that Mt Everest has focused the attention of world media. But problems do exist there. The environmental condition is worsening, and we are working to protect that."

The Living Planet, which gives extensive coverage of burning global environmental issues, also donates 75 per cent of its advertisement incomes to the World Wide Fund for Nature Conservation (WWF), which is also active in Nepal.

It is a well-known fact that Hillary is a great mountaineering legend. However, very few people know that Hillary has also made it to the North and South poles of the planet earth. Hillary had been to the South Pole with Neil Armstrong, the first human to step on the moon) in 1985.

While trekking in the Himalayas in 1959 Hillary was impressed with a fellow Sherpa guide. The guide had expressed his keen desire to have a school in his village when Hillary asked him what the people in his village needed the most. This encouraged Hillary to establish the Trust.

Although most people in Europe recount the horrendous Royal massacre of June 1 and the Maoist insurgency when someone talks about Nepal, the new picture appears to be reinvigorating the charm of Mt Everest, the Himalayas and Nepal among the westerners. The will be always there. And guides towing tourists at the foothills of the Alps mountains say: "...Mount Blonc is the tallest mountain in Europe, but it’s not as tall as the mountains in Nepal. Mountains there are challenging and you have to have courage to climb them."

Kirat activists hack two to death in Solu

Post Report

BIRATNAGAR, Oct 29 – Two people were hacked to death and seven others injured by activists of the Rastriya Kirat Mukti Morcha (National Kirat Liberation Front) at Pawai Village in Solukhumbu district on Monday, police said.

The two killed have been identified as Dhansher Rai and Bhuwane Rai while the injured included Jagat Bahadur Rai and Chandra Maya Rai, a police official said on the condition of anonymity.

Details of the incident were sketchy as the police team that had left for the village, some six hours trek from the district headquarters, were still to report back and the injured are yet to be brought for treatment.

Relatives of the victims had walked to the district headquarters to give the information of the attack. The region police office at Biratnagar did confirm the incident and the deaths but said they were not sure how many people had been injured in the attack.

Eyewitnesses from nearby Sotang village said that about 30-35 people armed with Khukuri and guns had entered the house of the deceased, they tied them and dragged to Kuwapani and then hacked them to death.

Situation in the area was reported to be tense and most people were reluctant to talk about the attack. While people from neighbouring villages were staying away from Pawai village fearing the attackers.

Another villager said the two killed had openly protested the activities of the Front and that was the reason for the attack on them and their family members. The two deceased had protested the killing of Thil Bahadur Rai of the same village last year.

The activists had been warning villagers to refrain from speaking against them and those found informing the police about their activities would be severely punished.

The same armed group is believed to have entered the village over the weekend and nearby village a day earlier to hold public rally. They had physically abused half dozen youths who had tried to disrupt the rally and had even abducted a school teacher identified as Rit Bahadur Basnet, who had been physically tortured before he was released on Saturday, police said.

Rebels destroy Kavre police post
Escalating violence puts cease-fire in doubt

Post Report

KATHMANDU, Oct 29 – Three months of peace fostered by the cease-fire between Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and top Maoist leadership has been shattered as rebels launched an overnight raid on a police post in Kavre district, completely destroying the outpost.

No one was injured in the attack on the police post at Baluwa VDC-5 since all the policemen stationed there had been transferred two months ago to District Police Office and Paanchkhaal police station on the orders of the Home Ministry, according to the District Police Office in Kavrepalanchowk.

Quoting eyewitness accounts from villagers, the Kavre district police officers said the rebels launched the raid on the Baluwa police post Sunday night and completely destroyed the abandoned two-storey building. About 200 rebel fighters are reported to have launched the attack, which lasted from 10 p.m. till 2 a.m. Monday morning, police said. Baluwa VDC is a mere 20 kms east of Dhulikhel.

It is the first time since late July, when Prime Minister Deuba struck a cease-fire agreement with the Maoist leadership, that rebel fighters have attacked a police post in such large numbers. Local villagers believe that the rebels could have launched the action in retaliation of a rally last week in Kavre by the main opposition CPN (UML) when the party warned the rebels of counter-action if it continued to intimidate its supporters.

Whatever the reason, the attack comes in the wake of several incidents of violence during the Dashain festivities - notably in Jumla district and in eastern areas where rebels have abducted more than two dozen people - which has now cast a pall on the on-going peace negotiations between the government and rebels.

Two rounds of negotiations have already been held, without much result. It is unclear when the third round, which was expected to take place before Dashain, will be held. But today, Home Minister Khum Bahadur Khadka said in Dang that the third round will take place before the Tihar festivities, now just two weeks away. But he indicated that there could be further rounds of talks.

"It is not possible to say that the talks will reach a conclusion in the third round itself. There could be further rounds. The government is clear in what it wants. Except for Constitutional Monarchy and parliamentary democracy, we could also agree to change certain provisions of the constitution, but the Maoists must be sincere," Khadka said addressing Nepali Congress activists.

Explaining the government’s current strategy, the Home Minister added that the government had refrained from using force in recent months to aid the process of peace negotiations, but that it should not be construed as a sign of weakness. "If the Maoists begin sustained violence, the government will not sit silently," he warned.

Meanwhile, opposition communist leaders have begun to flay both the government and rebels for failing to make progress in the peace negotiations. Speaking at a "Press Chautari" programme today in Janakpur, CPN (UML) leader Bharatmohan Adhikari termed the current delay in holding the third round of peace talks as "dangerous to the nation, to the people and to democracy."

"If the talks cannot place, or if it fails, then the prime responsibility should be borne by the government, and then the Maoist leadership," Adhikari said. "Both sides, it seems, are preparing for battle. But we urge them to be serious about the peace negotiations instead."

Could a cynical press be trivializing PM’s office?

By Akhilesh Upadhayay

NEW YORK - In a front-page article some days ago, The Kathmandu Post hit the bull’s eye when it described Prime Minister Deuba as a deal maker par excellence, and therein lies both his strength and liability. Deals helped bring down the mighty Koirala but they also came—as all deals come—with certain strings attached. They led to the cabinet expansion, and Sher Bahadur Deuba’s political revival came a cropper.

But the story isn’t that simple. And it would be a folly to dismiss Deuba’s Prime Ministership II in a hurry as another debacle. Indeed, that would be a gross mistake. Unlike Koirala, a staunch status quoist, and Deuba I, a spineless politician whose only motivation was survival, Deuba II has displayed a lot of imagination as a leader.

Once he became the prime minister, Deuba made some very bold moves - land reform initiatives, property rights to women, sincere efforts to raise the status of untouchables, and above all talks with Maoists. Clearly, it was not the Deuba we had known in ’95-96 when he was at the helm of a fractious RPP-NC coalition. Many would argue that all the jobs still remain half done, but let’s at least give him credit for a new beginning. It took a Herculean effort to drag Maoists to Kathmandu – court them, cuddle them and coerce them into a truce. But the ceasefire has held for almost a hundred days now, an achievement in itself.

The Prime Minister apparently enjoys a good rapport with the new King. But why hold that against him? If anything, that plays to his strength. Given the volatile political situation in the country, a compromising chief executive is a better bet than a true-blue statesman. Go ahead and lose some battles so long as you win the war.

The guns have been silent for some time, but Maoist insurgency is still the number one challenge before us, and its resolution is central to long-term political stability, better law and order, and economic growth.

Agreed, the cabinet expansion does put a damper on the Deuba revival. But it is still too early to dismiss Deuba altogether. How long could he ignore calls for cabinet expansion? His coalition is fragile, and he realizes only too well Home Minister Khum Bahadur and the likes are not averse to the idea of switching camps and propping up Koirala once again. The result: mayhem.

Deuba in fact should be thanked for averting the disaster. With the past 10 years throwing up as many short-lived governments, isn’t it much wiser to pay for 10 more ministers for a certain period of time for the sake of stability which is essential to wage a war against the battle-hardened Maoist insurgents who, otherwise, could bleed the economy forever?

The humble, and much humiliated Nepali Congress worker from Dadeldhura has lived up to his billing: He has displayed deep sympathies for ethnic groups and the downtrodden, and he listens to minority opinions, inside politics and outside.

Now comes the most baffling question. Why didn’t the Prime Minister reach out to the people to build public opinion against a cabinet expansion just so all the Congress MPs who wanted a berth got the message ? Why didn’t his concerns extend beyond Parliament, to the people who elected Parliament? Why didn’t he talk, or made "leaks", to the press as he has successfully done against the once-invincible Maoists?

US President George W. Bush has virtually tamed the Congress into submission directly addressing the people. His current popularity rating, at more than 90 percent, is the highest ever for any peacetime president in the United States.

These may sound like naive comments, comparing Nepali and American politics, but isn’t public opinion bedrock to all democracies, either it be the world’s most powerful or a young one? If the unyielding Maoists could be dragged to the negotiating table with the power of public opinion, why didn’t the Prime Minister get into similar exercise to discourage cabinet expansion?  

Perhaps we in the media are to blame for our failure to pick up the danger signals on time. Journalists have trivialized politics and the Prime Minister’s office to such a low that all thinking Nepalis are caught up in a cycle of cynicism and we continue to be our own victims. In treating the Prime Minister as just another public servant, and politics as a children’s game, we have inflicted great damage to the nation. The chief executive needs more than a stick to run his office.

Excuse me if I sound hackneyed, but we have witnessed how the American press, and politicians, have rallied behind President Bush since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. It’s more than just jingoism. An elevated Prime Minister may well fire some of his unproductive cabinet colleagues; and will most certainly negotiate with Maoists from a position of strength.