Govt–Maoists talks likely in Kathmandu
‘Mahara towards Dang to contact govt negotiators’

By Ujir Magar

LIWANG, Rolpa, Sept 10 – Central leader of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoists) Top Bahadur Rayamajhi laid out his party’s agenda for talks with the government at a public gathering held here Monday, reiterating their demand for a republican state and peaceful resolution to the problem.

Addressing a mass meeting in the district headquarters here, one of the three Maoist negotiators Rayamajhi said that he is there to make necessary arrangements for the second round of talks with the government.

Rayamajhi was part of the Maoist delegation, who sat before the negotiating table with the government on August 30 in Kathmandu.

According to a Maoist source, the party’s recent politburo meeting held in Kuraili village had proposed Thwang village, about 50 kilometers north of here, as a suitable venue for the second round of talks.

However, Rayamajhi told the gathering that his comrade-in-arms Krishna Bahadur Mahara, leader of the Maoist negotiating team, has left for Dang to "remain in constant contact" with the government team, who were due to sit for the second round of talks beginning Tuesday.

But the confusion still persisted about the venue for the talks as he further said, "I cannot say for sure whether the talks will be held in Rolpa or elsewhere."

The two sides had agreed to meet within two weeks after the landmark August 30 talks, held in a posh resort at Godavari, on the outskirts of the Capital.

Rayamajhi told his party cadres that he has been assigned by his party to manage the second round of talks, and that "the government has agreed to come to this part of the country."

"We want peaceful solution to the problem," he said. "But if the government does not let our voices heard in the city then they themselves have to leave the city," he added, referring to "the state-owned media’s tendency to downplay our voices to derail the talks."

He also informed that the party was busy preparing written agendas for the talks with detail structure of the interim government and the new Constitution proposed by them. "A republic state means the state ruled by the president," he said. "King Gyanendra can become the country’s president if he desires."

He also called on all the Maoist militiamen, Nepal Police and the Royal Nepal Army to work for the nation, and added that his party would take the lead for that.

Thousands of Maoist supporters converged in Rolpa for the meet. They also held a cultural programme participated in by the Maoist performers. All the shops in and around the meeting venue remained closed throughout the day. Chief District Officer of Rolpa and other government officials watched the event from the terrace of a faraway building through binoculars.

Prime accused of Budhathoki's murder still at large

By Chintamani Dahal & Lila Baral

BIRTAMOD (Jhapa), Sept 10 - The last rites of the 46-year-old slain refugee leader of the Bhutan People’s Party (BPP), R K Budhathoki, will be carried out on the banks of the holy Mechi River on Tuesday, family members here said today.

BPP Chairman Budhathoki was hacked to death by some unidentified persons in broad day light on Sunday while holding a meeting with refugee students at Damak. The assassins had fled the scene on a vehicle after killing him inside the meeting room.

Police arrested the driver of the vehicle (Ba 3 Cha 6466) in which the alleged murderers had run away. The vehicle is registered in the name of Shrestha Book Centre.

The driver of the vehicle, Shanta Bahadur Thapa, 26, however told the police that the assailants hired his vehicle, saying that a person was in critical condition and he had to be rushed to hospital for treatment. "But the accused left the vehicle in the middle of the way," Superintendent of Police Ganga Pandey quoted the driver as saying.

After carrying out his post-mortem at Mechi Zonal Hospital, Budhathoki’s body has been kept at his residence at Anarmani VDC-4 for the last tributes. Various refugee leaders were paying their last tributes to the BPP leader.

Police have arrested three refugees - Narad Dahal, Mukti Wagle and Naresh Gurung - in connection with the murder. Six others, who are believed to be the prime accused - Nanda Lal Adhikari, Ram Kumar Chhetri, Tanka Subedi, Kamal Thapa Magar, Nandu Bhandari and Raju Ghale - are still at large. All of the absconded people are also the Bhutanese refugees, mostly from the Beldangi camp.

Although a reliable source in a refugee camp said that Ram Kumar Chhetri from Pathari-based refugee camp attacked leader Budhathoki with khukuri, police have yet to establish the fact. Police said that they have launched a massive search campaign by tightening security in the frontier town of Kakarbhitta, bordering the Indian state of West Bengal.

BPP General Secretary Balaram Poudel, who was eyewitness of the fatal incident, said that his party was studying if there was any conspiracy behind Budhathoki’s assassination. He added that his party would issue a formal statement within a couple of days after convening the party’s central committee meet.

Talking to The Kathmandu Post, Budhathoki’s widow said that she had been tipped-off about the threat to his life a few days ago. Refugee leaders suspect that Budhathoki’s murder was politically motivated.

Previously, a pamphlet distributed in the refugee camps in the name of Bhutanese Revolutionary Free Students’ Force had accused leader Budhathoki of being indifferent to the cause of the refugees. Unconfirmed reports say that a conspiracy of his murder had been hatched inside Bhutan. Refugee leader Budhathoki is survived by his wife and three sons.

Meanwhile, various individuals and organisations today condemned the murder and demanded that the culprits be nabbed. They also condoled the death of the leader who is credited with being one of the first to highlight the plight of the Bhutanese refugees.

The international department of CPN-UML said that Budhathoki’s death is an irreparable loss to the Bhutanese refugee repatriation movement.

Issuing a press statement today, the Bhutanese Refugee Repatriation Committee, while condemning the brutal assassination, has appealed to all the refugees for maintaining patience.

Chairman of the Committee S B Subba also urged the Joint Verification Team (JVT) to resume its verification process.

Likewise, Nepali Congress lawmaker Krishna Prasad Sitaula, issuing a press statement, said that Budhathoki’s brutal assassination was an irreparable loss to the human rights followers, especially to the Bhutanese refugees languishing in the seven camps in eastern Nepal. Speaking in the parliament, Dambar Singh Sambahamphe, a UML lawmaker, demanded immediate arrest of the murderers. The organisations that condoled the demise of the leader are BNDP, PFHRD, AHURA (Bhutan), SURE (Bhutan), CEMARD, CEHURDES, HURON, among others.

Mysterious disease claims 7 in Humla 

Post Report

HUMLA, Sept 10 - At least seven people have died due to the sudden outbreak of mysterious disease in Shreemasta Village Development Committee (VDC) bordering Tibet in the last seven days.

According to Dr. Madhav Prasad Lamsal of District Health Office, the symptoms of the unknown disease are fever, throat infection and blood vomiting.

The District Health Office said that, while returning from Tibet after the regular business in Tibet, people stay for a night in Tanke khola village and this is where the victims were infected with the disease.

Speaking to The Kathmandu Post, Dr. Lamsal said that once the people come into contact with this disease, they die within a week.

One of the victims who succumbed to the disease is 45 years of age and others are between 18 to 25 years.

"Health workers have already been dispatched to this remote area but information has not been received yet regarding the present situation due to the poor communication facilities," said Lamsal.

Committee formed to probe Parsa incident

Post Report

KATHMANDU, Sept 10 – The government has formed a three-member probe committee under a Joint Secretary of the Home Ministry to investigate the violence in Parsa district on Saturday and Sunday, Home Minister Khum Bahadur Khadka told the House of Representatives today.

The committee, under the convenorship of Joint Secretary Tika Dutt Niraula, has been asked to submit its report within a week. According to Home Ministry Spokesperson Gopendra Bahadur Pandey, the other two members of the committee are Deputy Inspector General of Police Roop Sagar Moktan and the deputy chief of National Investigation Department Bhagwat Chaudhary.

Giving a statement of public importance in the House about the incidents in Parsa, the Home Minister said two persons were killed in two separate firing incidents, one of them when the police were forced to open fire at a mob nearly 6,000 people.

Giving the details of the incident, Khadka said that nearly half a dozen VDC chairmen had gathered in a school in Sakhuwa Prasauni VDC on Friday and called upon the people to protest the extreme anarchistic tendency of the Maoists.

Khadka also revealed that the meeting in the school has formed a committee to forcefully counter attack the Maoists’ aggressive activities. Some people of the Madhuban Tol VDC also manhandled some Maoist sympathisers of the same village near the school.

The incident took an ugly turn on Saturday when some members of the counter attack committee tried to set ablaze the houses of an allegedly district level Maoist leader Jagarnath Nepal and a few other alleged Maoists who were also beaten. During the shootout by both the sides, one man was killed and four others were injured who are now undergoing treatment in the Birgunj Hospital.

The people who had to leave their houses staged a chakka jam on the East-West Highway since Saturday and was lifted only on Sunday. The Home Minister also said that the police had to open fire after tear gas shells failed to disperse a mob of 6,000 led by the counter attack committee which pelted stones at the police. The mob had set a few Maoists’ houses on fire. One Baijnath Tharu died on the way to hospital after he was shot in the police firing.

The police has beefed up the area and has arrested seven persons, added Khadka.

The Parsa incident dominated the House proceedings today with most of the members expressing their concern at the communal turn of the incident. They urged the Home Ministry to pay serious attention to the incident. Surendra Chaudhary of Nepali Congress (NC) accused the Maoists of "trying to create a communal divide" by using the incident.

Birgunj remains closed as Maoists hold meet

Post Report

BIRGUNJ, Sept 10 - Despite anti-Maoist campaign that flared up two days ago in this Terai district leaving two dead, the regional meet of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoists) was held here peacefully today.

Police had earlier prevented around 5,000 Maoist supporters travelling to Birgunj from other districts, fearing a trouble. Police stopped buses carrying the Maoist supporters at Nijgadh, Pathlaiya, Gandak and Kalaiya. However, the police later permitted them to attend the meeting after the talks with the local Maoist leaders.

About 10,000 people gathered at the meeting, organised for the first time in Birgunj. The Maoists themselves took care to ensure that the meet would take place peacefully. Police kept a close watch on the meeting while the market in the city remained closed throughout the day. Most of the Maoist speakers at the meet pledged to carry out their armed struggle more intensely if their demands are not met by the Deuba government. They once again reiterated their demand for a republican state.

Meanwhile, the local administration in Hetauda has decided to immediately return back over 200 people who came here fleeing their homes from the northern part of the Parsa district following the anti-Maoist drive initiated by the Terai people Saturday.

Thousands of local people shouting pro-Terai slogans had swarmed the settlements of the suspected Maoist supporters, mostly hill migrants, forcing them to flee.

The decision to return all the internal refugees back to their homes was taken at an all party meet at the District Administration Office (DAO) today. Makwanpur and Parsa administration offices are to work together for restoring peace in the villages.

The meet also decided to take stringent action against those who forcefully evicted people from their villages in the name of anti-Maoist drive. The meet today stressed upon the need to contain the communal feeling that is flaring up due to the latest episode.

ML-aligned students split, join Maoist faction

Post Report

KATHMANDU, Sept 10 – At a time when majority of the country’s Left forces are in the process of working together, a big chunk of students belonging to the All Nepal National Free Student’s Union (ANNFSU) has decided to join the Maoist-aligned Revolutionary student group.

The ANNFSU is the student front of the Communist Party of Nepal (Marxist Leninist).

In a joint press conference organised by All Nepal National Independent Student’s Union (Revolutionary) and the breakaway group of the ANNFSU, the leader of the breakaway faction Krishna KC announced that they had agreed to merge with the Revolutionary group, headed by Devendra Parajuli.

This step comes as a major setback to the ANNFSU, led by Rabindra Adhikary, which presumably leads the larger faction of the student wing.

Even as, KC claimed that 23 out of 46 Central Committee members of ANNFSU have supported his move, only 19 have decided to join the Maoist’s faction immediately. "Others are yet to make up their mind but will ultimately join us," KC said, adding that three central committee members of the UML-aligned ANNFSU are waiting for the right time to join the group.

President of ANNISU –(R) Devendra Parajuli said that they are in the process of unifying all the students under one umbrella and this was the first step.

There are several left inclined student groups associated with various communist parties but share the common name ANNFSU with the Revolutionary one being directly involved with the Maoists. But this Maoists students group recently changed its name to ANNISU(R).

Parajuli claimed that his group has around 800,000 general members with 10 different regional co-ordination committees.

KC said that the decision to split was taken after the CPN (ML) leadership began to take "unacceptable" steps to merge with "corrupt" CPN (UML). "We took the decision as the party leadership did not listen to our voice."

"The leaders of the ML have deceived us. They had separated from the UML on the basis of their ideological differences and are now discussing the merger with the same party," KC said.

Meanwhile, the ML-aligned ANNFSU Central Office today issued a press statement with signature of 15 student leaders contradicting the statement made by KC. In the statement, the student leaders have denied that they had ever agreed to join the revolutionary student groups and have raised serious objections to their names being mentioned in the list.

Children demand ‘Education for all’

Post Report

KATHMANDU, Sept 10 – The government’s target to educate all the people by 2015 may remain a pipedream as suggested by some critics, but a vast majority of the general public, mainly children, in the country say education is the basic rights of all the children.

In the voting poll conducted by the Global Movement for Children (GMC) since August 19, most of people have voted for "education for all the children". The agenda of "education for all" has won 21 percent (109,594) of the total of 168385 cast by various individuals as part of the movement.

Of the ten agendas put forward by the GMC, a coalition of non-governmental organizations and clubs working for the children in the country, second on the priority list is "fight against child exploitation and harassment". The agenda garnered 17.03 percent (86,052) of the total votes.

Similarly, the call for "fight poverty and invest for children" bagged 13.71 percent (69,251) votes.

The other agendas included "equal rights for children", "keep children at the forefront", "care each children", "save children from war" etc.

The poll results were announced at the start of a two-day children’s fair at the Birendra International Convention Center here Monday. The result will be presented at the UN General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on children, scheduled to be held in New York during September 19-21.

For the same purpose, more than 200 children from five development regions of the country gathered today at the Children’s Fair.

Temba Chhiri Sherpa, the youngest Everesteer inaugurated the bubbly fair.

"I am very happy and feeling proud today to represent all the children of our country, who are fighting for their rights to be educated," a dazzling Sherpa said as dozens of younger children surrounded the mountaineering celebrity.

The children gathered in the fair took great pains to influence the Nepalese delegates to the UNGASS and also to personally promote the GMC and to suggest guidelines to prepare the Tenth Five Year Plan of Nepal.

Mukur Bhattacharya of Save the Children Norway, said, "Through this fair, we are providing the children a forum to voice their specific agendas to the delegates, media and to the general public".

Sanjog Thakuri, of the Nepal Adarsh Mahavira School, who also hosted the inaugural programmer said, "I strongly vote and will continue to speak for the need for poverty elimination, education and rights of the children".

Most like Sanjog were happy that for the first time, for their own benefit and their cause, they got an opportunity to speak. Elisa Lama of Everest Elite School, also the host said, "I am going to raise my voice for the special attention to the disabled children and rights of the girl child".

The fair has been one of its kind where a consortium of about 24 children clubs maintained their own stalls which posed as their platform to reach out to other participant children and adults.

It isn’t always where a crude handwritten poster and slogans put on plain papers sent so deep a message.

The Dalit Children’s Association on a paper chart had drawn with a marker pen, where and how Dalit children are oppressed and harassed. According to the stall keepers, their chief demands are birth registration rights and respect in the society.

Maoists hold military training in Rolpa

Post Report

KURELI, Rolpa, Sept 10 - Even as the truce called by the government and the underground Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) progressed, as many as 2,000 Maoist guerrillas from Rolpa, Dang, Salyan, Rukum and Pyuthan districts participated in a special training camp here recently.

Confidential sources in the underground party revealed that most of the top-notch military leaders of the underground party took part in the week-long training camp. The jamboree of the senior Maoist militias was also addressed by the party chairman Prachanda, alias Puspa Kamal Dahal and other central leaders.

Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba ordered ceasefire soon after he assumed office in mid-July Maoist rebels reciprocated to the call so as to pave the way for peace talks.

Besides political lessons, the Maoist militias and commanders were trained to fight with sophisticated guns and weapons in the training camp, according to the sources. The camp was held in the same venue, where the rebel outfit wanted the second round of peace talks between a government panel and the Maoist representatives to take place.

Members of the Maoist militia said the training camp was held to better train the guerrillas to fight with the government security forces should the talks fail. Said Santosh, the chief of the Maoists’ Rolpa district Janasarkar or "people’s government", "People will go ahead with their campaign should the talks fail..."

The government and the Maoist sides agreed meet again within 30 days in the first ever talks held in a posh Godavari resort on the outskirts of the capital city on August 30. Though the second round of talks expected to take place sometime this week, the date and venue has not been fixed yet.

Meanwhile, another report from Liwang said, the Maoist rebels held five journalists and a human rights activist hostage from Friday to Sunday. They were wandering about the villages adjoining the district headquarters, Liwang, in their quest for news. The rebels are known to have kept the six under their control, because the latter did not have any written permission from the rebels.

In the past, the rebels used to red carpet journalists and rights activists in their strong hold areas. The six included, Yagya Bikram Shahi and Kashi Ram Dangi of Kantipur daily, Nischal Chapagain and Rajaram Gautam of Nepal fortnightly and Sudhir Sharma of Himal Khabarkagaj fortnightly and Ghana Shyam Acharya of INSEC (Informal Area Services Center), a human rights organization.

PAC okays RNA choppers deal

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KATHMANDU, Sept 10 - The parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC), that had once blocked an attempt by the Royal Nepal Army (RNA) to purchase a jetliner, today gave a go ahead to RNA’s proposed purchase of two MI-17 Russian helicopters.

"The RNA appears to have become more aware of the financial proceedings since the RJ-100 jet deal. They have managed to rationalize the cost it is paying for these two helicopters," said PAC Chairman Subash Nemwang.

PAC has been conducting investigation on whether the purchase of these two helicopters was being done in accordance with the financial regulations and there were no irregularities in the deal.

RNA is trying to buy two Russian-built MI-17 helicopters for the price of Rs. 202,694,000 each totalling Rs. 405,300,000.

Nemwang added that though the deal was in accordance with the financial regulations and it was the first time that RNA had called for tender bids as per the law, it would have been better if the deal was done through the government channels.

PAC began to probe into the deal since earlier reports by the government had said that the price for such a helicopter would be around Rs. 112,000,000 only. This was an estimate by the Home Ministry proposing to buy a helicopter for the Armed Police Force.

RNA has maintained that the high cost quoted for the new craft is due to the cost of sophisticated equipment like the night vision capability and other equipment boosting the price to almost twice the price quoted in the case of the craft for the police.

Three different companies - Uday Udan, Kazan Helicopters and an Indian company backed by a Nepali lawmaker, had applied for the third bid the RNA had announced. Immediately after the army’s technical evaluation team dropped the Indian deal citing improper engine specifications, RNA held separate private meetings with the two Russian companies to decrease the price quoted in their bid. Finally, the deal was struck with Kazan Helicopters backed by its local agent, Asian Airways, for US$ 2.5 million for each of these helicopters. The official claimed that a single brand new similar helicopter would cost around US dollars 5 million each.

However, the helicopter the army is purchasing is not totally new. Though the airframe is newly made, four of its parts including the engine have been over-hauled once. RNA had signed a contract with the Russian Kazan Helicopters through the Asian Airlines Helicopters Pvt. Ltd. based in Kathmandu.

The government through a Cabinet decision had given a go ahead to RNA to buy these two helicopters with the condition that the total price should not exceed Rs. 400,000,000.

Last year, PAC had investigated and then put a block in the proposal by RNA to buy a RJ-100 jetliner. PAC had ruled that the army was trying to pay much more money than the actual cost indicating much irregularity in the deal.