Rebel leader warns Govt of violent retribution
Calls off Sept 21 meet in capital as Govt launches raids

By Tilak Pokharel

KATHMANDU, Sept 16 – Top rebel Maoist leader "Comrade Prachanda" today warned the Sher Bahadur Deuba government of violent retributions if it does not immediately put a halt to the arrest of Maoist sympathizers.

The warning was issued hours after the government intensified efforts to counter rebel sympathizers, launching police and army raids in different parts of the capital early Sunday and arresting scores of Maoist supporters.

Prachanda’s warning was contained in a sternly worded press statement issued today, two days after peace talks between the government and the rebels hit a snag over the Maoists’ tough demands. The top rebel leader also demanded that the government stop all atrocities, release the arrested and roll back its decision to ban political rallies and mass meet.

"If the government does not initiate any positive efforts in fulfilling our demands and instead go ahead with autocracy, the talks will be regarded as broken," Prachanda said in the statement. "If that happens, our party requests People’s Liberation Army, progressive people’s force and general public to start retaliation campaigns as required."

Prachanda also confirmed that the proposed September 21 mass meet has been postponed for now and the party has also decided to mobilise its cadres on regional basis.

But his main focus was on the government action. He said in the statement that his party, through its negotiators, had assured the government that they would review the September 21 mass meet if the government started fulfilling their demands of interim government, constitutional reform and working towards establishment of a republican state.

"The government’s ban on the people’s fundamental rights and nationwide mugging and intimidation by the army have reflected its wrong intention towards the talks," the statement said. "The Deuba government has ripped its own constitution by the sword of autocracy."

The government should be responsible for any untoward consequences coming out of its decision, which was made citing the causes of international situation, the statement added.

The government, on Saturday, had decided to ban public mass meeting, extortion, "other activities" detrimental to law and order situation in the capital city for a maximum of a month. The decision came six days before the Maoist’s planned mass meet and two days before its student group’s national convention – both being planned to hold in the capital.

Meanwhile, joint teams of army and police raided hostels of four government colleges and one office of Free Students’ Union in Kathmandu and Lalitpur districts early Sunday morning. The raid was made under the "Special Search Campaign".

Army personnel numbering about 150 cordoned each of the hostels of University Campus Kirtipur, Amrit Science College (ASCOL) Lainchour, Institute of Engineering (IOE) Pulchowk and Mahendra Ratna Campus Tahachal from 3 a. m. in the morning. Then, the police entered into the hostels at about 4:30 a. m. and confiscated various documents, according to students.

The police also raided the office of Free Students’ Union (FSU) of Patan Multiple Campus, according to Yubaraj Bhattarai, Lalitpur District Secretary of Maoist-aligned All Nepal National Independent Students’ Union (ANNISU) - Revolutionary.

Police said the raid was carried out according to the government decision to confiscate explosives allegedly kept by the Maoist students and activists ahead of the planned mass meet. The student group had also planned to hold its 15th national convention in the capital starting Monday. Fear had gripped the people that both programmes would be violent. However, the student group has decided to hold its 4-day national convention in Biratnagar starting September 24.

During the raid, police arrested seven students from the ASCOL Hostel including FSU vice-chairman Nawaraj Rosyara, FSU Joint-Secretary Tekraj Prasai - both aligned to Communist Party of Nepal (Marxist-Leninist), said Om Chandra Ghale, former ASCOL FSU Chairman.

Before conducting the raid, police had warned the students sleeping inside through loudspeakers not to try to escape, and also warning that if the students tried to do so, the consequence would be fatal.

According to Bhattarai, police arrested Naresh Neupane from IOE and three students including ANNISU Kathmandu District Member Union Banjara from Kirtipur.

Govt informs parties about talks

Post Report

KATHMANDU, Sept 16 - Major political parties today reviewed the developments following the second round of peace talks and decided to meet again later in the week to sketch out strategy before the next round of peace talks.

"All the parties who were briefed about the peace talks during today’s all party meet endorsed the government’s stand in the peace talks," said Ram Chandra Poudel, a central member of the ruling Nepali Congress (NC).

Poudel said the participants expressed support to the outright rejection by the government of the demands put by the Maoist for abolition of constitutional monarchy and the parliament.

For the next three days, these parties will discuss and decide on their individual views and meet again on Wednesday to advise the government on how to move ahead with the peace talks.

"Only then the government will go for the third round of peace talks with the Maoists," Poudel said adding that the Maoists are now appearing to be more flexible in their stand and seem more cautious not to disrupt the talks.

Talking briefly to reporters after the meet, Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba said the decision by the Maoists to withdraw the mass rally and the student meeting scheduled for the weekend is a positive move by them.

"The decision by the Maoists leadership to withdraw the mass rally of the ANNISU-Revolutionary in the Kathmandu valley is a positive move," Prime Minister Deuba said.

The withdrawal of the mass gathering planned by the Maoists in Kathmandu comes as a relief to the government where organizers were expecting to gather as many as 200,000 people.

Government ministers said a rally with that many participants spelled trouble and had urged the Maoists during the second round of peace talks last week in Bardia to withdraw the meetings.

Failing to convince the Maoists, the government announced that all public meetings would be banned in the Kathmandu Valley. Following the announcement, the student wing of the Maoists decided to shift the meet to the eastern industrial town of Biratnagar. The Friday’s mass rally will also be broken into regional rallies in other parts of the country.

"The Maoist does not appear to be indifferent towards the ongoing peace talks," said Khadga Prasad Oli, of the main opposition CPN-UML.

Oli however added that the decision by the government to ban the public meetings was against the Constitution that has provision to allow peaceful gatherings.

Lilamani Pokhrel of the United People’s Front said the government was yet to decide on how to resolve the Maoist issue.

Rastriya Prajatantra Party’s Prakash Chandra Lohani said the process to peacefully resolve the issue should continue.

Terai MPs fume against Land Bill

Post Report

KATHMANDU, Sept 16 – An MP from the ruling Nepali Congress today said that he was ready to "do anything against the new land reforms Bill", which is currently being discussed in the Parliament".

"I am ready to do anything; even resigning from the membership of the Parliament is a very small thing for me," NC lawmaker from Parsa, Surendra Chaudhary told The Kathmandu Post Sunday. "The so-called revolutionary land reforms Bill is against the sentiment of Terai people."

When asked to comment on his role while passing the Bill from parliament, he responded: "I have already said that I am going to do anything against the Bill, even to go against the party whip is a small thing for me as for the Bill is concerned".

Speaking after the talk programme on Rights to Property and Impact of the new Land Reforms Bill in Terai, organised here Sunday by Terai Bauddik Samaj (Terai Intellectuals Society) in the capital Sunday, former minister Chaudhary also said that he was working to set up circle of Terai MPs.

He added, "I am in close contact with MPs from Terai, including the ones from UML, to form a protest circle against the Bill at the central level. The UML MPs have also given me words to support the move."

He, however, refused to disclose the names of the UML MPs.

He even criticized the Prime Minister for preventing him from speaking against the Bill in parliament. "The government denied my fundamental rights to speak in parliament. It shows that the Deuba government is no longer democratic".

His statements came close on the heels of his party’s chief whip Tek Bahadur Chokyal’s recent decision to punish him for speaking against the Bill in the House of Representatives. Chokyal last week barred him from speaking in the House for one week.

Gajendra Narayan Singh, President of Nepal Sadbhawana Party, said that his party would continue to protest against the government both from inside and outside the parliament, and said that the move was a conspiracy against the Terai dwellers.

Mahanta Thakur, NC lawmaker, said that the party’s action against his colleague is not good. "My party’s decision is not good," he said. When asked to comment on his role while passing the Bill from the Parliament, he declined to make comments.

Other MPs, businessmen and intellectuals from the Terai also criticized the government for taking an action against the lawmaker Chaudhary. They were also critical of the new land reform Bill because it has been introduced with an ill intention to redistribute poverty among the already impoverished Terai farmers.

Renu Yadav, RPP lawmaker, said that the Bill is "a move to divert people’s attention from the corruption in Lauda Air and China South West Airlines deals, while NC parliamentarian Ram Chandra Tiwari asked the Terai people to fight for their rights.

MP Ajaya Pratap Shah of RPP and Jitendra Dev of ML and businessman Hulas Chanda Golchha also spoke against the bill at the programme, which reached a consensus that Deuba’s land reforms move would not increase the productivity of land but will only serve to disintegrate the land.

Senior advocate Awbdhesh Kumar Singh handed keys of his house worth of 10 million to the Society at the programme.

As US priorities change, so does its leader

By Suman Pradhan

KATHMANDU, Sept 16 – They say there is a silver lining behind every dark cloud. If that is so, then might last week’s terror attacks in the US lead to some good in the future?

Shockingly tragic as it was, the terrorist strikes in Washington D.C and New York City has already led to at least one positive outcome: the transformation of US President George W. Bush from a gung-ho go-it-alone Texan cowboy into an international consensus builder.

"Suddenly, the United States is becoming more multilateralist than it has been in recent months," says Professor Sridhar Khatri of Tribhuvan University’s Department of Political Science. "The Bush administration has realized that it has to be more involved in the global arena because the US cannot be truly secure until and unless they are engaged in world affairs."

Thanks to that transformation, what the world could be witnessing right now is the beginning of a major war against terrorism, wherever that might be, which can only be good for the global community at large.

And to think that before last Tuesday, America was on a very different path. Countering terrorism was still high on its agenda, but nowhere near making dollars, dollars and even more dollars. The twin towers of the World Trade Center which were destroyed by the terrorists were a fitting symbol of Americans’ whole-hearted pursuit of material happiness. Now everything’s changed.

Combating terrorism is no more a high priority for the US government. It is the only priority. And in this unipolar world, that translates into the priority of other governments too.

A diversity of nations, from close US allies as the NATO countries and European Union to one-time foes like Russia and so-called "rogue states" such as Iran have all jumped into the anti-terrorism bandwagon. Closer to home, India, China and yes, Pakistan too, have expressed solid backing to US moves to ferret out suspected mastermind Osama bin Laden from his hideout in Afghanistan.

In all likelihood, war clouds are gathering in the troubled and volatile skies over Afghanistan, and possibly Pakistan. Five nuclear powers – the US, Russia, China, India and Pakistan – are all coming eyeball-to-eyeball in South-Central Asia.

Be that as it may, the interesting story here is the new approach of the US government. Suddenly for the Bush administration, unilateralism is oh-so-yesterday, multilateralism hip.

When he rode to power with the slimmest of electoral margins last January, America’s neighbours, European allies and even one-time foes like Russia were rankled by the markedly unilateralist policies of Bush the Younger.

All efforts to seek consensus and compromise on major global issues were abandoned by US leaders. The global warming protocols had its most famous dissenter in the Bush administration. The Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, the cornerstone of global nuclear security for the last 30 years, all but abandoned for a tech-heavy yet unproven missile defense shield against "rogue states." Domestic concerns over abortion – yes, abortion – was forced on an unprepared and largely poor world in the form of the infamous Global Gag Rules.

The only thing President Bush seemed to care about was American interests. Foreign policy for him was Mexico, with whose president he held five summits in nine months. All that changed on Tuesday when the terrorists struck New York and Washington D.C. Just like his father before him, the untested and young Bush is busy marshalling a global grand alliance in this fight against shadowy terrorist networks.

All this focus on anti-terrorism is certain to have a snowballing effect in South Asia, and even in Nepal. Already, the Sher Bahadur Deuba government, newly re-energized by the changing international situation – it actually referred to it yesterday – has banned rallies and protests for a month in Kathmandu to derail the planned mass meeting of the rebel Maoists on September 21.

The cue is, if the US, arguably the mother of all democracies, can curtail certain freedoms for its citizens for the sake of security – which is being debated at the moment - then why can’t Nepal?

On a regional level, the US focus on anti-terrorism could open up new avenues to resolve long intractable problems such as Kashmir. "If both India and Pakistan are on the side of the US in this new war against terrorism," says TU’s Prof. Khatri, "then it might just provide a new opening for dialogue on resolving the Kashmir conflict."

Govt decision halts scheduled programmes

KATHMANDU, Sept 16 (PR) - Organisers were forced to cancel quite a few number of functions at the eleventh hour here today as per the latest government decision to ban all types of rallies and gatherings inside the Kathmandu Valley.

A seminar organised by SAP Nepal was scheduled to be inaugurated by Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba this morning. The organisers were present at the Royal Nepal Academy Hall and had made all preparations to welcome the Prime Minister but they were informed that the programme could not take place.

Similarly another programme organised by Nepal Bar Association inviting former Prime Minister and President of the ruling Nepali Congress Girija Prasad Koirala as the chief guest was canceled at the final moment.

Leaders urge both sides to soften their stands

Post Report

KATHMANDU, Sept 16 – Leaders of several political parties today said that they were now convinced that both the government and the Maoists were serious about talks but added that it was time for both sides to soften their stands.

The leaders were speaking at a face to face programme organised by Reporter’s Club in the capital today.

Pashupati Shumsher JB Rana, General Secretary of the Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) said that a situation for probable confrontation had been averted with the Maoists canceling their proposed programme in the capital. But he said that it was still left to see whether the Maoists followed the agreement with the government in ground reality.

Mentioning the effects all over the world after the terrorist attacks in the United States, Rana warned the Maoists that if they went back to their violent ways they could be one of the victims of world retaliation.

Khadga Prasad Oli reiterated his former statements saying that the government had to give at least something to the Maoists if they wanted to join the main stream politics. He again suggested the armed force of the Maoists to be given place in Nepal army and the armed police.

Narahari Acharya, former speaker of the ruling Nepali Congress and one of the members of the government talks-team said that the government had out rightly rejected the Maoist proposals of annulling the present constitution, formation of Constituent Assembly and declaring Nepal a Republic. But we still feel that we can have some improvements in all the issues if the Maoists clarify and explain what they mean by the points they have mentioned, he said.

Badri Mandal of the Sadbhavana Party also spoke at the programme and asked the Maoists to think over their demands keeping national interests in mind.

Suspected Maoists loot cash and kind

Post Report

INARUWA, (Sunsari), Sept 16 - A dozen of suspected Maoists looted property worth more than Rs. 60,000 by breaking into three houses at Itahari Municipality-2 and Hosposa VDC-1, police here said Sunday.

The District Police Office said that a band of armed men claimed themselves to be the Maoists while ransacking the houses at Saturday midnight.

Police said that the suspected Maoists robbed property worth Rs 12,000 from Tilak Golal at Itahari-2 and around Rs. 50,000 from Gajendra Bahadur Thapa’s house at Hosposa VDC-1. Locals said that the looters were brandishing their arms while breaking into the houses. Police said nobody has so far been arrested in connection with the robberies.

Meanwhile, our reporter from Pokhara said a dozen masked-men looted cash and valuables from the Phewa Powerhouse’s residential area at Saturday night. Employees of the powerhouse said the looters robbed property around Rs. 100,000 in cash and valuables.

The looters robbed property worth Rs. 80,000 from Basudev Khatri’s quarter and the rest of the other property from Dilliram Giri and Krishna Adhikari’s. Adhikari was injured by the attacks of the looters and has been admitted at a local hospital for treatment. However, the victims could not immediately identify the masked-men. Police have been mobilised to hunt down the looters.