Deuba seeks support from all

By Surendra Phuyal

KATHMANDU, Feb 10: The winter session of parliament, which will decide the fate of the state of emergency imposed in the country, opened here Monday with a relaxed-looking Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba vowing to take "every possible step" to resolve the crises facing the country.

Though vehemently criticised by the opposition party leaders for his "failure" to broker peace with the Maoist negotiators, a calm Deuba appealed to all the political forces and his countrymen to help the government fight "terrorism". The Prime Minister even expressed his readiness to make changes in the constitution and form an interim electoral government.

"If dialogue fails, force is necessary, emergency is necessary," Deuba told the House of Representatives, justifying the state of emergency that was clamped after the three rounds of talks between the government and the Maoists failed in late November. "Emergency was the only option left...But now, if you think that making changes in the constitution and forging a national government [thereafter] could be a solution, I am ready for that. Let’s sit and discuss [the possibilities]."

His reactions came after the Main Opposition CPN-UML leader, Madhav Kumar Nepal, indicated that his party, which commands 68 seats in the House of Representatives, could support the government "if it courageously comes forward and floats a proposal seeking changes in the constitution".

Flatly rejecting the Maoist proposal to form a constituent assembly—which would draft a new constitution—Nepal said, "Such a move would only dampen the achievements of the popular movement of 1990. So the need of the hour is to amend the constitution. This could also be the solution to the political problem."

The state of emergency, declared on November 26 to quell the six-year-old insurgency, needs to be ratified with a two thirds majority of the House of Representatives by February 23, which is within three months of its declaration, as per the Article 115 of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal.

And as the ruling Nepali Congress has only a simple majority in the House with 113 members, the approval and the possible extension of emergency would need the support of UML.

Appearing very much informal, the Prime Minister also said that the government’s primary goal was to disarm the rebels, and that further talks could be held "only after they surrender arms". "Whether to hold talks with them in future or not would be known only after they surrender their arms," he said.

Soon after the Speaker Taranath Ranabhat opened the House for proceedings and invited the opposition party leaders to make their remarks, the Deuba government came under fire for failing to, among other things, control corruption, ensure good governance and maintain law and order situation in the country.

They blasted the government for imposing the state of emergency and bringing the two Royal Ordinances—Terrorist and Disruptive (acts control and punishment) Ordinance and Finance Ordinance—and said they would not support the government in extending the state of emergency.

Surya Bahadur Thapa of Rastriya Prajatantra Party warned that the people are blaming both the ruling and the opposition parties for the deteriorating condition of the nation and economy, which is about to "collapse". He also called on PM Deuba to act more responsibly and rescue the country by means of "minimum national programmes and national consensus".

Narayan Man Bijukchhe of Nepal Workers and Peasants Party criticised the government for its inaction, and said, "Our party does not want the state of emergency to be extended and we don’t think emergency will resolve the problems." He also announced that he would be presenting a Bill on Cultural City Management in the session.

Lila Mani Pokharel of United People’s Front (UPF) blamed the government side of being "irresponsible" during the failed peace talks with the Maoists last year. He said that the state of emergency should not be prolonged and warned that the move would further empty the already impoverished country’s exchequer.

He also demanded that the "black ordinances" be withdrawn.

Chitra Bahadur K.C. of National People’s Front (NPF) also slammed the government for imposing emergency and demanded withdrawal of the "black ordinances". He also claimed that the army had recently killed three innocent people in his home district, Baglung.

He added, "The state of emergency has been declared in the country, but the people have been forced to bear the brunt. They are being attacked and harassed by both the rebels and the army."

Badri Prasad Mandal of Nepal Sadbhawana Party (NSP) urged PM Deuba to "do something to control corruption at all levels". "Our donors are publicly saying that Nepal is among the most corrupt nations in the world," he said. "The government should feel ashamed and do something about it."

The House also condoled the death of NSP leader Gajendra Narayan Singh, who died of cardiac arrest late last month.

Speaker Ranabhat read out a letter received from the Royal Palace earlier in the day. In his opening remarks, Ranabhat expressed deep concern over the "damaged" law and order situation of the country and condemned the extremist nature of the underground Maoists.

"Sooner or later they (Maoists) will have to return to the negotiating table," he said, adding, "The sooner it happens, the better it will be for the country. Peace is the need of the hour, and only talks can resolve the crisis. I appeal to them to surrender their arms and join to the national mainstream of politics…. The government should be guided by this session."

The House proceedings are scheduled to continue from 11.00 a.m. Wednesday.

Upper House concerned over law and order

By Yuvraj Acharya

KATHMANDU, Feb 10: The National Assembly, the Upper House of parliament expressed deep concerns over the "deteriorating" law and order situation of the country and suggested government to adopt measures to ensure socio- economic reforms along with the mobilisation of the security forces to quell the Maoist activities.

Chairman of the Upper House, Dr. Mohammed Mohsin suggested the government ought to be aware of possible economic crisis that might arise due to the deteriorating law and order situation and take the foreigners’ comments on bad governance in the country sincerely. "It was shameful for us."

"Purity and morality are the essential bases of development and the government must assure them," said Mohsin, adding, "The government should be able to win the confidence of the opposition parties for the success of reform programmes," Mohsin said. He also said that the success of the 21st Session of parliament would depend on the way the ruling party behaved with the opposition.

Leader of ruling Nepali Congress in the Upper House, Basudev Risal expressed his hopes that the session would be able to find a way out of brutal and inhuman activities of the "terrorists". "No efforts made to discourage the security forces would be tolerable", Risal said, adding that the House should encourage the security forces to fight the "terrorists". Leader of the main opposition, CPN-UML, Yubaraj Gyawali feared the country turn into a battleground if the solution to insurgency were not explored immediately.

"Single party efforts are inadequate; so all the parties should make common agenda to address the problem."

Gyawali, in a rebuke to the Maoists, suggested that the solution of all the problems should be sought within the framework of the existing Constitution. He also asked Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba to downsize the Cabinet.

The decision on ratification of the emergency, he said, would depend on the government’s justification on the rationale behind the obligation to impose emergency.

Addressing the Upper House, PM Deuba reiterated the government’s position in imposing emergency. He said the escalating Maoist violence after the four-month truce had compelled the government to take the step.

Khum Bahadur Khadka, Minister of Home tabled a copy of Terrorist and Destructive Activities (Control and Punishment) Ordinance 2001. Similarly Minister of State for Finance Bharat Kumar Shah, tabled a copy of Finance ( First Amendment) Ordinance, 2001 in the House.

Maoist bandh paralyses life in west Nepal

Post Report

KATHMANDU, Feb 10: The general strike called by the outlawed Maoists in the Mid and Far-Western regions passed off peacefully today, except for a sporadic incidents of violence in some districts, according to reports received here.

However, the strike paralysed the public transport system, forcing all the public vehicles to stay off the major highways. A report from Surkhet stated that a group of armed rebels set ablaze a night bus on its way to Surkhet from Birgunj and two loaded trucks plying from Nepalgunj to Surkhet.

Surkhet Chief District Officer, Ram Krishna Bhurtel, said that the passenger bus (Na 1Kha 9787) and another truck (Bhe A Kha 662) were reduced to a cinder. Another truck (Na 2 Kha 5997) carrying 14-tonnes of food grain was partially damaged on the fire. The rebels first forced all the passengers of the bus to get off with their belongings and set it on fire, a passenger told The Kathmandu Post.

"The rebels freed us only after the bus was reduced to ashes," he added. The passengers said they covered the remaining 14-kilometre distance on foot to reach Surkhet.

In another incident, the rebels set on fire a truck (Bhe 1 Kha 1186) at Gangate of Satakhani VDC of Surkhet. In another dispatch from Bardiya, the rebels exploded bombs in several places including the building of District Development Committee in Gulariya on the eve of the regional- level strike. A peon of the DDC, Hari Krishna Chaudhary, was injured when the rebels exploded pressure cooker bombs at the DDC’s office. Chaudhary was rushed to Nepalgunj for treatment. Three rooms of the office have been completely destroyed while a motorbike was set on fire.

The police said a warehouse of Cotton Development Committee located at Kumbhar, Bardiya has been completely destroyed in bomb blasts. The Maoists also attacked two area police stations at Motipur and Maina Pokhara yesterday evening. The police said none of the policemen was injured in the exchange of fire between the two sides. The rebels fled the scene soon after the army personnel arrived at the scene.

The local administration said that the rebels attacked the house of former Minister Shivaraj Joshi at Bagnaha VDC yesterday.

Army allows reporters to meet Maoist detainees

Post Report

DANG, Feb 10: Security officials for the first time after the declaration of the emergency today allowed reporters to meet the Maoists taken into military custody.

Almost all the Maoists said they were feeling secure under the detention. The officials, however, declined to reveal the number of the Maoists taken into custody for investigation.

The security officers said that the innocent people would gradually be released in the presence of the local representatives, and they would be dropped to their respective homes. The officials said the pressmen were called at the request of the detainees.

Talking to reporters, some of the women rebels alleged that they were sexually exploited by the rebels while working in Maoist organisations. Other suspected rebels, both men and women, said they were inducted into village- and district-level People’s Government formed by the Maoists without their consent.

"Even if we are released by the army, we cannot live peacefully in our villages," said Urmila Oli, who was the chief of the People’s Government of the Purandhara VDC in Dang. "We are just ordinary people trapped from both the government and rebel sides," she said, adding that she was forced to hold the post after her husband joined the Maoist party and went underground.

Surya Bahadur Budha, the Headmaster of a high school in Korchabang of Rolpa, said from the military custody that the teachers of the district cannot "live peacefully" without paying a certain amount of money out of their monthly salary to the rebels.

Heaviest Humla snowfall in 14 years

Post Report

SIMIKOT, Humla, Feb 10: The remote mountainous Humla district is experiencing the heaviest snowfall in 14 years.

The district is now covered by three feet-thick snow, said Krishna Chandler Poudel, Chief District Officer of Humla. "For the last three days, it has been snowing heavily, we have not seen anything like this in the last 14 years," said Poudel.

Flights to the district headquarters of Simikot now stand cancelled. The only two telephone lines in the district are also dead.

"In 1987, we experienced an even heavier snowfall," said Man Bahadur Shahi, the acting Chairman of the District Development Committee (DDC). "Two individuals died then, but in the following years till this one we have had only snowfall of one-and-half feet thick." But the farmers are happy as the snow is useful for the winter crops.

Mumbai brothel-returned Maili bags HR award

Post Report

KATHMANDU, Feb 10 : She spent two of the darkest years of her life in a brothel after her family friend sold her to a "madam" in Mumbai (India)’s red light area in 1996. But on Thursday, Dolma Waiba Lama of Pulnumbertin, Makanwapur, was probably the happiest woman on earth.

Known as Babita Maili Lama in Maiti Nepal and her family circle, an organisation dedicated to freeing and rehabilitating women trafficked into prostitution, Lama, 25, received this year’s Reebok’s human rights award at a glittering function in Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S.A.

"We are simply delighted…and she (Lama) told me over telephone yesterday that she would be coming home Wednesday," an exuberant Anuradha Koirala, the founder of Maiti Nepal told The Kathmandu Post late Sunday.

According to Koirala, whose organisation rescued Lama from the Mumbai brothel in 1998, she was hoodwinked by one of her family friends in 1996 when Lama had gone to Hetauda for her two-year-old daughter’s medical treatment.

"The fellow took her to [nearby bordering town of] Birgunj and from there straight to the Mumbai brothel, along with her daughter," Koirala recalls. After she was rescued from Mumbai, Maiti Nepal deputed her to its Mumbai branch, Maiti Mumbai, where, in two years’ time, Lama managed to rescue at least 40 Nepali girls sold into prostitution in brothels in Mumbai and Pune.

Maiti Nepal also reunited Lama with her husband with Shrestha surname. Consequently, the two started working in Maiti Mumbai together. Maiti Nepal nominated Lama for the award October 2001. Koirala said she would be transferred to Maiti Nepal’s Pashupatinagar (Ilam) branch after she returns from America. Her daughter, who is more fluent in Hindi than in Nepali, is now seven years old.

"She was facing difficulties in enrolling her daughter at a good school there," Koirala said. "So she was requesting me to transfer her to Nepal. Now, we have managed to send someone to Maiti Mumbai." Lama will be replaced by Chari Lama, according to her.

Leaders fight for berths in yet-to-be born body

By Subas Risal

KATHMANDU, Feb 10: The proposed Dalit Commission is yet to take final shape, but the tussle has already started among top Dalit leaders to get berths in it.

Dalit leaders from different organisations are currently busy in proving themselves competent enough to represent the community in the commission. But the Bill on forming the Dalit Commission has many more procedures to go through before it receives a Royal Seal. Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba in the last session of the Parliament had vowed to form the Commission.

"It would be a disaster if the Community for the Upliftment of Deprived Communities (CUDC) under the Ministry of Local Development, is given the responsibility to select the candidates," says Padma Lal Bishwokarma, Chairman of Nepal Utpidit Dalit Jatiya Mukti Samaj. "Competent candidates who can represent this backward class should be selected."

CUDC has been mired in controversy since its establishment. Many have been accusing it for not launching long-term programmes, which can shore up the status of this backward community.

"The selection should be based on experience, age and commitment," says Bishwokarma. "If the selection is not done on the basis of those criteria, then the commission will be ineffective like the CUDC."

Officials at the CUDC hold different opinions regarding the selection procedures. They say that there should be representatives from all the political parties.

"Dalits who are affiliated to different political parties should be part of the Commission," says Man Bahadur Bishwokarma, Vice-Chairman of CUDC.

"If the Dalits represent the Commission from different parties then it will be easy to take the decision," he adds. "The Commission should work as a "watch dog" which will closely monitor the activities of different organisations related with Dalits."

He is also not ready to accept that CUDC is not serious regarding the launching of long-term programmes to raise the living standard of the Dalits across the country. "CUDC has been carrying out different programmes like income-generation throughout the country which in the long run will help in uplifting the status of Dalits." However, experts contend that if the socio-economic status of this community is to be uplifted, then representation from political parties in the commission has to be avoided.

"It is not necessary for the representatives from different political parties to be part of the commission," says Raj Narayan Nepali, chief of non-discrimination department of INSEC. Nepali has been conducting research on Dalits for the last two years.

"The Commission needs competent and enthusiastic persons to end the practice of untouchability in the country. It should be allowed to work independently as an autonomous and apolitical body," says Nepali.

About 4.5 million Dalits across the country — according to the National Census 1991 — are optimistic about their uplift through the Commission. But with the Dalits already divided on the formation of the Commission, their dreams would take a while to turn real.

ML, UML reunion delayed by a week

Post Report

KATHMANDU, Feb 10: The formal declaration of unification of the main opposition CPN-UML and its breakaway CPN-ML has been pushed back for one week after ML president, Sahana Pradhan, today left for India for medical check-up.

"The formal declaration of the unification will come latest by Sunday," said Bharat Mohan Adhikari, co-ordinator of the UML negotiating team. "But the process will be further multiplied after she arrives on Thursday."

Earlier today, ML president Pradhan had left for Indian capital of New Delhi today for medical check-up. Hadn’t she left the country, the unification would have materialised by Monday’s meeting of the both negotiating teams.

Meanwhile, today’s Central Committee meeting of Communist Party of Nepal (Marxist-Leninist) today formally decided to unite with its foe-turned-friend Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist).

According to a CPN-ML source, Central Committee member, Tanka Karki, who had shown his dissent over the unification, today decided to go by the unification. Karki along with other three members led by CP Mainali had decided not to unite with UML, citing the unification process not dignified.

The UML-ML unification process gained momentum after the main opposition CPN-UML fulfilled two of ML’s "tough" demands two weeks ago. The ML’s fulfilled demands included the opening of the controversial Mahakali Treaty that was signed with India in 1996 for scrutiny and the restructuring of the entire party system after the reunification.