Trade talks fail to make headway

By Ram Sharan Sedhai

KATHMANDU, Feb 19: The fifth round of crucial secretary-level trade talks between Nepal and India ended in an impasse here today as the two sides did not budge from their stance on issues of value addition, quantitative restrictions on five items labelled as "export surge" by India, and on the matter of certificate of origin.

This has prompted another round of talks on February 25 at New Delhi.

A highly placed source at the Nepali Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies (MoICS), said that the two-day Nepal-India Trade Treaty talks which began on Monday at the capital, remained inconclusive as the Indian side demanded slapping a 40 per cent value addition on Nepali export to India.

However, Nepal proposed 20 per cent value addition and hinted that it could raise the per centage up to 25 per cent. The Indian side, during the negotiation, said that it could go down only as much as 35 per cent.

In the previous rounds of talks, both sides had agreed upon imposing certain level of value addition on Nepali goods. India initially had proposed 50 per cent value addition, while Nepal had proposed 20 per cent. But it was only on Monday that Nepal formally proposed to accept 20 per cent value addition on its goods that are exported to India.

As the talks could not settle the dispute on value addition, both sides did not carry out detailed discussions on the exact formulae of value addition, said the source.

"Progress has been made, differences have been narrowed down, and the negotiation would continue at New Delhi," said the source.

At the talks, it is learnt that India categorically raised the ‘export surge’ of copper wire, steel pipe, acrylic yarn, vegetable ghee and zinc oxide and argued that their export had adversely affected the Indian industries. This is a matter that the India trade negotiators have been raising time and again.

Following repeated complaints from the Indian side, Nepal tried to resolve the issue by raising the rates of export tax on the above goods, through an ordinance announced recently.

India also proposed to have a safeguard provision in the Nepal-India Trade Treaty of 1996, to protect its industries in case of ‘export surge’ of Nepali products. The proposed provisions are enlisting more goods in the negative list, imposing quantitative restrictions and levying value addition at different levels. Currently, cigarette, perfume, and wine are enlisted in the negative list.

India also proposed that if one side felt surge in export of certain goods, the problem could be solved through bilateral talks, and if even the talks failed, then quantitative restrictions could be imposed.

The source also said that both parties have narrowed down their differences on the problem of certificate of origin and its issuance procedure. "During the latest round of trade talks, on the matter of certificate of origin, some progress has been made," said the source.

Nepal is also learnt to have raised the issue of quarantine fee that India imposes on Nepalese agriculture. The Nepali side has argued that it has badly affected the export of such goods to India. "On the issue, India has asked Nepal to start a fresh round of talks," said the source.

The Nepal-India Trade Treaty, due to expire on December 5, 2001, was extended by three months after talks were held at the prime ministerial level during the SAARC Summit held in Kathmandu in January.

Achham, Feb 19: Blood pools, rubble, bombs, dying fires…

By Arjun Bhandari

KATHMANDU, Feb 19: Life in Mangalsen, the district headquarters of Achham, and the nearby small bazaar of Sanfebagar, has totally been disrupted after the Maoist onslaught on Sunday, which killed at least 142 people, mostly army men and cops, according to an inspection team from the capital which visited the sites today.

Life in both the places has not returned to normal even after the heavy mobilisation of security forces subsequent to the Maoist attacks.

The inspection team said that the people seem extremely frightened, and the bazaars have the look of ghost towns. Pools of blood can be seen in several places, which are also littered with tattered clothes, shoes and sandals. Unexploded sockets bombs are lying scattered around the battle sites, as no bomb-disposal squads have arrived yet.

A high-profile team led by Home Minister Khum Bahadur Khadka, inspected the devastated Mangalsen bazaar and the airport at Sanfebagar to take stock of the current situation in the aftermath of the biggest Maoist attacks since the beginning of insurgency.

Other members of the inspection team included lawmakers Ram Bahadur Bista, Govinda Bahadur Shah, Akkal Bahadur Bista of the ruling Nepali Congress, Pradeep Gyawali of the main opposition CPN-UML, Yagyajit Shah of the Nepal Sadbhavana Party and former lawmaker Bhim Rawal. Inspector General of Police, Pradeep Shumsher JB Rana, also accompanied the team.

Lawmaker Ram Bahadur Bista said that 10 bodies of policemen guarding the District Administration Office (housed in a 125-year-old palace), local bank and the Land Revenue Office, are suspected to be buried under the rubble. Bista said the palace and quarters of the District Police Office were still burning.

Reports from Dhangadi and Surkhet said that two bodies of policemen were recovered from the rubble of the Land Revenue Office and a local prison house on Tuesday.

A total of 11 government buildings, four rented offices, a prison house, and six shops have been reduced to a cinder following the Maoist attacks in Mangalsen, said Ram Bahadur Bista.

Other lawmakers said that they saw a number of unexploded ‘socket’ bombs and ‘cooker’ bombs around the battle sites of Mangalsen and Sanfebagar. The inspection team also said the rebels, who numbered in the thousands, made off with communication sets of the airport tower.

The airport officials told the inspection team that the communication sets could pose a "serious threat to army helicopters during their navigation". The authorities said the rebels could easily detect the movement of choppers if they fly over the neighbouring districts.

While briefing the team, the locals said the rebels had fired long-range weapons at the airport from three sides of the surrounding hills. The rebels had looted the sophisticated weapons, including the rocket launchers, from a barrack in Dang on November 23.

After returning to Kathmandu from the district, Bista said they would submit a detailed report on the mayhem to the parliamentary State Affairs Committee within a few days.

Bista, who represents the district in the Lower House, said the rebels killed eight policemen at point-blank who were guarding the Sanfebagar airport, even after the policemen had surrendered. Locals told the team that the policemen were hiding in a ditch while the battle raged for over four hours. Three locals in Sanfebagar sustained injuries in the crossfire, and a horse of a local businessman was also killed.

Bista said that a peon’s body was still lying in Mangalsen. He said the rebels looted all the arms and ammunition from the barrack where 58 soldiers of the Royal Nepal Army were stationed to protect the district headquarters. Almost all the dead bodies of the soldiers and the policemen, had been flown to their respective home districts for the last rites by the time the inspection team arrived at the scene.

One of the members of the team said that three innocent local residents were shot dead by the security forces on Monday when the rebels had already fled the scene.

He also told The Kathmandu Post today that the locals staged a protest against the Home Minister over the killings of innocents.

"None of the army officer turned up to meet the Home Minister during his visit to both the battle sites," said Bhim Bahadur Rawal. The Defence Secretary, however, had earlier assured the inspection team that the RNA officials would be present there to provide details of the Sunday’s tragedy.

Some locals said the rebels had brought 40-50 of their injured men to a local district hospital for preliminary treatment, and nine others were declared dead on arrival. But the rebels carried away the bodies, the locals said, adding that they forced the hospital staff to treat the injured comrades.

A member of the team, quoting the people in Mangalsen, said the rebels overcame the army men within an hour of gunfight, and took the district headquarters under their control by Sunday morning.

The rebels dispersed from both the places in small groups by the time the security reinforcements landed in the district, one of the team members quoted eye-witness accounts.

Communication facilities of the district have been completely disrupted after the Sunday attacks.

The team stopped over in Surkhet before coming back to the Capital today. While briefing the inspection team, the Chief District Officer in Surkhet said he had earlier informed the Chief District Officer of Achham about the heavy concentration of the militants there. The Home Minister, however, remained tight-lipped throughout the journey to-and-from the battle field, said a team member.

A dispatch from Surkhet reported that around 4,000 security forces have been mobilised from different places to the district to cordon off the possible exit points from Achham. Our reporter said the rebels have blocked the Surkhet-Badichaur road under construction to prevent the army’s movement to neighbouring districts of Dailekh and Kalikot, where the rebels are believed to have gathered.

Samrat’s third novel to be out this year

By Akhilesh Upadhyay

NEW YORK, Feb 19: Newly successful US-based Nepali writer Samrat Upadhyay is working on his third novel titled Guru of Love, which is scheduled for publication later this year.

Talking to The Kathmandu Post from Berea, Ohio, where he is an assistant professor at Baldwin-Wallace College, Upadhyay said that he has just finished revising Guru of Love, his first book after the phenomenally successful Arresting God in Kathmandu, a collection of short stories.

Houghton & Miflin, the publisher of "Arresting," has reportedly paid him more than $100,000 - an unusually high sum for a new name in the US publishing business - for Guru. Upadhyay wouldn’t want to elaborate on the deal, but neither did he deny claims made by a Cleveland newspaper that he had made at least $100,000 from Guru.

The newspaper Cleveland Plain Dealer, which earlier reported the book deal, carried Upadhyay’s profile in its weekend edition Saturday, underscoring Arresting God’s continued interest among US readers. The Ohio paper said the stories in the book are based on "the lives of characters who live in Katmandu - people bound by a pervasive spirituality and culture while looking to fulfill universal human desires."

The paper hailed "Arresting," which won the prestigious Whiting Award, as a part of growing body of work by foreigners writing in English. It pointed out that the book was published almost by accident. An editor at Houghton Mifflin read one of his stories, "The Good Shopkeeper," in "The Best American Short Stories 1999," and decided to ask for more.

"He polished some of his work and sent it off with little hope it would ever be published. "It was," said the paper, "and to warm reviews."

Meanwhile, Upadhyay also said that "Arresting…" will soon be available to Nepali readers. The New Delhi-based Rupa & Co will market the book in South Asia.

"This should generate considerable interest among Nepali readers," he said, recollecting warm response he received in Kathmandu during his two-week stay last year following the book’s success in the United States. "I am trying to get fair indication of when it might be available to Nepali readers," he said. "But it’s safe to assume that the book will be available in Nepal and India within a couple of months." In all probability the book will cost Indian Rs. 195.

Upadhyay’s response to Whiting Award was again of disbelief. "When a member of the Whiting Foundation called to tell him the book won the Whiting Writer’s Award," wrote the Plain Dealer, "he didn’t believe it. The caller left a garbled message on his answering machine at Baldwin-Wallace." And Upadhyay mistook it for a threat from a white supremacist group.

Salman Rushdie’s "Midnight’s Children" made a powerful impact on young Upadhyay. The Indian writer instilled in him confidence that it was fine to write as a South Asian and still be a successful English writer. "All of a sudden I saw that there was this Indian writer writing about India, using a language that was partly Indian, and still making a name for himself, gaining an international audience," Upadhyay told the Plain Dealer.

"Arresting God in Kathmandu" will soon also be available in French and Greek.

Heidi Peitler, Upadhyay’s editor at Houghton Mifflin, said Upadhyay has "wonderfully light touch, a subtle, but confident manner and the courage to allow his characters – and his readers - to experience great discomfort as well as moral ambiguity without rushing to solve their problems for them."

He allows his characters small, natural moments of enlightenment, everyday moment that rise up and surprise them with beauty rather than clocking them over the head with obvious epiphanies, she said.

She said she was "intrigued" by the way Upadhyay’s characters experience their emotions "so physically, so immediately." Their bodies and spirit and emotion seem undivided, a clear departure from American fiction, where these elements are usually thought of as separate entities necessary for conflict. "I was intrigued, in these stories, by the absolute unification of these characters’ spirituality, physicality, emotional and moral states."

In "The Good Shopkeeper," Pramod’s losing his job effects all of the above, and in the end it’s the physical release, the recognition of beauty in the commonplace that brings him emotional, spiritual, and moral peace, she said.

Peitler publishes mostly new fiction at Houghton Mifflin. She is the in-house editor of The Best American Short Stories, which was where she first read Upadhyay’s work.

Major US papers, including New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, and Village Voice, have reviewed "Arresting."

A reviewer in the widely followed National Public Radio (NPR) said he "felt rather celebratory after reading Upadhyay’s stories, nine well-crafted and rather poignant tales about everyday life in Nepal ... Every one of the stories is utterly engaging and well-told."

Buoyed by favorable reviews, not least from NPR, "Arresting" at one point last year shot up to 52nd position in the list of best-selling US fiction.

Upadhyay Sunday said he wasn’t sure about the sales figures, but added that he is getting invitations for Arresting’s readings from all over the United States. The book continues to generate a lot of interest among Americans, he said.

Bradshaw to review security issues in Nepal

Post Report

KATHMANDU, Feb 19 : British Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs responsible for South Asia, Ben Bradshaw, today said he will concentrate on the issues of security and British Gurkha soldiers during his two-day official visit to Nepal.

Talking to journalists upon arrival at the Tribhuvan International Airport, Ben said the United Kingdom was seriously looking at the current security situation of the country. "We are worried about Nepal’s security situation and our co-operation in this regard will be continued," said Bradshaw.

However, he said the clear picture of the co-operation will come out only after talking to the Nepali officials.

Bradshaw is set to meet Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs Arjun Jung Bahadur Singh on Wednesday and will pay audience to His Majesty King Gyanendra before leaving Nepal.

... And tears flowed down the Bagmati

By Surendra Phuyal

KATHMANDU, Feb 19: With flowers in her hand, she went around the funeral pyre of her son, 24-year-old Prem Bahadur Shrestha, a Royal Nepal Army soldier who was killed in early Sunday’s bloody Maoist attack at Mangalsen in Achham. Covered with a yellow shawl that had names of Hindu deities, Sita and Ram, Prem Bahadur’s mangled body lay atop a pile of firewood at the Aryaghat crematorium at Pashupatinath Tuesday.

The Bagmati, regarded as a sacred river by Hindus, was flowing calm, and so was the short-statured lady in her early 40s. Hasta Kumari Shrestha of Kamalamai municipality in Sindhuli district, walked around the body of her departed son thrice, tears flowing down her cheeks, and offered flowers on his face, looking at his wide-open mouth and the eyes closed forever. She was trying her best to control herself, and as she walked out of the crematorium taking deep breaths, her eyes were still flooded with tears.

Then she lost it, and sat down on the ground, sobbing and wailing… After a minute or two she said, "My son…you met with such a fate in your khaun khaun ra laun laun bhanne bela (prime youth)!"

Prem Bahadur’s was one of the five bodies of RNA soldiers that were moved to the Aryaghat crematorium from the RNA hospital at Chhauni for the last rites Tuesday afternoon. The bodies of the soldiers and policemen killed in farwestern Nepal’s Achham district Saturday midnight and early Sunday, were being airlifted to the capital and other towns for the final rites. More bodies of the RNA soldiers and the Nepal Police cops, heroes to their colleagues and many others, were due to arrive at one of the holiest crematoriums for Hindus.

While the bodies of the RNA soldiers—Prem Bahadur, Ramesh Karki of Bhaktapur Dadhikot, Ramesh Kumar Karki of Those, Ramechhap, Birendra Raya of an undisclosed location and Nawaraj Karki or Udaypur—lay on the funeral pyres, a contingent of RNA band played the last post.

After the preliminary rituals were over, Prem Bahadur’s father, Lal Bahadur Shrestha, lit his son’s pyre. The devastated man then went on to join his wife Hasta Kumari, and both were wailing. The bereaved father’s hands were covering his face.

"He left home after receiving Tika on the Dashain day (October 26)," he sobbed and told this reporter. "And today we got his dead body to see."

Hasta Kumari said that Prem Bahadur, her eldest son, had called home last Saturday, hours before his fate went wrong. "He used to call home once a week. And on Saturday, he talked to his younger brother over phone, saying that we should not worry about him," she sobbed, her eyes fixed on the pyre.

Not satisfied with that conversation, she said she tried to contact him over telephone Sunday morning—roughly the time when the district headquarters of Mangalsen was bathing in blood. "All my efforts went in vain and I could not talk to my son…Now I know why…"

Hasta Kumari then went into the memory lane. "While still a young boy he had dreamt of becoming a Royal Nepal Army soldier. That he did become," she recalled.

"And now he has spilled his blood to protect the nation," said the mother with a touch of pride.

Shankar Karki and family members came to know about the death of Ramesh Kumar Karki, Shankar’s elder brother and another victim in the Achham mayhem, only on Monday morning. Living in a remote corner of Ramechhap district, they could not make telephone inquiries and ascertain whether "daju (elder brother) was alive or dead".

Father of two daughters and one son, late RNA corporal Karki joined the force when he was 16. The 31-year-old soldier had only eight more months to go before retirement. Shankar too had a telephonic conversation with his brother hours before the tragedy. "I had talked to him last Saturday. He wanted to come home, but said he could not because of the unfavorable situation in the district," recounted Shankar.

The dear and near ones of the dead soldiers would not make any comments about the Maoists, but their cold and weary eyes betrayed hatred for the rebels.

"For how long will they continue this bloodshed in Nepal?" fumed a relative of late Karki. "What do they think they will achieve by killing their own Nepali brothers? Why can’t they stop such inhuman acts and find a solution through talks?" Indeed.

Crucial Citizenship Bill still in limbo

By Yuvraj Acharya

KATHMANDU, Feb19: The future of a crucial Bill concerning Citizenship (Sixth Amendment) is still uncertain as it has not yet been acceded to or returned to Parliament by the Palace.

The Bill had drawn controversy in the Parliament after it was rejected by the Upper House on June 13, 2000.

As it was labeled a "Finance Bill" by the Lower House in the second approval, it was not presented to the Upper House, and was forwarded straight to the King four months back. His Majesty the King then decided to consult the Supreme Court on whether the Bill contradicts the Constitution or not.

"The Citizenship Bill has not been returned to Parliament, nor has any information been received about its status so far," said an Under Secretary at the Parliament Secretariat.

Article 71, and Clause 3 of the Constitution states that if the King feels that any Bill requires some debate in the House, he can send the Bill back with a message to the House where it was introduced.

The Bill, if sent back by the King, should be tabled at the joint session of Parliament and forwarded for royal assent again, whereby the King is obliged to accede to the Bill within 30 days.

"It was a mistake on the part of Lower House to call it a Finance Bill. That’s why the Bill has run into a controversy," says the Under Secretary. He also said that it was a blunder that the Bill, even before it had got the status of an Act, was referred to the Supreme Court. "The court can declare any Act ultra vires but not a Bill," he adds.

"If someone thinks that the Court has declared the Bill ultra vires, it is wrong. But what had happened was that the Supreme Court termed the Bill unconstitutional in its suggestion to the King," said a constitutional lawyer, Lalit Bahadur Basnet.

Matters were further complicated after Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba’s recent remarks that the government is introducing a new Bill in Parliament.

"How can Deuba pledge to introduce a new Bill without clarifying the status of the Bill that was sent to the palace earlier ?" asks Subash Nemwang of the CPN( UML). "The government has not informed the Parliament nor the people on whether the Bill approved by the Lower House is dead or not."

"The King enjoys exclusive rights to take legal or constitutional suggestions from the court as per constitutional procedures, but it may be the first case in the world that such a suggestion was sought on a Bill," says lawyer Basnet.

A Nepal Sadbhawana Party MP did not believe that Deuba or the government has any plan to introduce a new Citizenship Bill. "If the government was willing to introduce a new Bill on citizenship, it would have announced the same along with the anti-corruption and CIAA bills which were withdrawn from Parliament with a view to introduce new ones," he says.

Janardan Sharma Poudel, Under Secretary at the Ministry of Home, also said that he has no idea of the government introducing any more new bills in Parliament. "The Ministry has not been asked to draft any new bill."

3 rebels killed, large cache of arms recovered

Post Report

KATHMANDU, Feb 19: Security forces in their crackdown on the Maoist "terrorists" gunned down three rebels and recovered large cache of arms across the country today, said a press release issued here by the Defence Ministry.

According to the release, at the Hekila area of Darchula district, two Maoists fell to the armed forces’ bullets. It is learnt that the armed forces have also seized guns, explosive materials and socket bombs from the site.

The release also said that at the Malakheti area of Kailali district, one Maoist was killed by the armed forces following a clash.

The security forces at the Lapu area of Gorkha district on Monday seized eighteen .3o3 rifles, one sten gun, a grenade and other equipment for laying ambush.

Similarly, from the Pani Tyanki area of Bhojpur district, and in Morang district, armed forces were able to seize some ‘pressure-cooker’ bombs and pipe bombs.

Altogether, nine suspected Maoists were arrested by the security forces throughout the country today, said the release.

Koirala at it again on broader democratic alliance

Post Report

KATHMANDU, Feb. 19 : President of ruling Nepali Congress (NC) Girija Prasad Koirala today made it clear that the concept of a ‘broader democratic alliance’ (BDA) includes four fundamental issues.

"I have proposed all the political parties who believe in the Constitution, monarchy, democracy and human rights to come under the BDA to do four things," Koirala said.

According to Koirala, the four things he wanted to do by forging the alliance were to avoid the present political instability, constitutional reforms, economic reforms and social reforms.

Koirala was speaking at a programme on "Democracy and Our Responsibility," organised here today by Nepal Tarun Dal (NTD), the youth wing of the party, to mark this year’s Democracy Day.

The NC President had floated the concept of a ‘broader democratic alliance’ to the opposition parties of the country in June last year. Though the oppositions have tentatively agreed Koirala’s proposal, some of his own party colleagues have criticised his move, alleging him of trying to reassume the post of Prime Minister.

Clarifying on the contents of the BDA proposal, the former Prime Minister said that the politicians should win people’s hearts to give political stability in the country.

"The Constitution could be amended, keeping aside the articles that cannot be amended," Koirala said. "Policies on agriculture, water resources and foreign affairs should be formulated and our programmes should be devised on the basis of these policies."

Koirala also urged the political parties to support the army and police while curbing the Maoist problem as the security personnel alone could not solve the six-year-long Maoist insurgency. "Even for this, there should be a broader democratic alliance," he said.

NC Central Working Committee member Narahari Acharya urged party members critically analyse the weaknesses of the last 12 years of democracy. "We had submitted the review of the post democracy years during our general convention last year, but that has not been implemented yet."

Though people voted NC to power three times, it has failed to fulfil people’s aspirations," Acharya further said.

NC deputy general secretary Govinda Raj Joshi was of the opinion that the NC should now move with a "bold determination" which would be quite difficult.

Nepal Tarun Dal president Bal Krishna Khand asked the Prime Minister to formulate a "tough law" to discourage corruption in the ongoing session of the Parliament.

Popular singer alleged of fraud

By Achyut Koirala

KATHMANDU, 19 Feb: Anand Karki, a popular singer, gave clarifications to the District Police Office (DPO) at Hanuman Dhoka yesterday, when a person accused him of fraud.

Subhadra Gurung, 30, of Thamel claimed that the singer has to give her 3.5 million rupees, with interest, for buying 18 ropanis land. The land was purchased in 1996 for the purpose of building a resort.

However, Karki claimed that he refused the money that was given by her. "I got money from a friend, not from her. So, it is vainless to ask money from me. But being a human, I will help her in whatever way I can", Karki told The Kathmandu Post.

Police have dismissed this case after a mutual consent based upon equal division of the land between both conflicting parties.

According to inner sources, a Danish citizen, Henny Bridge and singer Karki together bought the land. Bridge, who was short of cash to buy the land, had borrowed rupees one million from a fellow colleague to contribute towards the purchase of the land.

Subhadra Gurung serves alongside Henny Bridge for the DANIDA Project, the base for which the trust was built for Gurung to loan the sum to her colleague Bridge.

The problem factually arose when Bridge returned back to her homeland without paying Gurung’s money. Gurung says, "Bridge asked me for a hefty sum of money and she assured me saying that she would pay 45% interest. She was my colleague, so I didn’t suspect her. But when I was sure she will not return from her country, I caught the singer, who jointly bought the land with her."

"Now the problem is over, I have no more disputes with Karki or Bridge regards my money as the issue has been settled mutually," she clarified.

Karki says, "Problem is nothing. Somebody has swallowed her money. I was attached with Bridge. So she caught me. Seeing her problem I was ready to give the land, as per how much Bridge had given me."

Karki is satisfied with the deal. But what he was disheartened about was that Ram Chandra Khanal, the SSP of Hanuman Dhoka, had treated him like a pick-pocket. "He abused me bitterly. Seeing his behaviour I at once thought what the hell was I doing, singing. This was not the way to treat the ‘Nation’s ornament.’ Is this a way to behave with us?" says Karki with disturbed face to The Kathmandu Post.