No anti-China activities will be allowed: HM Agencies

BEIJING, July 11 : His Majesty King Gyanendra promised that Nepal would seek greater co-operation from China on the sensitive issue of Tibet and not allow people inside his nation’s borders to agitate against China, state media said Thursday.

King Gyanendra had made the pledge Wednesday during a meeting with President Jiang Zemin on the first full day of a six-day visit, the China Daily reported.

"(Nepal) will not allow the emergence of elements running against the development of Nepalese-Chinese ties," the paper said, quoting the King. "It will not permit within its borders any activities that undermine China’s interests".

Tibet, the Autonomous Region of China, which shares about 1,000 kilometers (625 miles) of border with Nepal, is of particular importance in bilateral relations. About 35,000 Tibetan exiles have settled in Nepal over the past decades, forming an ongoing concern for Beijing.

At the same meeting, Jiang made a reverse pledge to offer "moral support" in Nepal’s struggle with Maoist rebels, Nepal’s ambassador to Beijing said late Wednesday. "The Chinese president said that China condemns terrorist actions taking place in Nepal," the AFP quoted Ambassador Rajeshwor Acharya as saying. "He said China stands firmly in favour of His Majesty’s Government in fighting the terrorism".

Despite the rebels’ reverence for communist China’s founder Mao Zedong, Beijing has repeatedly repudiated the guerrillas and voiced support for Nepal’s crackdown on them. Acharya, however, said no specific cooperation in the combat against the rebels had been discussed in the meeting with Jiang. Meanwhile in a media briefing today, foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said China has no relationship with Maoists in Nepal.

Meanwhile, the King today held talks with Premier of the People’s Republic of China Zhu Rongji, reported RSS. Welcoming His Majesty the King, Premier Zhu Rongji said strong relations between Nepal and China were developed during the time of His late Majesty King Birendra and expressed confidence that this would be given continuity by His Majesty also.

China would extend support in advancing Nepal’s economic programmes and to increase tourism in Nepal, Zhu further said during the meeting.

According to Foreign Secretary Madhu Raman Acharya who participated in the talks, Premier Zhu indicated that China would help construct the Baglung-Beni-Jomsom road once the Rasuwa-Syafrubesi road is completed.

His Majesty the King, during the talks with the Chinese Premier, noted the co-operation China has been extending in Nepal’s development and expressed confidence that co-operation would be extended in tourism and the commercial sector also in the days to come.

China’s official Xinhua News Agency reported that the Chinese President urged exchanges to be stepped up among all levels of society. Apart from visits by top leaders, exchanges should be increased between legislatures, political parties, industrial and commercial circles, the press and non-governmental organisations, Chinese leader was quoted as saying during the meeting today.

During meeting with His Majesty the King Thursday at the Great Hall of the People, China’s Vice-president Hu Jintao said China will work with Nepal along lines mapped out by the leaders of both the countries, for ongoing friendship from generation to generation, Xinhua reported. Hu pointed to Sino-Nepalese good neighbourliness dating back over 1,500 years and voiced his pleasure at the strength of bilateral friendship which had withstood the test of changes on both the domestic and international fronts.

During the meeting he also expressed his appreciation for Nepalese government’s support and co-operation with China in the past on the Tibet issue. Similarly, Xinhua quoted Li Peng, Chinese top lawmaker, as saying that China would continue to offer support and assistance to its neighbours and other developing countries. Li who is also the chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress made the remarks during his meeting with His Majesty the King Thursday. During the meeting, Li said China’s NPC or parliament greatly valued developing ties with the parliament of Nepal and other countries.

Over six villages flooded

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MAHOTTARI, July 11 : More than half a dozen villages have been flooded after the monsoon-fed Ratu River changed its normal course, entering these villages.

Villagers of Mahadevpatti, Bela, Chakawa, Nainahi, Tharupahi and Angkara have been forced to abandon their homes to seek higher ground following the floods triggered by the incessant rains in the Chure hill range for the last couple of days.

A group of 25 people who arrived at the District Administration Office asking for immediate relief, said that the floods have affected around 15,000 people.

For the last three days it has been difficult to move to-and-from these villages and they have been facing problems of accommodation and food as their homes have been flooded as well, said the villagers.

After inspecting the flood-affected areas, Mahottari Chief District Officer, Mohan Prasad Acharya, said that the administration is preparing to relocate the flood victims in secured areas. Other villages are likely to be affected by floods in other rivers, as heavy rainfall is reported in the Chure hills.

Chitwan fever caused by typhoid: Report

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CHITWAN, July 11 : A Bangkok-based Armed Force Research Institute of Medical Sciences has found that the fever epidemic, which broke in Chitwan two months ago, was caused by typhoid.

A six-member Nepali and Thai medical team conducted investigation on the Thailand-based research institute and came up with the report that the high fever was related with typhoid rather than malaria. A report of the institute has been handed over to the District Public Health Office on Thursday.

The research team had collected blood and stool samples of 98 affected people from two hospitals in Bharatpur and water sample from 14 water different sources for the investigation.

Officer at the District Public Health Office, Ramesh Adhikari, quoting the report said that 34 samples of blood examined in the research centre were found to have contained with typhoid bacteria.

The doctors, who were involved in treatment of the patients, had varied opinions regarding the exact causes of the disease after they failed to control the fever for a long time.

Deuba using Monarchy as political shield: Koirala

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KATHMANDU, July 11:Former Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala today accused Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba of using the Constitutional Monarchy for his own political benefit and warned that it would harm the Monarchy and the democracy as well.

Addressing party workers from central region owing allegiance to him, party chief Koiral charged that Deuba was using the King for his own political interest. "It is ridiculous that in a parliamentary democracy a Prime Minister seeks the backing of the King".

Koirala’s address to his loyalists delved more on criticism of Deuba projecting Prime Minister as a villian to the cause of democracy.

Koirala reiterated his charge that Prime Minister Deuba’s move to dissolve the House of Representatives was "a part of conspiracy against democratic set up in the country."

But the part of the speech was also focused on revamping the party with ‘revolutionary measures’ but did not quite spell out what they were going to be like. Koirala was also silent on the demand for more representative changes in the central committee.

Central Working Committee (CWC) member Shailaja Acharya said Prime Minister Deuba has committed an inexcusable crime by bringing democratic system into the brink of collapse. "Nationality is safe under the positive role of Congress or the Monarchy, Acharya said, "If Congress is weakened at a time when the Monarchy is weak, both the democracy as well as nationalism are threatened."

The CWC member also accused Deuba of dragging the Constitutional Monarchy and Royal Nepal Army into the conflict to conceal his own personal blunders and retain power.

Another member, Narahari Acharya, said that Deuba’s ideological deviation has inspired him to advocate for an active Monarchy going beyond the Nepali Congress principles adopted more than half a century ago.

It was the fourth gathering of party cadres that Koirala addressed in the last two weeks after a faction led by Prime Minister Deuba declared Koirala’s "ouster" from the party leadership last month.

Similarly, CWC member Ram Chandra Poudel urged Prime Minister Deuba to stop misusing the public media and maintain minimum norms of a democratically elected leader. "If the government involves itself in illegal activities, there is no obligation for the people to respect the government," Poudel said.

Poudel also asked the party leadership to bring about radical changes to boost the reforms in the party. "Our party cannot do better if the traditional style of functioning remains in place," Poudel added.

Other leaders also hinted at the gathering that unification between two factions was not immediately possible due to ideological differences.

Party General Secretary Sushil Koirala said it was impossible to bring the splinter group back into party mainstream until and unless they expressed regrets for their "extra-constitutional acts".

"The ground of unification should be party statute and not the number of its leaders," said Koirala, adding, "Since some colleagues have created split in the party in a planned way, there is no possibility of early re-unification.

Maoists threat mourners not to perform last rites

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AKALGHARUWA (Banke), July 11 : The bereaved family members of Sohanlal Yadav and Moti Tamauli, who were killed in a most wretched and barbaric act of terror unleashed by the Maoists rebels on Tuesday night, have not been able to perform the last rites of their beloved ones.

Yadav and Tamauli’s funerals could not take place even today after the Maoists rebels issued fresh warning to kill the mourners too.

The widow Jayakali said that she had not been able to feed her kids for the last three days and that her children, who have been forcefully made orphan looked in hollow eyes for the arrival of food. And yet, nothing has come from the government or from the locals to feel their grief-stricken bellies.

After she received renewed threat that Maoists were again attacking her 18-year-old son who was to attend his father’s funeral today, Jayakali Tamauli, the widow of slain Tamauli, asked her son to stop performing the funeral rites of her husband.

"There is none to support us, nobody to protect my son. We have not even a cup of water to drink…everything has been devastated. In such a situation, how will the funeral take place?" Tamauli spoke.

Tamauli’s husband was dragged out from his house and was brutally killed while her house was burnt down to ashes during the three-hour-long plunder and massacre in her village by the Maoists on Tuesday night. However, the 70-year-old father of slain Yadav, said he would go ahead with the funeral of his son undaunted by Maoists threats.

Meanwhile, the horror of Tuesday night has not only left hundreds of villagers scared away to death but also forced hundreds of them out of their houses as Maoists again threatened to attack them.

The local eyewitnesses here claimed they saw at least 200 villagers fleeing their houses early Thursday morning searching for a safe place for refuge across the district. While five of those critically wounded in the Maoists attack are receiving treatment at Teaching Hospital in Kohalpur, the chances of recovery for Dhani Ram, who sustained bullet injuries in his abdomen look thin, say the officials here in the local hospital.

The locals here have called on the government to guarantee the safety of their lives and provide emergency relief measures. But nothing has ever come from the government side.

The government has not provided any security and relief measures until Thursday evening to the poor villagers of Akalgharuwa who were attacked mercilessly by Maoists terrorists.

Talking to The Kathmandu Post, Banke’s CDO Dhruba Raj Wagle said the DAO is ready to provide whatever support it has to the affected villagers but said this would cover only some critical areas.

AIDS victims could receive ARV therapy by 2005

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KATHMANDU, July 11 : New hope has emerged for hundreds of thousands of people living with HIV/AIDS in developing countries like Nepal. The International AIDS Society has joined the World Health Organization (WHO) at the ongoing 14th International AIDS Conference in Barcelona, Spain, to formally launch new international guidelines for a public health response to the treatment of AIDS in resource-poor settings.

Once programmes become operational, more than three million HIV/AIDS sufferers around the world could receive anti-retroviral (ARV) therapy by 2005, said a United Nations Information Center (UNIC) press release received here today.

"The guidelines represents a measure breakthrough," it said. "For the first time, highly complex ARV therapy has been simplified so that it can be used in settings that don’t have highly trained medical staff and sophisticated laboratories available to initiate and supervise treatment."

"The move lowers the technical barriers to HIV/AIDS treatment, potentially benefiting millions of people currently unable to access it."

WHO estimates that today nearly six million people living with HIV/AIDS need equitable access to care and support, including ARVs. Currently, fewer than five percent of those who require treatment in developing countries can access these medicines – with an estimated 230,000 people currently receiving ARV therapy in the developing world.

Half of these people live in one country – Brazil. Africa, the continent that has been hardest hit by the HIV/AIDS pandemic, is even less well served, with fewer than 50,000 people estimated to be currently receiving ARV therapy. This coverage represents less than two percent of the people that need access to this life saving therapy.

In Nepal, too, experts argue, since the HIV/AIDS epidemic is growing, there is an urgent need for measures to check the spread of the global pandemic that is hitting where it hurts the most: the country’s most economically active population. According to figures made available by the National Center for AIDS and STDs Control, as of June-end, a total of 2,392 people were infected with HIV, and 606 had AIDS. Non-governmental estimates put the total number of HIV positives at well over 40,000.

"WHO believes," the release said, "that potentially, at least three million people needing care could get ARVs by 2005 – a more than ten-fold increase in the developing world."

"For the first time, we now have the chance to apply a simplified, easy-to-follow public health approach to AIDS treatment rather than complex individual treatment regimes," the release quoted Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland, WHO Director General as saying. "This, combined with the falling costs of medicines, means it should be possible to extend the life-span of those living with HIV in resource-limited settings."

WHO, the release said, sees wider access to safe and practical treatment as an important element to an overall strategy to fight HIV/AIDS, bringing together prevention, improved diagnostics and effective treatment so that these elements mutually reinforce each other.

The new guidelines resulted from a year-long process with input from over 120 scientists, researchers, clinicians as well as representatives of civil society and people living with HIV/AIDS from over 60 countries, according to the release.

The guidelines take advantage of the dramatic progress in the medical management of HIV/AIDS that has taken place over the last few years in the developed world and apply the latest evidence and experience to develop simplified, standardized, easier-to-use treatment regimens. In a move to enable wider use of ARV treatment, WHO also included 12 ARV drugs in its Model List of Essential Medicines in April 2002.

"By simplifying and limiting the number of combination ARV regimens and laboratory monitoring we have been able to reduce the complexity of ARV treatment," the release quoted Dr Tomris Turmen, Executive Director of WHO’s Family and Community Health center as saying. "But this technical progress must be translated into scaled-up action. There is an urgent need for funds to build up the human resources and infrastructure to deliver the treatment."

In high-income countries, the release stated, an estimated 15 million people live with HIV, many of them productively because they receive highly active ARV therapy. In the USA, the introduction of triple combination of ARV therapy in 1996 led to a decline of 70 percent in deaths attributable to HIV/AIDS. In developing countries with access to ARV therapy the same profound effects have been documented: in Brazil, AIDS deaths have decreased by 73 percent since the introduction of highly active ARV therapy.

Leprosy centre at Pashupati baffled by new PADT policies

By Suvecha Pant

KATHMANDU, July 11:A representative from the Pashupati Area Development Trust (PADT) at noon today paid quite a visit to the Sewa Kendra Leprosy Station-New SADAL, situated in the Pashupati core area. Like many other buildings, this social service centre working for the benefit of the underprivileged, sick, and poor during the past 12 years will have to shift out of the area within 15 days, the representative said.

"I have no idea how I will be able to shift all this," said Dr. Hira Pradhan, the director of the Leprosy Station, while looking lovingly at the place she calls her ‘heart’. Providing social work throughout her life by living far away from her family in America - for Pradhan the Centre is home.

While the PADT is trying to turn the Pashupati core area into a modern conservation-cum-religious complex, many organisations such as this leprosy treatment centre is facing the brunt of the new policies.

The Sewa Kendra, established in 1989, has been working to treat leprosy patients, employing those who are ex-leprosy patients and lodging the elderly that are no longer able to work. Besides treating leprosy, Sewa Kendra also provides education to underprivileged children and vocational training for the parents.

Perhaps the most valuable service the centre provides to those who are in need is love.

Just four years ago the centre, that provides service to 25,000 people each year, was finally able to buy its ‘own’ building and surrounding small plot of land. Now that it has to shift, Pradhan is worried about the future. Although PADT will provide compensation it will not be enough to buy a new building, says she.

"Since our centre treats leprosy patients, no home owner is willing to lease us their house," lamented Dr. Pradhan referring to societies’ treatment of leprosy patients as ‘aliens’. "And - due to very tight economical conditions we are not able to buy a house."

Sewa Sadan not only cares for leprosy patients but several other sick, needy and depressed people also come here for help. The centre currently provides free education to 54 underprivileged children, giving awareness programmes on leprosy, HIV-AIDS, hygiene, family health planning and also services to the elderly at the elderly home in Pashupati.

A dedicated team consisting of two nurses, one physiotherapist and one lab technician accompanies Dr. Pradhan, who is a dermatologist and an expert on sexually transmitted diseases. And the rest of the workers at the centre, from the watchman at the gate to the cook, are all ex-leprosy patients. The station also operates as a clinic providing free medical assistance to those who cannot afford to go to a doctor.

The building that is to be demolished even now does not completely meet their needs with its lack of space. The medicine needed for the leprosy patients and other equipment is stored underneath the staircase due to lack of space. Inspite of this, the patients and just about anybody seeking help, come from across the country to the centre. One family that has come to the centre now lives in a small room there. Their child is HIV positive and currently is being helped by the doctor and her team.

On Thursday, the street children who are provided with vitamins and food by the centre sat together beside the building worriedly thinking about the future of the centre. Dr. Pradhan, in an attempt to give these children hope, assured them that all would be well. But - it could clearly be seen that she too was worried.

"Where will we go now?" questions Shanti Thapa (name changed) an elderly, ex-leprosy patient who is now a cook at the centre. Kicked out from her family and village, Thapa lived in a wild forest at Barahbise secluded from civilisation for two years and was finally taken in by the centre. The lady now clad in jewellery, once so like a banmanche (jungle woman), searches for answers in each face that visits the centre.

Like Shanti there are 19 other worried elderly who currently reside at the Sewa Sadan. When anyone new comes they question with hopeful eyes, but the hard truth is that they have to shift and at that, too, quickly. Dr. Pradhan and her team of workers are now searching for a place to carry on their services - trying to beat the 15 days they’ve been given before the centre is demolished.

Locals desert Tatopani over fear of landslide

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MYAGDI, Tatopani, July 11 : The people of Tatopani Bazaar, which is the gateway to Mustang, have begun to abandon their homes in fear of an impending landslide on the other side of the Kaligandaki River.

Locals have been warned, and now fear gripping them at night because a mountain in the Gaganpani area of Sikha Village Development Committee (VDC) has been found to have caved in about 15 millimetres at several points.

Locals of Sikha VDC informed their relatives in Tatopani Bazaar that a large part of the Gaganpani area has developed fissures and said that the loose mountain could fall at any moment during the monsoon.

Geologists have also cautioned the local authorities about a possible mountainslide from Gaganpani Hill. Although the landslide will occur across the river from Tatopani, the worry is that it could block the snow-fed river, which would ultimately submerge Tatopani Bazaar.

Tatopani, located about 30-km north of Beni, Myagdi’s district headquarters, is a major tourist area. The bazaar lies in the deepest gorge in the world, Andha Gorge, 8000 plus metres below the tips of Mt. Dhaulagiri and Annapurna.

Another mountain at Kimlakharka has also been reported to have cracks in many places. Here there is also the potential for it to wash away the Bazaar that sits on the banks of the river.

Four years ago a landslide from the Gaganpani area had completely blocked the river, submerging the Bazaar for over 10 hours. But people managed to flee to higher ground as the landslide occurred in the morning. With the rumour of heavy landslides persisting, this tourist area now wears a deserted look and locals have closed down their hotels and lodges. They do not stay during the night for fear of the landslide, said a local who runs a snooker in the Bazaar.

Stress on effective steps to control population

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KATHMANDU, July 11:Experts and officials today urged the government to take effective population growth control measures as the country observed the World Population Day. At a function organised here Thursday to mark World Population Day, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Representative, J Bill Musoke, said, "Nepal needs to adopt appropriate strategies and programmes to check the growth rate, which is extremely high".

According to figures made available by the UNFPA, Nepal’s population currently stands at 25.04 million with 12.34 million males and 12.71 million females, up from 24.48 million with 12.07 males and 12.42 females last year.

The Minister for Population and Environment, P L Singh, said that the government was determined to attain sustainable and balanced development in the country, inculcating the concept of small but happy family to bring the population growth rate under control. While inaugurating the function to mark the day organised by the Ministry for Population and Environment (MOPE), he said, "The Tenth Five Year Plan would accord high priority to family planning, control of migration and other aspects as measures to control population".

According to him, illiteracy, poverty and lack of awareness are all contributing factors to the growing population and stressed the need for governmental and non-governmental organisations to take the campaign for population control and management down to the people level who are illiterate and poor.