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Kathmandu Thursday March 07, 2002 Falgun 23, 2058.
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US could
send military advisers to Nepal
By Surendra Phuyal
KATHMANDU, March 6 : The
United States has disclosed its plans to provide military advisors,
weapons and special training to more than half a dozen countries
including Nepal over the next six months, a news report from
Washington said.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs and US Embassy officials here told The Kathmandu Post
that they are currently assessing the development and military needs
of Nepal. But they have not reached to any conclusion as yet.
A news-item published in
the latest edition of the Los Angeles Times said that the Bush
Administration is preparing to send money, material and U.S. military
trainers to Indonesia, Uzbekistan, Nepal, Jordan, Pakistan, Kazakistan,
Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.
The administration has
also sought a 27 percent funding increase for a federal program
designed to bolster militaries as part of an expanded effort to mount
proxy fights against terrorists in the countries, according to the
newspaper.
"All these programmes
were predicated on the idea that if we get together, U.S. values will
be transferred and U.S. interests will be served. Right now, our
interest is in curbing terrorism," the paper said, quoting D. B.
Des Roches, a spokesman for the Defense Security Cooperation Agency.
Commenting on the report,
Robert Kerr, the director of the American Centre in Kathmandu said
that US officials in Kathmandu are still assessing the needs of Nepal.
"We are looking into what we can do, we have not reached any
conclusion," Kerr told The Kathmandu Post.
"We are very anxious
to support Nepal both militarily and developmentally."
Kerr refused to comment on
the value of such support Nepal could get as part of the US federal
programme.
During his whirlwind trip
to Nepal in the third week of January, US Secretary of States Colin
Powell had pledged military and development aid to Nepal. The
government here is currently fighting against Maoist rebels who
launched a wave of vicious attacks last month, killing nearly 200
security personnel.
Foreign Ministry spokesman
Gyan Chandra Acharya said that the Ministry is in constant touch with
the U.S. government to receive support pledged by the U.S. government.
He refused to elaborate further.
The Los Angeles Times also
said that the expanded effort is designed to allow the U.S. to more
directly use other nations’ armed forces to strike at terrorists who
threaten American interests.
It quoted a military
official as saying that the Pentagon is sending a surplus patrol boat
and rifles to the Philippines and spare helicopter parts to Pakistan.
It has sent military trainers to Djibouti, Ethiopia and Oman and has
trained Georgian pilots at U.S. military flight schools.
But it is silent on what
the U.S. is sending to Nepal. State Minister of Home Devendra Raj
Kandel said in Pokhara a few months back that the U.S. was providing
helicopters to Nepal to help the government fight Maoists.
"We will continue to
train and equip countries that face terrorist threats. We will
establish or, in some cases, re-establish military-to-military
contacts with countries that face terrorist threats," Secretary
of Defence Donald H. Rumsfeld said Monday, according to the paper.
"The power and reach of weapons today are too great and too
lethal to do otherwise."
The preparations are a
central part of the next phase in the war on terrorism, in which the
United States hopes to be able to wage military operations against its
enemies around the world without using U.S. troops, according to the
paper.
"This is more of a
long-term investment than an immediate fix," the paper quoted a
one senior military official as saying. "It’s an attempt to get
more exposure to democracy for front-line states in the war against
terrorism, and to equip them to fight on their turf. It’s part of
the realization that there are an awful lot of nasty things out there
that could touch us more directly than we ever thought they could in
the past."
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