Nepalis in US support Deuba’s stance against Maoists

By Prateek Pradhan

NEW YORK, May 11 : Following the U.S. government’s financial and moral backing to Nepal’s war against terrorism, Nepali citizens living in New York boosted Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba’s confidence by offering their full support, and pledging assistance Friday.

In a rare display of unity among five different Nepali associations, the leaders utilised a common podium to express faith on premier Deuba to solve the on-going insurgency in the country. They also supported Prime Minister’s stance to resume peace talks only after the Maoists surrender their arms.

The support from the Nepali organisations in the US has come as a strong morale booster for Prime Minister Deuba who is visiting the US and UK to garner financial and ethical support on the country’s war against Maoists.

"Nepalis living in the US are willing to help the government fight against the on-going war on terrorism," said Binod Rokka, president of Alliance for Democracy and Human Rights in Nepal, an association of Nepalis living in New York.

"We would help the Prime Minister and the government to solve the insurgency," said Ramesh Amatya, chairman of Nepalese America Council, an umbrella body of Nepalis NGOs in America.

According to Rokka, his organisation is considering mobilisation of the resources and people in the US to protect democracy and human rights in Nepal. "We are considering to collect funds to provide support to the people hit by Maoist attacks," he said.

Amatya is not sure what kind of help the government wants. "We are ready to offer any kind of help, including the brokerage of peace talks with the Maoists," Ramesh Amatya said.

Kamal Karki, President of Nepal-America Friendship Society hailed Deuba’s achievement in garnering support from the USA.  "The government has not spelled out, but we are willing to support," he said.

Other organisations to take part in the event were United Sherpa Association, Nepalese Youth Club, and Nepalese Artists Community.

Addressing the Nepalis attending the function, Prime Minister Deuba mentioned the evil-works of the Maoist rebels, and sought support from all the Nepalis in the US. "You can lobby our interests in your own level in the US," he said. He also mentioned the important role of Nepalis living in the US in the democratic movement of 1990.

"The Maoists have destroyed our schools, abducted our children, and destroyed infrastructures," he said. "They have done what even an invading country wouldn’t."

To the worried and concerned Nepalis in the foreign land, Deuba assured that Maoist terrorists would definitely be defeated.  "We have the international support to protect our democracy and constitutional monarchy," he said.

"The Prime Minister’s approach and stance against the Maoists are supported by most of the Nepalis in the US," said Bijaya Sigdel, a political analyst.

Foreign Secretary Madhu Raman Acharya said that the basic objective of the visit was to garner ethical support from the super power countries. "In that aspect the PM’s visit has been very successful."

On the occasion Nepali associations urged the Prime Minister to take initiatives for the provision of dual citizenship in Nepal. They also demanded that non-resident citizens be allowed to own property in Nepal.

Speaking about the problems of legal status for most of the Nepalis living in the US, Sonam Sherpa, president of United Sherpa Association asked Nepal government to pursue talks with the US to provide Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to the Nepalis. TPS is an status given to the people who can not return to their native country due to civil war and other big disasters.

In a different programme organised by Asia Society on Friday Prime Minister Deuba stressed that Royal Nepal Army was strong enough to fight against the Maoist insurgents. "We need material and moral support, our army is capable and trained enough to quell our problem," he said.

He also reiterated that the government would not compromise multi-party democracy and constitutional monarchy. "We are open for talks in any other issues under the sun, if the Maoists surrender their arms," he added.

A tale of Tuesday night horror in Gam

Khim Ghale and Kashi Ram Dangi

LIBANG (Rolpa), May 11: Military personnel, who survived the grisly Maoist attack at Rolpa’s Gam VDC narrate their horrific experience of the fateful Tuesday night, that left 81 security men dead and several injured.

A total of ten security men who had been deployed on an Integrated Development Security Programme (ISDP) at Asaujey Dada, Rolpa, were sleeping peacefully in their tents. Around 62 security men under the command of their Captain had already gone for patrolling the nearby village. None of them had even the faintest imagination that the Maoists would make a comeback that night. But they came in hundreds and thousands holding grenades and sophisticated guns and fired at them.

"We were sleeping peacefully. They set fire to our camp. We knew of late that the fire had already raged through our godown. After that we heard gun shots but we could not tell where it came from nor who was firing," narrates Basudev Shrestha, an army personnel, who survived the attack.

"Let’s not get scared and run. Everyone block them from entering our barrack." Shrestha quoted his Major Nilakantha Karki as saying after the firing began. "The Major was instructing each one of them to take positions when there was an explosion nearby that awoke all the security personnel from their deep slumber."

"By then the exchange of fire had already begun and the fire set by Maoists had already ripped through the sentry…" Shrestha goes on. "The officials inside the sentry crawled into the bunkers to take out their guns. Maoists were already advancing ferociously and were closing in inch-by-inch."

Bullets from modern guns like GPMG, LMG, SMG, SLR began to be fired from either sides. Meanwhile, a bullet ripped the right hand of Raj Kumar Khadka, an army personnel trying to hold the rapidly advancing Maoists. Shrestha took out his handkerchief and tied it round his bleeding hand. But that proved a futile exercise. The night was chilly, the weather condition was unfavourable. Hukum Bahadur Bhandary, an assistant forest officer helping him, tore his pant and tied it around his hand, it did not work. A minute later, Khadka’s hand fell on the ground.

"He was still struggling to fire the GPMG, but he was sensing defeat closing in as his hand could no more hold the gun." Bhandary goes on narrating the incident in Rolpa’s Gam village.

"I fired until the last minute," Bhuwan, a police constable, one of the few survivors of the deadly attack says. "An army personal beside me was hit. He handed his SLR to me and asked me to fire." He recalls how he and his friends remained hopeful until the dying hours that additional forces were coming to assist them. "Neither a single person nor a bullet came."

"We were in a very small number and proved matchless against thousands of Maoists, most carrying grenades and armed to the teeth. They were Terai-based people, Tharus and Khar Magars. These people put before them mostly untrained commoners, who held grenades and hand-bombs as they advanced forward."

"These terrorists came in three groups. At first, there were those who hurled grenades and at their back, there were those who held guns in their hands. And after those gunmen, there were those who were trained in carrying the dead and the wounded. Among them were also groups of medics." These security men say they even saw the rebels throwing their wounded friends into the raging fire, let alone the dead.

They admit that Maoists were well armed but said they were not well trained. "They were burying alive their friends as they fled the spot. We saw them burying at least 250 of them while we were paraded through the village after the firing ended." Shrestha claims.

"The firing went on for about four and half hours. By then 8-10 of us were still alive. Due to bad weather, wounded security men and our Major were captured and killed. We could no longer defend them."

Marani Devi to follow Parijat’s footsteps

By Seema A Adhikari

KATHMANDU, May 11: One need not be an elite or highly educated person to bag prestigious awards. Marani Devi has set an example that even a barely educated, simple woman who is not even acquainted with city life, by getting hold of the Parijat Women Award 2002.

And this 55-year-old village woman, who grabbed the media headlines last year after being brutally beaten allegedly for being a witch, wants to follow the footprints of late Parijat and contribute in uplifting Nepali women.

Marani Devi of the eastern Terai district of Mahottari became a personality overnight after she faced traumatic experience of being called a witch and lived in the same Simardahi village fighting against the social evil.

Parijat Memorial Centre today awarded Marani Devi for her unrelenting efforts in creating awareness in her backward society as a community health worker. She has been voluntarily working as the health worker since last 16 years. Marani Devi has been providing polio drops supplement, free health counselling and family planning counselling to the rural folks.

Moreover, she was awarded for her courage to fight against the orthodox society and her commitment to change it. Ten months ago, several men led by the village chairman himself severely beat Marani Devi accusing her of being a witch.

Such incidents often take place in most of the rural parts of Nepal. There were similar cases recorded in other parts of the country before Marani Devi’s case was brought to light. But Marani Devi now wants to put an end to all this. She does not want anybody to go through the humiliation that she has experienced.

She has now come a long way from the days when she was a butt of public insult and jealousy. Marani Devi is now a grass-roots social worker, championing the cause of women’s rights.

"Whenever I encounter with the villagers, I remember the barbarian and brutal acts," Marani Devi said, recalling those nightmarish days. "But I did not give up and began visiting door to door to create awareness in the village."

Why conflicts continue to wrack world’s mountains?

By Surendra Phuyal

KATHMANDU, May 11:Did you know that most of the present-day conflicts wracking the world community are happening in the mountains? This, despite the fact that the mountains boast of bountiful natural resources and fascinating heritages that could contribute immensely to the national economies.

Twenty-seven of the 32 conflicts bedeviling mankind today are happening in the mountains, if the statement made by experts from the mountains of the Asia Pacific region during the five-day High Asia Summit held in the capital last week (May 6-10) is anything to go by.

And most of them are happening obviously in Asia, which has the biggest, highest and the most crowded mountain chains, chiefly the Himalayas. The continent is home of more than half of humanity, and half of the region’s poor live in the mountains.

The reason why conflicts - most of them bloody - continue to ruin mountain economies the world over is obvious, according to the experts: that the mountain people continue to suffer from deprivation, destitution and starvation; and that and the governments and policymakers, knowingly or unknowingly, continue to mete out social injustice upon them.

"Some 500 million people in (the world’s) mountains live on less than a dollar a day," said Maharaj Krishen Muthoo, President of the Rome-based Roman Forum at the conclusion of the Summit here Friday. "This signifies deprivation, destitution and social injustice. That is why the mountains today are refuges for terror."

And Nepal is no exception. Most of the world’s highest mountains are in Nepal, and three-quarters of its total area are highlands, where little more than half the population of 23.15 million lives. According to the Census 2001, 50.94 per cent of the population lives in the mountains - 43.97 in the hills and 6.97 at the foot of the high Himalayas.

And yet the country’s elite, planners and policymakers continue to ignore the highlands, most importantly its people, even as they benefit immensely from the mountain resources such as the rich watershed and bio-diversity and the beauty of the landscapes that attract visitors from around the world.

"Very little has been done to develop such basic infrastructures as roads, bridges and power plants, and schools and health posts for the mountains’ poor," said lawmaker Hom Nath Dahal at an interaction programme, organised by Nepal Forum for Environmental Journalists (NEFEJ), last week. "That is why people are continuing to migrate towards the lowlands of the Terai," where infrastructures and facilities have made life easier.

The census figures speak in volume: Nearly eight (7.8) per cent of the population lived in the mountains, 45.5 in the hills and 46.7 across the Terai plains until 1991. Ten years down the road, the per centage has dropped to 6.97 in the mountains, 43.97 in the hills, while the population in the Terai is constantly going up - 49.06 per cent now, according to Census 2001.

Even as people in the lowlands make money out of the resources and benefits that accrue out to them from the highlands, people residing in the high Himalayas continue to remain poor. Renowned development expert and geographer Dr Harka Gurung says in his paper presented at the High Asia Summit that the extent of poverty is even higher in the Nepali highlands.

"It conforms to the elevation zone - higher the elevation, greater the incidence of poverty," he says, adding: "What is alarming is the trend of deterioration in income levels despite proliferation of development efforts. The proportion of population below poverty line did not decline in the hills, increased slightly in lowland Terai but accentuated markedly in the mountains."

Quoting a recent World Bank report, he says that the population below poverty line in the Nepali mountains jumped to 62.4 per cent in 1995/1996, up from 44.1 in 1984/1985, while the trend remained more or less constant in the hills and the Terai during the period. The population remained constant at 50 per cent in the hills, while the same in the Terai registered an increment of about two per cent - 36.7 per cent, up from 34.5 in 1984/1985.

"...although all countries profess regional balance as one of their objectives, there is utter lack of strategy to reduce the disparity," Dr Gurung states further.

ADB halts selection of road consultant

Post Report

KATHMANDU, May 11:The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has written to the Department of Roads (DoR) to halt the evaluation process of selecting consultant for a road project worth 69.5 million US dollars, citing irregularities in the process.

The letter, dated May 2, was written by Tadashi Kondo, Director of Infrastructure Division, South Asia Department and addressed to Madan Gopal Maleku, the Director General at the DoR has sought clarification on the controversy.

The controversy arose when M/s Louis Berger and Co. was selected at the alleged connivance of Devendra Wagle and Dinesh Prasad, the local representative of Louis Berger and some DoR officials. Wagle is the son of Chiranjivi Wagle, the Minister for Physical Planning and Works, the ministry controlling the Department of Roads.

According to a senior engineer at the DoR, Wagle junior and Prasad allegedly manipulated the formulation of the evaluation criteria, succeeding in getting the award of the Road Network Development Project (RNDP) for Louis Berger. After the irregularities came to the fore, both the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) stepped in and they are currently investigating the matter.