Nepal likely to have judge in ICC

By Rudra Sharma

KATHMANDU, May 12   If the Rome Statute for the establishment of the International Criminal Court (ICC) is ratified right now, Nepal is very likely to bag a post of judge in the ICC. It is most likely to happen so because the ICC to come into force by July 1 has to represent South Asia where none of the countries have ratified the statute till date.

The opportunity is probably to be cashed in since the leader of the main opposition party Communist Party of Nepal United Marxist and Leninist Madhav Kumar Nepal Sunday said, "We have firm support to the ICC since we have concerned to aggression."

Nepal was talking to a team of Coalition for International Criminal Court of Justice ( CICC) which is currently in Nepal to help strengthen the necessary preparatory works to ratify the Rome statute. On the occasion Nepal said," We will have to see what kinds of mechanisms therein are useful to safeguard our people."

Member of the team from Nepalese side General Secretary of Informal Sector Service Center (INSEC) Subodh Raj Pyakurel apprised about the Nepalese perspectives and significance of the ratification of the court by Nepal.

A member of the team an Australian Lawyer Joanne Lee said that the Rome Statute is already ratified by 66 countries and thereby comes into force by July 1. "It is a global organisation outside the UN system. "Lee said. The Court is absolutely independent ,international and permanent. Since no country from South Asia have ratified the Statute, Nepal has a greater chance to put forth a judge in the court representing South Asia, he added.

Another member of the team David Matas said that the court entertains the crimes of serious matter like genocide, war crimes, crime against humanity and crime of aggression. The team asserted that any person whatsoever he or she may be powerful can not go with impunity under the ICC system.

Even if a crime is committed on behalf of a state there would definitely be somebody to make an order for such crime. Pointing out the incidence of Polpot, the team members said Polpot had undergone into the trail for 13 times. In this way any ruler or individual who commit crime during his/her tenure are also fall under the jurisdiction of the ICC.

There are a few fundamental differences between International Court of Justice( ICJ) under the UN system and the International Court of Justice. Only states can be subjects under the ICJ system but any individual of any level become member under the ICC system. It exerts an tickle down effects to the signatory states since the states also has a responsibility to punish the crimes defined by the ICC. However, the ICC has no retrospective effect. There is no scope of impunity, nor it imposes capital punishment to anyone.

Discussion on literacy controversy held

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KATHMANDU, May 12 Education experts today discussed on the controversy over the national literacy rate, raised after the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS)issued the data recently.

Yubraj Pande, the spokesman at Ministry for Education and Sports said that the data of CBS is the most reliable data on the nation’s literacy rate.

"In our context, literacy means somebody to teach how to read and write. If someone objects on the definition itself, that might be another agenda," he said admitting that the definition itself might deserve amendment.

Satya Bahadur Shrestha, the director of Non-formal Education Centre said that the outcome of the survey cannot be reliable if there is something wrong with the process itself.

"There is a controversy on literacy rate. The government had said that the literacy rate of Nepal is 57.6 percent but the recent data of 54.72 percent cannot be true when the process used for the survey itself is under controversy. The process was not scientific," he said.

He said nowhere in the world authorities include the children below 15 years old to survey literacy rate. "And it was also based on self-announcement of the respondant. In that connection, illiterate men boasts that they are literate and shy women denies being literate though they come under the government’s definition."

Roshan Chitrakar, the director of Community Literacy Project said that the recently published data on literacy rate has invited controversy among the intelligent circle and though there is room for doubt in the credibility of the data, developing one single literacy rate may not be important for the country.

"Functional literacy is more important than theoretical concept."

Jagat Basnet of CLP said that literacy has not taken institutional shape in Nepal.

He added that literacy may address knowing one’s local language and teaching in one language in a multilingual country like Nepal would not be useful.

"There is not uniformity among the workers in the same field. We work under the donor’s guidance and thus the approach of one project becomes different from another."

Analyst Tikaram Bhattarai said that lots of studies have been carried out but we hardly look back to find out the impact.

"The way we have followed concerning literacy must be completely changed. We all always talk about letters and other formal type of teaching even in non-formal classes. First we must be up to date," said Bhattarai.

Prof. Rukmini Bajracharya of TU said that the villagers want such type of education that would help them earn some bread. "The result would be fruitful if you turn their mind to some sort of vocational training that is also a type of education for them."

The programme was organised by Education Journalists’ Group.

Nepal to host Asian Congress of Esperanto

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KATHMANDU, May 12 Nepal Esperanto Association (NEspA) announced Saturday that it would organised an Asian Congress of Esperanto in the following year where hundreds of Espernato speakers from various Asian countries will throng to Kathmandu.

The chairperson of the association LP Agnihotri said that the association will host the next Asian Congress of Esperanto in 2004. He was addressing the 9th National Congress of the NEspA.

Chief Guest Baikuntha Man Maskey said that one should learn the easy language to promote Nepal in the world arena and at the same time this would give them an opportunity to see the whole world from one perspective.

The Congress also elected a new 11-member executive committee led by Dr Keshav Ram Joshi.

Esperanto, the artificial language meant for world use, without being dominated by one culture or civilisation was invented by an optician Dr Lazaro Ludoviko Zamenhof in 1887. It came to Nepal by as early as 1957 and now there are over 200 members who speak the language and communicate with Esperanto communities in other countries.

Maoist ravage, a boon for timber smugglers

By Rabindra Uprety

MAHOTTARI, May 12 A series of ravage of the Forest Range Posts last month by the Maoist has been a boon for the timber smugglers. The scared forest patrolling teams have failed to carry out their duties effectively and the smugglers are logging trees freely.

The sources here say that timber smugglers are busy logging trees in the forest developed by Sagarnath Forest Development Project (SFDP) in the district. The forest stretching on 80,000 hectares of land was developed in 15 years.

Around five hundred armed timber smugglers enter the forest from various points with tractors, carts and bicycles daily and engage themselves in logging and smuggling the valuable trees. They even attack the patrolling team, said SFDP sources.

Due to the fear that the Maoist rebels may loot the weapons, the patrolling teams do not carry rifle these days. Because they are not armed, they have returned injured after the fight with the smugglers many times, said the source.

Jitendra Karmacharya, the chief of SFDP and other five members found valuable timber stored at a saw mill at Kantibazaar recently. But they were severely beaten up when they tried to inquire about the timber.

Even the smugglers from India have involved in timber smuggling, said the source. Trucks loaded with timber from the forest make their way to India, said the eyewitnesses.

"We are making efforts to curb timber smuggling, however the lack of coordination between the District Forest Office and the local security forces is lying as a major barrier," Surendra Nepali of SFDP said.

The present situation has highly favoured the smugglers as the security forces have concentrated themselves in the Maoist insurgency.

Private schools reopen in Tanahun

By Prakash Adhikari

DAMAULI, May 12 The private schools in Tanahun district are resuming their classes from new academic year after a year long closure due to the threat of All Nepal National Free Students’ Union (Revolutionary) - ANNFSU, a sister organisation of Maoist rebels.

Last year ANNFSU demanded the schools either to slash down the fees by fifty per cent or to close down the schools. Due to the threat 52 private schools running primary and lower secondary classes were closed down, it is learnt.

However, the schools running secondary level classes continued teaching class nine and ten for the sake of the students appearing the School Leaving Certificate (SLC).

Kankai, Vyas, Barahi and Shantiversha English Secondary Schools have already started teaching. They were opened two weeks ago.

The private schools in Abun Khaireni, Dumre, Jamune and Duleipani along the Prithvi Highway are also in the process of resuming its regular operation, said the concerned body.

The reopening of private schools has decreased the burden felt by government run schools which were holding students more than their capacity. The government schools were being operated in morning and day shift to manage the students flooded into them.

Most of former students of these private schools have returned, said the concerned official of the school. Recently, the private schools of Gorkha which were closed down due to the same reasons have also reopened on the request of District Education Office and assurance of security forces.

Maoist rebels forced to repair destroyed bridge

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Nepalgunj, May 12 The Maoists rebels, currently wrecking havoc on the country’s development infrastructures were recently forced to clean their own dirt when they had to repair a suspension bridge destroyed by themselves.

This dramatic event occurred due to harsh protests from the local people who had been through severe problems after destruction of the bridge. The Falamgauda suspension bridge which connects Syalpakha VDC with Barfikot VDC of the district was destroyed by the Maoists last week.

After the local populace vociferously protested against the destruction and denied the Maoists entry into the village, the Maoists’ were left with no other option than to repair the bridge.

The destruction of this suspension bridge, situated at a four hours hiking distance from Musikot, the district headquarters, reportedly caused a rift among the local Maoists’. Two of the Maoists threatened a rebellion against the destructive acts carried out by their brethren.

It took nine Maoists’ cadres five days to repair the damage caused to the bridge. The bridge has been restored to its original state, according to Prem Prakash Oli, a member of the Nepali Congress in the district.

Housing aid distributed to Kamaiyas

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GULERIYA, May 12 At a programme held here, Bardiya District Development Committee Chairman Bharat Bahadur Shah handed over cheques of Rs. 8,000 to the freed Kamaiyas distributed to them as aid for construction of their house on Sunday.

Under the relief programme, 6,949 freed Kamaiya families in the district were provided the aid worth Rs. 20,000,000, said Mukti Bahadur Swar, secretary of the Freed Kamaiya Rehabilitation Committee.

After completion of the first phase of distributing aid to the Kamaiya families, a follow-up committee will conduct a survey to study if the aid have been properly utilised. A sum of Rs. 2,000 will be distributed to each Kamaiya family in the second phase of the programme if the first installment is properly used by them, said Swar.

Along with this, 94 thousand cubic feet of wood will be required to distribute to the former bonded labourers for the construction of their houses, said Swar.

As Bardiya District Forest Office has not been able to provide the required quantity of wood, alternate arrangements have been made to get the wood from the Kailali District. Kailali District Forest Office will provide 74 thousand cubic feet of wood free of cost, said Swar.

The process of providing land to them has already been completed, said Swar.

Villagers exchange milk for water

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HETAUDA, May 12 The villagers of a remote part of Makwanpur district swap water with curd or buttermilk happily. This interesting and unbelievable custom is in practice in the village as there is scarcity of drinking water in the village.

To 60 families at Gaijurang village of Khairang Village Development Committee (VDC) in Makwanpur district, easy access to the drinking water has become a far lying dream. Their problem of drinking water remains the same even after over a decade of democracy in the country.

"As we have to walk for four hours to fetch water, we use to give milk or curd to those asking for water," Chakra Bahadur Thing, 72, said.

"We approached different government and non-governmental organisations for water supply in the village but got no response," Narendra Bahadur Thing, a member at District Development Committee (DDC) said.

The only viable source which can be used for pipe water supply to the parched village is at Tinkithe at Mahadevsthan VDC of Dhading district. The preliminary survey reports have put the cost of bringing the water to the village at around two million rupees, it is learnt.

The villagers walk up to a stream to fetch water in early dusk and return around noon. "We have to wait for long time for the turn to fill the pitcher," Patali Maiya Thing, 38, said.

Despite the scarcity of drinking water in the village, each family of the village have been tending around half a dozen buffaloes. To meet the need of water for these cattle, the villagers have adopted the technique of collecting rain-water.

As the village is far from towns, villagers do not sell the milk but prepare curd or ghee. Later, they sell the ghee to the cities like Narayangardh and Hetauda which is their important source of earning.