Attempt to end school lock-up generates hope

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KATHMANDU, July 1 : The agitating student organisations and the National Private and Boarding Schools’ Association of Nepal (N-PABSAN) today agreed to resume tripartite talks with the Ministry of Education and Sports, signalling hopes of an early end to the educational deadlock.

"We have decided to resume talks after a day-long deliberation with our members," said Karna Shahi, acting chairman of N-PABSAN, adding that the talks could be held tomorrow.

Shahi was speaking at an interaction programme organised by the Education Journalists’ Group to find way out of the present educational impasse.

"Student leaders have affirmed their participation in the talks tomorrow and we are almost certain that the PABSON and N-PABSAN will join it," said Laba Prasad Tripathee, spokesman at the Ministry of Education and Sports. "We are almost 90 per cent sure that there will be a breakthrough in talks tomorrow."

However, the Private and Boarding Schools’ Organisation of Nepal (PABSON) remained undecided about joining the talks. Issuing a statement here, PABSON said it would not open schools until the government resolves problems and creates a favourable atmosphere for talks.

During the interaction, three parties at conflict - schools’ organisations, student unions and the ministry - ‘informally’ agreed to resume the talks, which came to a standstill on Saturday, following a deadlock over four of the nine demands put forth by the agitating students.

Talking to The Kathmandu Post late evening, Guru Raj Ghimire, president of the Nepal Students’ Union (NSU) said students are ready for concessions on certain demands including one over a 25 per cent scholarship.

"We can even agree with 15 per cent or even 10 per cent and do not necessarily stick to 25 per cent," he said adding, "But it does not mean that we will open the locks before talks conclude on a positive tone."

$5m WB aid for mgmt transfer of public schools

KATHMANDU, July 1 (PR)-The World Bank has approved a US$ 5 million credit to support Nepal for the transfer of management of public schools to communities, according to a statement received here from the World Bank, Nepal Country Office in Kathmandu.

The credit, a Learning and Innovation Loan, is provided on standard IDA terms with a 40-year maturity and 10-year grace period.

The implementing agency for the project will be the Department of Education (DOE) under the Ministry of Education and Sports, it said.

The Bank’s press release stated that irrespective of the sizeable government investment, quality and efficiency of school education fell short of expectation ever since the nationalisation of schools in 1972.

"Borne out of this realisation, Nepal enacted amendments to the Education Act in 2001 in an effort to bring back the positive elements of community management," it said while applauding the government’s latest decision to hand over management of public schools to communities.

The project, called "Community Support School Project" will support incentive grants to about 1,500 schools.

About 250 of the schools will also receive block, performance, supplementary, and other grants, as well as grants for scholarships and technical assistance for capacity building, according to the statement.

"The transfer of schools to community management represents much more than reforms in the education sector," says Ken Ohashi, World Bank Country Director for Nepal.

"It represents a new way of thinking in Nepal’s development administration about creative processes that put recipients at the center, empowering them to manage their own resources and allowing them to define their own future."

"Presently, there is an obvious segregation in the provision of education along the lines of income status, with a large gap in the quality between the private schools catering to richer sections of the population and public schools catering to the poorer sections," the statement said.

The loan’s components include school grants, scholarship, capacity building, monitoring and evaluation grant.

UML rift in offing again
Convene special general convention, demands Oli

By Ghanashyam Ojha

KATHMANDU, July 1 ; The differences within the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist & Leninist (CPN-UML) once again seriously surfaced as K P Sharma Oli, an influential leader in the party demanded a special general convention of the party with the representatives of the seventh general Convention held in Janakpur on last February.

Oli charged that the party leadership virtually spoilt the UML and left it no more a communist party after the seventh national congress.

In the party fourth central committee meeting held in the party office at Balkhu today Madhav Kumar Nepal, general secretary and Oli presented their separate papers.

Nepal, in his 12-page paper, staked the formation of an all-party government, after due consultation of the political parties in the dissolved House of Representatives (HoR), as the only alternative to resolve the current political stalemate.

On the other hand, Oli, in his 13-page paper, stressed that neither the all-party government nor reinstatement of the HoR would lead a way out of the crisis.

Nepal in his paper has stated that the government was not sincere in the peace negotiation with the Maoists, and said that only an all-party government, formed under Article 128 of the constitution, would hold peace negotiation with the Maoists. However, Oli urged for cooperation with the king and the current government for the resumption and success of the peace talks.

Nepal also stressed that the joint movement against regression was necessary to restore the derailed constitutional process.

Differing on this, Oli reiterated that the current movement against regression was worthless, as it lacked a concrete agenda and vision.

Oli also charged that the UML was no longer a communist party, after its seventh general convention, held in Janakpur last February.

He came down heavily against the party’s statute, endorsed by the party seventh general convention. He said that the so-called autocratic leadership of the party deliberately omitted the term ‘immediate’ in the party statute that stated UML’s immediate target as "Peoples’ multi-party democracy", whereas its destination is socialism and communism.

"Since the UML has accepted multi-party democracy as its goal, it no longer remains a communist party," Oli charged.

Oli has also flayed the party for being a ‘foot follower’ of the Nepali Congress (NC), in the joint movement launched by the five political parties against regression. "Nepali Congress is the direct political enemy of the UML," the paper stated, adding "Since the NC is full of corrupt leaders, UML should not join the NC in the movement against regression."

He claimed that the reinstatement of the dissolved HoR would further empower the king. "House revival will give unlimited power to the king," Oli said.

He also accused the party leadership of supporting the NC demand of House revival without consulting the party leaders. "The party leadership did not discuss within the party its plans for formulating slogans of the movement including the demand of the House revival," Oli said.

However, Pradip Nepal, the UML central member, said that Oli had no any stance even in the past. "Oli’s comment against the current movement against regression is a reflection of his false pride," Nepal said.

Nepal also claimed that Oli’s comment on the party statute was already raised by Mahendra Pande, alternative central member of the UML at the party’s third central committee meeting. "Pande could not hold extensive discussion on the political significance of the issue as he was an alternative member," Nepal said.

Bhim Rawal, the UML central member also presented a separate paper in the meeting.

The central committee meeting will begin discussion on the papers presented by the leaders from tomorrow.

Resumption of peace talks ‘at the earliest’

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KATHMANDU, July 1 : Both the government and the Maoist talk team members today expressed their readiness to hold the third round of the suspended peace talks at the earliest.

In their separate meetings with the facilitators-Daman Nath Dhungana, Padma Ratna Tuladhar, Karna Dhwoj Adhikari and Shailendra Kumar Upadhyay - both sides urged the facilitators to have arrangements made for the next dialogue.

Kamal Thapa, a member of the government negotiating team, told The Kathmandu Post that he has had informed the facilitators of the homework the government has carried out, and expressed his team’s readiness to sit for the dialogue as early as possible.

"I briefed them about the government’s preparation for the next dialogue," Thapa said. "The government has duly completed its preparations."

Thapa is also understood to have expressed his apprehensions to the facilitators that any delay in holding the next talk might further create aspersions over the entire process.

However, Thapa also opined that the next dialogue could help implement the agreements reached at the second round of talks, including formation of a monitoring committee to supervise a code of conduct.

The facilitators on their part are learnt to have suggested that Thapa function as the official successor to the former government and take up from where the previous talk team’s initiatives had rested. According to Tuladhar, Thapa opined that the agreement made during the second round of talks to limit the army’s movement within five kilometers from the barracks should be reviewed.

The Maoist talk team member Krishna Bahadur Mahara affirmed that his side has had taken Thapa’s request for review of the agreement in positive light.

"If the government decides to return the army to their barracks, we are ready to revise the five-kilometer limitation we issued previously," said Mahara. He, however, stressed that there would be no significance of the resumed talks if held without implementing the previous agreements.

Construction had Nepal’s consent: India
Unilateral, counters Nepal

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KATHMANDU, July 1 : Refuting Nepal’s allegations that the controversial Mahalisagar bund was built despite several written requests to stop it, India claims the project had Nepal’s consent. Earlier, India had claimed that the bund was not a new construction, only a reconstruction of the damaged structure that was over 100 years old.

Nagma Mallik, first secretary at the Indian Embassy, claimed that there was no controversy regarding the construction of the bund. Talking to The Kathmandu Post, she said that India was given a ‘green signal’ by the Nepal-India joint Standing Committee on Inundation Problem (SCIP).

"The construction was carried out in accordance with the Nepal-India agreement and permission from SCIP," Mallik said. "There’s absolutely no controversy at all."

According to her, there is a ‘clear agreement’ between the two countries. However, she did not mention the date of the agreement.

She also claimed that the contact officer from the Nepali side had given permission for the construction of the structure. The erstwhile chief at the Department of Irrigation Shanti Kumar Hyonju had approved the drawing submitted by the Indian side.

But the Department of Water Induced Disaster Prevention (DWIDP) had immediately informed the member secretary of the SCIP of India that the Department of Irrigation was not the right authority to approve the drawing, and that provision of the 12th SCIP meeting should be followed before starting any construction work.

Thereafter, India on January 19, 2003 had assured through a written memorandum that the construction would be carried out only upon getting the required permission from SCIP.

Even after the embassy demanded of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs reasons for stoppage of the works, the construction was allowed to continue.

As the construction of bund is likely to inundate Nepali areas, Nepali experts, terming Indian construction as being ‘unilateral,’ clarified that there was no approval from the Nepali side.

"There was no such agreement," said Narayan Prasad Gautam, Director General at the DWIDP. "We had reminded the Indian side more than a dozen times from the time we learnt of the construction of the bund," he said.

Jirel boy bags MBBS seat

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DHARAN, July 1 ; In what is the first instance of its kind in Nepal, a student of the Jirel community will be able to pursue the MBBS course in the B P Koirala Institute of Medical Sciences, under the reserved seat allotted for the indigenous communities.

According to the National Academy of Nationalities, the Jirel is one of the indigenous communities of Nepal, which is on the verge of extinction.

Sunil Jirel, a resident of Jugu village in Dolakha district, was the only candidate to appear in the entrance examination under the seat reserved for the indigenous communities.

However, there was a tough competition for open seats. There were 1,865 examinees contesting for 75 open seats in the MBBS and BDS courses. Officials said that 189 Indian students had also appeared in today’s entrance examination.

The institute had also allotted a certain number of seats for candidates of the ethnic communities, Dalits, women and others from remote districts. Officials said participation of the students from target groups or communities were also very low. There were only three female candidates for a single seat while 10 candidates for six seats allotted to the students from the remote districts.

Activists to exert pressure on Govt to ratify ICC

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KATHMANDU, July 1 : To rescue the country from the state of lawlessness, Nepal needs to ratify the International Criminal Court (ICC). The continued violation of human rights in Nepal and the inability of domestic laws to bring to justice the perpetrators of crimes against humanity has made this need all the more pressing, argued human rights activists here today.

They also agreed to add more pressure on the government to ratify the ICC, so as to put a full stop on the culture of immunity from law. In a programme organised to observe the World Day for International Justice and the first anniversary of ICC, they also expressed concerns over the degrading human rights situation in the country.

"Even after the declaration of cease-fire between the government and the Maoists, organised human rights violations are rampant both from the government and the Maoist rebels," said Subodh Pyakurel, chief of Informal Sector Service Center (INSEC). He added that while a legal vacuum exists in the country on various areas, the available laws are also lacking in implementation. INSEC is the national coordinator of the Council for ICC.

Pyakurel expressed concerns over the forceful extortion of money by the rebels even after Maoist supremo Prachanda issued a public notice against it. He also said that the defiance of code of conduct, agreed upon by the government and the Maoists over four months ago, exemplifies the state of lawlessness in the country.

Currently, 90 countries have ratified the ICC. The Court stresses on punitive provisions against crimes against humanity, war crimes, genocide and aggression, most of which are relevant to Nepal’s present context.

Meanwhile, lawyer Hari Phuyal said that ICC was formed to enforce International Humanitarian Law (IHL). "While traditional laws stress on punishing the aggressor, ICC also stresses on compensating and rehabilitating the victims. Systematic implementation of IHL is immediately needed in Nepal," he said.

While the need to ratify ICC is pressing, experts expressed dissatisfaction over Nepal’s entry a year ago into US Impunity Agreements, known as Article 98. The agreement provides total immunity to US citizens in the signatory countries. "This is a very dangerous agreement. It raises a serious question mark over Nepal’s sovereignty," said Pyakurel.

Similarly, Dr Ananda Mohan Bhattarai, ICC expert, said that no country could afford to defy new norms developed in the international legal scenario. "We have to adopt the new norms developed by ICC. We have to frame domestic laws in accordance with ICC laws," he said.

Despite being signatory to over 20 treaties on human rights, the situation in Nepal is disappointing. "There is a need to start a nation-wide signature campaign to raise awareness on ICC and to pressurise the government to ratify it," said Chandra Kant Gyawali, secretary of Amnesty International Lawyers’ Group.

A druggist’s rebirth as a prolific striker

By Tapas Barsimha Thapa & Purushottam Kattel

KATHMANDU, July 1 : June 16, 2002: A twenty-year-old boy was literally dragged and forced into a rehabilitation centre by the police and his family members. He was covered with wounds and bruises, looked pretty weak but very aggressive. He was lapsing into frequent convulsions and really hysteric.

June 11, 2003: A boy scored two goals in succession in his debut ‘A’ division football match. He drove the audience hysteric. His flawless game and seamless shots made the audience curious about him.

Utsav KC was the centre character of both the events.

"Simply ecstatic. I had never felt that exhilarated, no drug could have given me the same feeling or anything close to it," elated Utsav told The Kathmandu Post.

Utsav’s is a rise, fall and rise story of a youngster. He got into the drug by imitating friends when he was playing football, and now he has rose into the limelight and become hero after quitting drugs and excelling in sports.

Ustav KC was a normal kid from a normal middle class family. He started playing football at the age of 14 for smaller clubs. In a year or two, there came another indulgence: Drugs. Nothing was same after that.

Ustav started taking Phensidyl, a cough syrup used for intoxication. The blame goes to the senior players who said that such drugs would help them run faster and perform well. "They said it increased power, stamina and vigour," KC said.

When he started abusing the drugs, he felt strong, and skilled. Gradually, he got into bigger drugs. First came "tabs" and then brown sugar. "Initially, more meant better performance. But slowly my games deteriorated, instead I was getting aggressive," he confessed.

And then a day came when he completely gave up the games. "Drugs made me feel invincible. I didn’t care about any thing else when I was high. Football no more mattered. I got into brawls all the time. I got into trouble with the police 6 days a week," he remembers sadly.

At Aasara Sudhar Kendra (ASK), strict therapy, exercise, meditation, counselling and sports helped him live without drugs. Utsav soon realised that it was not drugs but love for life and passion for sports that were crucial for a happy life.

Rajendra KC, the coach of Boys Union Club was swift to welcome Utsav to the training camp. "I had seen him playing long ago and had even started to train him, but he was hopelessly into drugs then," he said.

Coach KC was really amazed by Utsav’s new-found dedication. "I think his past haunts him sometimes. He pushes himself to practice more. If others run for an hour then Utsav runs for two. He really wants to prove to himself that he can do it, and do it better than anyone else," says the proud coach, whom Utsav treats like a god.

Along with the coach’s great confidence in him, Utsav attributes his recovery to his mother’s support. "All through the ordeal, my mother never beat or scolded me. When I was in the rehab and after that, she became an inspiration, never has she shunned me for what I had become, and the shame and heartache that she felt in the society."

Utsav says that she has always been supportive of his sports activities, in fact he says that one of his happiest moments was when she said, "The money I gave you for bus fare to match practices hasn’t been wasted," when his photo hit all the country’s dailies for the two goals that he dealt to Boys Sports club in his ‘A’ division debut.

Right to rebel: New Maoist declaration

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KATHMANDU, July 1 : The CPN-Maoist is to scrap the principle of the dictatorship of the proletariat from its policy and adopt a new policy to ensure the right to rebel to all sections of the society, said Krishna Bahadur Mahara, politburo member of the party.

Speaking at an interaction organised by party’s Dalit wing in the capital today, Mahara said the party was going to adopt a new policy that would ensure the "right to rebel" and delete the "dictatorship of proletariat" clause from the party policy.

"The recently concluded meeting of the party’s central committee has decided to launch discussions on a new model of democracy that would ensure the right to rebel and renounce the communist dictatorship," said Mahara who is also the spokesman of the Maoist negotiating team.

He added that the considerations to change the existing party policies were raised after duly observing the Russian and Chinese history where "people’s revolutions" were short-lived in the absence of multiparty competitiveness.

"We want to correct the mistakes of the great communist ideologues in the Soviet Union and China while implementing their thoughts in their soil," said Mahara. "The new model of democracy might be completely different from those the world has experienced so far."

He also made it clear that the Marxist-Leninist-Maoist thought would not restrict the party from adopting the new policies for sustainability of the revolution. He said that the Maoists have introduced rapid changes in their policies in the past seven years. "We are not stuck to the policies that we have had adopted seven years ago," said Mahara. "One cannot even predict what further changes may occur in our policies in the next two years."

He also disclosed that discussions were taking place on the issue of converting the Maoist militia into a national army, one of the main agendas the Maoists have been raising since the commencement of their peace dialogue with the government.

"We have also started contemplating on whether or not setting up of a permanent army would comply with the people’s aspiration for changes," said Mahara. "The strong Red Army of China and the national army of the Soviet Union were responsible for shortening the life of communist revolution."

While referring to the causes of delay in sitting down for the next round of peace talks, Mahara held the government responsible for that. "There is no uniform voice on the state side," he said. "Various interests are playing within the government."

Mahara said that holding dialogue with an unstable and incapable government would be a betrayal to the people. "It would be futile for us to sit down for a dialogue without generating confidence-building in us that the government could independently take decisions on our agenda," he said. He, however, did not clarify whether the Maoists would sit down for a dialogue with the present government.

He emphasised on the need for holding talks with an "all-powerful" government team to bring the talks to a logical end. "Surya Bahadur Thapa’s government is run by someone behind the scene and cannot take decisions on its own," he asserted, adding that the government was influenced by weapons smugglers.

The Maoist leader, however, did not disclose the party’s future plan once the peace talk showed signs of deterioration. He said the Maoists ultimately would go to the people, either through street strategy or "by other means."

Meanwhile, another central leader of the party, Dev Gurung, said that some of the high-ranking military personnel were responsible for the delay in holding the next round of talks. "They have turned to be weapons smugglers and are inciting the government to suppress us," said Gurung while talking to journalists in Chitwan.

Take steps to end imbroglio, Indian envoy urges Koirala

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KATHMANDU, June 1 : At a meeting held here today between the Indian ambassador to Nepal Shyam Saran and the Nepali Congress (NC) president Girija Prasad Koirala, Saran urged the latter to talk with the government, to thrash a way out of the current impasse.

However, Koirala is claimed to have said that since the only way out is the restoration of the House of Representatives, it is high time the international community backed the political parties in the interest of democracy.

Saran has also been claimed to have said that while a democratic Nepal would be a better neighbour, there was still a need on the part of the political parties to take up the issue with the government in an intensive manner.

UN convention on migrant workers’ rights becomes effective

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KATHMANDU, July 1 : The UNIFEM today announced the implementation of the convention on the rights of the migrant workers, which was passed by the United Nations in 1990 but was supposed to be implemented only after all the 20 nations had signed the same.

The twentieth nation to have signed the UN convention was Guatemala, which did so on March 14 this year. Sri Lanka is the only South Asian nation which signed the convention as far back as 1996.

The signing of the convention, which has been drawn up with a view to protect the rights of the migrant workers and their families, demands a series of legislations aimed at protecting the rights of the migrant workers, including the undocumented, wherever they may be.

"The responsibility of protecting the rights of the migrant workers shall be of both the labour exporting country and the importing one," said Chandni Joshi, the Delhi-based director of UNIFEM.

Countries will be obliged to enact laws to protect the interests of the migrant workers, irrespective of whether they export or import labour. The convention, which has 93 provisions, also stipulates that the basic human rights of all migrant workers-Irrespective of their legal status-will be safeguarded.

The convention holds special significance at a time when women migrant workers from Asian countries have reportedly been facing hardships on foreign shores.

An unaccounted number of Nepali women had flown abroad after the government imposed a blanket ban on women heading for foreign countries for work in 1997. An equally unaccounted number of them landed in trouble after they were subjected to sexual abuse and other forms of exploitation including short-changing on wages.

The ban was however later revoked amid uproar from UNIFEM and others, to respect the rights of the women. According to the last census the number of Nepali migrant women workers who may be working in various countries was estimated at 3,37,319 while the number of men adds up to about 6,80,000.

However, a survey conducted by the Ministry of Labour has put the number of Nepali women working abroad at 199. UNIFEM has said that the number is far too low since many of them go abroad without registering themselves.

Speaking at the press conference, UNIFEM Nepal Field Office chief Saru Joshi said the adoption of the convention would go a long way in empowering women. Sangeeta Thapa, also of the same organisation claimed that the Ministry of Labour has expressed its willingness to sign the convention.