Search operation against Maoists to be intensified

Kailali, Dec.16 (RSS): Home, and Local Development Minister Khum Bahadur Khadka has said security agencies in coming days will intensify their search operation against Maoist terrorists to ensure peace and security in the country.

Khadka, who was addressing party workers of Kanchanpur and Kailali districts today, spoke of the need for the NC workers to become cautious and vigilant of the Maoist terrorists since it is they who have fallen victims to terrorist activity.

The Home Minister also pointed out the need of cooperation from all political parties and civic society functioning within the framework of the Constitution for rooting out terrorism and preserving democracy and the Constitution.

MP and NC central member Baldev Sharma Majgainya urged one and all to cooperate with the government by putting aside their differences, while NC Kailali president Dirgharaj Bhat demanded that the government provide security to people since the Maoists do not have stopped their activities.

Various other speakers including MPs Janakraj Giri and Govind Bahadur Shah and NC joint general secretary Govind Raj Joshi also spoke at the function.

Khadka also acquired information about law and order situation at a meeting of the chiefs of the local security agencies.

Mahat to hand over invitation toVajpayee

Kathmandu, Dec. 16 (RSS): Finance Minister Dr. Ram Sharan Mahat left for New Delhi, India, today in connection with inviting Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on behalf of Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba to the llth SAARC summit to be held in Kathmandu.

The Finance Minister, besides handing over the letter to the Indian Prime Minister inviting him to the SAARC summit, will convey the sadness of His Majesty’s Government over the terrorist attack on the Indian Parliament as well as express Nepal’s solidarity with the Indian people in such circumstances, Dr. Mahat told journalists at Tribhuvan International Airport.

He said that during his visit discussions will also be held on matters of bilateral interest.

Dr Mahat also disclosed that the infrastructural preparations for the SAARC summit have reached the final stages of completion, the draft of the SAARC declaration has been prepared and it would be forwarded to the member countries.

Finance Minister Dr. Mahat is scheduled to return home on Wednesday.

Bhutanese refugees
Verification, categorisation, what next?

BY A STAFF REPORTER

Kathmandu, Dec. 16: The good news is: all the Bhutanese refugees in one of the seven refugee-camps in eastern Nepal are verified, at last. But, the bad news is: it is still unclear what would be the fate of these identified around 20,000 Nepali-speaking refugees from the Dragon Kingdom — would they be repatriated or not.

True that the Nepal-Bhutan Joint Verification Team (JVT), in line with what the secretary-level talks between the two kingdoms earlier this year had decided, would very soon categorize the verified refugees into four groups — Bonafide Bhutanese, Bhutanese who have emigrated, Bhutanese who have committed crimes, and non-Bhutanese.

These were the four categories the two Himalayan Kingdoms had agreed to divide the refugees into when they had held the first bilateral ministerial level talks on the Bhutanese refugee issue in 1993 — almost three years after more around 100,000 Lhotsampas fled their homes in Bhutan fearing what they claimed the ethnic cleansing policy of the Bhutanese Government.

But, even after the categorisation of the verified refugees of the Khudunabari Camp, the humanitarian crisis of the Bhutanese refugees will be far from solved. The reason: Lack of an agreement between Nepal and Bhutan on who of the categorised refugees would be sent back and who not.

The genesis of this disagreement dates back to the mid-90’s when Nepal and Bhutan locked horns on their positions on how should the refugees — once they are categorised —be treated. Nepal maintained that all other categories except for the non-Bhutanese group should be repatriated. While Bhutan, citing its legal provisions, insisted that it would take back only the first category — Bonafide Bhutanese citizens.

It was this deep running difference that kept the bilateral refugee talks stonewalled after the sixth round of ministerial level talks in 1996.

When the talks resumed after almost two years, both the sides shifted their focus — from harmonisation of their positions on the four categories to verification of the refugees in one camp.

Now that the verification test case at the Khudunabari Camp is over, and so would the categorisation of these verified refugees be in a few months time, it will be the same knotty issue — harmonisation of the two countries’ positions on the categories — Nepal and Bhutan will have to grapple with.

Does that mean the entire development in the refugee crisis in the last one year would be back to square one? "It all depends on what documents produced by the verified refugees would Bhutan accept," said Rakesh Chhetri, a noted Bhutanese refugee leader here who runs a Bhutanese human rights organisation Centre for Minority and Racial Discrimination in Bhutan. "Right now, the Bhutanese government must be discussing now what document it should accept so that it would have to repatriate least number of refugees."

Having verified around 2,000 families of refugees from the Khudunabari Camp — one of the seven UNHCR-run camps in Jhapa and Morang Districts — the Nepalese officials and Bhutanese officials of the Joint Verification Teams are back to their respective ministries in Kathmandu and Thimpu to report their findings.

"Almost all of the verified refugees have been able to put forward strong evidences to prove their Bhutanese citizenship," said a senior JVT official who did not want to be named. "We are clear that they should be allowed to go back, but we are waiting for the Bhutanese response."

The tenth round of ministerial level meeting between Nepal and Bhutan late last year had decided to verify the refugees in one of the seven camps — on a test case basis. Earlier this year, the 11th round of the ministerial level meet had agreed to speed up the pace of verification amidst growing concern on the painfully slow verification process.

As the identification process was nearing to an end, the secretary level meet earlier this year explored areas if the two sides could reach into an agreement on the four categories. With Nepal and Bhutan not budging from their earlier stands, they failed on that front and decided to categorise the verified refugees before deciding on their repatriation.

That should not be a hard nut to crack. But what could prove to be one is if both the sides stick to their guns when they renegotiate on who of the categorised refugees of the Khudunabari Camp be taken back.

And that could be a development, if at all it takes place, deserving the spotlight since it is the test case of the Khudunabari Camp that would destine the future of the more than 15,000 Bhutanese refugee families who have been in exile in Nepal for the last ten years.

‘Kathmandu Summit very important’

BY A STAFF REPORTER

Kathmandu, Dec. 16: Nihal Rodrigo, Secretary General at the SAARC Secretariat, has expressed the; belief; that the SAARC process has helped build confidence gradually among the member countries.

"Although we have not achieved our targets totally, much has happened in the field of economic cooperation and social development in South Asia after the formation of this regional body," Rodrigo, said, in an exclusive interview with The Rising Nepal.

Rodrigo, whose tenure as the Secretary General will be completed soon, expressed the view that the upcoming 11th SAARC Summit to be held in the first week of January next year will be helpful in strengthening and updating relations among all the seven member countries.

"The Kathmandu Summit is very important as it is going to be held after a gap of a few years. This will update all the SAARC Conventions and stress on strengthening connections among the member countries to deal with many economic and social issues, including terrorism," he said.

He further stated that the Kathmandu Declaration will be instrumental in dealing with the problems of women and children of the region as two major Conventions related to women and children are going to be adopted by the Summit.

State of emergency to be lifted after disarming Maoists: Gupta

BY A STAFF REPORTER

Kathmandu, Dec. 16: Minister for Information and Communications Jaya Prakash Prasad Gupta has said that the state of emergency would be lifted after the required objective of His Majesty’s Government of disarming and foiling the attacks of the Maoist terrorists is fulfilled.

"Disarming the Maoist terrorists is the main target of the security personnel who have been deployed throughout the country after the declaration of the state of emergency and we have achieved required success in this regard so far," Minister Gupta, who is also the government Spokesman, told the press at an interaction programme organised here this afternoon.

He made it clear that there was no logic behind the demand from some sectors for the immediate lifting up of the emergency. This will not be done until the mission is accomplished, Minister Gupta emphasised.

However he added, "I again want to reiterate the government’s stance about the duration of emergency saying that it has no intention of unnecessarily extending the period of emergency". He admitted ‘the road to victory may be long’.

Minister Gupta also said that there was no alternative left for the government than to declare the state of emergency after the Maoists broke their promise of cease-fire and resumed their violent attacks at the security personnel deputed for maintaining the law and order situation in the country.

The logic of Maoists’ earlier demands has now no meaning at all, Minister Gupta explained. "If they completely disarm and join the mainstream politics by respecting the present constitution, the present retaliatory action against them will be taken back," he clarified.

Asked about what was the government’s response regarding the Maoists’ call for international community to act as mediator for holding dialogue for peace, the government Spokesman said that he had no idea about that. "The government knows nothing about this," he said.

Meanwhile, he added, "At a time when neighbouring countries like India and China along with United States of America, United Kingdom and European Community have supported the government’s move against the Maoist and have declared that they were terrorists, there was no question of dialogue with them."

The Minister also informed that all the political parties were convinced about the present compulsion faced by the country and that they were sure to endorse the government’s decision and actions through House. "The political parties have been raising concern over the misuse of emergency. But I would like to assure that there will be no misuse of power and the government is very much alert in this regard."

Minister Gupta, in the mean time said that all the people from their respective fields should help the country fight against terrorism waged by the Maoists and others. He warned that any attempt to show differences between the head of the state and head of the government were not tolerable. "The government will initiate harsh measures against anyone who work with such malicious intentions," he said.

Minister Gupta, at the same time, appreciated the press and the civil society for helping the government in its fight against terrorism. He also maintained that the government was determined to disseminate information in a proper manner and he believed this was being done now.

The government has also initiated some measures to begin social and economic reforms in the country at this time when it is facing an emergency situation. "We have already taken steps towards this direction," Minister Gupta said. He explained that homework is being done for some long-term programmes, however, it is not that easy to initiate social reforms at once in a nation which has been moving forward with a phase wise planning, he cautioned.

Minister Gupta also informed that the government has remained sensitive towards the fact that development activities should not be hampered just because the expenditure for security reasons have increased in the present situation. He said that talks had been going on different stages with friendly nations and donor agencies and in this regard, "the government has received assurances from them".

Replying to questions raised by journalists regarding foreign direct investment in the media sector, Minister Gupta informed that the government has formed a committee to look into that matter and it has already begun its work.

He further said that he personally was against foreign investment, especially in the print media. "The domestic investment is already quite encouraging."

The interaction programme was presided over by Rishi Dhamala, president of Reporters’ Club-Nepal.

Explosives, guns seized

BY A STAFF REPORTER

Kathmandu, Dec 16: Security personnel, in their ongoing efforts to disarm and foil the Maoist terrorists’ violent attacks, seized a large number of guns, explosives, documents related to terrorist activities and combat dress from various Maoist terrorist hit areas of the country Saturday.

The joint search team of the Royal Nepalese Army and Nepal Police arrested at least 13 suspects and conducting investigation. According to a press release issued today by the Defence Ministry, separate joint search teams arrested four Maoist suspects from Jogbudha of Dadeldhura district, five from Daiji area of Kanchanpur and four from Bhachhek area of Gorkha district.