Kathmandu, July 15 (RSS): The popularly elected government can mobilise all security agencies under it to control growing violence and terrorism.

Various political party leaders, intellectuals, professors and legal practitioners at an interaction programme on " The Current Political Situation of the Country and Future Course" organised here today by the Nepal Contemporary Studies Centre, said since the Constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal 1990 has kept the Royal Nepalese Army under the control of His Majesty’s Government the latter can mobilise them whenever it is necessary.

The people-elected government can mobilise the army for the protection of nationalism and the people’s lives and property; it is not reasonable on the part of any one to bring the government plan to mobilise the army for those purposes under dispute, they said.

NC central member Narahari Acharya said that the government will not hesitate to hold unconditional talks with the Maoists if such talks become instrumental in protecting the country’s national independence and people’s freedom and do not lead to curtailment of the people’s rights.

However, the NC government will never hold talks with the Maoists if such talks are meant for belittling the achievements of the Popular Movement of 2046 B.S. and moving along the path of regression, he said, adding if the talks are meant for further promoting and consolidating the people’s rights, the Maoists may prepare themselves for such talks.

Stating that both the government and the Maoists should be clear about the objectives of such talks, NC central member Acharya said if the Maoists are demanding a constitutional amendment for further promoting and consolidating the people’s rights, the Nepali Congress is ready for that.

For a dialogue with the Maoists, the government should be able to represent the feelings of all political parties having faith in multi-party democracy, he opined.

RPP spokesman Kamal Thapa stressed the need for a minimum consensus on Maoist issue among all political parties and forces having faith in multi-party democracy to lift the country out of the existing atmosphere of violence and terror.

The Maoist activity is drawing sustenance from the voices of anger being raised against various anomalies and aberrations, he said, adding the government should build a united front of all parties which believe in multi-party democracy, and launch an integrated programme for social justice, good governance and economic and political development for the resolution of the Maoist problem.

Ishwor Pokhrel of CPN-UML was of the view that although the Maoist activity is marked by extremism, use of force will not help resolve the problem.

He also stressed the need for a minimum national consensus among all political parties on the Maoists issue to discourage the Maoists’ terrorist activity.

Hiranya Lal Shrestha of CPN-ML stressed the need for establishing social justice for the resolution of Maoist problem, while ex-speaker Daman Nath Dhungana called for strong political will among the political parties having faith in multi-party democracy for the resolution of the Maoist problem.

Various other professionals and intellectuals expressed the view that failure to make democracy people-oriented has given rise to terrorist activity.

Efforts to end Rolpa stand-off continue

Kathmandu, July 15: The army and the police have continued their cordon around the Nuwagaon area in Rolpa, where the Maoists are hiding along with 69 kidnapped police personnel, for the third day in a row today to rescue police personnel abducted by the terrorists and to recover the weapons seized by them.The Home Ministry has said that the security personnel are acting in a very patient manner and are showing enough flexibility to avoid any damage and in finding a peaceful means to the stand-off, considering the proposal that has reportedly come from the terrorists intending to free the kidnapped police personnel and to surrender the weapons looted.

A press statement issued by the Ministry today said despite adverse weather condition the security personnel are remaining in their positions with the objective of freeing the police personnel detained by the Maoists and recovering the arms looted by them.

The government had launched the search and rescue operation on Friday to free the police personnel by surrounding the area where the Maoists have been keeping the abducted policemen.

The Maoists had kidnapped the policemen and seized their weapons and goods in an attack on Thursday night at the Holeri Area Police Post of Rolpa district. In the attack one policeman was killed and two others were wounded.

The Home Ministry has also said that there has been no casualty so far. The Ministry has also cautioned all against the rumours and false reports of the situation in that area.

Meanwhile, according to the CDO of Rolpa the weather condition of the area is still wet and bad and there are no information coming from the area.

Garment entrepreneurs for economic diplomacy to boost export to US

Kathmandu, July 15: Readymade Garment entrepreneurs here have stressed the need for immediate and effective measures of economic diplomacy to boost the export to the US market.

The entrepreneurs’ comments have come in reaction to the budget for the fiscal year 2001/02 presented in the House on July 9.

"With its more than 90 per cent export going to the US market, it is high time Nepal launch effective efforts of economic diplomacy to get the facilities including the duty-free access that (Sub-Saharan) African countries are enjoying in the export to the US," first vice president of the Garment Association-Nepal (GAN) Kiran P. Sakha said.

According to the GAN general secretary Uday Raj Pandey, the Sub-Saharan countries under the Sub-Saharan African Growth Act from last year have been entitled to a duty-free and quota-free access to the US market.

Apart from the African nations with the per capita income of less than 1,500 US dollars, 34 Caribbean countries, Israel and a number of other individual countries are also enjoying this facility in their export trade with the US.

The current duty tariff applicable in the export to the US is 10-15 per cent and the existing quota system is being phased out after December 31, 2005.

"This is how Nepal will have really a tough time in the garment export," Pandey added.

They feared that the situation worsens if other competitor countries including Bangladesh get the facility from the US through economic diplomacy, making Nepali products more expensive and hence less competitive.

Apart from that, we should initiate lobbying to secure the facility," Kiran P. Sakha added.

"The garment association is ready to join hands with the government in this direction, as the slump in the export of garments, the largest export item of the country, will badly hit the national economy," said Sakha and Pandey.

According to GAN, the total readymade garment export amounted to Rs. 12.5 billion in the last fiscal year of 1999/2000.

That apart, the feared downfall of garment industry is likely to hit some 50,000 labourers involved in the industry.

Garments Association Nepal (GAN) has earlier said that the 0.50 per cent tax levied since last year on the income from export earnings has been raised this year to 0.75 per cent, while other countries competing in this field do not levy export tax, rather they provide the duty drawback facility.

In its official reaction to the budget, GAN said that this trend of increasing the tax every year would have an extremely negative impact on the competitive capacity of the industries.

The GAN release also expressed its resentment over no provision being made in the law even though various bodies had given the assurances to resolve the problem of releasing the remaining bank guarantee of various ready-garment industries (under the bonded warehouse facility) for the last 5 to 6 years.

"The guarantee release will benefit the exporters. It will not result in any revenue loss either," remarked Uday Raj Pandey.

"The recently introduced special tax on the transport and income tax has further burdened the industrialists," the association stated.

"The tax rise contradicts with the budget’s welcome plan to observe Export year-2003 and provisions on duty drawback refund," Sakha and Pandey said.

According to the GAN press release, the facility provided to clothes other than cotton that are also necessary for the ready-made garments industries have been withdrawn but it is seen that the competitive capacity of the clothes other than cotton used by the ready-made garments for re-export has been completely damaged.

No provision has been made for materialising HMG’s slogan of making arrangement of a dry port and export promotion zone, the association has mentioned in its reaction.

‘Nepal not doing well in fighting human trafficking’

BY KRISHNA SHARMA

Kathmandu, July 15: The recently released report of the U.S. State Department on Human Trafficking has listed Nepal as one of the 47 countries that have failed to meet the minimum standards set forth in the international law on trafficking but are making efforts to reach that standard.

The Department had prepared the report in response to legislation approved in October that calls for imposing economic sanctions in 2003 against countries that fail to take action against traffickers or to protect victims.

However, the Himalayan Kingdom has not fallen under 23 countries which, according to the report, are not doing well to combat international trafficking of human beings.

The 23 countries are: Albania, Bahrain, Belarus, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Burma, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Greece, Indonesia, Israel, Kazakstan, Lebanon, Malaysia, Pakistan, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Sudan, Turkey, United Arab Emirates and Yugoslavia.

And along with Nepal, the 47 countries in the report’s "second tier category" include Angola, Bangladesh, Benin, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, China, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Ethiopia, France, Georgia, Ghana, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, India, Ivory Coast, Japan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Lithuania, Macedonia, Mali, Mexico, Moldova, Morocco, Nigeria, Philippines, Poland, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovenia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Thailand, Togo, Uganda, Ukraine and Vietnam. The list of countries includes all South Asian countries except Bhutan and the Maldives.

It is estimated that about 700,000 people are transported across international borders every year to work in sweatshops, construction sites, brothels and fields. And there are thousands of Nepalese of both the sexes who are trafficked to other countries every year. Among the trafficked, according to Durga Ghimire of ABC-Nepal, an NGO fighting against trafficking in Nepal, majority is of women and children.

She told The Rising Nepal that it was utter poverty, ignorance, lack of employment opportunities, sex and caste wise discrimination, domestic violence, discriminating traditional and religious system, long standing open border between Nepal and India and lack of awareness as the leading reasons behind trafficking problem in Nepal.

As to the trend of the trafficking and the modern-day slavery she said that it was on the rise in the country. "According to recent survey the growing demand of Nepali girls aged between 15 to 30 in Indian brothels has led the sudden rise in the number of girl trafficking," she said.

Citing a survey conducted recently in India, Ghimire said 2.8 per cent of the girls in Indian brothels are from Nepal and the case of Bangladeshi girls is even higher with 2.9 per cent.

Ghimire opines that most of the trafficked men, women and children are led to India for manual works and sex trade. "Almost 90 per cent of the trafficked women and girl children are reported to have been taken to India. The rest of 10 are led to Arabian countries, Hong Kong and Bangkok," she said.

She further said that in the past there used to be girls from ethnic groups but from the statistics of the rescued Nepalese girls it has been found that the girls of all the castes and groups are being trafficked.

Although there used to be very few districts like Nuwakot, Kavrepalanchok, Sindhupalchok, Dhading and Makawanpur where the worst form of trafficking was found to be existing in the past. But according to government sources, the number of districts now has reached to as much as 26, where the trafficking activities are on the rise.

Since the past few years’ Ghimire’s NGO has been working on war footing to rehabilitate the Bombay-returned Nepalese women. Now her institution has extended its programmes by establishing transit counselling centres at different parts of the Kingdom, launching special education programmes for women, driving economic empowerment programmes and staging street dramas for economic betterment and awareness raising against human trafficking. The ABC-Nepal has so far staged 560 street dramas in 32 different districts on the burning issue of girl trafficking.

As to what should be done to combat and overthrow such a heinous crime from the country, she opines that the co-ordinated efforts from all levels — the government bodies, common people, NGOs and INGOs — could do a lot among other things.

"Despite having strict and stringent laws the government has not yet been able to address this problem seriously," Ghimire responded. The introduction and implementation of policies and programmes for educating all girls is what is sought as the most important task on the part of the government, she says.

"If the co-ordinated efforts are launched along with government’s seriousness to address this problem, we can easily solve the problem within few years and help save the image of the country," she adds.

Afforestation

in memory of

late Majesties

Nuwakot, July 15 (RSS):

On the occasion of the 45th day of the demise of His Majesty King Birendra, Her Majesty Queen Aishwarya, His Majesty King Dipendra and other members of the Royal Family, King Birendra Memorial Park Management Committee organised an afforestation programme at Ward No 9 Bijura Bazaar of Nuwakot Municipality today.

The local businessmen, intellectuals, journalists and workers of various political parties planted 300 sapling of different trees, according to chairman of King Birendra Memorial Park Management Committee Hitendradev Shakya.

Speaking on the occasion DDC chairman Bharat Prasad Dhungana and District Judge Indraman Karmacharya said that the King Birendra Memorial Park Management Committee should give proper attention to the protection of the trees being planted at the park.

On the occasion Ramhari Rimal was felicitated for his invaluable contribution to the conservation of natural resources.

The local residents have provided a financial assistance of Rs 100,000 for protection of the King Birendra Memorial Park, it is learnt from the management committee.

Meanwhile, on the occasion of the 45th day of the demise of His Majesty King Birendra, Her Majesty Queen Aishwarya, His Majesty King Dipendra and other members of the Royal Family, Himalayan Buddhist Foundation organised a function to pay tributes to the members of the deceased Royal Family here today.

On the occasion more than 1,000 the Buddhist Lamas and Bhikshus organised special prayers for eternal peace to the departed souls of Their Majesties the King and Queen.

Speaking from the chair vice-president of the Himalayan Buddhist Foundation Ang Wang Sherpa said that untimely demise of Their Majesties the King and Queen had caused an ireparable loss to the nation.

Personalities honoured

Kathmandu, July 15 (RSS): Chairman of Raj Parishad Standing Committee Dr Kesharjung Rayamajhi honoured educationists, social workers and freedom fighters with awards at a function organised on the occasion of the seventh anniversary of the JP Foundation today.

Those who were honoured on the occasion including Vice Chancellor of Tribhuwan University Dr Sureshraj Sharma, senior engineer Birendra Keshari Pokhrel, Eng. Muni Bahadur Shakya, educationist Dr Madhav Sharan Upadhyay Wagle and LB Gurung. Shawls were wrapped around them and citations presented.

On the occasion, Dr Rayamajhi spoke of the need for social organisations to lead society towards modernisation through education and said it is only through science and technology that quality education can be achieved.

Minister of State for Finance Gopal Rai stressed the need for social workers to play their role effectively in view of the present situation.

NC central member Bimalendra Nidhi, CPN (UML) member and MP Ishwor Pokhrel, foundation president Mitrasen Dahal and others also spoke at the function chaired by MP Bal Bahadur Rai.

Gratitude expressed

Kathmandu, July 15 (RSS): The meeting of Babuchhiri Memorial Academy adhoc committee has expressed gratitude to His Majesty’s Government honouring the late Babuchhiri Sherpa for his contribution and allocating a sum of Rs 10,000 a month for five years for the family members of the late Sherpa in the budget speech made in the Parliament session.

The meeting also extended warm gratitude to the various persons, foreigners and institutions extending cooperation for the welfare of the family members of the late Babuchhiri Sherpa.

 Encephalitis GS journos discuss crisis reporting

Kathmandu, July 15: An interaction programme organised today under the aegis  of Federation of Nepalese Journalists, Gorkhapatra Chapter, held discussion on ‘crisis reporting’.

Speaking at the programme held at the Gorkhapatra Corporation premises, resource persons—senior journalists Ramkrishna Regmi and Dhrubahari Adhikari— voiced that interactions and training programmes to reporters on ‘crisis reporting’ were lacking in the country.

"This interaction programme could be crucial and important one for the reporters because it has been organised at a time when the country is on a deep political and other crisis. It is so because the reporters here had never been accustomed to report in the time of crisis," said Ramkrishna Regmi.

In the West, the crisis reporting falls under special categories and reporters are provided special training for crisis reporting accordingly, Regmi said at the first monthly interaction programme of the Gorkhapatra journalists.

Talking about reporting techniques at the time of crisis, both journalists aired their views that the reporters should always be careful regarding the national interest, among other things.

Noted journalist Dhrubahari Adhikari said that despite lack of news sources and many other uncomfortable situations, the journalists should always focus on accurate and timely reporting.

Citing the unexpected June 1st Royal incident as an example, the senior journalists said that due to the inefficient handling of situation by the government following the incident, international news media, both print and electronic, went on reporting baseless and unfounded news.

"During the time of unexpected crisis, government’s concerned authority must act in wise manner to channel the information so that the wrong information would not be disseminated."

"If media do not have access to the accurate information, they go on weaving their own stories based on their conjectures thereby spreading wrong message about the events," Adhikari said.

Similarly, the Editor-in-Chief of Gorkhapatra daily, Shreeacharya said there must be a general understanding while disseminating news on sensitive issues because there may be difference of opinions regarding the sensitivity of news during the time of crisis.

The in-house interaction programme was attended by the journalists of the Gorkhapatra Corporation. The Gorkhapatra Chapter of the FNJ said that it would continue to organise such programmes on monthly basis. 

PADT Council approves budget

Kathmandu, July 15 (RSS): As designated by chairperson of the Pashupati Area Development Trust Governing Council Her Majesty Queen Komal Rajya Laxmi Devi Shah, vice chairman of the council Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, and Local Development Govind Raj Joshi held a meeting of the council today.

The meeting passed an annual budget of Rs. 246,915,906.00 including Rs 227,243,000 in development expenditure and Rs. 19,672,906 in general expenditure. Development expenditure occupies 92.03 per cent and the general expenditure 7.97 per cent.

Of the total budget, the government will provide a grant of Rs. 115,000,000 to the governing council, Rs. 61,977,000 will be raised by mobilizing internal resources and the remaining Rs. 69,938,906 in deficit will be met with the help of donors.

The programmes passed by the council include construction of a crematorium, acquisition of land, relocation of settlements, expansion of the Pashupatinath temple premises, preservation of monuments, promotion of tourist facilities, expansion of Aryaghat services, etc.

Road blocked at Krishnabhir

Dhading, July 15 (RSS): The road at Krishnabhir along the Prithvi Highway is being frequently blocked from 3 a.m. Saturday disrupting traffic movement and causing hardship to passengers.

According to Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) of the district police station Poorna Chandra Joshi, the road which was blocked due to landslide since 3 a.m. on Saturday was re-opened for traffic at 8 a.m.. A landslide blocked the road once again at 10.30 a.m. and traffic movement resumed only at 4 p.m. after clearing the debris.

According to engineer Ananta Poudyel of the Department of Roads, field office, Gajuri, 1 loader, 2 bulldozers and 1 excavator of the department has been pressed into service round the clock to clear the debris.

He further said that the obstruction of the road at present is attributed not only to the Krishnabhir landslide but also to the Pahrebabhir (precipice) landslide that lies between the Phurkekhola stream and Malekhu.

The debris from the Parebabhir landslide has been cleared and a bulldozer has been demanded to remove big boulders.