NEWS NOTES (Spotlight Weelky)

UML to Take to the Street

Leader of the main opposition and UML general secretary, Madhav Kumar Nepal, has said that his party will resort to street protests after boycotting the on-going dialogue with the government. Addressing a press meet here on Tuesday, Nepal announced that his party had decided to back out unilaterally from the table of dialogue with the high-level government committee headed by deputy Prime Minister Ram Chandra Poudel. "The government made us fool for nearly five months in the name of dialogue. Now there will be no more dialogue with Mr. Poudel," he said. Nepal said his party would no more remain a silent spectator to the Congress misrule. "We will take to the street, whatever be its result," he said. Compiled from reports, Aug. 2.

PROBE BODY TERMS AFTAB ALAM GUILTY

The Commission constituted to probe into the incident of fire at the house of the then Minister of State for Forest and Soil Conservation Mohammad Aftab Alam and abduction of a local UML leader, Jaya Prakash Kaushal, in Rautahat a few months back has concluded that the abduction of Kaushal had taken place with the approval of Mr. Alam in his presence. According to the report made public by the Home Ministry, there was no basis or evidence to believe that the then Minister was not involved or the vehicle of the forestry office was not used without his consent in the incident. Minister Alam resigned from his post on moral ground early this week as soon as the report has handed over to the Prime Minister. Main opposition, UML, had stalled the Parliament for nearly a week sometime back asking the government to constitute the judicial commission into the incident. Leading dailies report Aug. 4.

`MERGE ASEAN AND SAARC '

A senior politician from a South East Asian country has proposed to create an association by merging ASEAN and SAARC along with the addition of few other countries to develop Asia rapidly and uniformly. Jose De Venecia, former Speaker of parliament of the Philippines told a Kathmandu daily that all the Asian countries should resolve conflicts relating to sovereignty of nation and create political and economic integrity of peace, progress and prosperity. "We need to have a single mechanism to negotiate with other blocs," he said. Venecia is currently in Kathmandu to invite Nepali politicians to take part in the first International Conference of Asian political parties due to be held in Manila in September this year. Compiled from reports Aug. 4. (photo)

`NEPAL SHOULD DIVERSIFY HER EXPORT PRODUCTS'

Experts and officials have agreed that Nepal needs to diversify her export products in order to become competitive in the global market. Addressing a workshop organized on Thursday on ' integrated frameworks for trade related technical assistance for least developed countries ( LDCs),' experts said Nepal needed to introduce new programs to address the problems related to the export sector. Joint Secretary at the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies, Dr. Govinda Regmi said Nepal had a very low export diversification with around 70 percent of her export concentrated only on three exportable items, namely garment, carpet and pashmina. Organized jointly by Lalitpur Chamber of Commerce and Industry with the UNCTAD / WTO, the seminar aimed at exploring ways of donors' assistance to the LDCs to strengthen their trade related activities before they join multilateral trade regime under WTO. Leading dailies report Aug. 4.

NEARLY 100 PEOPLE KILLED IN THE FLOOD AND LANDSLIDE

Nearly 100 people have died and property worth Rs 120 million have been destroyed since the advent of monsoon more than two months ago, a senior official said. Home Minister Govinda Raj Joshi told the Parliament on Friday that 68 out of 75 districts in the country have been affected from the flood and landslide triggered by incessant monsoon rain. Minister Joshi said 8 persons have been missing and 60 persons were injured in the related incidents. He said nearly 3400 families and more than 1800 houses were affected from the flood and landslide. He said that bridges, roads, school buildings and private properties were destroyed due to flood and landslide. He said the government has already released Rs 8.2 million from the Central Natural Disaster Relief Fund to district committees in the affected districts. Leading dailies report Aug. 5.

BHUTANESE POLITICAL PARTIES GET DISAPPOINTED

Bhutanese political leaders in exile, who had pinned high hopes on Prime Minister Koirala's visit to India, have been disappointed to see that the joint press communique issued by Prime Ministers of both the countries did not touch the issue. "We are the ones who have been disappointed most out of the Nepali Prime Minister's visit," said Ratan Gajmere, convenor of AHURA Bhutan, a Bhutanese human rights group. Chairman of Bhutan Gorkha National Liberation Front D. B. Rana Sampang said now there is no other alternative than to resort to armed struggle. A Bhutanese security analyst, Rakesh Chhetri, said now there is no other alternative to Bhutanese refugees than to launch an integrated struggle to resolve the problem. Nearly 100,000 Bhutanese refugees are languishing in the camps in eastern Nepal for the last one decade. Nepal Samacharpatra Aug. 5.

`BANDH' PASSES OFF RELATIVELY PEACEFULLY

The Kathmandu valley almost came to a standstill on Wednesday following the `bandh' (shutdown strike) called by half a dozen sister organizations of the opposition, CPN (ML). Most of the public and private vehicles kept off the road whereas schools, colleges and businesses remained closed. APARANHA daily, an eveninger, reported that activists belonging to the left party threw stones at the vehicles plying in the roads and destroyed more than one dozen vehicles. Police have arrested nearly two dozen people from Kathmandu and Bhaktapur for being engaged in vandalism. The organizers had called the strike to protest against the recently passed citizenship amendment Act by the Parliament and construction of Laxmanpur barrage by India that has resulted into inundation of villages in mid-western Nepal. No major violence was reported during the course of the strike. Leading dailies report Aug. 3.

MINISTER JOSHI DEFENDS THE CITIZENSHIP BILL

A senior official has refuted opposition charges that a new legislation passed by the Parliament amending the existing citizenship Act is likely to be misused by the non-Nepalis. At a press conference on Tuesday, Home Minister Govinda Raj Joshi said the Bill was for providing citizenship papers to those Nepalis whose fathers had, for one reason or another, failed to obtain their citizenship. "It is not for foreigners," he said. Prevailing citizenship laws require that Nepalis wishing to obtain hereditary citizenship must produce their father's citizenship certificates. Mothers' certificates are not valid. The Home Minister said most of the problems related to citizenship were confined to the Terai region The Act provides for stringent punishment if abused, said the Minister. The Bill was passed amidst walk out by the opposition in the Parliament last week. Compiled from reports Aug. 3.

KHADKA LAUNCHES SIGNATURE CAMPAIGN

An influential member of the Koirala cabinet, Minister of Water Resources, Works and Physical Planning, Khum Bahadur Khadha has started a campaignwithin his party to pressurize the premier. In a meeting of Nepali Congresslawmakers said to be close to Khadka at Hotel Sita in the capital on Sunday, the dissident lawmakers have said they would propose Koirala on Monday to choose between the post of Prime Minister or Party President. If he declines the proposal, a proposal will be registered at the NC's parliamentary party to dislodge Koirala from the post of Prime Minister. Koirala's main competitor, former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, is closely watching the move of Khadka. A source close to Koirala said Khadka may have been agitated as the Prime Minister has remained silent regarding his claim to the Home Ministry. Sources said Koirala is going to reshuffle his cabinet soon. Kantipur Aug. 7.