NATIONAL 3 -(Spotlight Weekly)

Under Fire

Maoist insurgents target NTC terminals in the remote hills

The state-owned Nepal Telecommunications Corporation (NTC) hired the services of the Royal Nepalese Army nearly two years back after the Maoist insurgents tried to blow away its repeater stations in their strongholds.There were no more attacks on NTC towers since then, as the Maoists avoided confrontation with the army. But as soon as the Maoists started targeting the army last month, the NTC towers found themselves on the Maoist firing line again.

According to technicians, Tulsipur in mid-western district of Dang, for example, has a telephone exchange, which can provide telephone lines only within a 7 km radius. Now there is demand of say, 10 telephone lines in Libang. What the NTC does is collect 10 telephone lines in Tulsipur exchange, bundle them together in one stream and using the microwave tower, transmit to Libang. In this process, Tulsipur's tower needs to see the Libang tower directly. This is called Line of Sight (LOS) propagation of microwave signal.

Rally on Human Rights Day : We want peace

As we can't see the Libang station directly from Tulsipur, NTC has to choose one or more places in between Tulsipur and Libang to place a repeater station, say two places at A and B. Now, Tulsipur's tower sends signal to repeater station at A and A again re-transmits the signal to B and then B finally transmits to Libang station.

In this process, Tulsipur is in Line of Sight (LOS) with A, A is in LOS with B and B is in LOS with Libang. If the Maoists blow up repeater A, then B and Libang will be down completely. In case B is serving some other districts as well, then all of them will be down too. Radio broadcasts on the AM and short wave bandwidths do not require LOS. Those signals can bend as they propagate depending on the type of terrain.

These repeater stations do not have any military significance, unless they are modified to install some military surveillance system, said experts. However, for the purpose of maintenance, there is always one extra telephone line on the repeater station so that a technician can talk to another technician from one station to any other station.

The repeater station at Raatmate in Rolpa is located at a height of 9,000 ft. above sea level and is crucial in providing telephone connections to three district headquarters, including Rolpa, Rukum and Jajarkot. "There have been minor damage in the Maoist attacks at this repeater station and we can maintain it soon," an NTC official told SPOTLIGHT.

Installing of a repeater station costs up to Rs 2 million depending on how many links are going out from it. The NTC has an extended network of telephone communications in up to 1800 VDCs of the country and has more than 600 terminals to support its MARTS facility. But recent terrorist attacks at the NTC have not only added to its security expenses, they have also hampered its expansion plans, said officials.

CHINESE SUPPORT
Meaningful Message

Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan called Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba to reiterate his government's support for the measures, including the state of emergency, taken by the Nepalese government to maintain peace and stability in the country. According to the Foreign Ministry, Minister Tang extended his support during a telephone conversation with Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba Saturday morning.

The Chinese Minister made it clear that neither the Communist Party nor any entity of the Chinese government had any link with the terrorists of Nepal. Though he did not specify any particular organization, it was obvious that the senior Chinese official was referring toward the Maoist guerrillas in Nepal whom the Nepal government has already termed as terrorists.

Prime Minister Deuba informed Tang about the compelling reasons leading to the declaration of the state of emergency despite the sincere efforts of the government to resolve the problem through peaceful negotiations. Meanwhile, RAJDHANI daily reported that the Chinese Minister was especially worried about the use of the word 'Mao' by the CPN (Maoist) of Nepal. Recently, some Indian media reports had tried to link the Maoist movement in Nepal as being supported by China. By dissociating itself from the so-called Maoist movement in Nepal, China has stood firmly in favor of peace, stability and development in Nepal.

Earlier, a Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman had said the Chinese government was concerned about the events in Nepal and was watching the latest developments here carefully. The Chinese are also said to be concerned that no foreign power tries to put Nepal under its so-called 'security umbrella' taking benefit of the unwarranted developments in Nepal. Unfortunately, the "Maoist insurgency" has given fertile ground to such ill designs.