News Notes (Spotlight Weekly)

Interpol Issues "Red Corner" Notice

The International Police (Interpol) has issued a Red Corner notice, at the request of the Nepal Police-- against top Maoist leadership including its chairman Puspa Kamal Dahal alias Prachanda and Dr. Babu Ram Bhattarai. A police official here told reporters Monday that eight top members of the Maoist party had been placed on the Interpol's Red Corner notice that would enable authorities to arrest them in any one of the 179 Interpol member nations and extradite them to Nepal. Those who have been placed on the Red Corner notice include Pushpa Kamal Dahal (Chitwan), Babu Ram Bhattarai (Gorkha), Chandra Prakash Gajurel (Sindhuli), Mrs. Pampha Bhusal (Arghakhanchi), Agni Prasad Sapkota (Sindhupalchowk), Rit Bahadur Khadka (Dolakha) and Devendra Parajuli. While Parajuli is chief of the pro-Maoist student organization, Rit Bahadur Khadka has reported been killed during an encounter with security forces a few weeks back. Similarly another 40 Central Level Maoist leaders and advisors have been placed on Diffusion Notice that would enable police to keep surveillance on these people in other countries. Meanwhile, Police said they had made they had taken into custody four pro-Maoist students allegedly involved in the bombing of NC party office led by premier Deuba on July 5. Ten people were injured in the explosion. Leading dailies report Aug. 13.

Govt. Proposes To Hold Local Elections

Amid growing pressure from various donor agencies to fix the date for local bodies' elections, the Ministry of Local Development has requested the Election Commission (EC) to hold elections within this fiscal year (i. e. mid-July 2003). A statement issued by the Ministry on Tuesday said that it has already sent the communication in this regard to the EC and that it will make alternative arrangements to run the local bodies soon. Nearly All 3,913 Village Development Committees (VDCs), 75 District Development Committees(DDCs) and 58 Municipalities are presently without elected representatives after the government decided last month not to extend their tenure beyond mid-July, when their five year term expired. Representatives of the donor community had warned that they would stop funding to decentralization program of the government if dates for elections for the local bodies were not announced immediately. The government, however, seems to have rejected the donor community's proposal to hold mid-term and local bodies' polls simultaneously in order to save time and scarce resources. Compiled from reports Aug. 7.

Experts Criticize The WB Edcision

Experts and officials have criticized the World Bank's recent move to inform riparian countries; China, India and Bangladesh, before sanctioning loans to set up a hydropower development fund in Nepal. They termed the WB Nepal office's "Internal official" move to start correspondence with the riparian countries as "irresponsible" and expressed concerns that Nepal's development process could go out of its hand if such practice continued. "It is an irresponsible move to start correspondence with the riparian countries from the Nepali land on Nepal's behalf and to assert that it is purely an internal manual statement," said water resource expert and Chief Commissioner at the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) Surya Nath Upadhyay. Experts speaking at the 11th 'Panee Satsang' (Water Forum) here Tuesday also said that it's time Nepal thought of ways to negotiate with the World Bank, its policies, contributions for Nepal's development and Nepal's relations with it. The WB had recently clarified that the riparian countries were notified because the bank needed to inform them before putting in the seed money for the Power Development fund (PDF). Compiled from reports Aug. 7.

Bhanubhakta Award Reinstated

India's West Bengal state government has decided to revive the Bhanubhakta Puraskar that it had discontinued under pressure from Gorkha National Liberation Front leader Subhas Ghising some 15 years ago. Noted critic Indra Bahadur Rai, who was in the forefront of the movement for inclusion of the Nepali language in the Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution, has been selected for this year's award. The Puraskar holding Rs. 25,000 as cash prize is given to people engaged in the fields of literature, music and art. The controversy over Bhanubhakta first arose when Ghising tried to rename the Nepali language as Gorkha bhasa (language). He argued that the rejection of Nepal-born Bhanubhakta and adoption of Gorkha as the name of the Nepali race and language in India would give Nepali-speaking Indians an identity distinct from that of the people of Nepal. However, Poet Bhanubhakta is revered as the greatest of all great Nepalis in the Darjeeling hills where his first statue was installed way back in 1949. Compiled from reports.

UML Constitutes Committee

Aspiring to bag majority in the mid-term polls after its main rival, Nepali Congress underwent vertical split, the CPN-UML on Friday has constituted an 11-member election manifesto drafting committee led by its general secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal. Other members of the Committee include Bharat Mohan Adhikari, Jhalnath Khanal, KP Oli, Bamdev Gautam, Modnath Prashit, Ishwor Pokhrel, Sitanandan Raya, Astha Laxmi Shakya, Subash Nemwang and Raghuji Panta. The 29th Central Committee meeting of the party also criticized the caretaker government for what it said repeated violation of the election code. "The ruling Nepali Congress, even to this day, has been compelling civil servants to attend its public meetings, misusing state-owned media, not abiding by the directives of the Election Committee (EC), transferring and appointing chief district officers and civil servants, and rampantly abusing state mechanism," the party said. The party also accused the government of patronizing timber smuggling. Widespread timber smuggling is taking place in Kanchanpur, Kailali, Dadeldhura, Banke and Sarlahi districts. In Laljhadi jungle of Baise Chituwa in Rupandehi district alone 1,400 immature sal trees have been felled and thousands of Sisau were cut down along the banks of Bagmati canal in Sarlahi. Likewise trees are being cut down haphazardly in railway line of Dhanusha district, the party alleged. Compiled from reports.

Thapa To Succeed General Rana

King Gyanendra has designated Lt. General Pyar Jung Thapa to the post of acting chief of the army staff, the Defense Ministry announced Thursday. According to the Ministry, Mr. Thapa was taking over the post as General Prajwolla Shumsher JB Rana was retiring on September 9 and was going on leave from August 9 as per the tradition of the Royal Nepalese Army, RSS news agency reported. A graduate from British Royal Military Academy, Thapa, 55, has also undergone training on warfare in the US and India. Having served as UN peace-keeper in former Yugoslavia and Lebanon, Mr. Thapa was also in-charge of counter-insurgency operations against the Maoists at the army headquarters. Compiled from reports (Aug. 9).

Former Gurkha Wives To Knock British Court

Nearly 18,000 wives of former British Gurkha soldiers are preparing to file petitions at a British court seeking compensations against what they said discriminatory policies of the British government. According to Gurkha Army Ex-Servicemen's Organization (GAESO), the lawsuits would be filed at the London High Court by within a few weeks. GAESO Secretary Mahendra Rai alleged that the British government had violated its own laws by not allowing ex-British Gurkhas to spend more than three years of their 15-year service period with their spouse and children. "If the Gurkhas' claims are upheld, the British Defense Ministry could face an estimated bill of two billion pounds for equalizing the pay and pensions, AFP news agency reported. Compiled from reports.

EU Allocates Quota

The European Union (EU) has allocated an annual quota of 8,900 tons of raw (unprocessed) sugar (worth Rs 250 million at the current market rate) to the European market beginning next year under its "Everything but Arms" scheme for the Least Developed Countries, a leading daily reported Friday. According to the news report, a framework of agreement to this effect has already been signed and the Nepalese government has authorized state-owned National Trading Limited as its business representative. As per the agreement, Nepal needs to deliver the first consignment by April 2003. LDCs can enjoy the facility till 2009. Meanwhile, officials said they were considering allowing concessional import of sugar to meet the domestic demand. The annual domestic demand in the country stands at almost 130,000 tonnes whereas annual production of sugar is only around 100,000 tonnes. Kantipur Aug. 9.

"The State Of Emergency Should Be Removed:" Nepal

Leader of the main opposition CPN (UML) in the dissolved House of Representatives, Madhav Kumar Nepal, has demanded that the state of emergency should be removed immediately in the wake of Supreme Court's Tuesday's decision paving way for mid-term polls. In an interview with the mouthpiece of the party immediately after the Supreme Court verdict on Tuesday, the UML General Secretary said that people's fundamental rights should be restored immediately in order to allow political parties to reach to the people without any obstruction. The former deputy prime minister said the forthcoming elections due to be held on November 13 this year will give a new alternative to the country. Mr. Nepal said his party would hold dialogue with other political parties in order to ensure free and fair polls. We will discuss on the issue of winning confidence of Nepal's friends who want to see strengthening of democracy in Nepal, he said. Responding to another question, Mr. Nepal said many people did not believe that the Deuba government would hold fair polls. Rastriya Prajatantra Party has already demanded formation of an "election government." While proposing for amendment in the constitution we had also raised the issue of "election government" to conduct polls. Now there is the need to take a concrete decision in this regard, Mr. Nepal said. Budhabar Aug. 7.