News Notes (Spotlight Weekly)

Prachanda Hints At Possibility Of Cease-Fire

On the eve of Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba's visit to India to discuss, among other things, possible cooperation to contain the insurgency back home, top Maoist leader Comrade Prachanda has said he is willing to observe a cease-fire and sit for negotiations if the government makes an honest effort to find a way out of the state of emergency. Rajdhani daily on Saturday quoted a statement faxed by the underground organization in which Prachanda has assured to withdraw its call for five-day nationwide general strike next month (April 2-6). "If a conducive political environment is created, we are ready to halt hostilities anytime," Prachanda said. However, he did not explain what he meant by a conducive environment. In a separate development, Kantipur daily reported on Saturday that ruling Nepali Congress president Girija Prasad Koirala and other leaders of major political parties have been approached by the Maoist leadership to end the emergency and return the military to the barracks. More than 900 Maoists have been killed since the emergency was imposed in November. On Thursday, Koirala explained that he had raised the issue of amending the constitution in parliament in an attempt to bring the Maoists into the political mainstream. Compiled from reports March 17.

Journos, Rights Workers Arrested

Security forces have taken into custody two journalists and three human rights activists from different parts of the country, reports said. Security personnel arrested editor of pro-left Mulyankan monthly Shyam Shrestha and human rights activists Dr. Mahesh Maskey and Pramod Kafley from the Tribhuvan International Airport Saturday afternoon as they were on their way to New Delhi to take part in a seminar, Kantipur daily reported. The seminar was being organized by Ananda Swarup Verma of the Nepal Concern Group, which is said to be close to the CPN-Maoists and India's People's War Group. Earlier, half a dozen plainclothes men abducted Ramnath Mainali, a human rights activist and legal advisor to the pro-Maoist Janadesh weekly, from his residence at Maitidevi in Kathmandu, Kantipur daily reported. Krishna Prasad Siwakoti, general secretary of the Forum for the Protection of Human Rights, has demanded the immediate release of Mainali, a central council member of the forum. In a separate incident, security forces raided the office of Naya Yugbodh daily in the mid-western district of Dang at around 11p.m. Saturday and took into custody Narayan Prasad Sharma, the daily's editor. Sharma was released after an hour-long interrogation at a local army barracks, reports said. Compiled from reports March 17.

'Maoists Could Have Alliance With India'

Main opposition CPN-UML leader Madhav Kumar Nepal has alleged that Maoist insurgents could have an "alliance" with India. Referring to a recent interview of senior Maoist leader Krishna Bahadur Mahara in an Indian newspaper, Amar Ujala, Nepal said his party could not tolerate "outside forces" (read India) interfering in Nepal's independence, sovereignty and internal affairs. "Do they (India) want to build a ëSouth Village' thinking that the existence of smaller nations has no meaning to them?" he asked at a program in the capital on Friday. Mahara, who headed the Maoists delegation to peace talks with the government last year, is quoted as saying in the interview that India should allow Hindus to build a temple in the disputed land of Ayodhya. Mahara also said that the Pakistani intelligence agency, ISI, could enter Nepal to spread terrorism, adding: "The Maoists will stop the ISI from doing so." The UML leader accused the Maoists of being "opportunists and a luxury-seeking lot who have forgotten they are Nepalese citizens". He said the Maoists' activities, detrimental to Nepal's sovereignty, were being exposed one after another. Kantipur March 16.

Sub-Regional Cooperation Stressed

Officials from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal have agreed in principle to work jointly for the development of the transport sector in the sub-region. At a two-day meeting in Kathmandu, officials from the four countries said their governments were positive toward the proposal. Addressing the meeting, deputy resident representative of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in Kathmandu, Chong Chi Nai, said the development of an overland transport network linking north-western Bangladesh, Kakarbhitta (Nepal), West Bengal (India) and Bhutan would be in consonance with the spirit of sub-regional cooperation. Madhav Ghimire, a senior official at the Finance Ministry, said India should play a key role in turning this concept into reality. The ADB hinted that it could provide financial assistance to develop a transport network in the sub-region. Kantipur daily reports.

Makalu-Barun Project Hampered

All activities of the world renowned Makalu-Barun National Park (MBNP) have come to a standstill after Maoist rebels attacked its headquarter at Seduwa village in the eastern hilly district of Sankhuwasabha last month. Quoting park officials, Kantipur daily reported that the rebels had attacked four other site offices, paralyzing the project's activities. Officiating chief of the park, Bishnu Chapagain, who now operates from the district headquarters, Khandbari, said he had not been able to mobilize his field staff in the rural parts of the district due to security reasons. Jointly developed by a US non-governmental organization, Woodland Mountain Institute, and the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation, the project was handed over to the government two years ago. Compiled from reports.

'Highest Number Of Journos In Detention'

Nepal has earned the dubious distinction of being a country with one of the highest number of journalists and media persons under detention, an international agency said. Talking to reporters at a press meet organized here by the Center for Human Rights and Democratic Studies last week, head of the Asia Pacific desk of Reporters sans Frontiers (RSF), a Paris-based international press freedom watchdog, Vincent Brossel, said over 100 media persons had been interrogated or detained since the proclamation of emergency in Nepal over the last four months. At least 28 were still in detention, he said. Brossel said RSF had observed with satisfaction that the main private newspapers and FM radio stations were not facing major censorship from the government. But he said his organization strongly protested against the abuse of the human rights and violations of the principles of the constitution. Brossel urged the authorities to release the 28 journalists and media professionals if there is no strong evidence that they are directly involved with the Maoist party. He also demanded an end to the arrest of journalists and urged the government to allow Nepalese and international reporters travel freely to the insurgency-affected areas. Brossel said he had met Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and members of Nepalese media and human rights community during his visit. Compiled from reports.

Minister Gupta Blasts National Daily

Minister for Information and Communications Jaya Prakash Prasad Gupta has accused Space Time daily of character assassination, in what is being seen as the latest episode of a two-year-old conflict between the minister and newspaper owners. As soon as he returned from a meeting of South Asian information ministers in Islamabad last week, Gupta issued a press statement saying that "it is indeed hard to stop the kind of journalism, running with wealth amassed from invisible sources, from becoming an instrument of character assassination." The minister said the news report in the daily saying that Nepal had entered an agreement to allow foreign direct investment from Pakistan was completely baseless. In a front-page editorial, the daily said the story was based on what was already published in the influential Pakistani newspaper, Dawn. Gupta and Space Time Pvt. Ltd, which runs the newspaper, have been locked in a duel ever since the minister denied an uplinking license to Channel Nepal, a private TV channel promoted by the company. Compiled from reports.