News Notes (Spotlight Weekly)

Over 2,000 Schools Shut Due To Violence

Over 2,000 schools, including nearly 200 state-subsidized schools, have shut down due to Maoist threat and intimidation over the last seven years, a human rights organization said. Informal Sector Service Center (INSEC), a Kathmandu-based human rights organization, said that more than 250,000 students have been affected due to shutdown of the schools. "Over 60,000 students have been affected due to shutdown of schools in the mid-western district of Surkhet alone," said Subodh Pyakyrel, general secretary of INSEC. The Maoists have killed dozens of school teachers, beaten them up and recruited children as soldiers, the organization said. Member of the National Human Rights Commission, Sushil Pyakurel, said that the Commission was going to conduct a study to measure the impact of the so-called people's war on schools. Meanwhile, the student wing of the underground Maoists, ANNFSU (Revolutionary), has called an indefinite strike in academic institutions beginning December 9. Compiled from reports Nov. 23.

Pandey

"King Willing To Work With Parties:" Pandey

Three day after the "unilateral" expansion of the Chand cabinet by King Gyanendra, a senior minister has claimed that the King is still willing to collaborate with the political parties. Newly appointed Minister for Information and Communications Ramesh Nath Pandey said that His Majesty was committed to work jointly with the political parties in the country. "Political parties are the life line of a democratic system. Present problems in the country can't be resolved by destroying their role," Pandey told reporters at the Reporters' Club of Nepal Thursday. He said that major political parties should extend their support to the incumbent government in order to maintain law and order and hold elections both to the parliament and local bodies at the earliest. Replying to a query regarding prospects of dialogue between the government and Maoist insurgents, Minister Pandey said any type of dialogue demands discipline. Both the sides in dialogue present their agenda on the table of negotiations. Such a problem can be resolved through 'quiet diplomacy.' If we resort to 'pres diplomacy' then we come across the situation of last year (when the government-Maoist dialogue had failed after three rounds of talks), he said. He also assured that the government would not do anything so as to curtail press freedom in the country. Himalaya Times Nov. 22.

Artiste Pant Resigns

Popular television artiste and a comedian, Santosh Pant, has resigned from his post of `subedar' (junior officer) at the Royal Nepalese Army days after the Maoists issued warning against him. In a public statement issued last week, the rebels had warned him to resign from the post within one week. Pant was producing a program on behalf of the RNA denouncing Maoist activities. Pant cited family problems as the reason for his resignation. He, however, said that he would continue producing 'Hijo Aajka Kura,' a popular weekly entertainment program aired over the state-run Nepal Television. Not a single group of cine artistes, that were making hue and cry over the "suicide" case of an actress Shrisha Karki, has come forward to denounce Maoist threat against the artistes. Analysts see Pant's resignation as a burning example of Nepalese citizens, including those attached to the RNA, being intimidated and threatened by the armed insurgent group. Compiled from reports Nov. 21.

Children Suffer From Violent War

More than 100 children are reported to have been killed and thousands of others have been orphaned and displaced due to the Maoist war, reports said. More than 7,000 people have been killed since Maoists began an insurgency seven years ago to establish a communist state in Nepal. The violence has orphaned 1,500 children while 3,000 have been displaced after their parents fled to relatively safer towns. Maoist rebels have been blamed for using children in the battle front. An international child rights group, the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, said that children normally begin working as porters and messengers, and then often end up on the frontline. Security forces have also been accused of victimizing innocent children on suspicion of collaborating with the rebels. Compiled from reports Nov. 22.

NBL Sets Deadline For Golchha Group To Pay Dues

Nepal Bank Limited (NBL)-the oldest commercial bank in the country-has asked Golchha Organization-a leading business house-to pay debt worth nearly Rs 2000 million in less than a week. Newly hired Chief Executive Officer of the bank, J Craig Mac Alistar, confirmed that the Bank had asked the Golchha group to pay its dues worth Rs 1680 million inclusive of both principal and interest by November 25. If the group fails to pay back its dues, it will be black-listed and legal actions would be taken against them, bank officials said. The bank has also asked a number of so-called big business houses including Amatya group that owns Phulbari resort and spa in Pokhara to pay their debt. Out of nearly 20 billion rupees invested by the bank till the end of last fiscal year, nearly Rs 11 billion stands as bad debt, bank officials disclosed. The government had recently handed over the management of NBL to ICC bank of Scotland for a period of two years in order to reform and make it competitive. Space Time Nov. 22.

NTC To Expand Mobile Phone Service

The state-owned Nepal Telecommunications Corporation (NTC) is working on to expand its cellular mobile service and introduce pre-paid and continue post-paid system in order to make it competitive, officials said. According to Madan Kaji Shakya, Chief of New Services Directorate at the NTC, the expansion would be made within three weeks in a phase-wise manner. In order to expand the cell phone service, the state-run operator has already installed new equipment and has tested it successfully. Shakya said that the NTC has now an additional 50,000 cell phone connection capacity besides the existing 25,000 mobile phones in operation. The services are based on Global System of Mobile Communication (GSM) technology. With the distribution of the additional 50,000 connections and the introduction of the new system the costs for cell phone users are expected to go down and quality of the service will improve, officials said. Shakya said that the service would be provided in the first phase in the capital and Dharan and in the urban areas in between Kathmandu to Kakarbhitta and Kathmandu to Pokhara in the second phase. Compiled from reports Nov. 21.

Donor's Prescription

Leading development partners of Nepal made it clear that their continued support to Nepal would depend very much on holding of early elections to parliament and local bodies here. During a meeting convened by Prime Minister Lokendra Bahadur Chand at his office on Monday, the donor community also expressed concerns about the escalation of Maoist violence in the country. During the meeting, donors also stressed that the resolution of the present conflict should be backed by the political consensus and added that the future aid would depend upon the establishment of a clear track record of Immediate Action Plan (IAP) and speeding up economic reforms programs. The donor community strongly stressed the need to improve slow implementation of policy reforms, poor service delivery and check serious leakage of public resources. Responding to donors' concerns, Prime Minister Chand said that government was committed to hold free and fair elections for the House of Representatives as well as the local bodies as soon as the peace is restored. He, however, indicated no time frame for restoring peace, a job which his government has been assigned with. The premier said that the government was serious about improving governance and accelerating anti-corruption drive. Compiled from reports Nov. 21.

PM Chand

Red Corner Notice Against Maoist Leaders

Interpol has issued 'Red Corner Notices' against three more leaders of Communist Party of Nepal - Maoist, including politburo member of the underground party, Krishna Bahadur Mahara, Matrika Yadav and Post Bahadur Bogati. The Interpol has already issued similar notices against eight other top Maoist leaders, including chairman Prachanda and Maoist ideologue Dr Baburam Bhattarai, on August 14. The development came just two days after Mahara gave an exclusive interview to CNN television and claimed that they were not terrorists. According to the Interpol website (< HYPERLINK "http://www.interpol.int" <www.interpol.int>), Mahara, 44, and Bogati, 60, have been charged with offences related to terrorism, and arrest warrant against them was issued initially by the District Administration Office, Surkhet. Similarly, Yadav, 55, has been charged with offences related to murder and terrorism, and the arrest warrant against him was issued initially by the District Administration Office, Gorkha. Compiled from reports Nov. 18.

Maoists Claim Responsibility

Underground Maoist rebels have claimed responsibility for the murder of two Nepalese security staff at the US embassy in Kathmandu over the period of last one year. They have also clarified that their party has the policy of not targeting diplomats and tourists during the course of their violent movement. In a statement issued Friday, Kathmandu bureau of the underground Maoist party claimed that they were responsible for the murder of two security staff, Dipak Pokhrel, and Ramesh Manandhar, at the local US embassy for allegedly working as police informers. Pokhrel was killed at his residence in Kathmandu last week while Manandhar was shot dead in the capital last year. The party, however, said it was not responsible for the bomb-throwing incident at the residence of president of Royal Council standing committee, Dr. Keshar Jung Rayamajhi, last Wednesday. The security personnel had shot dead the person trying to throw bomb inside the official residence of Dr. Rayamajhi. The Maoist party also made it clear that they have never targeted diplomatic community or the tourists visiting Nepal. The Maoist clarification comes amid reports that suspected Maoist rebels were involved in extortion and physical abuse of foreign trekkers and expeditioners in Nepalese hills and mountains. Compiled from reports Nov. 17.

One Year Passes After Dang Assault

A year has passed since the Maoists launched a daring assault on the Dang military barracks on November 25 last year, which triggered the imposition of emergency state in the country. After this incident, which followed the unilateral walk-out by the Maoists from the table of negotiations, the government declared them as terrorists. In that November assault of the last year, Maoists killed more than a dozen soldiers and looted arms and ammunitions. Compiled from reports.