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INTERVIEW |
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INTERVIEW |
“US Wants To Continue Supporting Nepal In Its Current Struggle And Hardship” — Christina Rocca The United States Assistant
Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs Christina Rocca recently completed her third
visit to Nepal. Before leaving Nepal, Rocca discussed various issues confronting Nepal in
a frank and candid manner with media persons. Excerpts of her discussions expressed at the
interaction program as complied by KESHAB POUDEL: I have not been here for a year and there
have been a lot of events in the last year. This is the first opportunity I had to come
here this year. So in many ways my trip here was to get an update on what is going
on here. Nepal has a great interest in the US administration and there is a lot of focus
on it. So this is one of the reason, I look forward to hearing your perspective as well
because everything I hear both in my meetings and interactions like this helps us to
formulate policy in Washington. With respect to the specific messages that I have; they
really boil down to a couple. One is that the US wants to continue supporting Nepal and
the people of Nepal in its current struggle and hardship. We also believe that it is
critical for this nation that the constitutional parties come together and find a way to
work out their differences and face the main threat, which is the Maoist insurgency. And
also by the same token, we want to continue the security assistance in order to help
combat this terrorist threat because that is how we view it as you are probably aware that
we placed the Maoist on terrorist financial list. Essentially, it permits freezing the
assets wherever we have access to it. It is also critically important that the democratic
forces here find the way to deal with the issue. I don't consider Maoist as a democratic
force. This requires for them to deal with the Maoist as the future of Nepal is at stake.
That's what we are looking at. Well ultimately this will be for the people of Nepal to
decide. We would like to encourage the various constitutional elements. You got
constitutional monarchy, political parties and security forces. We like to encourage the
entire parties to find out a way for some kind of reconciliation in order to join hands to
face this very serious threat. On This Visit Unfortunately, I still have the same
message. I think there definitely was an understanding of relationship and understanding
of needs. I did not see, necessarily, a clear way forward. I think the potential is
definitely there. Obviously, the democracy is very essential element in Nepal and we would
like to see it come faster back on track. On Lucknow Meet India clearly has an interest in what
happens in this country since there is an open border. I think we have similar goals for
Nepal in terms of desire to see successful and a stable democracy here. The visit (of UML
leader Madhav Kumar Nepal and Maoist leaders) just took place. However, India is a very
strong partner of the United States on the war on terror. We feel that they will fight it
any way they can. Meeting With Indian Ambassador I explained and told him about my visit
here. We are closely consulting with India in a number of issues in the region including
South Asia as a whole. Meeting with Political leaders I don't want to go into the details of the
privileged communication with anyone person. But, I think there is a certain understanding
of threat facing the nation and that gives us some hope that there is a way forward.
I really don't want to get into any specific meeting. War On Terror I want to make it clear that our president
and everybody else in the administration have already said that the war on terror is a
very long-term effort. It cannot be solved with the arrest of one man and there are plenty
of other forces out there. I don't see the war on terror ending anytime soon. I think the
basis of Maoist insurgency would be solved. We have been working in Nepal for fifty years
and the USAID has been here for a long time working in different development projects.
There is no reason to think that some body is going to stop. There is conflict in Nepal,
which is critical to regional stability. Request for Nepalese troops in Iraq There is absolutely no request for Nepalese
troops in Iraq. Despite the headlines, I have not come here with that agenda. Obviously,
Iraq comes up during conversation. But this is the decision of the people of Nepal and
nobody else can decide what they have to do. We have a number of countries helping us in
Iraq and they will make their decision based on what they are able to do. Having said that
we have very grateful to any nation that helps us in Iraq. On SAARC We have very close cooperation with every
member of SAARC. We have very good On US Support I have made it very clear that the US
support is to the people of Nepal. We are supportive of democratic way forward. We also
think that there should be a way to do it since all the democratic and constitutional
forces understand the common threat. Our hope is that they will find a way to go together
and get on the right track not only to return democracy but also to find a way to deal
with the number threat facing the country. On Human Rights Violations Human rights abuses are unacceptable from
any front whether it is from the Maoists or the government. This is something, which is of
concern to everybody. I had a very good conversation with the officials and assurances
from the government. We cannot equate the terrorism of the Maoist with the government
efforts. We do hope that the government respects the human rights. We are working with the
RNA and we have got human rights programs with it and also with other nations to help
them to be able to win the hearts and minds. On Briefing At The RNA I found that was a very good briefing and
we had a very good conversation about the RNA's vision on how to coordinate in the battle.
There was some optimism but obviously it is very difficult struggle and insurgency is
never an easy thing to overcome. We had our Pacific Command come here, which worked out
priorities to meet the Royal Nepalese Army's needs. We will continue to fulfill those
needs to the extent we have the funds available. We are constrained by the budget and it
is very nominal in terms of amount. On Development Aids We have integrated many development
programs and greatly increased aid programs. It was US$ 24 million three years ago but now
it is about US$ 40 million. Our aid is devoted to sectors like democratic governance,
anti-corruption, conflict mitigation, food productions, infrastructure constructions
including roads and irrigation. The fund is specially intended to the rural areas. Most Hopeful Aspects of Visits I think probably the fact that there is a
realization across the board of the seriousness of the threat the country is facing. You
have to draw a conclusion when I say that across the board there was a realization. Discussion with China In a different way, we certainly talk to
Chinese about our role here with total transparency on what we have been doing. We go out
of our way to make sure that they understand. |
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