News Notes (Spotlight Weekly)

AI Warns Of Serious Crisis If Truce Fails

The representatives of the international human rights watchdog Amnesty International (AI) have warned that there will be severe rights abuses in case the current ceasefire breaks down. In a press interaction in the capital on July 6, they said there will be sharp increase in the incidents of rights abuses if the country plunges into conflict. They added that despite ceasefire there were still some cases of violation of human rights by the two conflicting sides in the country. A team of AI had visited Nepal to push the two conflicting sides towards resolving the crisis peacefully. However, they expressed dismay at the failure of their repeated attempts to meet with officials of the Royal Nepalese Army (RNA) as well as Maoist leaders and said it did not indicate positive development. "We found that neither the government nor the Maoists are serious about human rights," said Ingrid Massage, deputy director of Asia Pacific Regional Program of AI. The AI has appealed to civil society to put pressure to make human rights as a focal point in the peace talks. "Earlier we used to come to monitor the human rights situation in the country. But this time we have come here to see how we can help in the peace process," said Massage. The team during its weeklong visit had met with ministers Dr. Prakash Chandra Lohani and Kamal Thapa, senior government officials, police chiefs and leaders of political parties. Leading dailies report.

Ten Leftists Approve Five Parties Objectives

The ten communist parties including the Maoists have stated that the common agenda announced by five agitating political parties are positive. The Unified Marxist Leninist (UML) was not invited to the meeting, which was organized by the United People's Front on July 6, because the leftist leaders charged that the UML was not supportive of framing new constitution. All the leftist outfits of the united leftists front support framing new constitution. The front also came up with its own 6 point agenda for progressive reforms. They called for constituent assembly. They have called all progressive forces to come together to launch joint struggle against regression. At the meeting Ram Bahadur Thapa Badal, politburo member of the Maoists, accused the government of attempting to foil the peace talks and added that the Maoists, however, did not wish to go back to war and, therefore, have taken part in street agitation. Leading dailies report.

Maoist Asks Govt. To Implement Non-Controversial Agreements

Krishna Bahadur Mahara, spokesperson of the Maoists talks team, has said that the government should first implement the agreements reached at the second round of talks before the two sides can sit for the third talks. "We know that there have been controversies regarding some agreements namely the restriction of the army movement. If that is so, then why doesn't the government implement other non-controversial agreements like releasing of our central leaders and forming monitoring team. We can discuss the controversial issues in the next round of talks," Mahara told Nepal Television on Monday (June 30). His statement has come at a time when there were lot of accusations and counter-accusations between the two sides of breaching the peace code of conduct and lingering to sit for the third round of talks. Meanwhile, the government talks team members are meeting with the facilitators today. Compiled from reports.

UNESCO Puts Valley Sites In Danger List

The Paris-based UNESCO has listed the 7 world heritage sites in Kathmandu valley in the danger list after the authorities failed to take proper steps to save them. The government failed to implement the 55-point recommendations by the UN body to protect the heritage sites. The growing urbanization and rapid construction of concrete jungles around the sites had posed threat to these sites. Apart from 7 sites in the valley, the UNESCO has also listed other 35 sites around the world in the danger list. Heritage experts have charged that this is due to the failure on the part of the government to act despite repeated warnings from UNESCO earlier. The 7 heritage sites in the valley include Swayambhunath Stupa, Bouddhanath Stupa, Pashupatinath Temple, Kathmandu Durbar Square, Patan Durbar Square, Bhaktapur Durbar Square and Changu Narayan Temple. Leading dailies report.

Arms Headed For Nepal Rebels Caught In Bangladesh

A huge cache of arms and explosives reportedly headed for the use by Nepalese Maoists has been confiscated by police in Bangladesh. According to online news of Star News, 180 kgs of explosives and over 93,000 bullets were confiscated in different parts of Bangladesh in the last days. Along with the explosives, the security agency there has also arrested six persons who are involved with political parties like Bangladesh Nationalist Party and Awami League. The explosives reportedly were being handed over to Nepalese Maoists through separatists of Tripura in India. Kantipur daily reports July 4.

49 Food Depots To Reopen

Forty-nine food depots that were closed due to inability to transport food thanks to Maoist insurgency, will be reopened beginning the upcoming new fiscal year. There are 73 food depots in remote areas of 31 districts in the country. But due to growing insecurity, the Food Corporation had stopped transporting food to 49 of them. "With the objective of re-starting the food transportation to these remote areas, we have called for tender," said Prabhat Chandra Pandey, distribution manager of the Food Corporation. The corporation, earlier, had not transported food to depots in villages of districts including Rolpa, Rukum, Jajarkot, Kalikot, Gorkha, Mugu, Jumla and Achham due to Maoist threat. The food were distributed only to these district headquarters. Nepal Samacharpatra daily reports.

Nepali Doctor To Participate In Complex Neurosurgery

Dr. Basanta Panta of Nepal will take part in what appears to be one of the most complicated surgeries along with Singaporean surgeon Dr. Keith Goh. Dr. Panta will be a part of a team that will operate on Iranian twins who are joined in their head since birth. Dr. Panta was selected in the team because of his experience in handling the surgery on Ganga-Jamuna ñ the Nepalese twins who were also joined in their head ñ under the leadership of Dr. Goh two years ago. Although Ganga and Jamuna were separated in a small age, the Iranian twins are already in their twenties making the surgery very much complicated. Kantipur daily reports.

Police Arrest 67 To Curb Rising Crimes

The police have arrested 67 different persons after a meeting of top cops on Wednesday decided to launch a campaign to curb the growing crimes in the capital. The meeting was called by Deputy Inspector General of Police Kasha Baal. The police have begun to launch raids since Wednesday. Meanwhile, the police have said they have arrested 5 out of 7 persons who were suspected of being involved in last week's shooting incident in Thamel. Compiled from reports.

Schools Open Finally

The representatives of seven student organizations affiliated to different political parties and the operators of private schools reached an understanding at the government and guardian-mediated meeting held on Wednesday (July 2) to end the deadlock in the education sector. With the understanding the private school operators ñ belonging to both Private and Boarding Schools Organizations of Nepal (PABSON) and National-PABSON ñ agreed to open the schools, beginning July 3, that had remained closed for the last three days ending their indefinite closure in response to lockouts of accounts section and principals' office by the student organizations. On Wednesday's meeting, the two sides agreed to form a taskforce to look into providing more scholarships and fixing fees. Gururaj Ghimire, president of Nepal Students Union (NSU) ñ affiliated to Nepali Congress ñ said that an11-member task force has been formed with the representation from the government, student organizations and schools. The task force will recommend its findings within a month, which, in turn, will be put into implementation within two weeks after that, Ghimire said. Leading dailies report.

Maoists, Govt. Agree To Sit For Third Talks

The members of the government and the Maoists' talks team, in their separate meeting with the four facilitators on July1, expressed that they were ready to sit for the third round of talks. Maoists had been hinting they did not want to sit for another round of talks charging that the government failed to implement agreements like restricting army movement, releasing their central leaders from jails and forming code of conduct monitoring committee. The facilitators met with Kamal Thapa, a member of government talks team, and Krishna Bahadur Mahara and Ram Bahadur Thapa Badal, members of Maoists talks team, on Tuesday to bridge the gap between the two sides. According to facilitators, the two sides have agreed to sit for third round of talks soon. But before that the two sides would sit for an informal meet to sort out the existing differences regarding the implementation of the agreements. Leading dailies report.

19 Tibetans Handed Over To UNHCR

In the wake of international uproar over the Nepalese government's decision to deport over 18 Tibetan asylum-seekers to China a few weeks ago, the police here have nabbed 19 other Tibetans. This time they have been handed over to the UNHCR. The Tibetans were nabbed in Sanphebagar of Accham district. "The government's local body handed over those Tibetans to UNHCR's local unit in Dhangadhi," Gopendra Bahadur Pandey, spokesperson of the Home Ministry, told The Himalayan Times daily on July 1. According to Abraham Abraham, chief of UNHCR office in Nepal, said they will now help these Tibetans to reach their destination, which is probably India. "The Tibetans were using Nepal as a transit point and the UNHCR is assisting the Nepali government tto protect them." Wanchuk Chhiring, secretary of Tibetan Welfare Organization, said, "It is the matter of protection to Tibetan people. The Nepalese government should be sensitive to such matters. The Tibetans should safely reach their destination instead of being deported to China." A few weeks ago after Nepal deported 18 Tibetans to China, US Senator Dianne Feinstein had withdrawn a bill she had sponsored in the senate, which was aimed at providing duty free and quota free access to Nepalese readymade garments for two years. Leading dailies report.