Historic Feats

Ever since Tenzing Norgay Sherpa along with Sir Edmund Hillary of New Zealand conquered the Mt.Everest (Mt.Sagarmatha) 47 years ago it has been attracting mountaineers from all over the world. With each passing year, the lure to scale Mt. Everest has been increasing among the climbers to create new and daring records despite the fact that more than two hundred mountaineers had met their tragic end since it was first scaled by Tenzing and Hillary. The recent feat of Appa Sherpa has added another chapter in his historic achievements by climbing it for the record eleventh time and has made all Nepalese very proud. In fact, this year's Everest expedition has been an unforgettable and highly successful for the Nepalese climbers.

The first one to make the country proud was Lhakpa Sherpa of Solukhumbu who conquered Everest on May 18, followed by 30 year old Pemba Dolma Sherpa of the same district who stood on the top on May 19. These two ladies had not only given continuity to the daring achievement attained by Pasang Lhamu Sherpa six years ago but must also have inspired other Nepalese women. Pemba deserves special mention that she has become the first Nepalese women to conquer Mt. Everest from the Chinese side. Babu Chhiri Sherpa who has created a world record by climbing Mt.Everest for the tenth time, conquering it twice in one season and reaching there in world record time of 16 hours, 56 minutes - a record which will not be easy to out perform. Congratulating to all the achievers and we hope that more and more Nepalese mountaineers of both sexes will be inspired to follow their footsteps.

Inconclusive Talks

The Ninth ministerial level talks held in Thimpu between Nepal and Bhutan on the repatriation of nearly one hundred thousand Bhutanese refugees languishing in seven different camps in Nepal could not make any major breakthrough to resolve the decade old problem. Foreign Minister Chakra Prasad Bastola himself had said that the talks were inconclusive but that the Bhutanse side has agreed to begin the verification of the refugees within a couple of months' time, and also added that they had agreed to form a team for the purpose. This belies the optimistic perception Minister Bastola had before he left for the talks when he said that the Bhutanese authorities had changed a lot especially in recent times. The little progress made in the verification process once again indicates that Bhutan has not changed its attitude much and stilll is not willing to solve the problem.

If the past attitude of Bhutan is to be considered there is no reason for Nepal to be euphoric that the refugees will be going back home any time soon. The eight rounds of ministerial talks and several round of official talks, too, had ended inconclusively because of the time buying and lingering attitude of Bhutan. Way back in 1993, both the countries had agreed on the categorization of the refugees. But since then, no significant progress has been made on the verification process. Now that they have agreed to the verification it can be only hoped that this time Bhutan will not prolong it anymore and cooperate in solving the issue and show the qualities of a good neighbour.