In depth Analysis

Public search for options on!

Kathmandu: The virtual paralysis in government has not prevented the hectic politicking within the congress which has prompted Prime Minister Koirala to close shop early in Parliament and rush to Pokhara for a tête-à-tête with regional party workers in preparation for a show-down at the party convention there.

Koirala and his party leadership have yet to agree on the postponement of the Pokhara meet, he is most likely to offer his candidacy once more since he has not agreed not to stand as demanded by his detractors.

Clearly, the emphasis is on party organization and reorganization. It is the party that brought Koirala to power. This notwithstanding, charges of outright non-governance.

Almost all government corporations, which occupy key delivery positions to the lay public, have been in turmoil for quite some time now. This has effected essential services and the lay public seeks options to the current situation. The politics of the country appears unaware of this. Regardless to say, most of the active unions dominating the essential services sectors belong to one or the other major political parties.

This obsession with organization and politics was clearly seen this week also when momentum was sought to be given to anti-Paras Shah sentiments despite pleas from the affected widow of the victim to the contrary. The anti-monarchy issue timed, as it is with a public search for options that has political cash no doubt.

With the House closed, reviving the streets will be a target and the onset of festival seasons makes such organizational programs that mobilizes cadre and demonstrate street presence difficult. The opposition-UML- has yet to be seen to be taking advantage of congress internal obsessions thus.

Indeed, much is being talked of poor UML performance this round. This has been to the advantage of Girija babu. UML opposition appears key to the vibrancy of Girija babu’s opposition in the congress. In so many ways therefore, the congress opposition movement appears to be losing ground to the Prime Minister.

At the other end, the Maoists’ who have cut short offers for talks continue their activities reflecting upon basic security situation in the countryside. Paralysis in government and obsession with politics alone appear to be handicapping national performance to severe extents. It is this that has made more widespread a public search for options. What frustrates the people at large is the realization that all organizational avenues that can provide prevalent parties, which have their grips have monopolized legitimate options, consolidated by the rampant use of public resources and offices.

UN Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights:
Nepal: 5000 women are trafficked each year across the intl.border

-Prof. Soorya Lal Amatya, Geneva

Kathmandu: "The women and children are particularly vulnerable all over the world. There are trafficking of women and children mainly for sexual exploitation and are forced to prostitution. The prostitution in developing countries and especially in the least developing countries are very common. Women and young girls are exploited in prostitution up-to a stage when they can attract and comfort the people. When they are fully exploited, then, they are thrown-out into the streets. For such women, there is no alternative left except begging in the streets for their survival".

Professor Soorya Lal Amatya made this statement on behalf of Nepal recently in Geneva, Switzerland, at the 52 session of the United Nations Sub-commission on the promotion and protection of Human Rights. Prof. Amatya’s topic had been agenda number entitled "Contemporary Forms of Slavery".

Amatya is already back in the capital.

Professor Amatya reiterated, " The plight of women refugees in general is very severe particularly in the developing and least developing countries. It is reported that Afghanistan refugee women in Pakistan have adopted prostitution and begging for their own survival. These refugee women and young girls are so much threatened that they do not dare talk about their plight to the investigator or outside people. They have been forced in to prostitution not by their choice. However, because of compulsion, they have to pursue prostitution for their own survival and their children. Even well educated women can’t pursue in profitable employment in Afghanistan. Some brave educated women in parts of Afghanistan have done remarkable job of establishing underground shelter for the women and child victims.

Professor Amatya goes on to say, " The helpless women are not only forced into prostitution but even they are sold like the animals. Ms. Shehsen Burney, Vice president of Ansar Burney Welfare Trust International in her statement some time back has stated with great sorrow and grief that women are still sold in mundi in Sindh province of Pakistan. This was based on her personal observations of such barbaric practices in the area of Thar district and in some other parts of Sindh province. This sort of practices is thriving under patronage of corrupt politicians and bureaucrats not only in Pakistan but also in other developing countries. This sort of practices in my opinion, is a modified version of slavery which needs to be investigated and the public opinion needs to be mobilized nationally, regionally and globally to pressurize the concerned governments in eliminating such practices.

Giving reference to Nepal, Professor Amatya said, " In Nepal about 5000 women are trafficked each year to big cities across the international border for selling in prostitution brothels and are fully exploited. It is in fact the very close relatives and neighbors usually for petty interest of money, the women and girl child are trafficked with promises of better jobs and good employment. They are fully exploited in prostitution. When they suffer from HIV/AIDS, they are sent back to their homes. This obviously is a modified form of slavery. INGOs and NGOs have made substantial contributing in resettling those who have returned from the prostitution and preventing quite a large number of women from trafficking. A local NGO, Maiti Nepal and other NGOs have done remarkable job in resettling such women victims and preventing from being victimized through trafficking into prostitution. I’m strongly of the view that the women and particularly girl children are to be made aware through education. There is high percentage of drop out in primary and secondary schools in Nepal. The education system needs to be further strengthened. Universal free primary education has been a policy of the Nepal government for quite long time. But we do not find effective implementation. It is only through better education, particularly of women can help in reducing women trafficking into prostitution.

Talking on bonded labor system, Professor Amatya opined, " The bonded labor has in legal term been abolished in most of the developing countries, but the exploitation of former bonded laborers and their families are still continuing but in a modified form. This may further aggravate the plight of such laborers. My plea to the Sub-Commision is that continuous monitoring is needed. The Nepal government as stated in the statement of Mr. David Weissbrodt has legally abolished the practice of bonded labor. Well over 70,000 people in southwestern Terai districts of Nepal have been made free. However, the question persists as to how these former bonded laborers will settle down and lead a normal life. The government, of course, has declared a policy of resettling them by providing land and skill training. But how effectively this policy will be converted into action program and executed in the field is yet to be seen. The working group of Contemporary Forms of Slavery should continue to monitor the outcome of the development. I compliment and endorse the views of David Weissbrodt made on 4 August on Agenda item number 2 regarding Bhutanese refugees and abolishment of bonded labor in Nepal.

Koirala’s detractors still hoping against hope!

Kathmandu: After a twenty-four hours cessation of the hostilities upon the closure of the eighteenth session of the lower house of parliament, the two warring parties in the congress have once again begun their crusade to tame the other using the diplomatic skills still left under their respective sleeves.

Prime minister Koirala utilized his first minute after the closure of the House in deriding at his vocal detractors in Pokhara and made it point blank clear that he "would neither give up the post of the prime minister nor that of the presidency come what may as both the posts he enjoyed through the election process".

There is a point in Koirala’s statement, say analysts. However, the other camp which has taken avowal of unseating Girija babu from one of his two current posts say that by today, Wednesday evening, if Koirala summarily rejects their demand of one post, one man, might invite disasters for the latter.

According to a source, some forty two disgruntled congress law makers met Monday evening at Deuba’s office and decided to force Koirala to accept one man, one post theory at Wednesday’s party meeting.

The climax, say members close to Deuba-Bhattarai lobby, could be the submission of a no-confidence motion against the Prime minister at the congress parliamentary party secretariat and the rest of the process of unseating him will automatically follow.

The direct threat to Koirala and his lobby notwithstanding, the Koiralaites appear confident in the numerical strength what they command at the moment and remain assured that the rival camp was only sending false signals to their faction.

Though papers close to Deuba-Bhattarai conglomerate claim that they currently enjoy the strength of sixty plus NC parliamentarians, however, the fact is that it is not true. Had they been blessed with this magic number, their mood would have been different from what now they possess.

"It could be a pressure tactics played by the other camp for drawing excessive benefits from us at time of the cabinet reshuffle and revamping of the party’s present structure", said a Koiralite in a casual mood.

The fact is that, added the same source, some common signatures could be found in the lists of both the camps which means that a small section of the NC lawmakers have yet to decide which camp to join in.

Be that as it may, the congress atmosphere though surely is disturbing at the moment yet Prime Minister Koirala appears to have made up his mind to contest the congress presidency once more. Congress stalwarts supposedly close to Koirala have started voicing in favor of Koirala presidency at the next party convention.

Prime Minister Koirala’s sudden trip to Pokhara and his confidential tête-à-tête with local congress stalwarts there are a testimony of this "exposed agenda".

Japanese Premier’s visit here will also not allow Koirala’s detractors to create ugly scenes during the formers’ stay in Kathmandu. "This is an added advantage for us", opined a beaming Koirala man to this scribe. To recall, Prime Minister Koirala is all set to proceed to attend the UN millennium summit to be held in New York next month. This visit will follow a short trip to Germany if every thing goes as per the schedule.

Summing up, the real strength of Deuba-Bhattarai faction will be tested in a day or two.

Who will bring Maoists to table: Deuba or Koirala?

Kathmandu: Former Prime minister Deuba’s long drawn struggle (verbal duel at times included) with his political rival Prime minister Koirala allowed him to extract some "needed authority" from government to initiate talks with the Maoists, however, the insurgents surprisingly through a statement gave the notification that unless Koirala establishment complied with their minimum conditions set for the talks, they will not come to the negotiating table.

However, the revolutionaries have not closed all the doors for talks with the government provided the latter yields to their minimal demands prior to such talks.

Reacting to these fresh Maoists approach, Deuba expressed his consternation over the statement issued by the insurgents and said that it was simply deplorable.

Maoists no to the talks with Deuba prompted Prime Minister Koirala to cut joke at the former.

In a Pokhara meeting the other day Koirala subtly asked Deuba regarding the progress achieved in the talks with the Maoists after he delegated "powers" to him for initiating talks with the insurgents. A dumb founded Deuba perhaps possesses no answers to this Koirala mockery.

In essence, Koirala’s own trusted and tested men deputed to talk with the Maoists have in the recent days met with some "prominent" Maoists leaders.

Former Panchayati stalwart, Shailendra Kumar Upadhyaya and self-styled communist leader Padma Ratna Tuladhar are reportedly the men of Koirala at the moment. Some even say that one Maoist leader met with Mrs.Nona Koirala-the sister-in-law of the incumbent Prime minister.

There was a time not long ago when Deuba not only felt cozy with the Maoists but also held the government responsible in dilly-dallying the talks with the insurgents giving all and sundry the impression that he was some way or the other "siding" with the violent insurgents contrary to the party’s policies and the spirit of the prevailing constitution.

It was perhaps this rumored Deuba-Maoist close attachment that prompted Koirala to cut Deuba’s size in this regard and instead the Prime minister pushed his own men for talks with the Maoists.

This notwithstanding, Prachanda alias Pushpa Kamal Dahal-the Maoists supremo in a fresh statement issued this Sunday has again made it clear that "upon the sincere requests of the responsible citizens and members of the civil societies, we had accepted to talk to the government. But, instead of accepting our minimum conditions for talks, the government led by Koirala began wanton killings under one pretext or the other. Now we have decided to wage a relentless "resistance" against the Fascist Girija establishment from all possible quarters"’.

However, the statement still has not closed the avenues for the possible talks with the government.

The theory that some Maoists leaders have met Koirala’s trusted men in the recent days appears to be more than fabricated. Sources close to Deuba also claim that the latter is still in close contacts with the insurgents. Consider the fresh statements issued by the Maoists. All these put together what could be best said at this juncture is that the Maoists have benefited from Koirala-Deuba feud. Or what could also be guessed here is that the insurgents were buying time to consolidate their organization to initiate their fresh avowal of "fierce resistance" against the government.

Who is be-fooling whom in this regard is difficult to understand. After all Nepali politics is full of conspiracy.

B’desh Health Minister arriving today

Kathmandu: The Health Minister of Bangladesh, Mr. Sheikh Salim, is arriving Kathmandu today.

The Bangladesh minister is in town to attend a three-day conference of the South Asian health ministers held under the aegis of the World Health Organization.

During the conference the health ministers of the SAARC region are expected to discuss the measures to collectively fight some common diseases those are very much prevalent in this region such as, for example, Tuberculosis, Malaria and cardiovascular diseases and the likes.

Minister Sheikh Salim is talked to be close to the late Bangbandhu’s family.

The visiting B’desh dignitary is meeting the Nepali pressmen prior to his departure to home country, which is being coordinated by the Nepal-SAARC Journalists Forum- it is learnt.

Scholarships to Dalit and orphan children

Kathmandu: The Save the Children/US and the Nepal National Dalit Social Welfare Organization-NNDSWO- sponsored August 18 the Nepal Children’s Scholarship Endowment Program to award scholarships to 335 underprivileged students who have passed the SLC examination.

To recall, the Nepal Children’s Scholarship Endowment Program was established in 1992 by Save the Children/US with the financial support of USAID. This endowment provides educational scholarships for Dalit and orphan children. Currently, 740 students are benefiting from this program.

With the aim of assisting Nepal’s disadvantaged communities across the nation, the program has been implemented in the following districts: Jhapa, Dhankuta, Saptari, Udayapur, Nuwakot, Bhaktapur, Kaski, Parvat, Rupandehi, Surkhet, Dang, Bardiya, Kailali and Kanchanpur.

Nepal’s refugee issue figures in Geneva UN session

Kathmandu : Mr. David Weissbrodt, Special Rapporteur assigned for the seminar on "Promotion and Protection of Human Rights" held in Geneva ten days ago has said , "unfortunately while the government of Bhutan and Nepal have met to discuss the problem, a constructive agreement has not yet been achieved and there has been no real progress in regard to the return of 80-100,000 refugees who were "expelled"’ from Bhutan ten years ago".

Mr. Weissbrodt further says in his statement that the Sub-Commission has called on the governments concerned to negotiate in good faith towards a peaceful solution consistent with international human rights standards; to set up an impartial verification process to verify the origin and nationality status of those who assert they are refugees, and to negotiate the voluntary return under conditions of safety and dignity of those entitled to return.

Professor Soorya Lal Amatya, who was attending the said seminar in Geneva instantly, endorsed Mr. Weissbrodt.

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