In depth Analysis

Mystery remains in talks with Maoists'

Kathmandu: Yet another agreement in the Nepali Congress to allow Krishna Prasad Bhattarai to continue as Prime Minister suggests strongman Girija Prasad Koirala's loosening grip in the organization, the erosion coming from the advantage of national resources in the K.P camp. The Girija media was quick to allege the use of such resources as was the K.P supporters quick to deny it. One other hidden agenda remains. The need for the congress remain united is something both parties feel and Girija babu's next onslaught is likely to be one where he will make sure of his majority.

As the just concluded round demonstrated, initiative is gradually shifting to the middle rankers. It was Deuba who saved the day for K.P cutting short his visit to Australia. Ram Chandra Poudel seems to have contributed to the status quo and even the signatories to the no confidence motion appear to have vacillated adequately to allow K.P to continue.

The tussle now will move to Parliament where the Prime minister will be cushioned comfortably by his UML backers. And so the government has been given yet another lease of life to, as the Girija backers say, perform. One must now await new developments in, primarily, two fronts. The talks with the Maoists' will be foremost in the government's agenda. The talks hoped for with New Delhi becomes a growing possibility for the Prime minister.

Willy-nilly, Mr. Bhattarai has retained the initiative so far. In the process he continues to demonstrate his agility in playing the power game. The convening of the parliament will perhaps allow the other political parties to retain their lost limelight. But the focus still remains on the congress and its policies.
The congress tussle nevertheless, shows the utter absence of issue based politics in the country. This leaves a vacuum of an adhoc decision making practice evident in the corridors of the government. No major policy change appears in the offing and no major political movement demanding such is underway. Opposition politics therefore has shifted from the parliamentary parties to the Maoists' insurgents and focus on their activities appear to highlight their growing political clout in the country.
This suggests that the K.P government assume for itself the responsibility of tackling this problem. It is not for nothing that the local media is profusely covering Maoists' interviews and the government media is replete with official calls for the talks. One can surmise that pressures will grow on both part culminating in a series of talks which are already said to have been underway. The mystery lies in the silence. It is this silence that could also have contributed to the hasty patching up of congress differences.

Angry congress activists demand details of secret agreement?

Kathmandu: The mush rumored fresh "transaction" in between Bhattarai and Koirala is being interpreted differently by different heads.

The so-called bargain has assumed the form of an elephant whose body structure is being described by four blind men as per they perceive differently.

The interesting part of this round's cease-fire has been that even the second generation powerful congress men like Sher Bahadur Deuba, Ram Chandra Poudel and so much so that Sushil Koirala have been kept in dark by the two septuagenarian leaders of the party.

"This is unacceptable. The agreement if any must be brought to light. The leaders must honor the democratic traditions and disclose the details of their secret agreements", blasted Arjun Narsingh K.C, a senior congressite the other day at a media gathering.

Sher Bahadur Deuba too reportedly has no idea of the final talks held in between Koirala and Prime Minister Bhattarai.

Sushil Koirala, a very close relative of President Koirala and the one who engineered the no confidence motion against Bhattarai too expressed that he had no inkling even of the agreement." Ask the two leaders what they decided"', said an annoyed Sushil while talking to a Left leaning newspaper.
"Transparency demands that the details of the Bhattarai-Koirala secret talks be placed before the congress activists. Failing to do so by the party bosses will tantamount to a breach of trust", commented a Congressman who is supposedly very close to President Koirala's congress.
Yet another congress activist said to the Telegraph that till the two old leaders continue to dominate congress party politics, events of the sorts that happened only last week will continue in the future as well thus every time the party's credibility will go down.

Ram Chandra Poudel, the deputy Prime minister of the nation while talking to reporters also openly admitted that he knew nothing of the Koirala-Bhattarai talks. However, he said that the days ahead will uncover the agreement automatically.

Poudel, a status quoist during the recent feud, apparently hinted the press men that there had been no such agreement as is being clamored by men in Koirala camp regarding exact dates for Bhattarai's stepping down of the current post.

All in all, this is perhaps for the first time that the second generation leaders have aired their annoyance over the working patterns of their Fatherly Leaders and have demanded transparency in the conduct of their affairs.

Better late than never, the congressmen have come to their senses.

Police used unwarranted lethal force says 1999-Nepal Report

Kathmandu : The Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, US Department of State has released the 1999 Country Report, epal, on Human Rights situation in the country.
The report has been released on February 25, 2000.

The report portrays Nepal as an "extremely poor country with an annual per capita gross domestic product of approximately $210".

Commenting on the role of the Nepal's police force, the report bluntly says that the police at "times used unwarranted lethal force; continues to abuse detainees using torture as punishment to extract confessions; have also conducted raids on newspapers suspected of having links with the Maoists'; and the government rarely investigates allegations of police brutality or punishes police officers who commit such abuses.

Regarding the possibility of political interference in the verdicts of the judiciary, the report freshly released says though the constitution provides for an independent judiciary, however, the courts "are susceptible to political pressures and corruption".

The report also takes into account the AI 1997 summary regarding the police actions in which the AI had stated that the police "have repeatedly resorted to the use of lethal force in situations where such force was clearly unjustified".

"In August a truck driver Ale Tamang died as a result of torture while in police custody and in October 1998, GaneshRai died after being tortured by police while in custody", acknowledges the report.
The report also dwells on the discriminatory practices in Nepal against lower castes, which was especially common in the rural areas of the Western region of the Kingdom.

Human rights groups, continues the report, allege that the police have used arbitrary arrests and detention during the People's War to intimidate communities considered sympathetic to the Maoists'.
The 1999 Report on Nepal touches upon the delays in the administration of justice and maintains that it is a severe problem. Approximately 150,000 cases were still pending awaiting justice administration the clearance of which might consume full four years.

Clinton likely to discuss Kashmir issue with Indian leaders

Kathmandu: The US President Bill Clinton will discuss in all likelihood the Kashmir issue with Indian leaders during his forthcoming visit to South Asia, BBC reported the otherday.

 There is a strong possibility of discussing the issue, as tension is high on the Line of Control when the US President is paying official visit to the Sub-continent after a few days, added the BBC.

Kashmir issue, to recall, has been plaguing the bilateral ties of the two South Asian arch rivals, India  and Pakistan since the very first days of their independence from the British colonial rule.

India has time and again reiterated that she would not entertain any third party mediation in the solution to the Kashmir imbroglio. Pakistan, on the other hand, is ready for such third party mediation.

In the meanwhile, a Kashmir Conference strongly condemned the brutal killings of 14 innocent civilians by Indian army commandos who crossed the LoC in the dead of night in Kotli to carry out the crime, it is learnt.

The Conference reportedly organized by the Denmark Organization of Pakistani Students and Graduates (OPSA) expressed solidarity with the people of Occupied Jammu and Kashmir and highlighted their just cause.

Chirac initiates damage control efforts

Kathmandu : The French President Jacques Chirac initiated efforts Monday aimed at patching up the fresh damage caused by his Prime Minister Lionel Jospin's controversial criticism of Lebanese guerrillas fighting Israel's occupation of southern Lebanon.

Chirac hurriedly assured his Lebanese counterpart Emile Lahoud that he could count on France's support, insisting that Paris's Middle East policy had not changed, the French senate's deputy speaker, Gerard Larcher said.

"I gave President Lahoud a message from President Chirac and from the senate's speaker," the senator from Chirac's Rally for the Republic party said after meeting Lahoud.

"President Chirac clearly stated France's position. The message says there is no change regarding Lebanon and the Middle East.

"We are Lebanon's true friends, in winter as in spring, and we are trying to protect its interests so it won't be the victim of a peace accord," he added.

Chirac's message was delivered after Jospin provoked an outcry in the Arab world by slamming Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas' attacks on Israeli soldiers occupying southern Lebanon and civilians as "terrorist acts."

In France Jospin's comments were seen as a clumsy and ill-informed political move in the run-up to elections two years away in which he is expected to challenge his political rival Chirac for the presidency.

France faces an uphill battle, report agencies, in restoring its traditional friendship with the Arab world following Prime Minister Lionel Jospin's controversial remarks on Hezbollah.

ESCAP-SAARC workshop begins today

Kathmandu : Under the active initiation of the SAARC Secretariat based in Kathmandu, an ESCAP-SAARC national level workshop is beginning this morning.

The workshop will conclude tomorrow.

The workshop will primarily focus on facilitating Intra and Inter Subregional Trade in the SAARC sub-region, it is learnt from the SAARC Secretariat.

Nepal's Commerce Secretary Mr. Mohan Dev Pant will inaugurate the two-day workshop today morning at the SAARC Secretariat.

The participants to this workshop are all from Nepal.

Others who are also attending the two meet are the officials of the ESCAP, Bangkok UNCTAD and SAARC directors.

The chief of the Economic and Technical Division of the ESCAP, Miss Kimiko Uno and the regional advisor of the UNCTAD, Mr. Niels Rasmussen are also actively participating in the workshop.
Working papers from ESCAP, UNCTAD and the SAARC secretariat will be presented at the workshop.
A paper on SAFTA by Amit Das, the SAARC Director, India is also being presented. Nepal's noted businessman Padma Jyoti would chair the session of Amit's paper.

Ambassador Rajan winding up Nepal tenure

Kathmandu : The present Indian Ambassador to this Himalayan Kingdom, Krishna Venkatesh Rajan, is winding up his tenure in Nepal.

Ambassador Rajan's stay in Nepal stretched to almost five years.

The diplomat who is supposedly replacing the current Indian envoy is talked to be Dev Mukerjee.
Mukerjee is at the moment serving as Indian High Commissioner in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Reports trickling in from Delhi reveal that upon return Ambassador Rajan will be assigned the post of the Secretary-East at the Ministry of External Affairs generally known as South Block.

Though the details of Ambassador Rajan's departure from Nepal are yet to be confirmed, however, sources claim he might leave Nepal by the middle of April 2000.

Telegraph adds: This notwithstanding, Ambassador Rajan's stay might prolong for few months more if the Nepalese Prime minister's wish to pay a good will visit to India materializes.

Understandably, it would be comfortable for New Delhi to arrange Bhattarai's visit to Delhi if Rajan continues in the same post.

Ambassador Rajan possesses the single distinction of having escorted several Nepalese Prime Ministers during their official visits to friendly India.

Talking to media men, Sunday evening, Rajan revealed that no dates as yet have been finalized for the much-publicized visit of Nepalese Prime minister to Delhi.

" Hopefully, the Indian Airlines flights to Kathmandu would be resumed soon", the Indian diplomat told the Telegraph Sunday evening at a reception.

Will Bhattarai step down so easily?

Kathmandu: The destiny of the congress party has been that neither it can afford a vertical split nor it can remain united.

This fact has yet again come true this round of congress engineered drama that captivated the attention of the entire nation plus the international community based in Kathmandu for almost ten days or so.
As usual, the congress conflict - basically the power tussle of the two conspiratorial Brahmins Krishna Prasad and Girija Prasad who virtually rule the party through their personal whims till to date, has apparently cooled down for the moment.

A new face saving formulae appears to have been devised by the two top ruling Brahmins in the congress whose details perhaps no body in the party knows except the Almighty.

The manner the two conflicting sides have been propagating their achievements after the end of the "self engineered conflict", what could be said that there has been no concrete agreements in between Krishna Prasad and Girija Prasad either for stepping down or for assuming the shoes of the Prime ministerial post respectively.

If one were to believe the theories circulated by the Girija affiliated media then one can conclude that within a week or so of the commencement of the parliament the incumbent Prime minister will hand over the prestigious post to his political competitor Girija Prasad in a silver plate.

However, the other camp denies this self-invented theory and goes to the extent in saying that no such dates have been agreed upon by the two old congress top hats.

Instead, the Bhattarai coterie wishes to pass on disturbing signals to Girija camp. Newspapers currently in the Bhattarai lobby have point blank hinted at the fact that the Prime Minister will not step down till the latter accomplished some of the initiatives he has taken after assuming the current post.

The agendas in Bhattarai's priority, according to the Bhattarai lobby media, have been summarized as follows. Firstly, Krishna Prasad would wish to see that the government initiates formal talks with the Maoists' insurgents for its solution; second priority will be the formation of the much delayed Commission on Human Rights; the constitution of an instrument for curbing the menace of corruption and fourthly and most importantly going in for a state visit to India. Understandably, of the four priority areas of the Prime minister, the most disturbing of it all would be Bhattarai's yet unconfirmed India visit.
The Koirala lobby basically wishes to bag credit by solving the Maoists issue during Koirala's Premiership, if that happens at all in the near future. That Koirala wishes to do so has been exhibited by him only recently when he went to Maoists' affected areas snatching the initiatives from the government instituted commission currently headed by Deuba, a declared man of Bhattarai. At another level, the Maoists have recently dubbed Koirala as most dictatorial personality in the nation.

In essence, the Koirala lobby is pretty annoyed by KPs declaration that he would visit India before stepping down. " A successful India trip means that KP will continue in power through the blessings from the South Block", commented a Koiralite.

In effect, it is taken for granted in Nepal that any Prime minister who wishes to continue for longer period must either please the Royal Palace or India 's South Block. Now that the Palace has lost its former charm so the political leaders vie for Indian support supposedly.

Analyzing the two sets of contradictory information's emanating from two different competing camps what could be best said that conspiratorial politics would continue for some time more. Krishna Prasad Bhattarai for his longevity will cash in this fluidity in congress camp. K.P will perhaps not resign as is being given to understand by the Koirala camp especially after the last week's agreement-an agreement whose occurrence the congressmen themselves doubt.

The first victim of the Koirala-Bhattarai feud has been the Acting editor of the Gorkhapatra, Mr. Rajendra Sharma, who has been summarily shifted to another less important branch of the same government controlled media house.

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