of] ;ftf g]kfndf s] s] eof] < This week in Nepal.
@)^@ c;f/ @* ut] d+unaf/ (2005 july 12)
NHRC to open regional office in Dhangadhi
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has said it is going to establish its regional office in Dhangadhi, the far-western regional headquarters.
The regional office is being set up as part of the commissionÚs plan to extend its access to as many parts of the country as possible, the NHRC said Tuesday. This will be the fourth NHRC regional office. Its regional offices have already been established in Nepalganj, Biratnagar and Pokhara.
Similarly, the rights watchdog has also decided to open contact offices in three zones -Jumla district of Karnali zone, Rolpa of Rapti zone and Khotang district, Sagarmatha zone.
Meanwhile, NHRC members today visited the Morang District Police Office (DPO) to take stock of the condition of Siraha local development officer (LDO), Keshab Prasad Bimali, who is being detained there for the last 9 days.
On July 3, eastern regional administrator Jagdish Khadka and zonal administrator Ram Kumar Subba had beaten up Bimali at his office premises and then detained him. His whereabouts remained unknown until TuesdayÚs newspapers revealed that he had been kept at the DPO cell.
Commission members Sudeep Pathak and Gokul Pokhrel met Bimali at custody this morning. The investigation was launched following complaints that the administrators-duo brutally assaulted the LDO, locked him inside the toilet and detained him incommunicado for days, the NHRC said.
Reports had said the administrators who were at the Siraha District Development Committee office for inspection attacked the LDO on a minor pretext that he failed to keep the official guesthouse clean.
NMA elects new leadership
Nepal Mountaineering Association (NMA) has elected its new leadership under Aang Chhiring Sherpa.
The NMA team comprises of Jimma Jangbu Sherpa as the first vice-chairman, Bhumi Lal Lama second vice-chairman, Dibash Bikram Shah general secretary, Narahari Bhandari secretary and Aang Kaji Sherpa as the treasurer.
The NMA in a statement today said that the new leadership was elected unanimously.
@)^@ c;f/ @( ut] a'waf/ (2005 july 13)
Air Sahara to resume flights to Nepal
Air Sahara is set to resume its fight service to Kathmandu from September 1, reports quoting airline officials said.
"We should resume services to Kathmandu September 1. It's a sector that has a lot of demand and we've lost out on revenue after the political events in Nepal,” Indo-Asian News Service quoted Air Sahara president Ronojoy Dutta as saying.
Air Sahara had suspended its Kathmandu-New Delhi flights after the new political turn in Nepal on February 1 when a state of emergency was declared.
"We hope to resume services before September 1 as we are losing revenue every day, but things are not just in our hands,” Dutta said claiming that the company had been receiving feedback from travel agents and passengers for early resumption of flights.
On February 1, an Air Sahara plane from Delhi was sent back from Kathmandu airspace as “air traffic controllers refused permission to land”.
The company had launched flight services in Nepal last year
Govt rejects UN offer to broker peace
The government has turned down an offer from the United Nations to mediate in NepalÚs peace process. Kirtinidhi Bista, vice-chairman of the Council of Ministers, announced this after a meeting with UN secretary general Kofi AnnanÚs special advisor, Lakhdar Brahimi.
“We have already said there is no need for UN mediation at the moment; neither are we talking about mediation by India,” Bista told reporters after an hour-long meeting with Brahimi this morning. “We favour a solution to the problem from within the country. I think that is clear.”
Although there was no official announcement regarding the UN proposal for mediation in the peace process, reports quoting informed sources said the UN team reiterated the world bodyÚs readiness to play a role of a mediator in government-Maoist peace talks in future.
On a question, Bista said, “I think the government is capable of resolving the problem on its own.” The cabinet vice-chairman also claimed that “a lot of improvement has taken place” since Feb 1 when the King assumed direct power. “We will approach the UN if we feel the need of its mediation,” he added.
UN mediation remains one of the main demands of the Maoists for coming to the negotiating table while major political parties have also upheld the idea of mediation from the world body.
Aimed at assisting in the peace process, BrahimiÚs three-member team is in Kathmandu since Sunday. The team has already held talks with cabinet vice-chairman Dr Tulsi Giri, top leaders of major political parties, army chief General Pyar Jung Thapa and one of the former talks facilitator. Brahimi is scheduled to receive an audience with His Majesty King Gyanendra
@)^@ c;f/ #) ut] laxLaf/ (2005 july 14)
King Gyanendra expands his council of ministers
His Majesty King Gyanendra has expanded the council of ministers led by himself.
The state-run Radio Nepal quoted a communiqué issued Thursday evening by Press Secretariat of His Majesty as saying that HM the King has reshuffled and designated portfolios to the members in his council of ministers constituted nearly five months ago.
According to the state-run Radio, Badri Mandal, Prakash Koirala and Niranjan Thapa are the new cabinet ministers. Mandal was the deputy prime minister in the Lokendra Bahadur Chand-led government. Son of veteran Nepali Congress leader and first popularly elected Prime Minister B P Koirala, Prakash was expelled from the ordinary member of the Nepali Congress party recently for supporting the Feb. 1 royal takeover. Thapa, who has been assigned the law and justice portfolio, was the interior minister during the last Panchayat government led by Marich Man Singh.
While all the ministers and vice chairmen in the council of ministers have been retained, King Gyanendra has chosen eight new faces as assistant ministers in his cabinet. The newly appointed assistant ministers include industrialist Dr. Roop Jyoti, Yankila Sherpa, Chhakka Bahadur Lama, Golchhe Sarki, Jagat Gauchan, Nitshe Shumsher and Senate Shrestha.
Dr. Jyoti and Sherpa were appointed to the Upper House as royal nominees. The UML had recently expelled its former MP, Golchhe Sarki, for supporting the royal move.
Opposition parties are yet to comment on the newly expanded council of ministers.
King Gyanendra had sacked then premier Sher Bahadur Deuba and assumed executive powers himself on Feb. 1, this year.
King grants audience to UN envoy
His Majesty King Gyanendra granted an audience to Lakhdar Brahimi, special advisor of United Nations secretary general, Kofi Annan, at the Narayanhity Royal Palace Thursday.
NepalÚs current political crisis and the proposed UN cooperation in the peace process were discussed during the audience, media reports said.
Earlier today, Brahimi met Rastriya Janashakti Party (RJP) leader Prakash Chandra Lohani, exchanging views over the existing crisis and its possible solution.
The RJP leader told reporters after the meeting that his party firmly believed that solution to the Maoist problem should be found from within the country. “We believe that the wise thing to do is to settle the problem internally. The UN representative seemed convinced about this idea,” Lohani said.
Lohani, a former government negotiator in the last round of peace talks with the Maoists, stressed the need to reach understanding between the King and the political parties. “The ministers must stop their rhetoric against the parties and the parties should refrain from challenging the King,” he said.
The RJP leaderÚs views match with those of the government, which on Wednesday ruled out the need for UN mediation in NepalÚs peace process. Cabinet vice-chairman Kirtinidhi Bista said after a 90-minute meeting with Brahimi, “We have already said there is no need for UN mediation at the moment; neither are we talking about mediation by India. We favour a solution to the problem from within the country.”
Aimed at assisting in the peace process, Brahimi arrived in Kathmandu on Sunday on a six-day tour. He has already held talks with cabinet vice-chairmen Dr Tulsi Giri and Bista, top leaders of major political parties, army chief General Pyar Jung Thapa and former talks facilitators
@)^@ c;f/ #! ut] z'qmaf/ (2005 july 15)
Security forces foil Maoist attack at Bhojpur
Security sources said they have foiled an attempt by the Maoist insurgents to attack the headquarters of eastern hilly district of Bhojpur early Friday.
According to reports, Maoist insurgents had attacked at the district police office and barrack of the Royal Nepalese Army from a distance and that exchange of fire continued for a couple of hours.
At least one security personnel have been reported as killed. Security sources said there may have been casualties on the part of rebels as well.
Rebels later withdrew. The authorities said reinforcement has been sent to the district headquarters.
Student groups warn further stir
Eight student organisations affiliated to opposition parliamentary parties in the country have warned that they will launch fresh protest programmes across the country from Tuesday if the authorities did not release half a dozen of their activists by Monday.
A meeting of eight student organisations on Friday condemned what they called police intervention and subsequent arrest of half a dozen student leaders including general secretary of pro-UML student body, Thakur Gaire, while they were protesting against the governmentÚs attempt to introduce so-called …nationlistic education.Ú
The student leaders were arrested while tearing out photos from the text books.
Talking to Nepalnews, general secretary of pro-Nepali Congress student body, Nepal Vidyarthi Sangha, Basu Koirala said the student groups would continue their agitation against the so-called …nationalistic education
@)^@ ;fpg ! ut] zlgaf/ (2005 july 16)
Finance Minister Rana makes political speech (Budget special)
Budget is basically a political document, analysts say. For Finance Minister Madhukar Shumsher JB Rana, presenting the first budget estimates after the royal takeover must not have been an easy job.
In his two-hour long speech, Minister Rana said the main vision of the budget was to create foundation for prosperous new Nepal, within three years, by contributing to the political, social and economic sectors and by reducing the level of poverty.
Does it mean that His Majesty will be directly ruling the country for another three years and that there will be no room for return to multi-party democracy as insisted by NepalÚs international friends and donors.
The US government has already said three years is quite a long period and that Nepal should return to democracy without further delay.
During his royal proclamation on February 1, His Majesty King Gyanendra had sought a period of three years to restore peace and return to multi-party democracy in the country.
Though the annual budget presented by him covered only a period of one year, Minister Rana said that mainly, in a period of three years:
• Peace will be restored,
• Economic stability will be maintained in order to attain higher economic growth rate,
• Representative political institutions will be reactivated through free and fair elections.
• Infrastructure will be developed to make Nepal a transit economy between India and China.
“The main mission of this budget is to put Nepal into a respectable position in the comity of nations by restoring peace, achieving prosperity and reactivating democracy by means of pursuing market oriented economy, adhering fiscal discipline, following public-private policy and protecting peopleÚs lives and property. This budget is guided by the broader goal of reducing poverty level to below 10 percent and meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs),” he added.
Though he may not be contesting elections, the finance minister did not lag behind in using …politically correct languageÚ in his budget speech. In the context of the 10th Plan objective of poverty reduction through the improved social and economic indicators of women, Dalits, ultra poor and the backward class of the people by extending their access to resources and economic achievements made through the implementation of programs targeted for their empowerment, human development and social security, the main objectives of the budget are as follows:
To invest for the restoration of peace;
(b) To pave way for establishing private sector in a leadership role in the development of economic sector; and
(c) To improve the economic, human and social indicators of the ultra poor and deprived groups, the Minister said.
He further declared that the government would implement programs that win the popular support and confidence of the people to bring about an end to the terrorist activities.
But the million dollar question is: how will the government implement its programmes unless there is significant improvement in the security situation. And, another equally important question is: Where will the money come from?
@)^@ ;fpg @ ut] cfOtaf/ (2005 july 17)
Mobile phones resume operations in Biratnagar, Pokhara
Post-paid mobile phones started ringing in the eastern town of Biratnagar and major tourist town of Pokhara in the western region from Sunday, the authorities said.
The mobile telephony had been shut down across the country immediately after the royal takeover on February 1 this year. While post-paid mobile telephones were allowed to operate in the capital, Kathmandu, a few months ago, the services remained closed outside the capital.
This is the first time that mobile telephones have resumed operations outside Kathmandu after the Feb. 1 developments.
The state-owned Nepal Telecom Company had distributed over 5,000 mobile telephones in Pokhara out of which only 900 telephones have been cleared for operations.
In Biratnagar, around 600 mobile telephones have come into operations.
Pre-paid mobile phones, however, still remain out of service. Reports say security agencies are wary of allowing the pre-paid mobiles to resume operations fearing that the insurgents could make use of it.
Reports say the Nepal Telecom have suffered a loss of over Rs one billion due to closure in its services since the royal takeover.
National Film Festival concludes
The first National Film Festival, which began from July 10 in Kathmandu, concluded Sunday.
His Majesty King Gyanendra gave away awards to dozens of personalities contributing to the development and promotion of Nepali cinema in Nepal and outside. There was huge presence of cine luminaries of Nepal, India and Sri Lanka in the closing ceremony.
Her Majesty Queen Komal was also present on the occasion.
His Majesty King gave away awards to 17 veterans of Nepali cinema, which comprised of producers, directors, writers, actors and actresses while awards were given to another 25 personalities in 21 other categories.
Dev Anand, a veteran Indian actor-cum-producer-director, was honoured with Film Excellency Honour of Nepal for his contribution in familiarising Nepal in India as a popular film shooting destination. He received a special trophy from His Majesty.
Some of Dev Anand flicks like …Hare Rama Hare KrishnaÚ were shot in Nepal.
Nikil Upreti bagged the …best actorÚ award for his movie Haami Teen Bhai while Jal Shah received the …best actressÚ title. Kishor Rana was honoured as best director while …BandhakiÚ was named the best movie among the 42 movies screed during the festival.
The weeklong festival was marked by the screening of new and old Nepali movies, interaction programs on different aspects of cinema, cultural shows, food festival etc.
Addressing the closing ceremony, Minister for Information and Communication and chairman of the Main Organising Committee, Tanka Dhakal, said the film festival was an important step in promoting Nepali cinema at a time when the movie industry is in a lean phase.
The film festival was organised by Nepal Film Development Board with financial support from the government.
@)^@ ;fpg # ut] ;f]daf/ (2005 july 18)
Mainstream parties discuss Maoist proposal, fail to form negotiations team
The seven-party opposition alliance has renewed its appeal to the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) to create an environment of trust before they could sit for negotiations.
A meeting of top leaders of seven opposition parties met at the Nepali Congress central office this morning to discuss, among others, week-old Maoist proposal to appoint an authorized “negotiating team” to hold dialogue with his party on “all political agendas.”
Talking to reporters after this morningÚs meeting, a senior CPN (UML) leader Jhalnath Khanal said, the Maoists needed to do a lot to create an environment of trust between them and the parliamentary parties.
“There exists …pacific ocean of distrustÚ between us. The Maoists need to walk several miles (before that gulf is filled),” said Khanal. He also added that there was a need to re-establish political relations between the mainstream parties and the insurgents.
On last Monday, Prachanda called upon the opposition parties to come forward by constituting an official `negotiation teamÚ in order to create what he called a massive people pressure for a democratic way out. “A strong basis of confidence could be prepared by holding dialogue with such a negotiation team by organizing serious discussions on the whole gamut of political issues,” he added.
The Maoist chairman recalled that the directives issued by his party to all its cadres not to target activists of the seven party alliance was being enforced strictly, except some …accidents.Ú
But opposition parties have maintained that Maoist guerillas continue to harass, intimidate and even kill their workers and supporters in the rural areas. Hundreds of workers mainly affiliated to Nepali Congress and CPN (UML) have been killed, physically wounded or forced to flee their villages thanks to Maoist atrocities.
The meeting of seven opposition parties on Monday also criticized the budget estimates for the year 2005-06 presented by Foreign Minister Madhukar Shumsher Rana on Saturday terming it as “unconstitutional.”
The opposition alliance is also organizing a meeting of its incumbent and former members of parliament in Kathmandu Tuesday as part of its on-going protest against the royal takeover of February 1.
Scotland turns into a cauldron of protest against
the G8 summit
Editorial: The only sane response to the London
bombings: End the war in Iraq!
A World to Win News Service. The London bombings of 7 July that killed scores of
innocent people and injured many hundreds more were a terrible crime. What is clear to many people, but not nearly enough - and what needs to be made very clear and acted on - is that Blair and his government, along with George Bush and world imperialism, bear the main responsibility for these horrible deaths. A great deal -
including to some extent reducing the likelihood of such attacks in the future - depends on whether or not they are held accountable and are
forced to pay a political price matching their crimes.
Blair, like Bush, took Britain into war against Iraq on the basis of a lie, that Saddam Hussein's regime represented an immediate threat to the safety of Britain's people. Now there is tragic proof that it is the very opposite that is true: Britain's part in this unjust war against Iraq has increased the danger to its people. UK Home Secretary Charles Clarke tried to deny this in the Blair government's shameless style. He brazenly claimed, "There is no evidence [the bombings] had anything to do with the Iraq war." Although we do not know and may never really know the full ircumstances surrounding these bombings, we can say with certainty that this
statement is another outrageous fabrication in the tradition of Blair's claim that Saddam Hussein could unleash weapons of mass destruction against the UK "in 45 minutes".
If a government carries out mass murder, mass
imprisonment and mass torture and humiliates
whole peoples, then people are certain to respond
in various ways, and inevitably some of that
response will take the form of violently
anti-people actions. And if a government is ready
to carry out wars against Iraq and other
countries that may last many years, then it has
signed on for many years of horrors on both
sides. Despite government denials of any link
between Iraq and the London attack and the tight
media clampdown on anyone who dares to make this
link, they knew this very well themselves. As
Britain's Joint Intelligence Committee wrote in
February 2003, before the war, the terrorist
threat ". would be heightened by military action
against Iraq."
As a partner to the US - and whether someone is a
junior partner or something else makes no
difference in criminal guilt - Britain's rulers
have committed murder on a scale that,
fortunately, people in London can only imagine.
The US-British led forces killed as many as
100,000 people in the bombings, invasion and
their aftermath. The city of Falluja was
flattened by US and UK air and artillery
bombardment late last year, thousands were
killed, and the survivors now live in a virtual
prison. In June alone 700 people were killed in
Iraq. In Afghanistan last week, to avenge the
death of US commandos, the allies bombed a
village in Kunar province, killing 17 people,
including many family members. This is the life
the invaders have brought the Iraqi people in
doing what Blair unrepentantly calls "the right
thing".
If you look honestly at what the US and UK
imperialists have imposed in predominantly
Islamic countries long before 11 September 2001,
from the medieval Saudi monarchy to the theft of
Palestine from its people to the regime of
Pakistan's General (and self-made President)
Parvez Musharraf - a government so vile that when
a woman raped on the orders of local authorities
kicked up an international scandal, he sent his
police to shut her up and prevent her from
leaving the country - there can be no doubt at
all why some people react with explosive anger.
Other imperialist countries such as France are
involved in equal crimes, but British imperialism
has thrown in its lot with the US in an
unprecedented attempt to rule the world in a
single empire.
The tube and bus bombings were reactionary
because they deliberately targeted innocent
people. Such unjustifiable acts should never be
confused with the just struggles of the people
against oppression. Treating the masses of people
as the enemy anywhere is wrong, no less in the
imperialist countries than anywhere else. Such
acts only play into the hands of the rulers of
these countries in their efforts to rally the
people behind themselves as the representatives
of the people's interests. They do nothing at all
to change the world in the direction that it has
to be changed if we're going to put an end to
these imperialist crimes and the system behind
them, which is the enemy of the immense majority
of the people in every country.
"They are trying to use the slaughter of innocent
people," Blair declared shortly after the
bombings, "to cow us, to frighten us out of doing
the things we want to do." The things that this
murdering thug and the British ruling class
forces he represents "want to do" include turning
Iraq into a US-British fortress for more directly
dominating the whole Middle East and achieving
incontestable supremacy over the world's peoples
and their imperialist rivals as well. Never was
there a better time than now to bring out the
reasons behind the US-UK invasion of Iraq if the
people want to really understand the forces that
have caused so much suffering.
Yet our rulers are determined not to end the wars
of aggression that fuel such attacks, regardless
of how clear it is that this brings the people of
their own country into the line of fire. What
they are doing instead is to coldly and cynically"use the slaughter of innocent people" as a
pretext for more war, for more slaughter abroad,
and for more repression at home. Let's look at
the facts: have the various "security" measures
the British government introduced made the people
any safer or have they been used instead mainly
to suppress just resistance against them? Of the
700 people arrested under the UK Anti-Terrorism
Act (ATA), only a single one has been convicted
of a crime, while at the same time Section 60 of
the ATA has been used many hundreds of times to
harass protestors whom the authorities knew
perfectly well had nothing to do with"terrorism", such as the G8 protestors. What is
the purpose of the proposed hi-tech ID cards and
other "anti-terrorist" measures if not to closely
watch and control the entire population,
particularly resistance against the government?
"Our values will outlast theirs," Blair
declaimed. "The purpose of terrorism is to
terrorise people and we will not be terrorised."We will carry on business as normal." But what
values has the UK demonstrated in Iraq,
Afghanistan and elsewhere if not terrorism? What
values are incarnated in Abu Ghraib, in
Guantanamo, in Afghanistan's Bagram, and in the
normal workings of a system that has given us a
world marked by such crying inequalities and
suffering that it takes unprecedented legions of
soldiers to enforce its order through what can
only be described as mass terrorism?
Such terrorism is nothing new for the rulers of
the UK. During the last months of World War 2 in
Europe, with the purpose of "increasing the
terror" as Winston Churchill wrote in a memo,
more than 500 British bombers carpeted the entire
city of Dresden with firebombs. The city, then
Germany's most populous, swollen with refugees,
and inhabited mainly by women, children and the
elderly, had no military importance. The purpose
was to set off a firestorm reaching far into the
sky that would demonstrate Britain's armed
strength to Germany and the USSR alike. The
flaming tornado sucked people from the city's
streets into its vortex; those hiding underground
died of suffocation. In these same months, the US
and British leadership decided not to bomb the
rail lines carrying many thousands of Jews a day
to Nazi death camps. Britain's massacre of tens
of thousands and perhaps more than a hundred
thousand civilians in a matter of hours in
Dresden was later matched by the US atomic
bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Apparently "British values", as Blair put it, and"Western civilisation" itself, which Bush said
had been attacked in London, haven't changed much
since then. How can these people pretend to be
morally superior to the tube bombers? These
values are the values of capitalism, and they are
rooted in making money at the price of human
flesh. Just a little of this was revealed in the
price-gouging practiced by major hotel chains
when transportation was paralysed and many could
not return home, and in cynical City brokers'
comments about this horror being an "opportunity"
to make a killing on the stock market. "Business
as normal" is the occupation of Iraq and
Afghanistan and as many more countries as they
feel they can and must. "Business as usual" is no
life worth living for most Britons and no life at
all for more than a few of them and for most of
the people in the countries under the imperialist
heel.
Hundreds of thousands of people - with support
from many millions in the UK and abroad - came to
the G8 summit in Gleneagles to protest the war in
Iraq and the plunder of Africa and the world that
constitutes the "normal" workings of the world
system of imperialism Britain sits atop of and
helps enforce. They focused a spotlight on many
of the injustices perpetrated by the West's chief
criminals gathered there. The London bombings
came at an opportune moment for these men,
distracting attention and providing shadows for
them to scurry into. They must have considered
these attacks a gift from heaven.
For the British people, whose repeated
demonstrations of mass opposition to the war have
been turned aside by those holding the reins of
power, "stoicism" and "business as normal" is
exactly the opposite of what's needed. They are
right to be enraged, and that rage should find
the right political _expression. This is the time
to resist their calls for national unity - for
unity between those who oppose this war and have
no interest in it, and the imperialist rulers who
have pursued it in opposition to the great
majority in Britain and worldwide - and instead
to step up and intensify the movement against the
war and the government and to sharpen its aims:
to force the UK to withdraw from the war
immediately, and to build the struggle to do away
with the system behind it. People in the UK could
draw strength from the knowledge of how badly
forcing Britain out of the war would hurt Bush
and encourage those seeking the same end in the
US and the other countries in their coalition.
While the situation in the UK differs in some
ways from Spain, the fact that this is exactly
what happened in the wake of last year's Madrid
bombings shows that it is not completely
impossible for the London attacks to have
consequences far different from what Blair and
his backers are trying to impose.
This kind of struggle against the government can
make it clearer to all that the people will not
accept the crimes being carried out in their
name. Such an approach cannot guarantee that
attacks targeting innocents will not occur again
in the UK or elsewhere, but it is the best way
the people in the criminal coalition countries
can deal with the danger that their rulers have
placed them in. It can help make it clearer to
people everywhere just who are the friends and
who are the enemies of the world's peoples and
what approach can really win - win in the sense
of serving the interests of the immense majority
of the earth's inhabitants. Nothing else can
fight the forces trying, for their own ends, to
build hatred between peoples, and only in the
course of building such a fight can the different
peoples be brought together.
The events in London make clearer than ever the
need to build a worldwide movement that can unite
all who can be united on a world scale in their
hundreds of millions, at every step of the way,
to oppose, resist and eventually overthrow the
rulers of the imperialist countries, their
henchmen in the countries they oppress and their
whole global imperialist system. Ideologies such
as religious fundamentalism of any kind and other
strategies (including military strategies) based
on narrow, un-liberating interests do not even
seek such a future. But if we don't fight for
that future, what future do we really have at
all?
- end item-
Pages from a reporter's notebook:
Scotland turns into a cauldron of protest against the G8 summit
A World to Win News Service. In the
week of 1 to 6 July, there was an outpouring of
anger in Edinburgh and Gleneagles, Scotland. In
the face of intense police surveillance and
intimidation, hundreds of thousands of people
from all over Britain and Europe and even from
North America marched, attended rallies and
public meetings to express their rage over the
world's top eight imperialist powers (who call
themselves the Group of Eight) responsible for
the plunder of oppressed nations, war and
destruction of the environment. The G8 met to
decide the fate of this planet.
There were a large number of veteran militant
activists who had participated in previous
anti-imperialist globalisation events, such as
the G8 conferences in Evian and Genoa, as well as
school-age youth waking up to the big issues of
the day. Middle-aged protestors, grannies and
children intermingled with colourfully decorated
contingents of young people, and armies of clowns
marched up and down the streets even as one
stepped out of the main Waverly railway station.
It was abundantly clear that the local people in
Edinburgh shared the feelings of the protesters
who invaded their city. Scotland is somewhat
poorer than England and general resentment of G8
masters was blended with age-old resentment of
English domination. Out of many a window flew
banners, flags with the words "Make Poverty
History" and ridiculous rubber mocking the faces
of George Bush and Tony Blair. By late afternoon
1 July, the streets of Edinburgh were teeming
with visitors of various nationalities and
ethnicities from abroad and other parts of
Britain mixing freely with the mainly warm and
friendly people of this city.
On Friday afternoon, 1 July, a public meeting was
held in Queens Hall at the University of
Edinburgh featuring speakers such as Haidi
Giuliani whose son Carlo was murdered by the
police in Genoa, and the mother of a US soldier
killed in Iraq.
2 July: a sea of people - a quarter of a million
according to the organisers - protesters and the
curious, milled about a huge park called the
Meadows, in central Edinburgh. Here waved flags
and banners of all hues carried by demonstrators
from a wide range of movements and organisations,
from the advocates of "fair trade" to environment
protection, from pacifists to the large
contingents of non-governmental organisations.
Here also fluttered flags of the anti-imperialist
movement, including the banner of the World
People's Resistance Movement (WPRM). Here too
flew a large red flag with a silhouette of the
revolutionary leader Mao Tsetung. Giant-sized
podiums were erected at strategic corners of the
park with huge screens projecting images of the
speakers, dancers and singers. The crowds danced
to vibrant rhythms played by the many lively
bands from various countries, many from Africa.
Three main political trends were represented,
generally grouped at different camps: first, the"Make Poverty History" coalition, ranging from
famous rock musicians Bono and Bob Geldof (known
for their pre-G8 efforts to "win over" George
Bush and other imperialist leaders) to NGOs like
Oxfam, Christian Aid, etc. Second, G8
Alternatives, in which the Trotskyist Socialist
Workers Party of Britain was prominent, and which
grouped together other social-democratic forces
and some relatively more left-wing NGOs, those
often referred to as the "campaigning NGOs", such
as War on Want and the Campaign for Nuclear
Disarmament. The third grouping included a range
of what were called the "dissent" forces, mostly
pacifist anarchists supporting causes like
alternative lifestyles and economic
infrastructure and animal rights, but also
including some of the more militant groups like
the anarchists in the "black bloc".
One focus of discussion was whether or not the G8
leaders, with all their promises to cancel part
of Africa's "debt", in fact preside over a whole
murderous system of domination that is
responsible for the poverty of Africa and the
third world in the first place. Aren't these the
same leaders who waged a war of terror against
Iraq and its people for their own strategic and
economic interests? This represented a key debate
since key Make Poverty History leaders Bono and
Bob Geldof had begged for cancelling the debt -
and when the imperialists went along with that to
some extent, they declared this a "victory" that
should make us proud of our (imperialist!)
leaders. Rather than exposing the Bush & Blair
Ltd. charade, they played a big role in promoting
it. Connected to this question of what is the
fundamental cause of poverty was whether the
Edinburgh protestors, the Live Aid spectators and
all those who were looking to them needed to
stand with the struggling people of the world
against these leaders, or simply hope for charity
from the rich G8 masters. Not surprisingly, a
great number of the people attending these events
held a mixture of these ideas.
Many thousands of leaflets entitled, "This Planet
Belongs to the People, Not the Masters of War and
Oppression: For a World Without Imperialism!" and
another with the heading "Revolution in Nepal: A
New World is Possible!" were distributed by WPRM
activists. The WPRM literature table, with a
banner demanding an end to the occupation of Iraq
and for the imperialists to keep their bloody
hands off Nepal, received many visitors eager to
pick up the literature and buy a new video
documentary on the eighth anniversary of the
revolutionary people's war there.
In the late evening of Saturday 2 July, WPRM
activists informed people in one of the protest
camps that a video documentary on the people's
war in Nepal would be screened in the big tent.
Some 200 people turned up to view the "Eight
Glorious Years of People's War in Nepal" and take
part in vigorous discussions it generated. A WPRM
activist presented the dramatic changes that have
been taking place in Nepal under the new people's
power there, inspiring many and raising more
questions for others. A Nepalese comrade working
with WPRM in Britain explained how people in the
UK could help the Nepalese people who are
fighting to overthrow an absolute monarchy. There
was heated debate over the problem of civilian
casualties in a revolutionary war. One
participant said that she had visited Nepal
recently and argued that the people are caught
between two fires and are in grave danger from
both sides. She nevertheless urged people to
visit Nepal and see things for themselves.
The G8 Alternative Summit on Sunday 3 July
included a wide range of plenary sessions and
workshops to discuss and explore issues and
problems that plague the earth, but also to
expose and condemn the crimes of the G8 all over
the world. Discussions and debates were organised
on a wide range of topics in workshops and
plenary sessions in various parts of the city.
Throngs of students and social and political
activists formed every two hours or so waiting to
get into lecture halls to listen and to question
speakers on subjects such as arms trade, AIDS
treatment and the G8, Palestine, imperialism and
resistance in the Middle East, globalisation,
women and war and "making capitalism history".
In Queens Hall, people struggled to comprehend
how climate changes take place and how climate
justice can be realised. Among the speakers
scheduled to present their cases was Ken Wiwa,
the son of the well-known opposition figure Ken
Saro-wiwa executed by the Nigerian regime for
exposing corruption and government complicity
with foreign oil interests, Shell Oil in
particular. Other sessions targeted corporate
globalisation and privatisation as well as the
attack on civil liberties in the context of the
war on terror. Speakers denounced growing
discrimination against Muslims and people of
Asian origin in Britain and argued that in fact
terrorism is fuelled by Blair and Bush's
policies.
Workshops were held in Usher House on resisting
imperialism and war, and as to what to make of
the promises of Blair and Brown to African
nations. The question of aid, trade and debt and
how poverty could be made history was dealt in
another workshop. These issues were heatedly
debated by speakers and the audience alike. In
the afternoon, an anti-war rally of many
thousands took place to denounce the US-led war
in Iraq and imperialist war crimes there. This
played an important role in fighting the efforts
of Blair, Brown, Bush and the other G8 leaders to"put the Iraq war behind them" and paint
themselves instead as the "saviours of Africa" by
trying to white out any attention to their crimes
in the war.
In the evening several speakers, including Haidi
Giuliani and Member of British Parliament George
Galloway received standing ovations from the
audience of two thousand when they denounced war,
oppression and the hypocrisy of the G8 chiefs.
They exposed how these imperialist spokespeople
talk of "debt relief" and fighting poverty in
Africa and the Third World countries yet
condition any such relief on these countries
opening up even wider to Western investment and
political intervention, which is the cause of
their suffering in the first place and which can
only mean plunder, starvation, death by diseases
and slaughter. Gordon Brown and Tony Blair are
not the solution, in fact they are the problem,
Galloway said, calling on the crowd to counter
the presence of the mass murderer Bush in
Britain.
A session the next day on women and globalisation
raised debate over whether the Islamic regimes in
Afghanistan and Iran should be supported in the
name of opposing the imperialists as the biggest
oppressors of women. A woman from the Iranian and
Afghanistani women's organisation March 8th
argued from the floor against this reformist
position which was being put forward by the
Trotskyist Socialist Workers Party, and insisted
that all people fighting the US, the UK and the
G8 must also condemn these regimes if they want
to truly oppose the oppression of women. This
stand was met with rounds of applause.
Monday afternoon, 4 July: military families
against war organised a very interesting public
meeting in a church hall in central Edinburgh.
Rose Gentle, whose son was killed in Iraq, spoke
out bravely against the war in Iraq as did a
veteran of the British army and several other
participants. A veteran organiser of soldiers'
resistance from the Vietnam war era, speaking in
the name of the Stop the War Brigade, made a
rousing intervention on the need to take the
struggle against the war into the bases to reach
the soldiers.
Not far from where this church stands, police
managed to turn a street carnival by G8
protestors into a riot. Clowns showed up at this
party, which soon evolved into a demonstration
against US aggression and occupation of Iraq and
its threatening posture throughout the Middle
East. Policemen beat up on-lookers and protestors
alike, although the news media portrayed it as a
violent demonstration.
Monday was also a day of blockade at Faslane, the
home to Britain's Trident nuclear submarines and
one of its most important military facilities.
Over a thousand people went to cause disruption
at the Faslane military base to underscore the
close link between the state's monopoly over the
employment of violence and the exploitation of
the earth's poverty-stricken. The police arrested
several people during this action.
Early Tuesday morning, 5 July, a large number of
political activists from many different
organisations set off for the Dungavel Detention
Centre to protest the treatment of refugees
facing deportation to their country of origin.
This protest was billed "Refugees are Welcome
Here". Many people also moved from Edinburgh to
another camp at Stirling, a headquarters for
dissident forces and closer to Gleneagles, the
site of the main demonstration scheduled for
Wednesday.
Early Wednesday morning, 6 July: the police
blockaded the only entry/exit point of the
Stirling camp. Hundreds trying to get to the
nearest train station found themselves blocked.
Those determined to go to the demonstration
itself sneaked through side roads and pathways
and headed for the station. Police, however, shut
down the Stirling train station, and no train
stopped there. Some protestors got into the few
buses that plied between Stirling and Edinburgh,
and from there managed to get into chartered
buses for Gleneagles. A single file of seventeen
to twenty coaches finally took the demonstrators
to Gleneagles, but arrived only after being held
at a roadblock for hours, where they were
gradually joined by several dozen more coaches.
As the coaches finally entered the village of
Gleneagles hours late, the townspeople came out
of their homes and waved to the buses, showing
the V sign for solidarity and support. Along the
way to the park where the buses were headed, the
local people lined the road to greet and join
with the G8 demonstrators, waving and smiling,
making them feel welcome in their small town.
This was a heart-warming scene indeed.
The narrow road up the hill towards the site of
the G8 summit conference was tightly packed with
several thousand people from a wide range of
organisations, mainly anti-war and
anti-globalisation. They had already had to
struggle for hours to get there, and many others
had been turned back. Flags and banners, drums
and clowns, whistles sounding, making a din
amidst slogans hollered, "Shut down G8!" as the
crowd moved like a sluggish river. In the biggest
police operation in Scottish history, hundreds of
police lined up either side of the road.
The conference venue itself was blocked off by a
high fence behind which stood a row of riot
police. On this side of the fence the
demonstrators were allowed to march up and turn
right down a road quite far from the conference
site. Youth angered at being prevented from going
any further shouted, "Fuck the police! Fuck the
system!" "Shame on you!" "You are a shame to
Scotland!" Many threw their placards over the
fence, which landed in front of the police line.
A group of colourfully dressed clowns, anarchists
and other protestors descended down the slope and
entered a barley field which stretched up a
gentle rolling hill, holding high their flags and
banners. Soon others followed almost waist deep
in the green crop. The WPRM banner with the
slogans "End the Occupation of Iraq! U.S. Hands
Off Nepal!" fluttered defiantly in the wind. From
afar it looked like a scene out of the film
Braveheart as mounted police took up position and
formed a battle line. Army Chinook helicopters
ferried in more riot police as rows of black
uniformed and helmeted riot police with black
skimasks looking like Darth Vader in Star Wars
took position on the road. Each time the Chinooks
deafeningly violated the peace in the air above,
hundreds of people on the ground jeered and
hooted and threw their fists into the air. Police
and security forces maintained a very aggressive
posture, repeatedly attacking demonstrators.
Some of the bus stewards from the SWP used
megaphones to urge the crowd on the road to move
to the buses parked outside the park, shouting,"This is peaceful protest and we are heading back
to the parked buses. Those who want to stay
behind may do so but we are going home." But
several people demanded to know how the G8 could
be shut down if everyone headed home. More "Shut
down G8!" slogan-chanting followed.
Up the hill, the police moved in a pincer-like
formation towards the motley crowd of protestors.
As the noose tightened, the protestors were
finally forced to retreat, descend the hill and
re-link with the rest of the demonstration.
Several people were arrested for the action on
the hill. After returning to Edinburgh from the streets of
Gleneagles, leafleting continued in the highly
charged atmosphere there. Lively discussions
continued at length over what had been
accomplished and what had not, and whether a more
revolutionary approach and understanding was
needed.
Palpasa Café
A debut novel by Narayan Wagle
Writer
Editor of Kantipur daily, Narayan Wagle is also known as the writer of an extremely popular Saturday Column – Coffee Guff.
Coffee guff is a typical Narayan Wagle column where - issues, travels, and encounters that do not get the news space in his paper, are presented in an interesting manner.
Fact coupled with a tint fiction and some fantasy is how this column is presented, and this is what Narayan does very well.
The Book
Written in the Coffee Guff format - Palpasa Café is also the first novel from him.
The language used is very simple and colloquial.
Story telling is interesting.
The novel has been successful in absorbing the readers into the book. It does not take much time when the readers start finding the characters in the book very close to themselves and their everyday life.
This 245-pages novel has portrayed the protagonists of the novel, on a canvas of time, and questioned them. Questions, related to contemporary Nepal.
The main character of the novel is an artist who has been made to disappear. The story resolves around the lives of Drishya the artist and Palpasa his lover. Palpasa has returned from America. Drisya and Palpasa have contrasting lives with differing views, and levels of consciousness. The state of conflict in the country becomes an obstacle for their togetherness and their efforts to connect. The backdrop of the novel is based on the effects of conflict, and the environment of confusion of peopleÚs vision, consciousness and reality.
Entry of Siddhartha, DrishyaÚs college mate – takes Drishya and the readers close to current conflicts.
Publisher:
Alike NarayanÚs , Palpasa Café is also the first book published by nepa-laya.
Nepa-laya has been working with promoting various genres of creative art which mainly included music and non-fiction films. Nepa~laya has now expanded itÚs operation to publishing and promoting Novels.
An attempt has been made to maintain the printing and packaging of the book at a high level.
The book has been priced at Rs. 250 for the soft cover and Rs.450 for the Hardcover.
Pre-launch function
A formal announcement on Narayan WagleÚs awaited novel – Palpasa Café was made at a Pre-launch Session held at Yalamaya Kendra on 16th of July 2005.
The book will be released and be available at bookstores within a month.
For further Information:
Arpan Sharma
Director – PR
nepa-laya
Phone: 5542646, 5552839, 9851026266
Email: nepalaya@wlink.com.np
www.nepa-laya.com
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