December 3, 2004

KATHMANDU: Metropolitan Police of the United Kingdom is advising the Nepal government to deal with the problem of extortion being faced by the country’s business community, a top British diplomat said.

Addressing the ninth annual general meeting of the Nepal-British Chamber of Commerce and Industry (NBCCI) in the capital, Kathmandu, Friday, ambassador of the United Kingdom in Nepal, Keith G Bloomfield, said that the Metropolitan Police had already submitted a report to the Nepal government to deal with the problem of extortion.

The British government’s initiative has come amid complaints by the Nepali business community that the Maoist rebels were asking them for “donations” regularly.

“The extortion (in Nepal) is systematic and regular, which is making life difficult for the business community,” said the British envoy, who also heads the Industrial Security Group that represents countries with major foreign investment projects in Nepal.

Ambassador Bloomfield said a team of experts from the Metropolitan Police (of UK) has submitted a master plan to the Nepal government and has advised the government to set up a special task force involving all security agencies so as to initiate a pilot programme for the Kathmandu valley.

“The problem of extortion is expanding and increasing in amount,” he said.

The British envoy-who is also a counter-insurgency expert-warned that (extortion) was a criminal issue and won’t be resolved even if the Maoist issue was resolved.

He reiterated his government’s position that the Maoist issue (in Nepal) should be resolved through dialogue.

Addressing the function, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Dr. Prakash Sharan Mahat, said that businessmen should say a “collective NO” to the extortionists. He said the government was ready to help the business community if they stood up unitedly against the rebels, as the people in Dailekh did.

Thousands of people, mostly women, in remote mid-western district of Dailekh have been launching a peaceful resistance movement against what they call the Maoist atrocities.

Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba alleged last week that the business community was buying peace by paying out to the rebels. Top business leaders later publicly said it was a compulsion for them, not a choice.

President of NBCCI, Rajendra Kumar Khetan, said Nepali business community was facing two-pronged challenges at the moment-one related to security and another posed by the need to compete in the global market place.

One of the leading bilateral chambers, NBCCI is playing an active role in promoting trade and investment between Nepal and the UK and raising issues being faced by the country’s business community.