The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)-Nepal has expressed concerns over the use of the Public Security Act (PSA) to take five ministers of previous royal government in preventive detention.
A statement issued by the OHCHR’s Nepal office on Wednesday said the OHCHR conveyed its concern to the Home Ministry today regarding the use of the Public Security Act (PSA) to hold five former ministers in preventive detention.
“OHCHR-Nepal believes that the use of the PSA raises serious questions about the legality of the arrests and detention. According to the detention letters issued by the Chief District Officer of Kathmandu, all detainees were “involved in conspiratorial activities including organizing secret meetings likely to jeopardise the sovereignty of the people and the people’s rights achieved by the people’s movement,” the statement said.
It further said, “The detention letters however do not indicate the basis on which these accusations are being made, nor do they give specific details of the “conspiratorial activities” and how such activities “immediately jeopardise the sovereignty, integrity, or public tranquility and order of the Kingdom of Nepal.”
Then ministers Minister Kamal Thapa (Home), Ramesh Nath Pandey (Foreign Affairs), Shrish SJB Rana (Information and and Nikshya Shumsher Rana (Health) were arrested on May 12 and are currently being held in the Nepal Police Academy and the Armed Nepali Police barracks in Tripureshwor.
However, the UN rights body said its monitoring team that visited the detention centers on May 14 found the condition of detention of the former ministers “generally acceptable”.
“OHCHR-Nepal has repeatedly condemned the use of the PSA in the past to hold individuals in preventive detention in violation of international human rights standards. It is disappointed that the new Government has continued this practice at a time when it should be setting new standards for fully respecting human rights and upholding the rule of law,” the statement quoted Ian Martin, the representative of the OHCHR-Nepal as saying.
He added, “Those responsible for human rights violations should be brought to justice, but I call on the authorities to ensure that the rights of anyone accused in connection with their activities under the previous Government are fully respected.”
Himalayan bank Limited has announced two new schemes as part of its programme to provide customized deposit and credit products to its customers on Wednesday.
According to the information provided during a press meet organised at its central office in Thamel, the ‘Himalayan Bank banou Lakhoupati Deposit Yojana’ is a fixed deposit scheme with one ticket for every Rs 25,000 deposit to participate in a quarterly lottery lucky draw. Every three months, one lucky winner will be awarded Rs one million. All depositors will get one percent interest with a minimum time period of 6 months.
Similarly, the bank has announced to provide loans to small business enterprises at 7.99 percent interest, the lowest of all interest rates charged by the commercial banks in credit. According to Kishore Maharjan, Deputy General Manager of the bank, the loan amount ranges from Rs 0.5 million to Rs 1.5 million. However, only a business with two years of good performance or an individual/entrepreneur having sound knowledge in the field for three years will be eligible to participate in the scheme.
Maharjan said they hoped to commercialize even the small amount of money remaining idle with people. “We expect deposits even from housewives,” he said.
Both the products will be available from all branches of the bank from Thursday onwards.
Himalayan Bank is one of the leading commercial banks providing new monetized products to its customers since its establishment 12 years ago.
It will be disastrous to wait until the finale of political drama to address the economic problem in Nepal
By Shiva Gautam
Nepalese have stunned the world with their political maturity, persistence, resilience and will to take a very intricate political impasse head-on and move ahead.
It took a Nepali initiative and recipe to break the ice of a Nepali problem. Had the Nepalese followed the western and other countries’ friendly advice of ‘one size fits all’ approach to a complex political problem, there would not have been such a breakthrough. It was not as if the world was not supportive of democracy in Nepal, but rather than supporting Nepalese prescription, the world more or less wanted Nepalese to swallow its pills. The world tried to help but saw the problem through its own eyes, refusing to look from the Nepali people’s eyes, almost until the end when things were about to go out of control.
Once it saw the problem and a roadmap for a solution through Nepali perspectives, the international community also firmly stood behind the people. While the wheels of the political solutions are now in the motion, the economic problem needs immediate attention. It will be disastrous to wait until the finale of political drama to address the economic problem. The burden of economic movement lies on the economists, socialists, informed citizens, and policy makers, from the leaders of both the political parties and the Maoists.
It is a fact that hundreds of thousands people will not be marching on the street asking for an economic boom. Both the international community and its financial institutions, as well as domestic experts and financial institutions are likely to see the problem from non-Nepali eyes. So it becomes even a bigger problem to find a Nepali solution to the Nepali economic problem. At least in the case of political problem, there were people who believed and devised a unique Nepali roadmap that gave way to a new beginning.
“Lesson can be learnt from Argentina, a country whose economy was in ruins just five years ago and now it is rebounding with 7.5% growth rate. Argentineans claim that the recovery is not a miracle; they simply had an Argentinean solution to an Argentinean problem.”
A lesson can be learnt from Argentina, a country whose economy was in ruins just five years ago and now it is rebounding with 7.5% growth rate. Argentineans claim that the recovery is not a miracle; they simply had an Argentinean solution to an Argentinean problem. They rejected International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) prescription and followed their own recipes some of which go against prevailing economic thought. Although Argentina’s is not completely out of the woods, it certainly suggests that in countries like Nepal where economy is in shambles, an initial economic prescription may not come from modern text books but from careful observation of country specific problems. Once the economy moves forward then the readymade recipes by institutions like the IMF and World Bank may help set the economic pace at a higher gear. To give economic goal a priority, the government may set up an entity like Economic Council whose responsibility will be to address financial and economic issues with the urgency of a revolution. It may work in coordination with the exciting government apparatus (e.g. Banks, Planning Commission) which may help implement the Council’s prescription. Of course, such a council is not a replacement for the government’s economic and planning institution, but a temporary, slightly political entity consisting of experts and policy makers representing both political parties (SPA) and Maoists.
At a time when we are thinking to draft a new constitution through a constituent assembly (CA) to govern the country, it is high time a powerful body be created to sail through rapid economic growth and stability. The regimen, if we can come up, may also be integrated in the CA. The argument that political process and economic process should go hand in hand is a reasonable one. As in the political front, the process may need cooperation from the Maoists to expedite the economic recovery, and for an efficient delivery to the needy population. No matter what, the economic problem needs to be addressed sooner rather than later; if we wait until final political fix, then we may be where we started, since the economic problem is one of the geneses of the current problem in the country.
(The author is a faculty at the Harvard University. Please send your comments to [email protected] or [email protected] )
(Editor’s Note: Nepalis, wherever they live, as well as friends of Nepal around the globe are requested to contribute their views/opinions/recollections etc. on issues concerning present day Nepal to the Guest Column of Nepalnews. Length of the article should not be more than 1,000 words and may be edited for the purpose of clarity and space. Relevant photos as well as photo of the author may also be sent along with the article. Please send your write-ups to [email protected])
Leaders of various political parties and representatives of civil society have accused the incumbent government of failing to work as per people’s expectations regarding the issue of constituent assembly.
Speaking at an interaction in the capital on Monday, they said that there is a need of debate over the issue and also urged the government to form interim statute for holding the election of the constituent assembly.
Pradip Gyawali of the CPN UML said that the country needs restructuring on various fronts like social, religious, ethnic and regional.
“If the new constitution failed to address these issues it would be no good for the development of the country,” he said, adding the country should move towards establishment of a democratic republic through an election to a constituent assembly.
The interim statute is getting delayed, he said, urging the civil society to keep pressuring the government for the same.
Leader of Nepal Sadhbhawana Party (Anandidevi), Sarita Giri, said territorial unity and territorial integrity should be incorporated in the new constituent assembly.
Constitutional expert Nilamber Acharya said that the new constitution should abolish autocracy and address the Maoist problem. Acharya stressed on sustainable peace, republican state, development through social and economic restructuring.
Human rights activist Daman Nath Dhungana said if changes come in fractions despite such a big movement, it will not mean anything. Revival of the House does not solve any problem on its own; it just shows light at the end of tunnel, Dhungana said.
Deputy Prime Minister (DPM) KP Sharma Oli, who also holds the foreign portfolio, has urged the Maoists to stop all their activities that adversely affect the peace process to create conducive environment for talks.
Speaking at a programme organized on the occasion of the 17th anniversary of the National Democratic Youth Federation, Nepal, DPM Oli asked, “While the government has been expressing its firm commitment to the six-point agenda endorsed by the seven-party alliance and to the 12-point understanding reached with the Maoists to restore peace, what sort of negotiations do the Maoists want by continuing their extortions, intimidations and recruitment for their militia?”
Such activities would not help create a favorable atmosphere for peace talks as the government and the Maoists had spoken about in the past, Oli added.
He said that armed Maoists in combat attire were intimidating people, extorting one million rupees from the UML’s district level cadres and forcing them to attend Maoist functions.
Speaking at the same programme, CPN-UML General Secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal also urged both the government and the Maoists to bridge the widening gap and crisis of confidence by abiding sincerely by the ceasefire and the peace process.
He said that extortion, intimidation and other activities unfavorable for the peace process should be halted immediately.
Meanwhile, central acting chief of Maoist affiliated Tamang Autonomous Republican Power, Dawa Tamang (Kshitiz), said the Maoists would not stop activities like collection of donation, tax and interrogation until an interim government with the involvement of Maoists is formed.
Speaking at a press conference organised after the announcement of District Peoples’ Government (Dolakha) in Charikot, he further added that issues related to race, gender and regional good governance should be guaranteed while going for a constituent assembly.
Despite criticism from all quarters, Maoists abducted a businessman in Sarlahi district and are still extorting money in various parts of the country.
According to a press statement issued by the Directorate of Public Relations of the Royal Nepalese Army, Maoists abducted Shankar Rayamajhi, a local timber trader, from Nayaroad of Sarlahi, Sunday. He was taken towards an undisclosed location.
Meanwhile, a report from Dolakha said that Maoist rebels are still continuing with the collection of forced ‘taxes’ from various government and non-government organizations.
A district level meeting of the Maoists’ district level government also passed a proposal to this effect and made it mandatory for I/NGOs and government organizations to register with their party, newspaper reports said.
Similarly, the Maoists extorted sums of money, ranging from Rs 10,000 to 150,000, from local businessmen at Phidim, district headquarters of Panchthar, on Sunday.
Meanwhile in Parbat, Maoist rebels on Friday seized four youths and held them in their “labor detention camp” at Chitre VDC, charging them of beating their cadre.
The Federation of Nepalese Journalists (FNJ), an umbrella organization of working journalists of the country has said it would submit a white paper to the government and push for restructuring the communications sector.
Speaking at an interaction organized by the Kaski branch of the FNJ on Monday, FNJ central chairman, Bishnu Nishthuri, said that the FNJ would submit a white paper to the government on rights and interests of the journalists.
“The FNJ would press the government to improve and implement the Working Journalists Act,” he said.
The FNJ is preparing a black book by compiling printed pro-royal regime articles. The FNJ has said that it would mark the 15 month long direct rule of the King as black period in the history of journalism.
The democratic government formed after the success of the people’s movement, has praised the role of media during the period of pro-democracy movement of the country and expressed commitment to ensure full-fledged press freedom in the country.
Three days after their detention, former ministers Ramesh Nath Pandey and Shrish SJB Rana moved the Supreme Court (SC) with habeas corpus petitions that questioned the legality of their detention.
former minister of state for Information and Communications Shrish Shumsher Rana
The government has held them under the Public Security Act, accusing them of conspiring against the pro-democracy movement of the country.
Advocate Balkrishna Neupane’s assistant Tikaram Adhikari filed the petition seeking their release while accusing the seven-party alliance government of detaining the royalist ministers illegally.
“The government has no authority to detain anyone merely citing sub-section 3(1) of the Clause of the Public Security Act 2049 BS and accusing them of holding secret meetings against the sovereign people or the movement that caused the reinstatement of the House of Representatives,” the petition reads.
“This Act does not bar anyone from holding meetings. Hence, this is not a valid ground to detain anyone,” the petitioner said.
He also added the government has violated their fundamental rights under Article 12 and 14 of the Constitution on the right to assembly and fair trial.
The SC is scheduled to start initial hearing on these petitions from today.
The government on Friday arrested former Home Minister Kamal Thapa, former Foreign Minister Ramesh Nath Pandey, former Local Development Minister Tanka Dhakal, former minister of state for Information and Communications Shrish Shumsher Rana and former assistant minister Nikshya Shumsher Rana on the recommendation of the high level commission formed to investigate the atrocities committed during the pro-democracy movement of the country and to recommend action against culprits.
Interpol, Nepal had carried out the search operation of missing German lady
Kristina Kovacevic for two weeks but lack of detailed information has brought the operation to a stand still. The whereabouts of the Kovacevic, said to be missing from Khumbu region, is still unknown.
Talking to the Nepalnews, high-ranking official at the Interpol, Nepal said that they had started the search operation with just her name and passport number as their obligation of finding out the foreign nationals missing in the country.
Kovacevic, who had gone for trekking in the region alone, as claimed by her sister Caroline Stallcup, presently in Kathmandu to find her missing sister, is said to have undermined the basic requirements for high altitude trekking which was the main reason behind the lack of her own information.
According to Mohan Sapkota, Director at the Department of Immigration (DoI), there is no information about Kovacevic because she had gone to the region alone and not through any trekking agency. “We received this information from outside sources including the media and Stallcup,” Sapkota said.
Sapkota said that the trekking alone and not going through any trekking agency itself is against the norms of the trekking guidelines in Nepal. However, Stallcup maintains that it is not only her sister who trekked alone in the region. ‘It is not only my sister who went there alone. In fact, I just met a Swiss national for possible information who also visited the region alone and returned without any obstacle,” Stallcup said.
According to Director Sapkota, the foreign national who breaches the high altitude trekking norms could be liable for the fine up to rupees 50,000 and imprisonment up to five years period.
Whatever the consequences may be, the major issue is Kovacevic is missing and needs to be found. Kovasevic’s younger sister Stallcup visited the German embassy in Kathmandu yesterday seeking help for a rescue bid. “The embassy here is not ready to give me any financial support but the embassy has vowed to coordinate with Interpol in the search operation,” she said.
Meanwhile, Secretary at the Embassy of Germany, Kathmandu, Heike Widmer said that the embassy had already started its coordination with the Interpol, Nepal. “We have been working with the Nepalese authority and the Interpol by providing them the necessary information instrumental for the search operation conducted by the Interpol,” she said.
Widmer said that the German embassy has a obligation to find the missing German national and the embassy is doing everything possible. ” But things has to be done in a systematic way according to the rule of law,” she added. She said the German embassy is acquiring necessary information from Germany and coordinating with Interpol.
Stallcup is also satisfied with the way Interpol is conducting the operation and hopes that the Interpol will be able to trace her sister as soon as possible. Nevertheless, Stallcup is carrying out her own search operation and is heading to Lukla today.
The CPN-UML has expressed dissatisfaction over the failure of the parliament to decide on important issues like declaring the parliament supreme.
“There should be no delay in institutionalizing the achievements of the people’s movement,” a press statement issued after the standing committee meeting of the party said.
The Seven Party Alliance (SPA) on Monday failed to arrive at consensus regarding a proclamation that would declare the House of Representatives as the ‘supreme authority.
Earlier, reports said the meeting of the reinstated House on Monday was likely to declare itself as the ‘supreme authority.
According to reports, the proclamation aimed at massively curtailing royal privileges, changing the name of His Majesty’s Government into ‘Nepal Government’, bring the army under the purview of the parliament and change it into ‘Nepal Army’ [from Royal Nepalese Army], and impose taxes on the income and properties of the King and royal family, among others.
The standing committee meeting also elected Bharat Mohan Adhikari for the post of the deputy leader of the CPN-UML in the parliament.
Adhikari was selected for the post after the deputy leader KP Sharma Oli was appointed Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister of the coalition government.
Madhav Kumar Nepal is the party leader in parliament.
Protests were held in the capital today against the delay in the parliamentary vote on the proclamation that would curtail the king’s political and military powers.
The protesters burnt tyres and chanted slogans against the delay caused by differences within the seven-party alliance. They also protested the remarks of former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba.
Student wings of various political parties of the alliance organized protest programmes in Kalanki and in front of RR campus.
They also called the SPA to immediately make such proclamation as per people’s aspiration expressed during the pro-democracy movement of the country.
The Seven Party Alliance (SPA) on Monday failed to arrive at consensus regarding a proclamation that would declare the House of Representatives as the ‘supreme authority, following dispute among coalition partners.
Media reports said that the declaration was delayed after President of Nepali Congress (Democratic), Sher Bahadur Deuba had forwarded a proposal that would allow the monarch keep his post of the supreme commander of the RNA.
However Deuba dismissed the news reports and said that the news was aimed at assassinating his character.
Talking to journalists after the central committee meeting of the party at its headquarters, Deuba said, “This is grossly unfair to me. I have repeatedly emphasised to bring the army under the Parliament.”
Deuba further said, “Why should I support the King when he has repeatedly victimised me?”
Meanwhile, issuing a press statement on Tuesday, the NGO Federation of Nepal protested the delay in issuing the proclamation and called to immediately make it.
The statement said the declaration was prepared as per people’s aspiration expressed during the people’s movement, so the parliament should not delay to make the proclamation.