The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has urged the government to take action against security personnel involved in the murder of two people in Janakpur as criminal offense and inform the NHRC about the progress in this regard.

A press statement distributed by the NHRC during a press conference on Tuesday said human rights assistant of NHRC contact office Janakpur, Daya Ram Pariyar, died while undergoing treatment at Teaching Hospital on March 28, while Ram Chandra Yadav was killed on the spot when a group of security personnel opened fire at them on March 24 at Janakchowk of Janakpur district.

The NHRC also asked the government to provide compensation worth 250,000 rupees to the families Pariyar and Yadav and caution the security forces not to repeat such incidents in the future.

The NHRC statement further said that head of the police team, Inspector Prakash Raj Sharma did not tend to the victims after the firing nor collected information about the incident. nepalnews.com pb Apr 05 06

Shinnyo-en, a Japanese non-governmental organisation, has contributed US$ 38,462 to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) for the latter’s primary education programme for Bhutanese refugees in Nepal this year.

Welcoming the contribution, UNHCR’s Nepal representative, Abraham Abraham, said, “We wish to express our sincere appreciation and gratitude to Shinnyo-en for this generous contribution.” “This valuable support has been both reliable and encouraging,” a press statement issued by the UNHCR quoted him as saying.

Shinnyo-en has been supporting the Bhutanese refugee education programme since 2001.

Primary and secondary education is provided to all refugee children residing in seven camps in eastern Nepal. “This education programme is one of UNHCR’s best camp-run educational systems with both boys and girls given equal opportunity for both primary and secondary education,” said Abraham.

UNHCR has said almost 100 percent children between 5-17 years are enrolled in the English medium schools operated in the camps. Out them, 51 percent are girls.

There are currently 18 sector schools, 15 extension schools and 9 main schools operating in seven refugee camps. The refugee agency funds primary education up to Grade 8 with CARITAS-Nepal implementing the programme with support from refugees. Grades 9 and 10 are funded by CARITAS-Nepal, which also provides financial assistance to a limited number of students to pursue higher secondary education, according to the UNHCR.

In Nepal, the refugee agency provides international protection and assistance to some 106,000 Bhutanese refugees who have been living in eastern Nepal since early 1990’s. 15 rounds of negotiations between the Nepalese and Bhutanese governments have ended in deadlock. nepalnews.com mk Apr 05 06

The government has clamped curfew orders within the Ring Road area in Kathmandu and Lalitpur districts from Wednesday night.

Issuing separate public notices, the District Administration Offices of Kathmandu and Lalitpur said the curfew orders will be effective from 11:00 p.m. Wednesday to 3:00 a.m. Thursday.

The curfew orders came hours before a planned four-day general strike called by seven-party opposition alliance on Thursday. nepalnews.com mk/by Apr 05 06

Their Majesties the King and Queen, who are in an informal visit of western development region visited Bhairahawa on Wednesday.

Regional Administrator Chhatra Bikram Shah, zonal administrator Ram Kirshna Pant, Chair of Rupandehi District Development Committee Birendra Chhetri, Chief District Officer Ganga Dutta Awasti and other dignitaries welcomed Their Majesties upon their arrival at Garrison Battalion in Bhairahawa at quarter past 11 in the morning.

Their Majesties then went to Siddharthanagar municipality office and received information about the state of affairs there.

Mayor of Siddharthanagar municipality Ramjee Prasad Rauniyar briefed their Majesties about the municipality’s activities.

The royal couple then walked for around one kilometer from the municipality office to DDC office and directly interacted with thousands of people who had gathered to welcome their majesties.

The locals urged their Majesties for peace, cessation of foreign intervention and to address the citizenship problem.

At the DDC office, DDC chairman Chhetri briefed Their Majesties about the district’s past, present and future plans.

Chhetri requested their Majesties to take the initiative for Buddhist University in Lumbini and establishment of an international airport in the town and Bhairahawa-Butwal trolley bus service, inter alias.

Their Majesties the King and Queen are staying at the Ratna Mandir at Lakeside, Pokhara, for the last few weeks. They royal couple will stay there for a couple of weeks more. nepalnews.com pb Apr 05 06

The United States hs condemned the detention of opposition political party and civil society activists in advance of political demonstrations scheduled for April 6-9 in Kathmandu on Wednesday. ” The arrests and harassment of pro-democracy activists violate their fundamental civil rights,” said a statement issued by the US embassy in Kathmandu this evening.

“The United States calls on the Government of Nepal to release these and other detained activists who have been held for voicing their opposition to autocratic rule in Nepal,” said the statement. ” Dialogue between Nepal’s legitimate political forces — the King and opposition political parties — is the only effective way to return Nepal to democracy and address its Maoist insurgency. Such a dialogue, however, is not possible in a climate in which the freedoms of speech and assembly are suppressed,” the statement added.

“We also urge the political parties and civil society to take steps to ensure their planned demonstrations in the coming days remain peaceful,” the US government said.

The US is the first foreign government to condemn Wednesday’s arrest of opposition leaders and professionals in the country. nepalnews.com by Apr 05 06

Hundreds of political leaders and activists, students and professionals were arrested on Wednesday ahead of the four-day general strike called by the seven opposition parties beginning Thursday for restoration of democracy.

According to the CPN (UML), a major ally in the seven-party alliance, dozens of party leaders including Ishwor Pokhrel, Mukunda Neupane, Rajendra Pandey, Shankar Pokhrel Rajendra Rai Yogesh Bhattarai were rounded up early in the morning while plainclothes policemen searched the residences of several other leaders.

Similarly, hundreds of students protesting against ‘autocracy’ were rounded up from various campuses in the capital. Several students were injured during clash with riot police.

Students groups said 50 students were arrested from the hostel of Amrit Science Campus at Lainchour, nine from a demonstration in front of Pashupati Multiple campus, 12 from Tri Chandra Campus and nine others were held from Balmiki Vidyapith.

The students torched three motorcycles and one four-wheeler in Lainchaur during the demonstration.

The government clamped prohibitory orders within the Ring Road in Kathmandu and Lalitpur districts, banning public assemblies and rallies.

Meanwhile, dozens of professionals including journalists and lawyers were arrested from separate rallies organised in Kathmandu in support of the seven-party movement today.

Nearly two dozen journalists were arrested from a rally in the busy commercial area of New Road at around 3:00 p.m. Those arrested include Federation of Nepalese Journalists (FNJ) Bishnu Nisthuri, vice-president Shiv Gaunle, editor of Himal South Asia, Kanak Mani Dixit, president of FNJ Lalitpur branch, Ujir Magar, Nirmala Sharma of South Asian Free Media Association and FNJ treasurer, Hemanta Kafle. Other journalists arrested include Purna Basnet, Bal Kumar Nepal, Ujjwal Acharya, Indra Baniya, Rojan Rai, Navin Podel, Govinda Chaulagain, Bimal Gautam, Prakash Silwal, Lila Raj Khanal, Kiran Pokhrel and Damodar Dawadi.

The arrested journalists have been kept at the Jansewa Police Post at New Road.

The protesting journalists chanted slogans against the government’s policy to ‘gag’ the free press.

Similarly, at least 13 lawyers, five university professors, three medical doctors, two cinema actors and several civil society activists were arrested from a peaceful protest rally organized by the Professional Alliance for Peace and Democracy (PAPAD) in Baneshwor to defy the prohibitory orders imposed by local authorities.

The arrested professionals include Shambhu Thapa, Bhupati Dhakal, Gopal Thapaliya, Bishnu Nisthuri, Mahendra Bista and Madhu Ghimire.

Authorities, however, released the law professionals in the evening while others were still being detained. nepalnews.com ia Apr 05 06

The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) on Wednesday called for the immediate lifting of the blanket ban on public gatherings in Kathmandu and Lalitpur districts.

“The ban on public gatherings and today’s mass arrests are all attempts by the government to silence peaceful and legitimate protest, which is needed now more than ever in Nepal,” a press release issued by the ICJ quoted, Nicholas Howen, ICJ Secretary-General as saying.

He added, “If peaceful political debate is prohibited, there will never be an end to Nepal’s 10-year civil war.”

“While Article 21 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) allows for justifiable restrictions to be placed on the right to freedom of assembly, it is the ICJ’s opinion that the grounds for the current blanket ban on public gatherings is neither proportionate or justifiable under Nepal’s international human rights obligations,” ICJ statement said.

Citing security reasons, the district administrations of Kathmandu and Lalitpur on Tuesday clamped propitiatory orders within the Ring Road.

The ICJ also called for immediate release of lawyers who were arrested from today’s peaceful protest rallies. The lawyers and other professionals arrested from New Baneshwor area were released in the evening.

Hundreds of lawyers, journalists and civil society activists took to the streets in support of the four-day general strike called by the seven opposition parties beginning Thursday for restoration of democracy and peace. nepalnews.com mk Apr 05 06

– By C K Lal

In a bid to propitiate the stars, ensure better feng shui and prevent US attacks, the Burmeli junta shifted its capital from Rangoon to Pyinmana last year. It is 320 km away in the middle of nowhere.

To lure bureaucrats away from their lucrative moonlighting assignments and profitable gasoline ration coupons in the old capital, Gen Than Shwe is offering them a hefty salary hike. SLORC, as the junta previously called itself in classic Orwellian doublespeak, has announced up to 1000 percent pay raise for senior bureaucrats. The surname of ‘Royal City’ has been added to Pyinmana to make it sound less like the boondocks, but Rangoon-based dips have refused to relocate. After all, there is no salary hike for them. Dictatorial regimes everywhere after a while start becoming irrational and start doing silly things.

Given the similarities in the isolationist trajectories of their junta and ours, it is quite possible that jarsabs here may also decide one fine day that the capital should be shifted to Gorkha. As the cradle of the dynasty that ruled a never-colonised land it would also be removed from the foreigner-infested Valley. For all intents and purposes, by relocating to Pokhara for the past month the chairman of the council of ministers has already shifted the capital. It’s the security chiefs, cabinet ministers and administrators who commute.

Running the kingdom from a temporary retreat must be costing the exchequer quite a bundle but no one is counting. When the king was stationed at Itahari barracks of the RNA, ministers were regularly ferried by air. Military and chartered choppers now frequent the Pokhara-Kathmandu air route. US emissary Donald Camp flew in last month and flew out immediately to Pokhara, although the king came to Kathmandu to receive the Chinese State Councillor Tang Jiaxuan. The to-and-fros will probably continue for a while longer as even cabinet ministers are ‘granted audiences’ at Lakeside. The Kathmandu grapevine has it that even when he is in town, the king prefers to reside on Nagarjun rather than the repainted Narayanhiti.

Strongmen like to add their own qualifiers to the word ‘democracy’. Gen Than Shwe says he’s erecting a ‘disciplined democracy’. King Gyanendra’s roadmap is supposed to usher in ‘meaningful democracy’. Both defy logic. And just as there is no reason to keep Aung San Suu Kyi under detention, the continued imprisonment of Madhab Nepal, Narahari Acharya and Ram Chandra Poudel is equally arbitrary. Peace activists Krishna Pahari, journalist Shyam Shrestha, civil society motivator Devendra Raj Panday are still behind bars for supporting non-violent struggle. Juntas are terrified of peaceniks.

To build a town deep in the forest doesn’t make much sense. Just as daft is to spend over Rs 60 million rupees to hand over a pair of rhinos to a European zoo. When wielders of power aren’t accountable to anyone excesses are the norm. Despite seeing how generals in Islamabad and Rangoon thumb their noses, the international community hasn’t yet seen that dictators don’t care much for the sanctimonious sermons of self-declared do-gooders. Burma is a pariah state but the outside world hasn’t even been able to free a Nobel peace laureate from the clutches of her ruthless captors.

Nepal’s foreign friends must accept that no amount of diplomatic pressure will make a dent here. Our guys are as determined to safeguard ‘national interests’ as the Burmese junta. Juntas cloak themselves as the self-appointed guardians of the people and they can’t be dislodged with good intentions and platitudes. And how do you reason with people who believe in a divine mission and in supernatural powers?

Nepal’s seven party alliance must insist that diplomatic manipulators advocating unity between ‘constitutional forces’ must either deliver or keep quiet. Will an April uprising created by the renewed 12-point understanding allow the Maoists to gain an upper hand? If they do, we know who to blame.

Courtesy: Nepalitimes

(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])

At a time when the government is working to foil the valley centered general strike of the seven agitating political parties, three labour unions working in the field of transportation have expressed solidarity to the general strike of seven party alliance.

Issuing a press statement on Monday the Nepal Independent Workers Union, Transport Workers’ Union and Nepal Transport Workers Meet expressed commitment to make the general strike slated for April 69 a success despite the warning issued by the government.

They also protested the directive of different District Administration Offices to the transport entrepreneurs to continue transportation service.

The government has asked all not to participate in the general strike of the seven political parties saying there will be Maoist infiltration.

Meanwhile, four trade union federations on Monday entered into an alliance for the protection of professional and trade union rights and expressed their solidarity with the peaceful movement launched by the seven-party alliance.

They have also issued a circular to all the national, central, regional, zonal and district-level committees affiliated to professional and trade union federations to take part in the peaceful agitation called by the parliamentary parties.

A joint statement issued by General Federation of Nepalese Trade Union (GEFONT), Nepal Trade Union Congress (NTUC), Democratic Confederation of Nepalese Trade Unions (DECONT) and Confederation of Nepalese Professionals (CONEP) directed the affiliated organisations to constitute a joint mechanism at regional, zonal and district levels to coordinate their activities for the restoration of democracy. nepalnews.com pb Apr 04 06

Maoists have abducted chairman of Panchthar District Development Committee Bam Bahadur Yongya and Vice-chairman Rana Bahadur Khadka from Dhappatar of Ilam on Monday.

The Maoists, who were carrying out vehicle inspections, forced the two out of a taxi and took them towards Mangalbare of Ilam while they were returning to Phidim from Jhapa, according to local reports.

They, however, released 11 others including Tara Lawati, wife of Rastriya Prajatantra Party (Thapa) leader, Padma Sundar Lawati, after detaining the 11 for about an hour.

Chief District Officer of Ilam, Govinda Mani Bhurtel, confirmed the abduction incident.

Telephone lines except those of government offices remain disrupted following the incident. However, the SDM lines are operating.

An official at the Eastern Divisional Headquarters of the Royal Nepalese Army at Itahari said that the headquarters had received information about the abduction, reports adds. nepalnews.com pb Apr 04 06