Give priority to the issues that led to conflict says British envoy

June 18, 2003
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Kathmandu: The international community more so the Western democracies have been closely watching the unfolding events in Nepal.

However, they appear to be in a sheer dilemma on how to treat this government being constituted under Article 127 to which the major parliamentary parties dub as an “unconstitutional” one.

“The local level government is missing with no signs of going to the polls in the near future; the elections to the parliament appears remote; and there is a government that most of the political parties consider unconstitutional; the Upper House-the National Assembly too is about to become defunct in a matter of days but yet we have been forced to consider this unique situation in Nepal hoping that soon the country will be back to normalcy and the constitutional process will prevail that are demanded of a democratic system”, is what the international community opines on Nepal situation.

Though this is the ground reality in the country but yet some powerful nations appear to proceed with this situation come what may.

For example, the government of Thapa enjoyed congratulatory messages from India, China and the United Kingdom which must have come as a blow to those political parties who dub this government as unconstitutional.

For example, if one were to analyse the content of the message sent to Thapa by Indian prime minister Bajpayee, one is forced to believe that in the Indian scheme of things, Thapa’s appointment as the country’s chief of the executive was what the Indian establishment had been wating for since long. Here lies the significance of Bajpayee’s message to Thapa.

However, we would wish to analyse the comments made by Sir Jefferey james on Nepal during his recent visit to Nepal.

Sir James says that since his government has already congratulated Mr. Thapa means that the UK will not mind in working closely with the new government in Nepal. This should have come as a severe blow to the big-5 and must have weakened their morale as well.

Secondly, Sir James welcomes the announcement of a ceasefire in Nepal and hopes that it will hold until a peace accord is struck in between the two sides. Concurrently, Sir James also hints that his country would continue in extending her support in training the RNA and would also unconditionally assist with non-lethal weapons. This means that the United Kingdom will continue its effort in supporting the RNA immaterial of whether the talks fail or succeed. ” Britain is committed to training and other non-lethal assistance to enable the security forces to counter any resumption of hostilities, in compliance with international standards”.

The message is perhaps aimed at the Maoists.

In the process, Sir James also hints all the major actors of the country to stick to the rules of the game and advises all to observe “constitutional monarchy and multi-party democracy” which means that the agitating parties must not exceed their political limits and by the same token he also suggests the monarch not to forget his own constitutional limits.

He then hints that the agitating parties could join the government or even suggests the Thapa regime to win support of the agitating parties and include them in the cabinet.

“All parties are free to participate in national elections and to form or join a Government if successful”.

The message is there for both the men in government and in the opposition.

However, there is a strong message to the government from the United Kingdom. The UK would wish to see the “the new government will continue to give priority to the issues which have helped give rise to the conflict—poverty, social exclusion, lack of development, weak human rights protection”.

This means that the UK believes that the rise of the insurgency could have been due to the lapses he has just mentioned above.

Not very surprisingly, Sir Jefferey talks of rampant corruption which he says have got to be prevented.

In his concluding remarks, the UK representative says: “Britain and other international partners are strongly committed to development and reform in Nepal working with the government, other institutions and civil society to achieve real inroads into poverty”.