Japan favours “review” of its overall political policy towards Nepal based on the current situation with special reference to last week’s royal statement reiterating the roadmap first made public on February 1, 2005, reports said.
The Himalayan Times daily quoted director of southwest division in the Japanese foreign office, Shinsuke Shimizu as saying that Tokyo had taken a very strong exception to the royal government’s crackdown on the mainline political leaders and other activists, especially their continued incarceration on grounds of perfectly legitimate “democratic dissent” and demand for restoration of democracy.
“Japan is firmly opposed to application of violence to settle what essentially is a political dispute,” he said, reaffirming Japanese conviction that since there was no military solution to the ongoing insurgency in Nepal.
“The monarch and the political parties should bury their hatchet and agree on an effective strategy to resolve the crisis.”
Shimizu held talks with foreign minister Ramesh Nath Pandey and senior leaders of Nepali Congress, CPN-UML and Nepali Congress (Democratic).
Japan is among the countries that considers political development of the Nepal as a internal affairs of the country.