राजदूत नियुक्तीमा एमालेको पनि गुनासो

यस हप्ता सातदलीय सरकारले १४ वटा मित्र राष्ट्रहरूमा राजदूत नियुक्त गर्ने निर्णय गरेपछि शुरू भएको विवाद अझै साम्य भएको छैन।

अनि अन्तरिम सरकारमा जान आतुर देखिएको नेकपा माओवादीले जस्तै सातदलीय गठबन्धनको एउटा महत्वपूर्ण साझेदार नेकपा एमालेले पनि सरकारले सो निर्णय आफ्नो सहमति बेगर लिएको बताएको छ।

बिहिबार नै उक्त पार्टीको स्थायी समितिको बैठकपछि एकजना स्थायी समिति सदस्य र बैठकको सभापतित्व गरेका नेता अमृतकुमार बोहराले ति दुवै सरकारी निर्णय एमालेको सहमति विना नै लिइएको थियो।

उनले भने- " हाम्रो सहमति भैदिएको भए यि निर्णयहरू फिर्ता गर भनेर हामीले भन्ने नै थिएनौं। सरकारले पनि नियुक्तीका कुराहरू फिर्ता गर्नुपर्यो र माओवादीपक्षले पनि बन्दको कार्यक्रम फिर्ता लिनुपर्यो।"

माओवादी असन्तोष

सातदलीय सरकारले १४ वटा मुलुकहरूमा राजदूतहरू नियुक्त गर्ने निर्णयको विरोधमा देशभरका शहरी क्षेत्रमा बलेका टायरका धुंवा विलाउन नपाउंदै बिहिबार माओवादीले त्यस निर्णयको बारे आफ्नो पार्टीसंग कुनै छलफल नभएको गुनासो दोहोर्याएको छ।

बिहिबार आयोजीत एउटा पत्रकार सम्मेलनमा बोल्दै माओवादी प्रवक्ता कृष्ण बहादुर महराले भने-"हामीलाई थाहा छ हाम्रा अध्यक्ष र प्रधानमन्त्रीकोबीचमा यसबारेमा कुनै पनि कुरा भएको छैन।"

पत्रकार सम्मेलनको आयोजना बुधबार सम्पन्न माओवादी केन्द्रीय समितिको बैठकका निर्णयहरू सार्वजनिक गर्न गरिएको थियो।

त्यस बैठकले द्वन्द्वको अवस्थाबाट शान्तिपूर्ण प्रजातान्त्रीक प्रकृयामा अवतरण गर्ने नयां रणनीतिहरू पारित गरेको बताइएको छ।

राजदूत र मानवअधिकार आयोगमा भएको नियुक्ती सम्बन्धमा यता अर्को चाखलाग्दो खुलासा सरकारको एउटा महत्वपूर्ण साझेदार रहेको नेकपा एमालेले गरेको छ।

यता माओवादीहरूले भने निर्णय नसच्याइएमा केहिदिनपछि देशव्यापी बन्द गर्ने र जनआन्दोलन तीन गरिने भन्ने धम्की त्यागीसकेको छैनन्।

एमालेले चाहिं उच्चस्तरिय प्रतिनिधिमण्डल नै सरकार र माओवादीका शिर्ष नेताहरूसंग भेट्न खटाउने निर्णय समेत गरेको छ।

विश्लेषकहरू भन्छन् त्यसले सातदल भित्रै अनि सातदल र माओवादीबीच पुन: समाधानमुखी सम्वाद प्रकृया शुरू गर्ने अपेक्षा गर्न सकिन्छ।

from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/nepali/news/story/2006/12/printable/061221_uml_envoys.shtml

भेटघाट

बिहिबार नै नेपालका लागि राष्ट्रसंघीय विशेषदूत इयन मार्टिनले प्रधानमन्त्री गिरिजाप्रसाद कोइरालासंग भेट गरेका छन्।

भेटका पूर्ण विवरणहरू प्राप्त भएका छैनन् तर सुत्रहरूका अनुसार भेटका क्रममा मार्टिनले यस हप्ता भएका उग्र घटनाक्रमहरूप्रति चिन्ता व्यक्त थिए।

Bishwanath Upadhaya new NHRC chairman

The government on the recommendation of the Constitutional Council (CC) on Monday appointed former chief justice of the Supreme Court Bishwa Nath Upadhyay as chairman of the National Human Rights Commission.

A cabinet meeting held at the prime minister's residence at Baluwatar this afternoon also appointed four others as commissioners of the national human rights watchdog. 

Upadhyaya had previously served as the coordinator of the constitution drafting committee for the 1990 Constitution.

The other members of the commission are: Udaya Nepali, Gauri Pradhan, Tulsi Bhattarai and Meena Pathak.

According to sources, more recommendations would be made that will include individuals from women, janajatis and madhesi communities.

सात दल, माओवादीद्वारा अन्तरिम संविधानलाई पूर्णता

हप्तौंको बैठक र छलफलपछि सत्तारूढ सात दलीय गठवन्धन र नेकपा माओवादीका शीर्ष नेताहरूले अन्तरिम संविधानलाई पूर्णता दिएका छन्।

आठ दलका नेताहरूले सो संविधान देशको मूल कानूनको रूपमा रहने र त्यसले राजालाई अधिकार र सम्पत्तीविहीन तुल्याएको जनाएका छन्।

उनीहरुका अनुसार, सो दस्तावेजले सम्पूर्ण शासन अधिकार प्रधानमन्त्रीलाई दिएको छ।

संवैधानिक प्रावधान

अन्तिम रूप दिइएको भनिएको अन्तरिम संविधानकाबारे जानकारी दिंदै नेकपा एमालेका नेता भरतमोहन अधिकारीले भने, "शासन, प्रशासन सम्वन्धि काममा अब राजाको कुनै अधिकार हुने छैन, त्यस्तो जिम्मेवारी प्रधानमन्त्रीको हुनेछ भन्ने कुरा सो संविधानमा लेखिएकोछ।"

सो संविधानलाई अन्तिम रूप दिन शुक्रबार दिउँसो शुरू भएको शीर्ष नेताहरूको बैठक शनिबार बिहानसम्म चलेको थियो।

बैठकका अर्का सहभागी नेपाली काङ्ग्रेसका नेता अर्जुननरसिं केसी ले भने, "राजाको परम्परागत सम्पत्तीलाई राष्ट्रियकरण गर्ने र स्व. राजा बिरेन्द्रको र उनको परिवारको सम्पत्तीलाई कोषको रूपमा विकसित गर्ने निर्णय पनि संविधानमा पारिएको छ।"

अन्तरिम संविधानबारे दल तथा माओवादहरूबीच निर्माण भएको सहमतिलाई गत महिना दुवै पक्षबीच भएको विस्तृत शान्ति सम्झौतापछिको दोस्रो महत्वपूर्ण खुड्कीलो मानिएको छ।

सो दस्तावेजमा दुवै पक्षले सही गरेको भएतापनि हतियार तथा सैन्य व्यवस्थापनपछि मात्रै त्यो लागु हुने बताइएको छ।

हतियार तथा सैन्य व्यवस्थापनबारे सम्झौतामा पुगेका दल र माओवादीले सो कामको अनुगमन गर्न सहमत भएको राष्ट्रसंघीय अनुगमनकर्ताहरूको नेपाल आगमनको प्रतिक्षा गरिरहेका छन्।

God king pays tax for first time

Full Story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6161181.stm

 

King Gyanendra of Nepal and his son, Crown Prince Paras, have been forced to pay tax - for the first time in the history of the monarchy.

Officials at Kathmandu's international airport say the king and the prince were charged customs duties on imported goods this week.

The king, revered as a Hindu god by many followers, had his powers stripped away by the government this year.

He was forced to surrender absolute power after weeks of street protests.

Previous constitutions have exempted the king from paying tax. But in May, parliament removed the exemption.

'According to law'

"The customs office at the Tribhuvan International Airport charged a total of 130,893 rupees ($1,817 dollars) as duty and tax to release 50 torches and a hunting trophy," Lok Darshan Regmi, the head of the airport customs department said, the AFP news agency reports.

"Palace officials took away the parcel after paying the amount Wednesday. We imposed the tax according to the law," Mr Regmi said.

It is not clear why the king wanted so many torches.

The BBC's Charles Haviland in Kathmandu says the tax payment is the latest in a series of humiliating blows for the king.

His extensive lands are to be nationalised. Parliament has also taken on the right to decide who succeeds to the throne if the monarchy survives.

King Gyanendra seized power in a royal coup in 2005, saying that the civilian government was failing to deal with the Maoist insurgency.

But the Maoists and a seven-party opposition grouping formed an alliance to end his rule.

A constituent assembly is due to be established next year that will decide on whether the monarchy should be abolished.

Nepal cabinet to be named once rebel arms sealed: PM

Nepal's Maoists will only be included in an interim government after their arms are locked in stores under U.N. supervision, Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala said on Monday.

Last month, the government and Maoist guerrillas signed a landmark peace deal declaring an end to a decade-old conflict in which more than 13,000 people died.

The deal envisaged the Maoists joining an interim cabinet and confining their fighters to camps, as well as locking arms in containers monitored by the United Nations.

But uncertainty over the storage of weapons and jockeying between the rebels and the political parties meant a December 1 deadline for the Maoists to join the interim government was missed.

"The interim government will be formed after the arms management. There will also be an interim parliament then," the 85-year-old Koirala said on Nepal Television.

The United Nations has said that up to 35 monitors are likely to begin work this month but that the full monitoring mission would take more time. It has not given a specific timeframe.

Koirala said elections for a special assembly to map the impoverished Himalayan nation's political future, draft a constitution and decide the fate of the monarchy would be held in June 2007.

But the Maoists said linking the interim cabinet to the completion of the U.N. monitoring mission -- especially when the global body had not set a specific timeframe -- could delay not only the formation of the new government, but also the elections.

"This is against the agreement and understanding between us and the government," Maoist leader Dev Gurung, a rebel negotiator, said.

"The delay will only help those forces that want to sabotage the planned elections for the constituent assembly by mid-June. If the election is not held on time the situation will be very serious," he added, without elaborating.

Narayan Wagle, editor of the widely read daily, Kantipur, said the wrangling was unlikely to derail the peace process, which began in May.

"The Maoists are basically pressing the government to speed up the election process," he said. "There is an anti-king wave now and the Maoists want to cash in on this. They don't want elections to be delayed."

King Gyanendra was forced to cede absolute power in April after mass protests, organized by the political parties but supported by the rebels.

Under the peace deal, the state's army will also be confined to barracks and an equal number of its arms stored.

"The exact number of our arms to be stored will be known only after the U.N. verifies the Maoist weapons," army spokesman Ananta Bahadur Thebe told reporters.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/nepal_dc

PM Koirala meets UML general secy., NC (D) president

Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala held discussions with General Secretary of CPN-UML Madhav Kumar Nepal and President of Nepali Congress (Democratic) Sher Bahadur Deuba about current political situation of the country.
According to reports, both the meetings basically concentrated on the issues of finalizing the interim constitution and meetings of top leaders of the eight political parties slated for Wednesday, among others.

The Prime Minister and UML general secretary Nepal discussed about the issues that are yet to be settled in the interim constitution.
According to radio reports, PM Koirala refused the suggestion of UML General Secy. to be the head of the state during interim period, adding there is no hurry to doing so.
The ruling seven party alliance and the Maoists are yet to find consensus in issues like head of the state in transitional phase and procedures of the elections of the constituent assembly, among others.
The talks teams of both the government and Maoists submitted the draft of the interim constitution to top leaders of the eight political parties to find consensus in some key issues.
The meeting of the top leaders of the political parties was fixed for 2 p.m. on Wednesday after the meeting between PM Koirala and UML general secretary Nepal.

Similarly, the meeting between PM Koirala and NC (D) President Deuba concentrated on the issue of promulgating the interim constitution and Maoist arms management.
Deuba said that it would be difficult to promulgate the interim constitution before arms management.
Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala on Sunday said that interim constitution cannot be promulgated before the completion of arms management.

Similarly, the meeting between PM Koirala and NC (D) President Deuba concentrated on the issue of promulgating the interim constitution and Maoist arms management.
Deuba said that it would be difficult to promulgate the interim constitution before arms management.
Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala on Sunday said that interim constitution cannot be promulgated before the completion of arms management.

PSC can monitor appointments at corporations, army and police: Shakya

Chairman of the Public Service Commission (PSC) has said that the PSC can monitor the appointment of officials in government-owned corporations, army and police only if the government can provide it with more facilities.
“We are ready to monitor the appointment of officials in the government-owned corporations, the army and the police,” reports quoted PSC chairman, Tirthaman Shakya as saying.
Speaking at a meeting organised by the parliamentary State Affairs Committee (SAC) on Friday to discuss the draft of the Civil Service Bill 2006 he also urged the SAC to give authority to the PSC to select secretaries of the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority and the Election Commission so as to ensure further independence of the constitutional bodies.
Members of Parliament Pradeep Nepal, Hom Nath Dahal and Umakanta Chaudhary urged the PSC to take up the task of selecting officials in government-owned corporations, army and the police forces.
Currently, the PAC only conducts examinations for the selection of civil servants.
The debate o providing authority to PSC to select officials at government corporations and Army and Police started following reports that selections in these institutions are not transparent.

CPN fighters suffering from diseases in cantonment in eastern Nepal

Pneumonia, fever and skin diseases are spreading in a temporary camp of armed forces of the Communist Party of Nepal (CPN) (formerly known as guerilla) in eastern Jhapa district, The Himalayan Times reported here on Thursday.
"These diseases are spreading in the camp for last four days due to cold weather," the local English language newspaper quoted Naresh, military secretary at the camp, as saying.
"Hundreds of our comrades are suffering from fever, respiratory as well as skin diseases," he said.
He said that they were neither made available services from doctors nor sufficient medicines.
However, Ganesh Adhikari, who is in charge of the local camp management office, said that he was unaware of the spread of the disease.
A total of 850 CPN soldiers are staying in the camp where they are sleeping in plastic tents.

Nepal’s Newly Peaceful Maoists Set Up Camp and Wait

An emblem of Nepal’s next test of peace sits here, a short hike from the banks of the Bheri River, in this forested patch of midwestern hill where a war between the government and Maoist rebels has cut a wide swath of suffering for 10 years.

This is where the rebels are building one of the 22 camps where they have promised, under United Nations supervision, to sequester their troops, lock up their guns and dump their homemade bombs. Their cantonment, on a large campus of open fields and small squat buildings, was once a government-run agricultural research center.
Now a young woman in an Eminem T-shirt digs a trench for a sentry post. A team clears brush to set up a running track. A dozen cadres loll under the warm winter sun. A small army of tailors stitch new uniforms — almost exact replicas, they say proudly, of what Nepalese soldiers wear.
The legacy of conflict, which left a death toll of more than 13,000, is still raw in these parts. Getting to the camp means crossing the river in a dugout canoe, jostling for space with goats or a load of blankets for the rebels. There used to be a footbridge, but the Maoists destroyed it two years ago, hacking it apart piece by piece with a saw.
How Nepal manages to wean away its insurgents from destroying bridges to earning a living is a daunting challenge. Few countries are as poor as this one. Besides, rebel leaders want jobs for their fighters in a new national army, a prospect rife with political and logistical difficulties.
For now the Maoists are keeping their options open and the keys to their guns in hand.
Under a novel agreement with the government and the United Nations, they are to deposit their weapons in padlocked containers at each of the cantonments like this one. They will hold the keys, but their gun closets will be closely watched. Floodlights will shine each night. Surveillance cameras and burglar alarms will be installed.
For the sake of at least symbolic reciprocity, the Nepalese Army has promised to keep an equal number of its soldiers in their barracks.
An initial team of 35 United Nations monitors is expected to trickle in by the end of the year to oversee the Maoist and the army barracks alike, followed by an assessment team to determine the final size of the United Nations mission.
The sooner the monitors come, from the vantage point of Home Minister Krishna Prasad Sitaula, the better. “Otherwise it will be a problem for us, for the peace process,” he warned. “There will be doubts. New questions will arise, and suspicion.”
His apprehension is a measure of the still delicate efforts to end the civil war. An accord signed in mid-November allows the Maoists to join the interim government, followed by elections for a special assembly to rewrite the Constitution.
The assembly’s most charged task will be to decide whether the monarchy is to survive in this erstwhile Hindu kingdom. The rebels have made its abolition their chief goal, but they have promised to abide by the election results.
How many fighters the rebels actually have is a matter of contention. They claim 35,000; the government says the number is closer to 12,000. The army has 90,000 troops, and the Maoists want it shrunk by half.
Doubts persist on both sides.
Under the arms deal, only those who were part of the fighting forces before May are allowed to stay in these camps and become eligible for any disarmament package. But the Maoists are accused of drumming up new recruits to inflate their numbers and gain leverage in the negotiations.
Rebel leaders deny the accusation. The commander in charge of the Dashrathpur camp, a friendly man in a gray tracksuit who gave his name as Deepak and who could be mistaken for a suburban soccer dad, called such reports propaganda.
Dashrathpur one recent afternoon was chock-full of young rebel cadres, who were playing board games in the streets, marching in long columns with ancient rifles slung on their shoulders or hauling their new blankets up from the river’s edge.
During roll call it seemed plain that a great many were novices at revolution. They could hardly march in time, which explains why the drill sergeant repeatedly tried to banish a journalist from watching.

Read the full version there in:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/06/world/asia/06nepal.html

NA concerned over reports of irregularities in ration contracts; inquiry launched

Nepal Army (NA) today said it was seriously concerned over the media reports about irregularities in contracts for supply of ration to barracks in mid-western region and the alleged threat to some of the contractors by army officers.

A press statement issued by the Directorate of Public Relations (DPR) of the army said tender for ration supply to the No. 24 Brigade in Jumla district has been reopened as the deadline of the first tender notice expired without any bidder coming up with a proposal.

The NA also announced that an inquiry board has been set up under Colonel Shekhar Singh Basnyat, who heads the army’s ration and transportation department, to look into the complaints of irregularities in army barracks in Rukum and Dailekh.

A report in Katipur daily on Monday said some of the bidders were facing threats from army commanders in Rukkum, Jumla and Dailekh districts, who wanted to award the ration tender to bidders quoting higher amount -- with a motive of pocketing hefty sum of commission.

The contractors said army officers of the Bhairabi Dal Battalion in Rukkum, the 24th Brigade in Jumla and Bhawani Box Battalion in Dailekh had been pressurizing them to withdraw their applications. The army officials also threatened to shoot down those refusing to withdraw their proposals.

Kantipur quoted Ram Bahadur Bhandari, a Nepalgunj-based ration supplier, as saying that Lt Colonel Bishnu Prasad Chapagain of the Bhairabi Dal Battalion had been pressuring him to withdraw his application registered at the District Administration Office.

“Earlier, even the local administration had barred us from registering the tender. We managed to register applications for tender only after the leaders of the eight parties asked the district administration to accept the applications,” Bhandari said, adding that some of the contractors were facing life threats from greedy army commanders.