mikeldunham

Latest Update on Nepal’s Non-Government

 

November 21, 2012

 

Below is Prashant Jha’s November 20th article for The Hindu: “Nepal Government Announces Constituent Assembly Elections

 

Nepal’s Maoist-led government announced new Constituent Assembly (CA) elections for the Nepali month of Baisakh, between mid-April and mid-May 2013, on Tuesday. The exact date, government spokesperson and Information Minister Rajkishore Yadav said, would be decided in ‘consultations with all parties’.

 

This is the second poll announcement by the government after the term of the Constituent Assembly (CA) ended in May, without delivering a constitution. On May 27, it had announced fresh polls for November 22.

 

But political and constitutional hurdles have prevented elections from going ahead as scheduled. The interim constitution, Nepal’s governing document at the moment, does not envisage a second CA poll. Legal experts suggested a possible solution could emerge if President Ram Baran Yadav uses his constitutional ‘power to remove obstacles’ vested in him under Article 158 to clear the way for polls. The Council of Ministers recommended such a course of action to President Yadav, but the head of state has said he would do so only on the basis of a political consensus.

 

The political consensus has been elusive as the opposition parties, led by Nepali Congress (NC) and Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist), termed the government’s announcement ‘unilateral’ and ‘unconstitutional’. They have made PM Baburam Bhattarai’s resignation a precondition for any agreement. The Maoists, for their part, have urged the opposition parties to join the current government and transform it into a national unity formation.

 

With November 22 approaching, the government has come under increasing pressure for what the opposition termed as its ‘failure to hold polls’. President Yadav too has made the date a ‘reference point’, following which he is planning to formally call upon all parties to form a national unity government. The government’s decision to call for fresh polls is being seen by observers as a ‘pre-emptive move’.

 

In a mark of increasing assertiveness, the government also decided to forward a Nepali Rupees 300.064 billion budget ordinance for the remaining fiscal year to the president for approval. It had earlier, in July, presented a one-third budget, which has just run its course. The opposition had urged the president not to endorse a full budget from this government, and Dr. Yadav had asked the government to first seek a political consensus.

 

The opposition has criticised the government’s decisions, and said this would add to ‘political uncertainty and constitutional difficulties’. NC president Sushil Koirala said the government is ‘deceiving the people’, and ‘closing the door for agreement’.

 

 

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ZTE wants Nepal, a Chinese company condemned by international security agencies

 

November 19, 2012

As Jayadeva Ranade pointed out in “'Espionage Galore in China”, “All countries regardless of the extent of warmth in their relationships unfailingly engage in espionage, but communist regimes are especially sensitive…”

 

Ranade was referring to China’s obsession with potential foreign spy infiltration into their domestic intelligence and security apparatus. CLICK HERE FOR ARTICLE. But it can be argued that China’s paranoia stems largely from its own espionage machinations in foreign countries -- intrigue as full-throttled and far-flung as any spy network in the world.

 

Take, for example China’s interest in Nepal, its impoverished and increasingly beholden-to-Beijing southern neighbor.

 

As revealed in an internal Indian government note issued October 19:

 

Zhong Xing Telecommunication Equipment Company Ltd (ZTE) plans to build four high-technology data centres for Ncell Pvt Ltd, a telecom company in Nepal. These earthquake-resistant data centres, to be built at a cost of about $43.75 million, will be located at Biratnagar, Kathmandu, Hetauda and Pokhara.

 

ZTE is one of China’s largest wireless equipment manufacturers and network solutions providers and maintains close ties with the PLA (People’s Liberation Army). It is increasing footprint, along with other Chinese companies such as Huawei, and raises the possibility of installing bugged equipment in Nepal’s telecommunication network. This in turn could allow China to monitor data and voice traffic between India and Nepal.

 

According to Thomas K. Thomas for The Hindu, “New Delhi is planning to work through the Ministry of External Affairs to take up the concerns with the Nepal Government. According to Government sources, the Nepal Public Accounts Committee had opposed this project. …In addition, the Indian side could also make its own investments in similar projects in Nepal to ensure that communication networks between the two countries are secure.

Indian security agencies are not the only foreign entities that deeply distrust ZTE.

 

On October 8, 2012, the Unites States House of Representatives Intelligence Committee labeled ZTE a national security threat.

The blistering bipartisan report accused ZTE (and Huawei, another Chinese mega-telecommunications firm) of being arms of the Chinese government, which had stolen intellectual property from American companies and could potentially spy on Americans.

 

The committee went on to say that allowing ZTE to do business in the U.S. would give the Chinese government the ability to easily intercept communications and could allow it to start online attacks on critical infrastructure, like dams and power grids.

 

The report was released at a news conference held by Representative Mike Rogers, Republican of Michigan, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, and Representative C. A. Ruppersberger of Maryland, the top Democrat on the committee.

 

The report included the fascinating detail that the committee had obtained internal documents from former employees of Huawei that showed it supplied services to a “cyberwarfare” unit in the People’s Liberation Army. It also noted advised, in the strongest terms, that the United States government should be barred from doing business with ZTE and Huawei and that American companies should avoid buying their equipment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In testimony before the House committee in September, officials from both ZTE and Huawei said that supposed “back doors” in its software that provided unauthorized access to American companies’ computers were flaws, not intentional vulnerabilities.

 

The committee didn’t buy the explanation and called the supposed “back door flaws” for what they really were: illegal hacking.

 

ZTE is also on the European Union’s radar.

 

In May, the EU launched a major trade case against ZTE and Huawei, arguing that they had benefited from illegal government subsidies.

 

ZTE declined comment.

 

Does Nepal really want China controlling its telecommunications network?

 

 

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Nepal’s Fiscal Cliff: November 15

November 13, 2012

 

The caretaker government's authority to draw from the Treasury will lapse this Thursday, November 15, which means it will be unable to pay the salaries of 500,000 soldiers, police, teachers and other civil servants. The situation became grimmer on Monday when Nepal’s Maoist-led government postponed a budget announcement after the government and opposition failed to reach agreement.

 

A request by President Ram Baran Yadav that the government only present the budget if it enjoyed consensus from all parties was blamed for the delay. A cabinet meeting on the budget was also delayed.

 

“The government will present the budget ordinance to the president on November 16,” said Narayan Shrestha, the Prime Minister Bhattarai’s personal secretary in an interview with The Hindu, who noted more time was needed to reach inter—party consensus.

 

The problem is that the opposition maintains that the caretaker government lacks proper authority and has vowed to block any such move.

 

“On what principles can you have a budget when there is no parliament?” said Surendra Pandey, former finance minister and an opposition leader.

 

In an article published Monday by Reuters, writers Gopal Sharma and John Chalmers assert that the underlying problem is that, since the Maoists handed over their guns at the end of a decade-long insurrection in 2006, Nepal's Maoists have done no better at running the Himalayan republic than their political mainstream predecessors. Nor are the Maoists any less corrupt than their predecessors:

 

For some, the political limbo in Kathmandu has become so familiar it hardly amounts to a crisis.

 

"There is no parliament, no budget and no constitution, and yet the country moves on," said Kunda Dixit, editor of the Nepali Times. "All the parties are so corrupt and so feckless that not having a government is actually beneficial because there is no one to make all those mistakes."

 

However, the Maoists' rivals are running out of patience.

 

Bhattarai's predecessor, Jhala Nath Khanal of the anachronistically named Unified Marxist-Leninist communist party, says that unless Bhattarai steps down and forms a "unity" government his group will continue to block the passage of a new budget and may call for a popular uprising to topple him.

 

Thousands of protesters shouting "You can't impose totalitarianism!" and "Set up a consensus government!" marched through the streets of temple-studded Kathmandu last Friday, cranking up pressure on Bhattarai to quit.

 

But the Maoist leader remained serene and defiant.

 

"I am the only legal prime minister," Bhattarai said. "They are not ready to face the next elections, they fear they will be routed in the elections - that's why they want the leadership of the government," he said of opposition parties.

 

He said that if the opposition continued to block the budget, he would seek a presidential decree to push it through.

 

However, Bhattarai conceded that President Ram Baran Yadav - who is supposed to stand above the political fray, but is a member of the centrist Nepali Congress Party - was hardly an ally, and indeed there have been rumours that the president may try to end the crisis by grabbing executive power himself.

 

According to Agence France Presse:

 

"The incomplete financial plan has greatly affected the economy," said political analyst Chandrashekhar Nepali in a commentary for the Kathmandu Post.

 

"Development projects and capital expenditure are lower, public sector employees are worried about not getting paid (and) the security forces have raised concern over lack of funds to replenish their stock.

 

"Local authorities are not getting enough money to maintain basic public services, development partners are unable to disburse the money that has been pledged and the private sector is losing confidence."

 

In the past four months, the government has allocated just four billion rupees to development projects, a tenth of its normal spend.

 

Is there an army-assisted presidential coup in the offing?

 

According to Prashant Jha for The Hindu, highly placed sources have said that Dr. Yadav has contemplated drastic action,

 

…including dismissing Dr. Bhattarai and appointing a new PM for Nepal after November 22, the date on which the government had originally proposed to hold fresh Constituent Assembly (CA) polls.

 

However, the Nepal Army (NA) is understood to have conveyed its view that the “political process” should be allowed to take its own course. Officially, the President’s advisors reject any possibility of a “presidential coup”, and say he is merely trying to “put pressure” on parties to come to an agreement.

 

…But the Nepal Army (NA) has advised caution. Still recovering from the civil war, the NA does not seem to be in any mood to interfere in the political process. Except on matters where it has a direct stake, the NA has stayed away from politics and did not intervene even when the monarchy, its traditional patron, was abolished.

 

The new chief, General Gaurav Shumsher Rana, has publicly pledged to abide by the constitution and the Army Act, which clearly stipulates specific conditions under which forces can be mobilised. He believes that the political process should take its own course. The army’s position, constitutionally correct and politically prudent, will be a key factor in the President’s decision, and could deter any adventurist move.

 

 

 

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HOW TO BUY LUMBINI: Prachanda inks deal with Chinese without consulting Nepal government

 

November 9, 2012 

 

On Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2012, Pushpa Kamal Dahal aka Prachanda, former military commander of rebel Maoist forces in Nepal, now chairman of the Unified Communist Party and chairman of the Lumbini Development National Directive Committee of Nepal (LDNDC), inked a deal with the China-backed Asia Pacific Exchange Cooperation Foundation (APECF) that will bring in a reported $3 billion to develop Buddha's birthplace at Lumbini.

 

Prachanda signed this Memorandum of Understanding with Xiao Wunan, executive vice chairman of APECF Foundation. Presumably, Prachanda took it upon himself to make the deal in his capacity as chairman of Nepal's steering committee. But leaders of other political parties, including Dr. Minendra Rijal, member of LDNDC and ex-Minister of Culture, challenged Prachanda’s right to sign the deal unilaterally.

 

“The issue was not discussed in the committee, and it has not authorized Prachanda to sign it in the manner he did,” Indian Express quoted Rizal.

 

Apparently, no one in Nepal’s government was privy to Prachanda’s deal with the Chinese. The signing of the MoU was behind closed doors. The media was not invited. No details of cost, development projects or time needed to complete the projects were provided.

 

The Prachanda-APECF connection has been controversial from the beginning—not only for its questionable motives, but for its furtiveness (if not its out-and-out dishonesty) as well. (CLICK HERE for details.)

 

Yesterday, GlobalPost’s Jason Overdorf pointed out:

 

… some see China's enthusiasm for Lumbini as part of a larger "battle for Buddha," pitting Beijing versus New Delhi in the quest to expand "soft power," or cultural influence, within the region.

 

In this struggle, India seeks to use its common cultural heritage to overcome China's ethnic ties to the overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia, and China seeks to limit the damage from its repression of religious freedom in Tibet and its incessant sparring with the Dalai Lama.

 

“This is part of China's effort to use Buddhism to gain an entry into Nepal, [and] to show to their Buddhists that they're showing equal attention to Buddhism outside the country,” Jayaveda Ranade, formerly additional secretary for East Asia with the Indian government, told GlobalPost of the Chinese proposal for the development of Lumbini.

 

… Prachanda was among the nine vice-chairs of the APECF foundation last year when it announced that the project was a done deal. But he had to backtrack following a protest from the Nepalese authorities, due to perceived irregularities in the way the agreement was forged.

 

Bizarrely, for instance, China's state-run People's Daily first reported that APECF had inked a deal with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) to create a “special cultural zone” in Lumbini, only to be forced to retract the story when first UNIDO, then Nepal, denied any knowledge of the pact. Even weirder, it surfaced that not only Prachanda but also the controversial Paras Bir Bikram Shah Dev, Nepal's former crown prince, held positions on APECF's board of directors.

 

As GlobalPost wrote then: at nearly one-tenth of Nepal's entire gross domestic product, $3 billion was a stupendous sum — and, some suspect, a wholly fictional one: a carnival barker's cry, crude propaganda, or a “trial balloon” to gauge how Nepal might react.

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Even the LDNDC came under fire from the Buddhist community. When LDNDC was created one year ago, Buddhist leaders pointed out that they had not been consulted, adding that, according to Outlook, the plan was “an attempt to commercialize the sacred place without their consent.”

 

One thing is obvious after Wednesday’s signing: Neither APECF nor Prachanda’s penchant for underhanded dealing is going to fade away. Quite the opposite: APECF and Prachanda keep raising the stakes, hell-bent on turning Lumbini, birthplace of Buddha, into a horrid theme park of gargantuan proportions.

 

 

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Immigrant from Nepal Named "U.S. Army’s Soldier of the Year"

 

November 3, 2012

 

Immigrants have served with honor in the U.S. armed forces since the Revolutionary War. But in what is believed to be a first, the Army has crowned as its top soldier and an enlistee who was not a U.S. citizen at birth.

 

Sgt. Saral Shrestha joined the Army through the MANVI program, which recruits highly skilled immigrants for specialized positions.

 

Shrestha, 24, grew up wanting to serve in the police or the military in his native Nepal. According to news accounts, he instead immigrated to the United States at his mother’s urging to further his education. After studying computer science at Bellevue University in Nebraska, he joined the Army in 2009 through a pilot program designed to recruit highly skilled immigrants for positions requiring special medical and language skills. Shrestha speaks five languages, including Urdu.

 

Shrestha said he was inspired by his great grandfather Sundar Kumar Shrestha, who fought during the World War II in Oceana and Nagaland from the British Army side.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After serving a tour in Afghanistan, Shrestha earned the right to participate with eleven other soldiers in the Army’s prestigious Best Warrior Competition. Over four days last month, competitors endured a range of tests both physical and mental—including searching for roadside bombs, completing written and oral exams, and performing first aid on wounded comrades.  To prepare for the competition, Shrestha, who is stationed at Fort Bragg, NC, studied the Constitution, memorized Army regulations, and had his wife constantly test him with flashcards. He was announced as the winner October 22 at a meeting of the Association of the United States Army.

 

Shortly before Shrestha was named Soldier of the Year, the Pentagon announced it would resume enlisting immigrants under the program—known as Military Accessions Vital to the National Interest (MANVI)—through which he was recruited. (Although the initial group of recruits performed higher on entrance tests and had lower attrition rates than native-born soldiers, the program was not immediately renewed due to security concerns following the shooting at Fort Hood, Texas, earlier this year.) According to the New York Times, the program will recruit 1,500 soldiers annually for the next two years, with a focus on dentists, surgeons, and trained psychologists.

 

 

For immigrants, a prime benefit of the program is the ability to naturalize after completing basic training—although they can lose their citizenship if they fail to complete a designated number of years in service. Although Shrestha will soon be eligible for discharge, he reportedly has no plans to leave the Army. He instead hopes to obtain a master’s degree in computer science, attend officer training school, and become a member of the Army’s Special Forces.

 

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Original report by Ben Winograd for Immigration Impact

 

ImmigrationImpact.com was launched in 2008 to help shape and develop a rational conversation on immigration that shifts the terms of the debate towards achieving workable and effective comprehensive policy reform. It is a project of the American Immigration Council. The American Immigration Council’s mission is to strengthen America by honoring its immigrant history and shaping how Americans think about and act towards immigration now and in the future.

 

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LUMBINI: The Tibet - Maoist - APECF connection

 

 

October 29, 2012

 

The following is an Oct. 26 DNA article written by Jayadeva Ranade, originally titled “A concerned dragon: China’s fresh overture to Tibetans”

 

As China prepares to usher in a new leadership at the 18th Party Congress scheduled to open in Beijing on November 8, there is mounting concern in senior echelons of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) at the rising resentment in the ethnic Tibetan minority.

 

Particularly worrying would have been the self-immolation on October 15, by the grandfather of the 10-year old Beijing-recognised VIIth Gungthang Rinpoche, which highlights the strained relationship between Tibetans and Communist authorities. A new feature is that recently thousands of Tibetans, disregarding heavy armed police presence, assemble at sites of the self-immolations to pray for the deceased and mark the spot.

 

[Note: Voice of America’s Tibetan service is reporting that Tamdrin Dorjee killed himself near the Tsoe monastery in northwest China’s Gansu province. Witnesses say after setting himself on fire, he shouted “long live Dalai Lama,” “free Tibet” and “let the Dalai Lama return to Tibet.” This latest protest raises the number of self-immolations in Tibetan regions of China to 55 since February 2009. The Tibetan government-in-exile says 45 of those cases have resulted in deaths.

China accuses Tibetan exiles of self-immolating as part of a separatist struggle. But representatives of the Dalai Lama say protesters are driven to self-immolate largely because they cannot tolerate China’s policies in Tibet.]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In a recent apparent bid to ease these tensions, Chinese authorities quietly sent an emissary and contacted Tibetan leaders in Dharamsala. Thinly cloaked as a venture of ‘Asia Pacific Exchange and Cooperation Foundation’ (APECF), a Chinese government-sponsored NGO manned by Chinese Communist Party (CCP) cadres, the initiative seeks to revive plans to consolidate and expand China’s presence in Nepal and ingress India and its border regions, ostensibly by encouraging Buddhist tourism in Lumbini in Nepal. At least one executive director of APECF has links to China’s military establishment.

 

CLICK HERE for extensive information on APECF's controversial bid for Lumbini

 

Xiao Wunan, a senior CCP cadre and executive vicepresident of APECF visited India and was received in Dharamsala on August 16 by the Dalai Lama, Lobsang Sangay, then ‘Kalon Tripa’ (prime minister) of the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) and Ugyen Thinley Dorjee, who is formally approved by the Dalai Lama and Beijing as the XVIIth Gyalwa Karmapa, or head of the Karma Kargyu sect. Xiao Wunan was accompanied byGong Tingyu, a Deputy Secretary General of APECF and Simon Kei Shek Ming, reportedly a journalist of the Hong Kong magazine Yazhou Zhoukan.

 

During his meeting with the Dalai Lama, Xiao Wunan probably carried a personal message from a senior Chinese leader, possibly Xi Jinping. He could have informed the Dalai Lama that he was welcome to spend his last days in Beijing provided he gave up ‘anti-China’ activities and expressed support for the Communist regime.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Xiao Wunan’s meeting with Lobsang Sangay, elected head of the CTA, is significant. It suggests Beijing may be willing to talk to its representatives. Lobsang Sangay is also ‘known’ to the UFWD for facilitating contacts between Chinese academics and the Dalai Lama. Coincidentally, within a month of the meeting the designation of the Head of the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) was changed from ‘Kalon Tripa’ (or prime minister) to the less controversial — from Beijing’s perspective —’Sikyong’ (or political leader).

 

Xiao Wunan’s meeting with Ugyen Thinley Dorjee reportedly ended abruptly when the monk took offence at the tenor of his questions. Xiao Wunan’s photograph with Ugyen Thinley Dorjee is, however, posted on APECF’s website.

 

Xiao Wunan also visited Nalanda when he met officials of the proposed university and assured financial assistance. In Delhi he met officials in the Ministries of Culture and Tourism. Returning to Kathmandu, Xiao Wunan disingenuously announced that APECF now has the support of the Government of India and would be organising three and four-day package tours for Buddhist pilgrims travelling from Lumbini to India.

 

Interestingly, Xiao Wunan separated from an official Chinese delegation visiting Kathmandu to visit India. The Chinese delegation included Zou Lanming, vice general manager of the Lanzhou-based China Railway 21st Bureau. Xiao Wunan’s presence could suggest China plans to extend the railway from Xigaze to possibly Lumbini, on the border with India. A month later Xiao Wunan announced that APECF had signed an MoU with UK’s Vertical Theme Park (VTP) Group for a Lumbini Cloud Tower project, with the Nepal Government’s approval.

 

Nepal’s My Republica on October 11, reported the Nepal Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation’s denial that it was aware of any deal to develop Lumbini as an ‘international peace city’. Prachanda, leader of the Unified Communist Party-Marxist Leninist (UCP-ML), however, continues to be a vice president of APECF.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Meanwhile the CCP’s policy governing Tibetans, of combining economic incentives with intense political persuasion, remains unchanged. In an unusually candid interview to the Party mouthpiece People’s Daily on September 21, 2012, Chen Quanguo, party secretary of the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), enumerated the economic benefits extended to the people of Tibet. Disclosing measures to ensure ‘social stability’, he listed that 21,804 cadres had been sent to work in 5,451 administrative villages, that the Party had compiled complete sets of files and that 698 police stations had been established. All monasteries and temples now have photographs of the ‘four leaders’ (Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao), the national flag and a copy each of the People’s Daily and Tibet Daily. A project has also been started to ‘cultivate’ 100 senior monks and ‘guide’ Tibetan Buddhism to ‘adapt itself to socialist society’.

 

 

Jayadeva Ranade is a former additional secretary in the Cabinet Secretariat, Government of India.

  

 

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Trafficking victims from Nepal rescued in Haiti by Nepali UN peacekeepers

 

October 26, 2012

 

Two Nepalese men were rescued from prison-like conditions in Haiti after 11 months at the mercy of human traffickers who had promised them jobs in the United States, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) reported October 24, 2012.

 

The men, in their 30s, had been recruited in their native Nepal by a human smuggling network that had charged them an unspecified fee in exchange for legal immigration and work in the US, Jumbe Omari Jumbe, a spokesman for the Geneva-based organization told reporters.

 

Since starting their journey last November, the men had been shuttled through Singapore, China, Brazil, Panama and finally on to Haiti — supposedly their last stop before reaching the US — and had been provided official visas for each country they stopped in.

 

“It reads like a detective story,” Jumbe said, pointing out that the smugglers must have had a massive network since they “actually obtained visas from all these countries. They must have paid thousands of dollars.” 

 

Although the two men had been willingly smuggled initially, they became trafficking victims when they arrived in Haiti in January this year and were taken to a private home in the northern city of Cap Haitien.

 

“They were kept as virtual prisoners with little food and dirty drinking water,” Jumbe said, adding that the family had confiscated their passports, threatened them and demanded money.

 

But when their captors told them to call their families and ask for more cash, the men described to their loved-ones, in Nepalese, details of landmarks they had passed when they were being transported to the house.

 

Their relatives then contacted Nepalese police, who in turn alerted police units forming part of the UN peacekeeping mission in Haiti, which organized a rescue mission.

 

“It was very hard finding the area, because these men were in prison. They didn’t see where they were. But finally through hard work they found them and they were rescued,” Jumbe said.

 

IOM, which has helped some 2,000 human trafficking victims since it began working on the issue in 1994, transported the two men back to Nepal, he said.

 

“This case confirms that Haiti is a country of origin, transit and destination for human trafficking and migrant smuggling,” IOM’s mission chief in Haiti, Gregoire Goodstein, said in a statement.

 

“The criminal networks at work in Haiti are national and international,” he added.

 

Most trafficking victims in Haiti are Haitian children who are exploited as cheap or free labor, according to IOM, pointing to the so-called “restavek” (from the French ‘reste avec’, meaning stays with) system that dates back at least two centuries.

 

According to that system, children from very poor rural areas are “entrusted” to families in urban areas who are supposed to provide for their needs, including education, in exchange for their work.

 

But, IOM said, “the vast majority of restaveks end up exploited and abused.”

 

 

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Nepal Army links Manang District with a road for the first time

 

October 23, 2012

           

 

The Nepal Army is one of the most cost effective bodies for national development in Nepal. For many decades the army has utilized its well-trained manpower and resources to improve the infrastructure, in spite of economic limitations and rugged geographical challenges. Over the years, developing road networks and bridges in remote areas has become the army’s hallmark contribution to enhancing the daily life of rural Nepal.

 

This week the army celebrated its latest achievement in Chame, district headquarters of Manang, when 18 public vehicles carrying passengers reached Koto village (near Chame). Until now, Manang district had no access to motorable roads linking it to other parts of Nepal.

 

The project was completed just in time for Dashain.

 

Some international tourists have bemoaned the fact that the 69-kilometer road, connecting Besisahar to Chame, has shortened the Annapurna Circuit trekking route. This is foreign navel-gazing. The road provides a tremendous boost to the quality of life for local inhabitants – easier access to medical care being one of the benefits. Chairman of Manang Chamber of Commerce and Industry Chitra Prasad Dwale also pointed out that the “availability of road transportation has lowered the cost of goods in Manang district.”

 

The road is not for the faint-hearted or inattentive drivers. According to Technical Major Indibar Gurung, the army’s Chief of the Works Battalion, “We are allowing only light-weight vehicles. The road runs along stiff cliffs and single mistake can take life easily and many drivers have been found drinking and driving in this region.” Indeed, the track hugs more than 20 cliffs including Dharapani cliff, Sirantal cliff and Pimang cliff.

 

 

To the army’s credit, by doubling its task force, the army managed to complete the track on time and within budgetary constraints.

 

Here are some of the army’s most significant contributions to Nepal’s infrastructure in years past:

 

• The old Kantipath project linking Kathmandu to the Indian border.

 

• The Kharipati-Nagarkot road.

 

• Thee Trishuli-Somdang road, cutting through 105 kilometers of extremely difficult terrain northwest of Kathmandu. Completed in 1990.

 

• The 88-kilometer-long Katari-Okhaldhunga road in the Everest region. Completed in 2005.

 

• The 86-kilometer-long Salyan-Musikot road in Rukum District, one of the most isolated regions in Nepal.

 

• The 232-kilometer-long Surkhet-Jumla road, built in large part by the Nepal Army. Besides the construction of the road, this project incorporates various other side projects for the improvement of the local rural society. Rebuilding of irrigation chanmnels, vocational trainings for the underprivileged, micro hydroelectric projects, among other projects, were incorporated.

 

• The 60-kilometer-long Baglung-Beni-Jomsom road.

 

• The 65-kilometer Besi Sahar-Chaame road. This follows the Marsyangdi River along the Annapurna Circuit.

 

• The 107-kilometer-long Chinchu-Jajarkot road. Not yet completed.

 

• The 145-kilometer-long Musikot-Buirtibang road in the mid-hills of the West and Mid West Nepal.

 

• The 31-kilometer-long Devsthal-Shourjhari road, also in the mid-hills of Western Nepal.

 

• The 45-kilometer-long Drabya Shah Marga road. It was build with a view to combat insurgency by pursuing development and security simultaneously. The 37-kilometer-long Satdobato-Niwel-Balua rad, the 39-kilometer-long Gorkha-Mankamana road and the 45-kilometer-long Gorkha-Aarughat-Orkhet road were also built under this program.

 

 

 

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The Texan architect/devoloper who would irreparably vulgarize Lumbini

 

October 19. 2012

Earlier this week, I ran a piece on Lumbini’s cultural and historical integrity once again being under fire – this time with the united forces of Chinese businessmen and a UK theme park developer. Billed as an “international peace city”, the dubious Chinese government-connected Asia Pacific Exchange and Cooperation Foundation (APECF) and the uber-commercial Britain-based Vertical Theme Park (VTP) Group signed an agreement to aggrandize the birthplace of Buddha, transforming the quiet dignity of Lumbini into an international tourist junket destination, replete with a colossal “Cloud Tower”. (For photos and article CLICK HERE.)

Next Consideration: Who is behind the design of this over-the-top theme park?

 

Eric R. Kuhne is an architect and civic planner, but neither description does justice to the massive scale on which he works. A Texan by birth, his London-based firm, CivicArts, famous for having designed Bluewater, the largest and most financially successful mall in Europe, is today building entire cities from scratch that include: Madinat Al Hareer (City of Silk), a 750,000-person port city in Kuwait; Mohammed Bin Rashid Gardens, a 200,000-person canal city to be built on 88 sq km of desert adjacent to Dubailand; and a not-yet-announced city somewhere in Bahrain. In Dubai, he is overseeing the International Financial Center’s expansion into a massive enclosed “urban village” where over 60,000 people will live and work. In Kazakhstan, he is erecting 14 casinos and a presidential retreat around a lake, destroying square miles of lakeshore in the process.

Kuhne is often criticized for his megalomaniacal constructions – mall cities, really – that include designated zones for media, sports, culture, health and business, residences, hotels and retail facilities.

He is fond of describing his vision of super-sized civic spaces as a “marketplace of ideas”. Detrators anoint his projects as “self-indulgent”, “monstrous” and “environmental catastrophes”.

 

 

The Independent, in analyzing Kuhne’s love affair with the vulgar idea that “bigger is better”, commented that, “Eric Kuhne is more like a movie mogul than an architect.”

 

LUMBINIWOOD

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In Peter C. Baker’s interview with Kuhne for The National’s May 2008 issue, Baker observed:

Tell a British person that you’re meeting with the man who masterminded Bluewater, and they look at you like you’re talking to the devil. Many well-educated Britons, particularly Londoners, love to hate Bluewater, a 1.68 million sq ft megamall at the bottom of an abandoned chalk quarry in Kent…

Ralph Rugoff, writing in Frieze, called Bluewater, “a diuretic slurry of pumped-up historical and decorative emblems”.

Hugh Pearman in the Sunday Times was more emphatic: “Citizens of England!” We do not need these places!”

Contemplating Kuhne’s 20,000-person village that would eventually adjoin the Bluewater mall, Jonathan Glancey of The Guardian described it as “a city with no gods other than Prada, Gucci and Starbucks, with no cathedral and temple beyond the naves and domes of the mall itself, and with no ultimate purpose beyond stupefying consumption.” 

 

 

Another just-completed Kuhne project in Belfast, Ireland staked, its claim to questionable taste with the definitively named Titanic -- a bold new visitor attraction entirely devoted to the sunken ship and its story. It’s been compared to the Guggenheim and the Sydney Opera House, but, according to the Guardian Unlimited, it looks “like a cross between an iceberg and Daniel Libeskind's Jewish Museum in Berlin -- neither of which are ideal reference points.”

 

The most common criticisms leveled against Kuhne are that his "vision" is subsumed by commercialism and that his "taste" is gauche and shamelessly crass. 

 

 

This is the man who would dictate how we experience the Birthplace of Buddha. The question is are we going to allow him to have his way?

 

 

Kuhne is not a man to mince words, especially when it comes to his own sense of grandiosity. In an interview with Reuters (quoted in World Architectural News), Kuhne boasted that the more money thrown at a project, the more glorious the outcome. Referring to his project Madinat al-Hareer, or City of Silk, a colossal development-in-planning with an expanse of 250 sq km costing 132 billion dollars, Kuhne said:

"We're thinking on a different plane, because we cannot afford to think like everyone else. We're thinking about something that might seem unimaginable…We're going to out-maneuver everybody who is going to remain in the old mode of thinking about economic prospects."

The centerpiece of City of Silk will be Burj Mubarak al-Kabir, a 1001 meter tall tower, almost 200 meters taller than the Burj Dubai -- almost twice the height of Taipei 101.

 

But perhaps the most disturbing thing about Kuhne is his conviction that ONLY his vision is the acceptable one. In fact, when it comes to architecture, his ironclad dictatorship of a development project is essential. There is no room in Kuhne’s world for outside input. In his interview with Baker he glorifies history’s ruthless tyrants:

 

“Let me say this bluntly. Democracy has a pretty poor track record of building great cities, and a terrible track record of building great civic spaces in cities. Democracy deals with the triumph of everyone within their own property line, not with generosity beyond that line. And the great cities of the world that we travel to see were built by, you know, leaders of armies, emperors, tsars, leaders of churches. They were built by benevolent despots, visionary leaders one and all, who decided that the pageantry of civil life was an essential part of sustaining the genius of their civilization.”

 

This is the kind of man who wants to put his imprint on one of the most holy pilgrimages in the world...a spiritual center for which Kuhne illustrates no understanding. Forget any chance of sensitivity applied to the Buddhist experience because he has none. This doesn't seem to hinder Mr. Kuhne however. Afterall, he is convinced that knows what is best for us.

 

 

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Boom in Nepal's illegal arms sales – Al Jazeera video

 

October 17, 2012

 

Arms dealers in Nepal are taking advantage of the country's tumultuous political scene, with smugglers bringing weapons through the border with India:

 

 

 

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Lumbini’s cultural and historical integrity once again under fire – this time with the joined forces of China and UK theme park developer

 

 

 

 

October 13, 2012

 

According to yesterday’s report by Purna Basnet for Republica, the controversial Chinese government-connected Asia Pacific Exchange and Cooperation Foundation (APECF) and Britain-based Vertical Theme Park (VTP) Group have inked a deal on developing Nepal´s Lumbini as an “international peace city”.

 

 

This blows previous Lumbini development projects out of the water, in terms of aesthetics, investment and the viability of preserving the cultural heritage of Lumbini, birthplace of the historical Buddha.

 

APECF had last year made public a three billion dollar project on developing the birthplace of Buddha. For complete details on APECF’s foiled proposal in spite of its Maoist-Beijing connection, click here:  LUMBINI IN PERIL

 

 

RELIGION AS LUCRATIVE ENTERTAINMENT: WHAT IS THE BRITISH-OWNED VTP GROUP’S EXPERTISE IN DEVELOPING SPIRITUAL CENTERS?

 

According to VTP’s mission statement, found in its website:

 

VTP Global are tower specialists and experts in major city centre entertainment and tourism projects.

 

Our team have a wealth of experience in the design, delivery, and long-term safe operation of entertainment towers, major urban attractions, theme parks, extreme activities and real estate.

 

VTP Global have assembled a world class delivery and operations team with significant experience in real estate development, leisure and theme park operations, ride design, health and safety and destination marketing. The business is majority owned by the Pettifer family (85%), with the remainder held by senior management and Intamin.

 

VTP Global deliver VTPs as turnkey projects and will advise as to the most suitable design, height and ride mix for a particular city, at all times working to an agreed project budget. Our team can conduct a desktop analysis on any new VTP opportunity within four weeks including site analysis, validation, visitor flows, real estate and financial structuring.

 

The operating team is headed up by Richard Pawley who is one of the most recognised figures in the leisure industry. Richard's achievements include being the first in the world to develop and operate innovative rides such as the "stand-up freefall", the UK's first "reversible log flume" and "stand-up spiral corkscrew roller coaster".
 

 

 

 

Republica reports that VTP Group’s realtors are “close to the United Kingdom´s royal family members.”

 

Again, from Republica:

 

"VTP Global Special Project Team has signed an agreement on developing Lumbini as an international religious destination," the VTP Group has stated on its website on September 13. As per the deal, VTP would work as the main development manager of the project.

 

Also, Xiao Wunan, executive vice-chairman of APECF, upon his arrival in Hong Kong told Republica that they have reached the deal after a series of discussions with officials from VTP group.

 

"VTP group was keenly observing the Lumbini project for the last one year. The group wants to apply the western concept and role in the project," said Wunan.

 

VTP group is a renowned international company, which has built towers, city centers and tourism destinations. The group is already working on a design of Lumbini Cloud Tower to be built as an "International Symbol of Buddhist Philosophy" in the northern side of the Lumbini Village.

 

"In London, the APECF delegation had an in-depth exchange with VTP Group regarding the Lumbini project and signed MoU with the company.

Subsequently the APECF delegation held a discussion with Eric Kuhne, the designer of Lumbini Cloud Tower, and both sides reached consensus," the APECF stated on its website.

 

Last year, the APECF had announced to have reached an agreement with the UN´s Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) on developing Lumbini as an international peace city.

 

But later, the deal was dragged into controversy as the government of Nepal said it had received no notification in this connection.

 

APECF´s involvement in the proposed Lumbini project drew political attention as well because UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal is co-chairman of the foundation and is actively involved in the Lumbini development project.

 

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Integration of Maoist ex-rebels completed - challenges remain

 

October 4, 2012

The following is an article written by PRASHANT JAH, published by The Hindu.

 

"One country two armies" situation ends in Nepal

 

Six years after the formal end of the civil war, Nepal’s “peace process” has concluded with the integration of a little over 1,450 former Maoist fighters into the Nepal Army (NA). The cantonments where the former combatants of the Maoist People’s Liberation Army (PLA) resided have closed down, Maoist weapons are under state control, and the PLA has ceased to exist ending the state of “one country, two Armies”.

 

In the past few weeks, the final phase of the integration process saw 1,388 combatants who had opted for integration pass through the NA-conducted selection examinations. They would join at the solider level. Seventy five other former Maoist fighters have cleared the written exam to join the NA at the officer level, though final results for them have not yet been announced since medical tests and interviews are to be completed. Officers are to go through a nine-month training course, and soldiers would undergo a seven-month course — both sets will also have an additional three-month “bridge course”.

 

Over the past five years, there has been a gradual reduction in the number of combatants in the cantonments. About 32,000 individuals had initially registered in the camps in early 2007. But the United Nations Mission in Nepal (UNMIN) verified only 19,602 of those as combatants and disqualified over 4,000 persons for being under-age or joining the Maoist Army after the ceasefire began. The “disqualified” were discharged from the cantonments in early 2010.

 

In November 2011, (click here) a seven-point agreement was signed between the parties, which stipulated that a maximum of 6,500 former combatants could be integrated in a specially created general directorate under the NA. In the first phase of regrouping, over 7000 combatants opted to retire with cash packages while over 9,000 opted for integration.

 

But in subsequent rounds, this number steadily dipped and finally, around 1,600 combatants and 116 officer-level former fighters chose to go through selection tests.

 

In April 2012, the Nepal Army had also taken charge of the cantonments as well as containers that included over 3,000 Maoist weapons. The NA is now making arrangements to transport the containers to army centres from the cantonments, which have closed down.

 

CHALLENGES

 

 

 

Minendra Rijal, a member of the Special Committee for the Supervision, Integration, and Rehabilitation of former combatants, said that the process was now complete, and highlighted the key challenge ahead. Speaking to The Hindu, he said, “It is now important that there be no relationship between the Maoist party and those former fighters who have joined the Army; they must see themselves like any other solider. At the same time, the Nepal Army too must not discriminate against those who have been integrated. That will be the yardstick for successful integration.”

 

There is some uncertainty about where the combatants would be accommodated in the Army structure, since a lot fewer combatants than expected will be getting integrated. The original strength of the proposed general directorate was 18,500 — with 6,500 former Maoists constituting 35 per cent of the force and the remaining 65 per cent personnel from the security forces. It was to have multiple responsibilities, and be headed by a Major-General.

 

 

 

 

 

“I don’t think there will be a general directorate now. There could be a directorate, which has limited responsibility, since its size will only be around 3,500 now,” says Deepak Prakash Bhatt, a member of the Special Committee Secretariat. The Maoist leadership has however insisted that a general directorate be formed in keeping with the agreement.

 

While there was an informal agreement that the senior-most rank to be given to the Maoists would be that of a colonel, sources say that going by years of service, several former Maoist commanders would be eligible only to rise up to a major. “Profession says major, let us see what politics determines,” said a key official involved closely with the process.

 

With over 15,000 trained and ideologically-influenced combatants opting to retire, there have been concerns about their future course of action. Among them, some have joined the radical Maoist splinter led by Mohan Vaidya ‘Kiran’, and are being organized into a semi-military structure. But most are, according to those who have closely worked in cantonments, returning to their families, setting up businesses and working with their old Maoist party.

 

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Nepal: Survivors’ interviews of Manaslu avalanche– one of the deadliest slides in mountaineering history

 

September 29, 2012

 

Climbers who survived the avalanche on the world’s eighth highest peak (26,759 feet) have added light to the September 23^rd tragedy. As dawn began to break over Camp 2, bodies of their companions littered the mountain.

 

Nine people, including four French climbers, a Spaniard, an Italian, a German and a Nepali guide, were killed while two Frenchmen and a Canadian man remain missing.

 

Italian climber Christian Gobbi, 42, said he and his friend, Silvio Mondinelli, 54, had woken and were talking when suddenly their voices were drowned out by a giant roar before their tent was swept away.

 

"It was only a few seconds and we did not know what had happened, but we had slid more than 200 metres (650 feet). Then it stopped," he told AFP.

 

Gobbi and Mondinelli ventured outside their tent in the pitch black. But as the sun came up, they discovered the body of Dawa Sherpa, the Nepali guide who had led them on the hazardous trek and their friend, Italian Alberto Mariano, among broken tents, scattered belongings and the bodies of the other climbers.

 

"We were terrified -- we didn't know what to do," said Mondinelli, one of the world's most experienced climbers, who in 2007 became the sixth person in history to scale all 14 of the world's peaks above 8,000m without oxygen cylinders.

 

Rescuers found 13 people alive after the avalanche, described by survivors as looking like a "war zone", with several flown to hospitals in Kathmandu by helicopters.

 

"We were without boots and gloves -- we had only the sleeping bags. We waited an hour until sunlight and we found some boots and wore them," said Gobbi.

 

"There was one American, who was screaming and asking for help, but we couldn't do anything."

 

Gobbi said he and Mondinelli were not injured and were able to walk down to a lower camp, helping people along the way and applying dressings to their wounds.

 

"We checked to find out who was alive and who died. I alone saw seven dead bodies," said Gobbi.

 

A team of high-altitude sherpas ended a third unsuccessful search this week for three missing climbers, police said, with almost no hope that they would be rescued. District police chief Basanta Bahadur Kunwar said the sherpas had been using snow shovels, ice axes and bamboo sticks to search for the missing.

 

"I feel miserable, I don't know where I am anymore. I keep thinking of those who disappeared in the crevasses, who will probably never be found. It's a real shock," said French survivorvArnaud de Fouchier.

 

Experts have questioned the timing of the Manaslu expedition, arguing that the mountaineers should have waited a few more days. New snowfall, associated with the autumn season, which comes after the monsoon, is the most frequent cause of avalanches.

 

"Though the monsoon season usually ends by mid-September, they were a little early. One should attempt the summit in late September or early October," said Ang Tshering Sherpa, vice-president of the Nepal Mountaineering Association.

 

But there are questions being raised about whether too many people were on Manaslu last weekend. There were 30 teams registered to climb Manaslu, a 50 per cent increase from the previous year, Nepalese outfitter Ang Tshering told the Associated Press. In all, there were 231 climbers and guides camped along the trail leading up to the peak.

 

Overcrowding is in large part due to the result of heightened tensions between Chinese authorities and Tibetans; China rejected climbing permits this year for mountaineers hoping to scale peaks in the Tibetan Himalayas, forcing many onto mountains in Nepal.

 

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A violent gust of wind stirred Greg Hill awake as he lay in his sleeping bag Sunday, his tent staked in the snow on one of the tallest mountains in the world.

 

It was 4:45 a.m. The Canadian extreme skier and his group had set up camp at 6,400 metres above sea level on Nepal’s Mount Manaslu, just above Camp 2 and off to the right to avoid the path of a potential snow slide. It took only a moment for them to realize that an avalanche had indeed hit.

 

“Right away, we started hearing voices and people shouting and so we got out of our tents and looked up the hill and we could see headlamps in the dark,” Mr. Hill said from Kathmandu.

 

The six of them gathered their gear and hiked up. It took them about 30 minutes to reach the disaster. They were the first rescuers to arrive. Tents and bodies, some alive and some dead, were everywhere.

 

The rescuers first focused on helping the people they could see atop the snow, providing oxygen bottles, laying people on mats and wrapping them in sleeping bags to keep them warm from the bitter cold.

 

Mr. Hill and his group dug with their hands and shovels to free those who were partially buried, including one man who was enveloped by snow to his shoulders and stuck in his tent. Among the climbers caught in the avalanche was American freestyle skier Glen Plake, who escaped with a black eye, broken teeth and sore arm. His expedition partner, French skier Greg Costa, is among the missing.

 

After a frantic hour, other climbers began to arrive to help.

 

“For about five hours, we basically rescued those that we could and dug up those that we couldn’t rescue,” recounted Mr. Hill to The Globe and Mail-Canada. “It was extremely tragic,” he said. “I have never witnessed death first-hand before.”

 

Mr. Hill and his group had initially planned to climb Cho Oyu in the Tibetan region of China, but changed their destination when they couldn’t secure a permit from Chinese authorities. Mr. Hill was serving as a videographer for an expedition accompanying German climbers Benedikt Bohm and Sebastian Haag. The German pair was attempting to set a speed-climbing record to Manaslu’s 8,156-metre summit.

 

The day before Sunday’s avalanche, Mr. Hill remembers seeing more than 100 people working their way up a rope line. “Looking up seeing all these people there, no doubt made me wonder if it is in fact a safe thing to have that many people on a mountain,” Mr. Hill said.

 

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Renowned American extreme skier Glen Plake was another survivor.

 

Plake is a champion hot-dog skier who has appeared in many extreme-skiing documentaries, including 1988's "The Blizzard of AAHHH's," and also is well known for the tall mohawk he wears on the slopes. He had planned to ski down Manalsu, after reaching the summit.

 

"I was awake in my tent reading my Bible. ... The tent began to shake. We thought it was the wind but in fact it was an avalanche," Plake told reporters Wednesday at the Katmandu airport after returning from the mountain in a helicopter. "It was like an earthquake; it was like a tsunami."

 

Though he said he is "probably the luckiest person in the world," he was unable to find his friends and climbing companions, Remy George Lecluse and Gregory Ugo Costa, both of France.

 

"You are doing everything you can do because your friends' lives depend on your next action," he said. "Unfortunately everything I did proved to produce nothing. At that point, I had to think about my own life and start preparing."

 

Lecluse, Costa and a third person are still missing.

 

Nepalese mountaineering officials say eight bodies have been recovered: Fabrice Priez, Philippe Lucien Bos, Catherine Marie Andree Richard and Ludovic Paul Nicolas Challeat of France; German Christian Mittermeyer; Italian Alberto Magliano; Spaniard Marti Roirg Gasull; and Nepali Dawa Dorji.

 

 

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US, Nepal, Australian Militaries Join Forces to Aid Nepali Villagers

 

September 25, 2012

 

A multinational team led by U.S., Nepalese, and Australian military members and civilians treated more than 4,100 villagers, repaired and renovated three schools, and shared expertise Sept. 10-15, during Operation Pacific Angel 12-4 in Nepal.

 

The first Pacific Angel mission in Nepal featured free medical assistance in pediatrics, optometry, physiotherapy, public health infection control, food safety, women's health and pre-post partum nutrition care.

 

A very real example of the benefits of working together came during the mission when a newborn baby got a second chance at life. The child was a breech birth, and local doctors had pronounced him dead when two Project Hope doctors teamed up with a Nepal army nurse to provide rescue breathing -- reviving him, to the delight of a grateful family. (See above photo)

 

In addition to the thousands of patients receiving care, 80 Nepal Aamy and U.S. military designers, electricians, plumbers, carpenters, painters and brick-layers enhanced and improved a school, hostel, restroom facilities, water tank and pump systems and school cafeteria at Macchapucchre primary and secondary schools and at the Macchhapuchhre district post.

 

Nepali children look through a window at Machhapuchhre Higher Secondary School of Dhikur Pokhari, Nepal, and watch U.S. Air Force and Nepalese army civil engineers repair one of the school's buildings during Operation Pacific Angel 12-4 on Sept. 9, 2012. Operations like Pacific Angel build and sustain relationships with our multinational partners in the Asia-Pacific region.

 

The U.S. and Nepalese also shared information and techniques related to humanitarian assistance, disaster relief and emergency response. Members of the Nepal army, U.S. Air Force and Pokhara police force held classes and conducted simulated exercises at the Western Regional Nepal Army Headquarters.

 

The entire effort featured over 200 Nepal army, U.S. Air Force, Royal Australian Air Force and Mongolian Armed Forces members. They were assisted by the staffs of Gandaki Medical College, Teaching Hospital and Research Centre Private Limited (Charak Hospital), Himalaya Eye Hospital - Nau Danda Training Health Post and the Western Regional Health Directorate. Also helping were volunteers from the Junior Red Cross Of Shree Macchapuchhre Higher Secondary School,and the Dikhur Pokhari Youth Network.

 

Participants, officials and local citizens reflected on the successful mission during a ceremony at Machhapuchhre Higher Secondary School in Kaski District, Pokhara, on Sept. 17. During the closing festivities, a U.S. Air Force general officer spoke on the value of teamwork and partnership.

 

 

 

"We are honored to have worked alongside the Nepal army through our Pacific Angel program and deeply appreciate the hospitality our Nepalese hosts have extended to us," said Maj. Gen. Russell J. Handy,  the Director of Operations, Plans, Requirements and Programs for U.S. Pacific Air Forces.

 

"These efforts are a visible expression of our combined commitment to peace and stability in this region -- with the desire to strengthen the relationship between our countries and our continuing resolve to ensure increased humanitarian assistance and disaster relief in this region," Handy said. "Throughout this past week, we have been continually impressed with the professionalism of the Nepal army and applaud the Nepal army and the Ministry of Home Affairs for their diligent efforts to improve the quality of life of Nepal's citizens."

A Nepali man smiles after receiving new glasses during U.S. Pacific Command's Operation Pacific Angel 12-4 Sept. 10, 2012, in Nepal. Pacific Angel 12-4 is a Pacific Air Forces planned event that enhances humanitarian assistance and disaster relief capabilities between the United States and Pacific partners. The U.S. was invited by the Nepal government to provide support by conducting medical, optometry, and civil engineering programs. 

 

Officiating over the ceremony for Nepal was Nepal Army Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Nepal Bhusan Chand and Western Division Commander Maj. Gen. Victor.

 

Since 2007, Pacific Angel operations have been the cornerstone of U.S. Pacific Air Force's engagement efforts to partner with host nation military personnel throughout the Asia-Pacific region to improve the lives of tens of thousands of people and integrate operations with like-minded military and civilian professionals.

 

(Article Courtesy of Pacific Air Forces Public Affairs)

 

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Nepali Artist under Death-Threat: New Images and Commentary from the Controversial Painter

 

September 20, 2012

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On September 14, I posted an article on Manish Harijan's controversial show that opened at Sangeeta Thapa’s Siddhartha Art Gallery in Kathmandu.  I included a photo of the painting “Super Kali”, which seems to have caused the most public outrage. CLICK HERE  

I wrote at the time that, although I understood why Hindus might feel uncomfortable with some images, the content in no way justified death threats from Hindu fundamentalists and that it was my view that the artist was “merely exploring the extent to which contemporary culture has impacted Hindu culture” and, as such, should be allow to exhibit his work.

It occurs to me, however, that it would be helpful to include photographs of other pieces in Mr. Harijan’s one-man show so that readers who haven’t the opportunity to visit the gallery may have a better-informed opinion of the artist’s true intentions.

In addition to the photos, I have included descriptions lifted from the gallery’s catalogue written to accompany the show. All photos are curtsey of Thomas L. Kelly.

 

"I am like Itoclinas- why do you hang me like a Puppet"

The reference to Itoclinas, the pure spirit, is from the Hollywood film “Avatar”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the painting that reconstructs Diego Velasquez’s image of the regal child, Margarita Teresa of Spain, Manish portrays her as a pawn used by the state to advance their mercantile interests. The child dangles two Nepali puppets. By merging these images into his painting he creates a body of work that transcends geography and is both socio-political and paradoxical in content. The artist makes a powerful statement about how the West is still extending its control over the global economy and poorer nations. The hallmark of Manish’s work is the merging of cultures, the parody of globalization and a satirical take on society at large. How the viewer accepts these bold works packed with so much punch, will be an interesting exercise in itself.

 

 

"Upside Down Mountain"

In this painting, the artist reaches back to the epic Ramayana and to Hanuman’s search for a plant that serves as the elixir of life. Human greed, the over exploitation of nature’s resources and mankind’s detachment from nature itself is the commentary provided by this work.

 

 

"Real Buddha"

This painting is thematically reminiscent of the work of Tibetan artists, who have been addressing the commercialization of spirituality and all pervasive materialism in their works.

 

 

Super Natraj

In this satirical painting, Manish highlights the struggle of working class Nepali citizen, with his knotted and gnarled face. The insurmountable day to day challenges require superhuman strength- hence the Superman outfit. The fluid dance posture associated with the Natraj seems unbalanced as our Super Natraj ungainly stands on the precipice of life itself. The specter of violence that has seeped into the country becomes a moot point here, as our Super Natraj holds a lotus and a gun in each hand. The influence of contemporary Tibetan art can be seen in the artist’s composition – the stylized clouds and mountains, the flat background with decorative floral elements.

 

"108 God’s"

The artist uses the ancient mystical number 108 to pay homage to his own pantheon of superheroes. Each seems ready to roll into action from the traditional niche-like space associated with the local deities.

 

 

"Bhairav and Captain America Play Together"

Life and Death are reoccurring themes in this young artist’s paintings and can be seen in
“Bhairav and Captain American play together”. Bhairav, the wrathful manifestation of Lord Shiva jostles with Captain American – frolics aside, the content has political gravitas and myriad interpretations.

 

The superheroes in comic book from emerged in the 1930s and have since then generated their own following. The American at critic Cathy Horn, reviewing a show Understanding Power Dressing of the Superheroes at the Metropolitan Museum in 2008, for the New York Times writes “Superheroes first emerged in the late 1930s, in the years between the Great Depression and the beginning of the World War II. American utopianism literally colored the costumes and avenging exploits of the comic heroes as they hurled bowling balls and other objects at the heads of the Axis dictators”. The narratives of the superheroes have almost always been centered around politics. They defend the values of democracy-check the abuse of power, root out corrupt individuals and eliminate megalomaniacs and despots who seemingly threatens the very existence of mankind. In January 2012, The Elis Contemporary Art gallery in USA presented a show, My Hero. The curatorial text for the show reads: “ the allure of the superheroes lives in their selflessness and in the fact that they are prepared to place the greater needs of others ahead of their own wants and desires”.

 

The myth of the superhero is further propagated by the fact they seem to “embody and magnify a single aspects of the human potential in each of us.” Their larger than life heroics now find continuum in print, on the big screen, in Broadway theaters”, in symposiums that discuss their individual philosophies and their costumes, college projects and in contemporary art galleries around the world.

 

It is interesting to note that Pop Art is being re-contextualized in the contemporary art scene in Nepal by artists such Sujan Chitrakar, Laxman Karmacharya and Sudeep Balla. Following this trend, Manish paints his superheroes as Super Pop Gods, He believes that “Superheroes espouse the philosophy of most religions: Do not kill. Do not steal”.

 

Though the epic stories of the Hindu mythology seem detached from present day realities, the subconscious mooring of an ancient and inherited culture looms large. The artist prompts his viewers to explore the shared philosophies, ideals and similarities of the Gods and Superheroes.

 

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MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE ARTIST:

 

Manish Harijan is the recipient of KCAC’s Margret Washington Memorial Scholarship Award. In 2012, he graduated from the Kathmandu University Center for Art and Design.

 

 

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U.S. Removes Nepal’s Maoists from its “Terrorist” List. Bad Idea?

 

September 16, 2012

Kul Chandra Gautam is one of Nepal’s most distinguished international civil servants. He served as Assistant Secretary General of the UN and Deputy Executive Director of UNICEF. He was Special Advisor to the Prime Minister of Nepal on International Affairs and the Peace Process. He is a seasoned diplomat and civic leader and serves on the Boards of a number of international and national foundations and charitable organizations. Six months ago, he was also listed by Lalrakshak, the magazine backed by the UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal “Prachanda”, as an “enemy of the people” – a label many analysts equated to a loosely veiled death threat. CLICK HERE for my interview with Mr. Gautam, February 28, 2012

 

Three days ago, following the US lifting of the terrorist tag on Nepal’s Maoists, Mr. Gautam published his response in Republica:

 

“The Teflon Politicians” by Kul Ghandra Gaurtam           

 

The Maoists are ecstatic that the American government has just lifted the ‘terrorist’ tag from them. They never acknowledged or expressed any regret that they had ever used terror tactics. They claim that it was either a “misunderstanding” and their pro-people activism was misconstrued as terrorism, or a “conspiracy” by the world leader of capitalist-imperialist powers to defame a progressive nationalist movement fighting for social justice. In any case, the standard Maoist defence is that if they ever committed any violent excesses, it was their “compulsion”, not their “choice”. Now, the Maoists argue that the Americans have finally corrected their mistake.

 

The Americans––including the new US Ambassador to Nepal––would surely understand the Teflon phenomena. An American company, DuPont uses the brand name ‘Teflon’ for a ‘non-stick’ chemical in cooking pots and pans, much favored by America’s housewives and chefs. In politics, the term Teflon is used to describe a person who is impervious to even valid criticism and on whom no kind of blame seems to stick. Ronald Reagan was called the ‘Teflon president’ as he easily seemed to get away with all kinds of gaffes and mis-statements. He was a lovable actor and people forgave him for mixing up certain facts and figures.

 

Russian President Vladimir Putin seems to enjoy similar Teflon characteristics as many ordinary Russians overlook his authoritarian tendencies in their quest for progress with order and stability. Meanwhile, Nepal’s Maoists, and especially their leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’, seem to have acquired an amazing Teflon characteristic as well.

 

Many Nepalis now recognize the deceptive nature of the Maoists when they speak about ‘people’s’ democracy, ‘pro-people’ Constitution, progressive transformation (agragaami paribartan), and even ‘peace, inclusion and social justice’ as their guiding principles. These days, the ordinary Nepali seems immensely cynical about these terms. But curiously, many Western friends of Nepal seem to continue to give the Maoists very generous benefits of doubt, even in the face of blatant and overwhelming evidence. Consider some of these examples.

 

EXTORTION AND DECEPTION

 

When the UN Mission to Nepal (UNMIN) started verifying Maoist combatants, the party flooded the cantonments with nearly 32,000 cadres, many of whom were freshly minted “combatants”. Reportedly, quite a few of their hardcore combatants were kept outside the cantonments as members of their ‘civilian’ Young Communist League, some of them on ‘double duty’—registered in cantonments but serving in various party functions outside. UNMIN did disqualify some 10,000 fake combatants and identified 4,000 as child-soldiers and late recruits.

 

But the Maoists never acknowledged that they had done anything wrong, much less apologizing for their willful lying. On the contrary, in a recorded videotape at Shaktikhor camp, Maoist leader Prachanda gloated with pride about how they had fooled the UN into accepting 19,000 as certified combatants whereas their actual number, he acknowledged, was only 7,000-8,000 only. UNMIN’s response to this disgraceful deception was not an outrage but a plea that we should understand the Maoists’ statement in a “certain context.”

 

Although UNMIN confirmed that nearly 3,000 combatants in cantonments were child-soldiers, and the Maoist leadership tried to negotiate big cash grants from donors in their name, the party has never officially acknowledged that they ever recruited anyone under the age of 18 in violation of international conventions. For two years, the party leadership delayed the release and rehabilitation of these youngsters, giving them false assurances that in the end, the party will either ensure that they are integrated into the Nepal Army or given very generous allowances. However, these poor kids were ultimately dumped by the party with poor packages.

 

Then after four years of dilly-dallying, the Maoist party showed ‘extraordinary flexibility for the sake of peace and constitution’, which was much heralded by many Nepalis and the international community. During physical verification of the combatants to ascertain their interest in integration, rehabilitation or voluntary retirement with a handsome package, it turned out that many thousands of combatants were either “phantoms” or had deserted the cantonments long ago. But the party and its commanders were collecting their allowances regularly with fake signatures. The compulsory levy collected from the meager allowances of these poor combatants had mostly gone to a mysterious ‘party headquarters’ and was never accounted for. Credible reports indicate that the party leadership has thus extorted from the government treasury, billions of rupees.

 

Today, the UCPN (Maoist) is Nepal’s richest but least transparent political party in terms of its financial dealings. After an uproar from within its own ranks, the party has constituted investigative committees to look into personal property and finances of its leaders and commanders. The “agragaami” fanfare with which these committees were created, packed with the party leaders’ henchmen, will predictably absolve the party’s top leadership but hold some middle-level leaders guilty as sacrificial lambs. And once again, many will cheer the glorious party’s courage and ability to introspect and correct internal faults, compared to the opaque nature of other corrupt traditional parliamentary parties.

 

TEFLON LOGIC

 

How is it that in this day and age, a Marxist-Leninist-Stalinist-Maoist party that has not given up violence as a legitimate method of political change and ‘state capture’ by any means—through bullets or ballots—as its ultimate objectives can still project its image as a Teflon-coated ‘progressive and pro-people’ force?

 

Besides its following among many simple and poor folks or genuine victims of oppression who are looking for a savior and for whom the Maoist rhetoric can be very appealing, there seem to be two main reasons behind this. One, many of Nepal’s ethnic, regional and political activists, some civil society leaders, journalists and commentators are convinced that despite some of their excesses, the Maoists are or can be genuine agents for progressive change. Some tend to believe that even if the Maoists are insincere, they can be ‘used’ to neutralize traditional conservative forces to bring about progressive social change. Interestingly, this logic corresponds to the Maoists’ own design and calculation in the old Stalinist tactic of using independent intellectuals as “useful idiots”.

 

Two, after the end of the Cold War, Western countries are no longer worried about the ‘Communist menace’, which has now been generally replaced by Islamophobia. So, progressive-sounding dissident movements tend to enjoy a certain romantic appeal. And in their external relations, Nepal’s Maoists have been relatively successful in projecting their image of being widely misunderstood like the Scandinavian social-democrats.

 

BLIND FAITH

 

It is interesting to watch how certain groups of Nepali intelligentsia and analysts tend to have a deep impact on the thinking of international progressives. The combination of Western-educated intellectuals—who present all of Nepal’s problems as a simple case of the traditional Bahun-Chhetri Hill elites wanting to perpetuate their privileged position by opposing all progressive change that would empower marginalized groups––and Nepali intelligentsia tends to unintentionally support the Teflon Maoists, offering faith-based solutions like ethnic federalism rather than genuinely progressive affirmative actions.

 

Now that the more vocally extremist Mohan Baidya group has split from the UCPN (Maoist), it has become convenient for many such potential analysts to say that the mainstream Maoists are truly progressive social-democrats. Never mind that the UCPN (Maoist) too has officially kept ‘all options open’ as a revolutionary party that believes in the dictatorship of the proletariat.

 

None of this is to say the Maoists should never be given any benefit of doubt. Credit must be given where due. True democrats must be open to all peaceful dissenting views, but always with the wise caution of the old Gipper—‘trust but verify’.

 

kulgautam@hotmail.com           

 

 

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Nepal Rejects U.S. Plea for Tibetans: Dunham Interviewed by Radio Free Asia

September 15, 2012

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tibetans living in the Himalayan country go undocumented due to pressure from China.

 

The United States made a fresh plea to Nepal this week to provide identification papers to Tibetan refugees living in the country, but its request was flatly rejected by the government, which cited “geopolitical sensitivities” in an apparent reference to pressure from China.

 

Assistant Secretary of State Robert Blake urged Nepal’s government to regularize the status of the country's Tibetan community during talks with Nepalese deputy prime minister and minister for foreign affairs Narayan Kaji Shrestha on Tuesday.

 

Nepal should “provide them documentation that would allow them to get jobs, to travel, and so forth,” Blake said in Kathmandu after the talks.

 

“We believe strongly that Tibetan refugees, like all people, deserve to lead lives of dignity and purpose,” he said, according to a text of his remarks provided by the State Department.

 

About 20,000 Tibetan refugees have fled Chinese rule to live in Nepal, but many now lack the official refugee identity cards that would allow them to pursue opportunities for work, travel, or education.

 

And Nepal’s powerful northern neighbor China has in recent years become more aggressive in urging Kathmandu to restrict the refugees' activities and help control the movement of Tibetans in both directions across the countries’ shared border.

 

SENSITIVITIES

 

In his talks this week, Blake urged Nepal to grant “refugee identity” to Tibetans living in the country, according to Nepalese press report accounts of his meeting with Shrestha.

 

But Shrestha rejected the request, declaring that Nepal is not bound by international conventions on refugees and has “its own values” in dealing with them, the reports said.

 

“We will extend the refugee status or take other necessary actions based on our own laws. We have our own values regarding the policy on refugees,” Shrestha said.

 

“It is necessary for our foreign friends to appreciate that our policies are guided by geopolitical sensitivities,” said Shrestha, apparently referring to Nepal’s reluctance to offend China.

 

Speaking to RFA, Mikel Dunham, a writer and expert on Nepalese politics, called Shrestha’s statement a “shorthand” description of a Nepalese policy of abject surrender to Beijing.

 

“[This] means that Tibetans in Nepal must remain silent, passive wards of a hostile China-controlled policy of repression,” Dunham said.

 

“Without identity cards, Tibetans living in Nepal are deprived of education, health care, freedom of speech, freedom of movement, and other basic services and human rights.”

 

Calling the United States’ commitment to protect Tibetans stranded in Nepal “commendable,” Dunham said, “The bottom line is that no progress has been made.”

 

Though Nepal refuses refugee status to Tibetans fleeing China’s rule, it does permit them in a so-called “gentleman’s agreement” to travel through Nepal on their way to India, with the help of the Kathmandu-based Tibetan Refugee Reception Center and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

 

Speaking to the press in Kathmandui on Tuesday, Blake hailed Nepal’s “good record” in observing the arrangement.

 

Reported by Richard Finney.

Copyright © 1998-2011 Radio Free Asia. All rights reserved.

 

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Nepali artist receives death threat from outraged Hindu activist: Dunham’s two cents

 

September 14, 2012

 

This week Manish Harijan, a young Nepali painter, whose newest work is mounted in a one-man show at Kathmandu’s Siddhartha Art Gallery, received death threats from representatives of the World Hindu Federation (WHF). On display were several Hindu deities who had been visually reinterpreted with contemporary influences including comic book heroes.

 

Twelve men led by Hem Bahadur Karki, a member of the WHF, stormed the opening of Harijan’s exhibition, confronted Harijan, accused him of blasphemy and “started issuing life threats”, according the artist.

 

The Kathmandu Post reported:

 

Karki, a former colonel of the Nepal Army, had filed a case at the District Administration Office (DAO) last Friday, demanding that the expo be stopped and the artist be arrested. “The way our gods have been depicted is totally offensive,” a statement filed at the DAO read. The statement said Harijan’s portrayal of the Hindu goddess Kali in miniskirts and Hanuman carrying a bottle of alcohol is “abuse of freedom of expression”.

However, the WHF refused to own up the matter and said it was not the Federation’s decision to take any action against the art exhibition. “This could be a personal action taken by any member of our group,” said Nil Prasad Bhandari, the Chairman of the Nepal Chapter of the WHF. Police and DAO officials reached the gallery a couple of hours after the incident, which took place at 2 pm. “Investigations are on,” said DSP Dhiraj Pratap Singh, the Spokesperson of the Kathmandu Metropolitan Police Range. “We have padlocked the gallery and issued a notice to its owner to be present at the DAO at 1 pm on Wednesday.” Asked to explain the threats received by the artist, Singh said police were not “officially communicated about it.” 

 

After viewing Harijan’s portrait of Kali, it is this author’s view that the artist is merely exploring the extent to which contemporary culture has impacted Hindu culture.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Traditionally, Kali is depicted either in her peaceful or wrathful form, the latter being by far the most popular. In this incarnation, Kali’s eyes are described as red with intoxication, and in absolute rage, her hair is shown disheveled, small fangs sometimes protrude out of her mouth, and her tongue is lolling. She is often shown naked or just wearing a skirt made of human arms and a garland of human heads. She is also accompanied by serpents and a jackal while standing on a seemingly dead Shiva.

 

It’s difficult to find a Kathmandu street catering to tourism that doesn’t have Kali’s portrait for sale, either in postcard or poster size. By comparison, Harijan’s version seems quite mild. If one were trying to make a case for blasphemy – and I am not – I would think that the only argument would be that Harijan’s Kali is not outrageous enough.

 

And in any case, threatening to kill Manish Harijan, the artist, is far more unsettling than his contextually justifiable art.

 

 

 

 

As Axel Plathe, Head of the UNESCO Office in Kathmandu commented several days ago: “The right to freedom of expression must also apply to artistic expression. Tension that may arise between artistic creation and religious and ethical values should be openly discussed instead of becoming subject of intimidation or even death threat to the artist.”

 

 

I applaud Harijan’s right to visually explore 21^st century influences on Hinduism, just as I applaud Sangeeta Thapa , Siddhartha Art Gallery’s director, for her many years of courageously providing Nepal’s best young artists with a very handsome venue in which to display their work.

 

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Maoists demand Nepal revoke 1950 Peace & Friendship Treaty with India

 

September 12, 2012

 

The breakaway faction of the ruling Maoist party in Nepal submitted a list of 70 demands to the government on Monday and threatened protests if they are not fulfilled. A group of leaders belonging to Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist handed over the charter of demands to Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai at the latter’s office in Singha Darbar.

 

The demands include nearly two-dozen concerning India like scrapping of 'unequal' treaties and deals and better regulation of the 1800-km open border between both countries.

 

Most points in the list are similar to the 40 demands submitted by Maoists to the ruling government in 1996 before launching the 10-year-long civil war that left nearly 16,000 dead.

 

Incidentally, it was Bhattarai himself who had submitted the Maoist list to the then prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba in 1996.

 

The CPN-M, which split from Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) in June, has threatened to launch nationwide protests and even armed revolt if needed if the demands are not met.

 

"We won’t take up arms immediately, but won’t remain quiet either if the demands are overlooked," CPN-M vice-chairman CP Gajurel said after submitting the list of demands.

 

Among the demands are scrapping of the 1950 peace and friendship treaty between India and Nepal, the Bilateral Investment Protection and Promotion Agreement signed last year in New Delhi and two major hydro-power projects awarded to Indian firms.

 

Border regulation demands include better management, end to Indian 'encroachment' and bans on 'unauthorised' entry of Indian security personnel and cars bearing Indian number plates into Nepal.

 

Ban on Hindi films, closing of Gorkha recruitment centres in Nepal and end to direct financial assistance by India to projects in Nepal without routing them through the country’s finance ministry also find mention in the list.

 

The CPN-M list includes promulgation of a 'peoples' federal republican’ constitution and creation of federal units with ‘national identity’ as well.

 

Though the breakaway faction led by Mohan Baidya is unlikely to take up arms, there is a section within the party which wants to follow that path by enlisting former Maoist combatants who took part in the civil war.

 

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Nepal: US removes terrorist label from Maoists just as Maoist murder controversy intensifies against Maoist PM Bhattarai

 

September 8, 2012

 

The United States on Thursday removed Nepal's ruling Maoist party, which after a bloody, decade-long insurgency now heads a caretaker government, from its blacklist of terrorist organizations – this after almost a decade as a designated global terrorist body.

 

The delisting means that US organizations and companies can now conduct business with the Maoist leadership, and any property or interests that were frozen in the United States are no longer blocked.

 

But fresh testimony given in a New Delhi court implicates Nepal’s Maoist prime minister in a tawdry murder case, bringing into question the sagacity of the US State Department’s decision for leniency.

 

According to Yubaraj Ghimire, reporting in yesterday’s The Indian Express:

 

Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai has landed in a fresh controversy as one of his closest political followers and a murder accused has testified before a court that he was hiding in Delhi under the instructions of the Prime Minister.

 

Nabaraj Basnet, a Maoist leader from eastern Nepal’s Okhaldhunga district, told the district court on Wednesday that he was living in Delhi for the past two years as Bhattarai had asked him to look for a safer hideout since police was looking for him in a murder case. In his statement recorded by the court, Basnet said Gopal Kirati, a former minister under Bhattarai and Balkrishna Dhungel, a Maoist central committee member, had asked him to kill one Chhabi Karki, a rival politician, in the district long after the Maoists joined the peace process.

 

Bhattarai is already facing a controversy after he threw his weight behind Dhungel, a murder convict, and protected him from being arrested and disqualified as a member of the Nepal constituent assembly.

 

Basnet’s surrender has added teeth to the opposition attack on the Prime Minister, which is clamoring for his resignation.

 

 

What was the reasoning behind the State Department’s lifting of terrorist label?

 

"At the time of the designations, the CPN(M) was engaged in a violent war with the Nepalese government," a State Department official told Agence France Press.

The party's "terrorist activities resulted in the death or disappearance of thousands of Nepali citizens, and resulted in the murder of two US embassy security guards."

More recently, however, it "has participated in democratic elections, has taken steps to dismantle its capability to conduct terrorist activities, and has demonstrated a credible commitment to pursuing the peace and reconciliation process in Nepal as the current head of Nepal's coalition government.”

The Maoists are now running the country as a "caretaker" government with no parliament and no real mandate after the legislature was dissolved when, despite years of wrangling, the political leaders failed to meet a May deadline to write a new peacetime constitution.

Nepal's Election Commission has also said it lacks a legal framework to hold elections which had been promised for November.

"Even six years after the political process began, Nepal's political culture remains tumultuous," State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell told journalists on Thursday.

"We continue to urge all parties to express their views peacefully, in accordance with Nepali law."

 

It was also clarified that both factions of the party following its June split had been de-listed. (The Mohan Vaidya ‘Kiran’-led Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist, which split from the parent party in June, has threatened to launch a struggle — and armed revolt “if necessary” — if their demands are not met. LINK HERE FOR DETAILS)

 

 

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Nepal Maoist radical faction threatens Prachanda-led Maoists

 

September 7, 2012

Prashant Jha article published yesterday by The Hindu:

 

Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist Chairman Mohan Vaidya 'Kiran' talking to media-persons at CPN-Maoist office, Buddhanagar on wednesday.

 

Sixteen years after Nepal’s Maoists presented a memorandum with 40 points to the then government before launching their ‘People’s War’, a splinter radical Maoist party has decided to present a list of 70 demands to the Maoist-led government.

The Mohan Vaidya ‘Kiran’-led Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist, which split from the parent party in June, has threatened to launch a struggle — and armed revolt ‘if necessary’ — if their demands are not met.

 

At a press conference here on Wednesday, Mr. Kiran accused the Prachanda-led Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) of “neo-revisionism”. “Instead of addressing demands they themselves had raised during the war, our own friends are now behaving like the ruling class.” He said while there had been some “achievements”, the country remained in a “semi-colonial, semi-feudal, and neo-colonial” situation, and a new “struggle” was necessary. Many of the issues listed in the new document are taken from the original 40-points agenda.

 

The new party has demanded the scrapping of the 1950 Nepal-India Treaty of Peace and Friendship; the 1965 bilateral security pact; the Mahakali treaty; the Small Development Projects supported by government of India in Nepal; and the Upper Karnali and Arun-3 hydropower contracts given to Indian companies.

 

It has called for “controlling and managing” the open border between the two countries; ending “border encroachment” in Nepali territory and “unauthorised” entry of Indian security personnel into Nepal; stopping entry of cars with Indian number plates; stopping Hindi and English cinema, video and publications; ending foreign investment in media; closing down Gorkha recruitment centres and “strictly controlling” all “anti-China” activities conducted using Nepal as a base.

 

In the third week of August, Mr. Kiran had met the chairperson of the royalist Rashtriya Prajatantra Party-Nepal, Kamal Thapa, and discussed co-operating on the issue of “nationalism and sovereignty”.

 

‘People’s Democracy’

 

Other demands revolve around “people’s democracy and livelihood”. These include: institutionalising a ‘People’s Federal Republican’ constitution by elected people’s representatives, federalism with “national identity”, full proportionate inclusion in state organs, drafting a new national security policy, relief and compensation to those who suffered in the ‘People’s War’, end of discrimination and untouchability against Dalits, employment guarantee, free and compulsory education till Class 12, land reform, and action against corrupt.

 

Mr. Kiran said while their struggle would initially be peaceful, they may adopt the armed method if their demands were not met. Analysts, however, believe that it is unlikely that the entire party will revert to an insurgency. But unconfirmed reports suggest that a section, led by a radical young leader Netra Bikram Chand ‘Biplab’, is organising former soldiers of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and collecting arms to prepare for a violent revolt.

 

Ironically, in 1996, it was the then ideologue Baburam Bhattarai who prepared and submitted the demands on behalf of the Maoists.

 

This time, in his capacity as the Prime Minister, he will receive a similar set of demands from his erstwhile colleagues.

 

 

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Chinese Police Deport Tibetans -- From Tibet to Nepal’s Refugee Center in Kathmandu

 

September 1, 2012

 

Filed by Radio Free Asia Aug. 30. 2012

In what appears to be a growing trend, Chinese border police have deported to Nepal two groups of Tibetans who had sought to re-enter Tibet, some in hopes of reuniting with family members, according to Tibetan and Nepalese sources.

 

One group of 11 men was forced over the border to Nepal on Aug. 29, while a second group of four men and one woman was sent back on Aug. 23.  All had been held by Chinese police at a detention center in Shigatse, Tibet, after being detained at border crossings with Nepal at Dram, Nangpa La, and Nyalam.

 

Six of the men in the first group are married and have children living in Tibet, sources said.

 

On their return to Nepal, both groups were taken to the Tibetan Refugee Reception Center in Kathmandu with the assistance of United Nations refugee workers.

 

After a short stay at the refugee center, the group of five who were sent back to Nepal on Aug. 23 paid fines and were released, and have now traveled into India, sources said.

 

One, a businessman, had left Tibet earlier in the year to attend religious teachings given in India by exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama. The others—three men and a woman—had lived and studied in India for several years, and had attempted to rejoin their parents and families inside Tibet.

 

The group of 11 who were sent back on Wednesday, though natives of Dingri county in Tibet, are now stateless, having had their residency papers for Tibet confiscated by Chinese police at the border with Nepal.

 

Move kept secret

 

Speaking to RFA from the refugee center in Nepal, one of the men said that their forced return to Nepal came as a surprise.

 

 

“Initially, they kept our deportation very secret. [The Chinese] didn’t say anything to us in Dingri or Shigatse,” he said.

 

“Then, at Nyalam, the Chinese police informed us that they were carrying out official orders from the Tibet Autonomous Region to return us to Nepal.”

 

“They didn’t give any reason for confiscating our Chinese personal identity papers,” another returnee said. “They just said that those were not going to be of any use to us.”

 

The men are now worried about trying to cross again into Tibet without papers, and feel they have been left in a limbo, several said.

 

In June, Chinese border police forced back into Nepal a group of Tibetan pilgrims seeking to re-enter Tibet after confiscating their Tibetan residency permits and detaining them for a week, also in Shigatse.

 

About 20,000 Tibetan refugees live in Nepal, and Beijing is becoming more aggressive in urging Kathmandu to restrict their activities and to help control the movement of Tibetans in both directions across the countries’ shared border.

 

Reported by Thupten Sangyal and Lumbum Tashi for RFA’s Tibetan service. Translated by Dorjee Damdul. Written in English by Richard Finney.

 

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Nepal’s Widening Polarization – Analysis by The Institute for Conflict Management

 

August 29, 2012

 

The following analysis published yesterday by South Asia Terrorism Portal, is written by Fakir Mohan Pradhan.

 

The uncertain calm in Nepal, disturbed by no more than occasional rumblings for the ouster of Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai, received a jolt when at least 20 Political parties, mostly from the ruling coalition, announced the formation of an alliance – the Federal Democratic Republican Alliance (FDRA) – at a press conference at Hotel Radisson in the capital, on August 17, 2012. Led by the Unified Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (UCPN-M) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal aka Prachanda and its constituents, the alliance includes the UCPN-M, Terai Madhesh Democratic Party (TMDP), TMDP-Nepal, Madheshi People’s Rights Forum–Democratic (MPRF-D), Madhesi People’s Rights Forum-Republican (MPRF-R), Rastriya Janamukti Party, Sadhbhwana Party and the Nepal Rastriya Party, among others. Samajbadi Janata Party Chairman Prem Bahadur Singh was declared the spokesperson of the alliance.

 

The alliance, declaring itself in favour of federalist principles, aims to work towards ethnic-based federalism and the promulgation of a new constitution through the now dissolved Constituent Assembly (CA). Prachanda said the alliance has “long-term” and “strategic” importance and that it would continue until another election. He further stated that the alliance was prepared to hit the streets if a “conspiracy is hatched against identity-based federalism.”

 

 

 

The major opposition parties – Nepali Congress (NC) and the Communist Party of Nepal – Unified Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML) – and the newly formed Mohan Baidya-led CPN-Maoist (CPN-Maoist-Baidya) have come down heavily against the alliance, seeing it as an attempt to vitiate the political atmosphere by working against the politics of consensus. NC and CPN-UML see it as an attempt to prolong the life span of the care taker government and demand immediate resignation of the Prime Minister Bhattarai to pave the way for consensus government which would further the peace process.

 

The alliance was established because of a felt need to forge national consensus in favour of ethnic-based federalism and the promulgation of a new constitution through the CA. Prachanda argued that the alliance would negotiate from a position of strength, urging the NC and the CPN-UML to agree to identity-based federalism. The veiled threat in this argument was made more openly by Prachanda when he declared that political confrontation in the country in the days to come would be “between alliances”. Daring NC and CPN-UML to forge an alliance, Prachanda declared, on August 18, 2012, in Lahan, “Whether it is a fight or a deal, it will now be between alliances.”

 

The FDRA has put forward two options to end the current political impasse – either to hold election to the CA or to revive the dissolved CA.

 

Complicating issues, the CPN-Maoist-Baidya, created an alliance of nine fringe political parties – the Nepal Federal People’s Republic Front – on August 10, 2012, to unseat the Bhattarai Government. Baidya slammed the UCPN-M led FDRA, describing it as “a desperate attempt of the present Government to cling to power”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In another development, marking the World Indigenous Day on August 9, 2012, Janjati and indigenous leaders unveiled the manifesto of a proposed indigenous people’s party – the Social Democratic Pluri-National Party – and vowed to complete the task of party formation within the next two months. The proposed party manifesto advocates single identity-based federalism. The party is expected to join the FDRA.

 

 

Meanwhile, on August 17, 2012, President Ram Baran Yadav rejected two election-related ordinances —Election to Member of the CA and Ordinance to Amend Some Existing Electoral Laws — recommended by the caretaker Government on July 27, sending a message that he would not approve ordinances that did not “satisfy” him or that lacked a minimal consensus among parties. The President’s office argued that the recommendation for the ordinance was rejected as they were not “relevant” in light of the formal announcement by the election Commission on July 31 to the effect that polls to CA on November 22 cannot be held.

 

Visibly dismayed by these developments, the Bhattarai Government was mulling over the prospects of resending the ordinances to the President on the grounds that it was within the constitutional powers of the Government to issue ordinances. However, better sense prevailed, and, on August 25, the Government decided not to bring any ordinance without political consensus. This has helped avoid a confrontation between the President and the Prime Minister, which has long been expected, but has been averted till now.

 

The FDRA is increasingly being regarded as an attempt to prolong the life of the UCPN–M-led caretaker Government, as well as muscle flexing by the UCPN-M. The political deadlock continues as NC and CPN-UML continue to demand the immediate resignation of Prime Minister Bhattarai, and the formation of a ‘consensus government’ under which the next election would take place. The UCPN-M, however, remains adamant that, before the resignation of the Prime Minister, contentious issues – especially that of identity-based federalism – must be solved. However, the demand for the ouster of the PM is getting louder, despite a defiant Prachanda’s declaration that the Caretaker Government would continue for 20 or 30 years, and even longer, if there was no consensus on identity-based federalism.

 

The FDRA is expected to be a prelude to come in handy for the UCPN-M, in case opposition parties take to streets to oust the Bhattarai Government. In the event of elections, moreover, the FDRA is expected to boost the chances of the coalition. The alliance is now trying to project the NC and CPN-UML as ‘anti-federalist’, though these parties contest such a projection. The CPN-UML has stated that it is ready for identity-based, but not single-identity based, federalism. It remains to be seen what the position of the Madhesh-based parties will be; these parties have been pressing for ‘One Madhesh, One Province’. They have, however, entered an alliance which is demanding single-identity based federalism, which militates against their ‘One Province’ demand.

 

Amidst the continuing deadlock , another crisis appears to be brewing. The ‘special budget’ that was brought by the Government through an ordinance, and approved by the President, provided funds for a third of the current year’s expenditure. If the political impasse is not cleared by then, a major crisis is likely, as the NC and CPN-UML are expected to oppose any further grants, to put pressure on Bhattarai to make way for a consensus government.

 

As a consequence of the current political crisis, one of the most contentious issues that had almost been resolved – the integration of People’s Liberation Army (PLA) combatants with the Nepal Army – has gone into limbo because of disagreements over meeting the Army’s selection criteria.

 

 

As the war of words continues, the major political parties reached an understanding on August 25, 2012, to refrain from a blame game and to hold a ‘serious dialogue’ to find a way out of the current political deadlock. Considering the belligerent positions of the major political formations and the UCPN-M’s present initiatives, both in the formation of the FDRA and to push through several ordinances, however, no early resolution appears likely. The NC and CPN-UML’s attempts to secure the dismissal of the Bhattarai Government through the President also militate against any negotiations in good faith. The grounds appear to be prepared for street mobilization – and the spectre of street violence cannot be far behind.

 

Fakir Mohan Pradhan

Research Associate, Institute for Conflict Management

 

 

Source details:

 

SATP, or the South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP) publishes the South Asia Intelligence Review, and is a product of The Institute for Conflict Management, a non-Profit Society set up in 1997 in New Delhi, and which is committed to the continuous evaluation and resolution of problems of internal security in South Asia. The Institute was set up on the initiative of, and is presently headed by, its President, Mr. K.P.S. Gill, IPS (Retd).

 

 

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While Nepal’s government becomes a weed patch, Nepal's UN mission faces vacuum

 

August 25, 2012

 

Earlier this month, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced the appointment of Gyan Chandra Acharya of Nepal as Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States.

 

Acharya is currently Permanent Representative of Nepal to the United Nations. But with his resignation, a move necessitated by his new posting, the most challenging diplomatic mission from Nepal is sure to be headless for an unspecified period.

 

It is not sure when Acharya’s successor will be picked as Nepal has no Parliament, and hence no parliamentary hearing, a constitutionally mandatory provision to appoint someone to the diplomatic post.

 

“The resignation tendered by Acharya has been approved with effect from September 1,” said Education Minister Dina Nath Sharma. Senior officials at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the mission would be ‘handicapped’ if the vacuum continued for long.

 

“Deputy Chief of Mission, Sheva Lamsal Adhikari, will, however, serve as the chargé d’affaires until a new permanent representative is appointed,” said DPM and Minister for Foreign Affairs Narayan Kaji Shrestha.

 

A source added that nothing can be said as of now regarding the appointment of a new permanent representative unless there is a headway on breaking the constitutional crisis. Appointments of ambassadors, judges and chiefs and commissioners to constitutional bodies are in a state of limbo in the absence of mandatory parliamentary hearing.

 

Though the government is planning to address the pressing issues through ordinances, it is yet to take a final decision to this effect in the wake of President Ram Baran Yadav’s recent move to reject two election related ordinances.

 

The Permanent Representative at the UN Mission in New York is considered one of the most coveted diplomatic posts. If the recent tradition is anything to go by, the foreign secretary usually assumes the post.

 

Prior to his current position, Acharya was Foreign Secretary with the Government of Nepal (2007-2009), Permanent Representative to the United Nations and the World Trade Organization in Geneva (2003-2007), Spokesman of the Foreign Ministry (1999-2002) and Joint Secretary (Director-General) responsible for South Asia, Europe and the Americas and Regional Organizations, Economic Relations and Coordination Divisions (1998-2003).

 

Acharya graduated with a Master of Economics degree from Tribhuvan University in Kathmandu, Nepal. Born in 1960, he is married and has two children.

 

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Besides the UN mission, Nepali Embassy in India is headless for over 18 months and ambassadors to Malaysia and Thailand are also yet to be appointed.

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World Premier of Film on Child Sex Slavery in Cambodia: “Talking to the Trees”

 

August 20, 2012

 

Talking to the Trees, a new film by Ilaria Borrelli and Guido Freddi, follows the story of a Parisian photographer embarking on a quest to rescue a child from a Cambodia brothel – a child her own husband has sexually abused.

 

 

Filmed entirely in Cambodia, Talking to the Trees was presented earlier this year at the Cannes Film Festival.

 

It takes brave filmmakers to tackle the dark subject matter of child sexual exploitation in Cambodia  -- a subject in which I am more than casually interested. Several years back, posing as a sex tourist, I participated in a sting operation to free 30 girls under the age of 16 – some as young as 8 – from brothels in and around Siem Reap.

 

Click here for my report "On Freeing Child Sex Slaves in Cambodia"

 

 

Next week, Talking to the Trees has its official world premier at the Montreal World Film Festival. Here’s the movie trailer:

 

 

Now you have the opportunity to help promote this important film.

 

Anyone in the independent filmmaking business can tell you how nearly impossible it is to raise the funds for such undertakings – from pre to post production. But there is also the additional burden of promoting the film, once it is finished, including the considerable expenditure of entering the film at international film festivals. The filmmakers of Talking to the Trees, in partnership with UNICEF, now have a drive on Indiegogo.com, in which your contributions will make it possible to distribute this important film to the widest audience possible. Even a $10 donation will help!

Click below for link:

SUPPORT "Talking to the Trees"

Stills from the movie:

 

World première of Talking to the Trees

 

Sunday August 26, 2012 - 21:30 @ Cinéma Quartier Latin 9, 350 rue Emery, Montreal.

 

Second screening:

 

Tuesday August 28th, 2012 - 13:30, same theater.

 

 

 

 

Official "Talking to the Trees" website

 

 

 

 

 

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Chinese mistrust of America deepens

 

August 17, 2012

 

Analysis by Jayadeva Ranade, originally published in New Indian Express on August 13, 2012

 

China’s highest level leadership has chosen to openly air serious suspicions about the United States just as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) prepares for the transfer of power at top echelons this October. The US is viewed as persisting with its ‘Cold War mentality’, trying to ‘contain China’s rise’ and ‘meddling’ in the South China Sea. This heightens tension in the bilateral relationship.

 

The positive collaborative aspects of Sino-US relations have simultaneously been sought to be highlighted. China’s official news-agency Xinhua, for example, while reporting the meeting in Beijing between Chinese President Hu Jintao and visiting US national security advisor Tom Donilon on July 24, observed that both had described Sino-US relations as “the most important relationship in the world”.

 

At least three authoritative articles by ministerial-level officials published in the official Chinese media in the span of a week reflect the leadership’s concerns. These bluntly articulate the suspicion that the US is attempting to clandestinely bring about the collapse of China from within. They also lay bare Beijing’s frustration at apparent US unwillingness to dispel the ambiguity surrounding its policy of re-entering the Asia-Pacific.

 

A lengthy article by Cui Tiankai, China’s vice foreign minister and expert on American affairs, was published coinciding with Donilon’s visit (July 24-25) to Beijing. This while Donilon was accorded a red carpet reception by Beijing, no doubt because he is mentioned as a possible successor to US secretary of state Hillary Clinton.

 

Cui Tiankai’s article revived memories of the period immediately after the collapse of the erstwhile Soviet Union in 1989, when suspicion about the US was at its height within the CCP’s top echelons. He used the term ‘peaceful evolution’ twice in his article. ‘Peaceful evolution’ is a descriptive short-hand the Chinese used to refer to USA’s perceived clandestine actions intended to: dismantle the CCP; introduce multi-party democracy; and replace the socialist economy with free-wheeling capitalism. Cui Tiankai used it in the context of US interference on the issues of Tibet, Xinjiang, democracy and human rights. Acknowledging that in a multi-ethnic country with a huge population it is not difficult to find dissatisfaction, he cautioned that if those ‘obsessed’ with ‘peaceful evolution’ perceived this as an opportunity to engage in ‘colour revolution’, then they are committing a major strategic error. There is speculation, incidentally, that Cui Tiankai is possibly China’s next ambassador to the US.

 

Describing China and US as ‘self-confident’, Cui Tiankai emphasised that ‘the road of peaceful development is a strategic choice made by the Chinese collective leadership, the ruling party and the overwhelming majority of the masses’. The two have ‘no territorial claims against each other, therefore there is no important source of antagonistic conflict between the traditional powers’.

 

He emphasised their mutual economic inter-dependence and benefits accruing to the US. Bilateral trade volume was $446.6 billion in 2011 and, together with rising Chinese imports, directly supported between 4 and 8 million jobs in each country. Imports of low cost Chinese goods over a 10 year period had saved US consumers $600 billion. He reminded that ‘China is a huge market with over 1.3 billion consumers and the next five years will create $10 trillion worth of demand for imports’.

 

Assuring that China has ‘no intention of challenging the status of the United States and no intention of competing with US hegemony’, the Chinese vice foreign minister warned that ‘the strategic long-term cost of any mis-judgment of each other’s strategic intentions may be bigger than a war’. He regretted that in ‘recent years the United States had chosen not to solve certain problems with a pragmatic attitude, but instead exaggerate them and, worse still, speculate about China’s intent’. Questioning the ‘true intentions’ behind the US policy of ‘return’ to Asia-Pacific and ‘intervening in differences between China and its neighbors’, he insisted the US clarify its position as China and other countries in the region were uneasy. He asked US to ensure that the ‘core interests’ of both countries are safeguarded, pointing out that China ‘has always respected the reasonable interests and concerns of the United States’ in the Asia-Pacific. In the South China Sea dispute, China was ‘not the initiator, but the victim’.

 

Yuan Peng, director of the Institute for American Studies at the China Institute for Contemporary International Relations (CICIR), which is directly subordinate to the powerful ministry of state security, wrote the second article, which was published in the party mouthpiece People’s Daily on July 31. He assessed that China’s real strategic contest with the US and West will start only after 5-10 years and will be non-military. The article indicated that China intended to settle all issues of sovereignty and territorial integrity by military force.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yuan Peng said the US strategic community is already debating three fundamental questions regarding China: how to respond to the resource, energy and economic demands of a great power with 1.3-1.5 billion people; how to respond to the successful alternate political system, developmental model and cultural values of a socialist great power; and, ‘how to respond to the military challenge posed by a socialist great power that has not yet settled all its issues of sovereignty and territorial integrity’.

 

Once the US and Europe tide over current difficulties they will close China’s window of strategic opportunity and the US will endeavour to ‘disrupt China’s rise’ and contain it. It will strive to penetrate China’s economy ‘to control the lifeblood of China’s development’ and introduce ‘liberal democracy’. Human rights lawyers, ‘underground’ religion, dissidents, ‘internet heroes’ etc, will be used to push for a ‘bottom-up’ approach to change governance in China. The US will attempt to weaken and split China’s ties with North Korea, Pakistan and Myanmar and re-build US-Russia relations to isolate China and constrict its diplomatic space. Subjects like ‘global commons’ of sea, air, space and cyber would be used to diminish China’s ability to strategically challenge the US.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The third article was by Ye Xiaowen, a ministerial-level cadre and vice president of the Central Institute of Socialism. Published by People’s Daily on July 24, this cautioned the US against making strategic mis-judgements, prompted by strategic anxiety, in attempts to ‘contain China’.

 

The appearance of these articles signed by high-ranking cadres is unusual. They unmistakably convey the views of China’s top leadership, signalling their serious suspicion that the US is trying to engineer the collapse of the CCP and ‘contain China’. They additionally reveal that the Chinese leadership is feeling vulnerable. The views would appear to be shared by the incoming top leadership as well.

 

Jayadeva Ranade is a former additional secretary in the Cabinet Secretariat, Government of India.

 

 

 

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Human Rights Watch says Nepal’s ban on women working in Gulf States Wrong-Headed

 

August 16, 2012

 

On August 9, Nepal’s cabinet banned women under the age of 30 from working in Arab Gulf countries as a solution to the ongoing sexual and physical abuse of young women trapped in those states.

 

But two days ago, Human Rights Watch (HRW) issued a statement strongly advocating that the new ban should be revoked. Instead, the Nepali government should concentrate on improving “protections, so that domestic workers can migrate safely – such as by ensuring full monitoring and accountability of recruitment agencies in Nepal.”

 

At the same time, HRW said that governments in the Gulf should adopt long overdue labor protections and immigration reforms, including ending the discriminatory treatment of domestic workers, to combat the abuse of Nepali and other migrant workers.

 

The ban is a response to several publicized cases of abuse of Nepali domestic workers, including long work hours, unpaid wages, and in some cases physical or sexual abuse.

 

See my related article of Oct. 14, 2011, Nepal will allow 150,000 women to work and once again face the dangers of becoming maids in Gulf States:

 

Nepali Women in Gulf States

 

"Nepal is right to be concerned about its migrant domestic workers, but imposing a ban on women under 30 from traveling to the Gulf does not solve the problem and discriminates against young women", said Nisha Varia, senior women's rights researcher at Human Rights Watch.

 

"A better strategy would be to crack down on abusive recruitment practices, ensure that women migrate with an enforceable contract in hand, and equip embassies to respond quickly to complaints of abuse."

 

Official Nepali emigration figures state that as many as 1,000 migrants pass daily through Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu; many others leave by land through the porous Indian border.

 

Many domestic workers have positive experiences and together send home billions of dollars in remittances each year to Asia. Others face abuse.

 

Human Rights Watch has documented discrimination and abuse against Asian domestic workers in the Middle East for several years.

 

Labor laws in the Gulf exclude domestic workers from basic protections guaranteed other workers such as a weekly rest day, limits to hours of work, and compensation in case of work-related injury.

Restrictive immigration rules make it difficult for domestic workers to escape from abusive employers.

 

A ban on the work in the Gulf may drive women desperate for work to migrate through irregular channels, putting them at greater risk of exploitation and trafficking, Human Rights Watch said.

 

Human Rights Watch interviewed Nepali domestic workers in Saudi Arabia during the previous ban and found that they were especially likely to encounter abuse.

 

They had no information about their rights, no employment contracts, and were more likely to migrate with illegal recruiters who left them heavily indebted.

 

If they faced abuse from their employers, their precarious legal status made it more difficult for them to approach or receive assistance from authorities.

 

Instead of a blanket ban on young women that denies them important employment opportunities, Nepal's government should work with other labor-sending governments to demand stronger protections for migrant workers in the Gulf, Human Rights Watch said.

 

It urged the Nepali Government to improve training of migrant workers, to monitor recruitment agencies rigorously, and to ensure migrant women know where to get help if they need it.

 

"Governments in the Gulf should heed the concern about abuse against domestic workers in their countries," said Varia. "They should move quickly to include domestic workers in labor laws, prosecute abusive employers, and improve cooperation with labor-sending countries."

 

Nepal has obligations under its interim constitution and international law to protect women from discrimination, including in employment.

 

The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, which Nepal ratified in 1991, requires states to eliminate discrimination against women in the field of employment.

 

Human Rights Watch also called on the Nepali government to ratify the International Labor Organization Convention on Decent Work for Domestic Workers.

 

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Gaurav Shumsher Rana becomes Nepal Army’s new Chief

 

August 12, 2012

  

 

Lieutenant General Gaurva Shumsher Junga Bahadur Rana has been promoted to the post of acting Army Chief effective from August 9. The President endorsed the appointment.

 

 

 

 

Rana’s army career reaches back 38 years. He joined the then “Royal Army” in 1970 and attended the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, the British Army officer initial training center near London.

 

Rana most recently served as Chief of Staff, the senior-most lieutenant general in the army. Before that, he served as Inspection General.

 

 

 

 

Rana’s father, Aditya Shumsher Rana, also served in the Nepal Army and retried as a Major General. His great-grandfather was Prime Minister Chandra Shumsher Rana, from 1901 until his death in 1929.

 

Rana is regarded as a traditional military man with close family ties to India. He is related to India’s former royal chouse of Gwalior. His wife is from the Scindia family.

 

Rana’s predecessor, General Chhatraman Singh Gurung will be remembered for keeping the Army apolitical. He emphasized the importance of maintaining the Army’s independence while, at the same time, keeping it under civilian control.

 

Hopefully, General Rana will carry on that tradition.

 

He will officially take charge as the Army Chief on September 9.

 

 

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Nepal among 7 nations that face sanctions over endangered species

 

July, 28, 2012

 

 

 

 

GENEVA: Seven nations, including Nepal, may lose their ability to legally trade tens of thousands of wildlife species after U.N. conservation delegates agreed Thursday to penalize them for lacking tough regulations or failing to report on their wildlife trade.

 

The suspensions against the seven nations – Comoros, Guinea-Bissau, Paraguay, Nepal, Rwanda, Solomon Islands and Syria – were approved by consensus among the delegates and would take effect Oct. 1.

 

 

 

They would prevent the countries from legally trading in any of the 35,000 species regulated by the 175-nation Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, said Juan Carlos Vasquez, a spokesman for the U.N. office that administers the treaty.

 

Delegations to the weeklong meeting of CITES, a treaty overseen by the U.N. Environment Program in Geneva, agreed to trade suspensions against Comoros, Guinea-Bissau, Paraguay and Rwanda based on their lack of national laws for regulating the lucrative wildlife trade.

 

The Geneva meeting's attendees also agreed to trade suspensions against Guinea-Bissau, Nepal, Rwanda, Solomon Islands and Syria based on their failure to adequately report what they are doing to regulate wildlife trade, as they are required to do under the CITES treaty.

 

 

To avoid the sanctions, and the prospect of losing millions of dollars in commerce, the seven must now draw up the required legislation or submit their missing annual reports to CITES by Oct. 1.

 

According to CITES, about 97 percent of the species it regulates are commercially traded for food, fuel, forest products, building materials, clothing, ornaments, health care, religious items, collections, trophy hunting and other sport. The other 3 percent are generally prohibited.

 

CITES estimates the regulated global wildlife trade is between $350 million and $530 million a year, or almost $2.2 billion over the five years from 2006 to 2010. During that time, logging of big leaf mahogany alone accounted for $168 million in trade. By volume, American black bears, South American grey foxes, Senegal parrots and Malaysian box turtles were among the most traded.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TRAFFIC, a wildlife trade monitoring network, estimates that commercial trade in wildlife has risen sharply from around $160 billion a year in the early 1990s. But the multibillion-dollar illegal trade in wildlife is a growing problem, and environmentalists say a big reason is nations' failure to enact stiff penalties for traffickers or enforce wildlife laws already on the books.

 

 About CITES

 

With 175 Member States, CITES remains one of the world's most powerful tools for biodiversity conservation through the regulation of trade in wild fauna and flora. Thousands of species are internationally traded and used by people in their daily lives for food, housing, health care, ecotourism, cosmetics or fashion.

 

CITES regulates international trade in close to 35,000 species of plants and animals, including their products and derivatives, ensuring their survival in the wild with benefits for the livelihoods of local people and the global environment. The CITES Permit System seeks to ensure that international trade in listed species is sustainable, legal and traceable.

 

CITES was adopted in Washington D.C. on 3 March 1973. The 40th anniversary of the Convention will be celebrated in March 2013 which coincides with the 16th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to be held in Bangkok, Thailand, from 3 to 15 March 2013.

 

Species found in Nepal that are threatened with extinction include:

 

 

 

Red Panda

Wild Yak

Wild water buffalo

Hispid Hare

Swamp deer

Asiatic elephan

Lynx

Musk deer

Royal Bengal tiger

Snow Leopard

Gharial Crocodile

 

 

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NEPAL: Maoist Youths Set 3 Public School Buses on Fire

 

July 25, 2012

In theory, the YCL was eliminated from the Maoist system. But it would appear that thug activity, at least within the more radical faction of the Maoists, is alive and kicking.

 

Yesterday, three buses of a Delhi Public school branch in eastern Nepal were set afire by activists of the student's union affiliated to the breakaway hard-line faction of the Maoists, protesting against schools running under foreign investment.

The buses carrying 150 students of class XI and XII were en route to Dharan yesterday, when the radical Maoist student activists stopped it near Charkose Jungle area at Seuti Khola river and set them on fire.

The students were unharmed, at least physically. Their right to an education is another story.

 

The Maoist student union -- All Nepal National Free Students Union - Revolutionary (ANNFSU-R) is affiliated to the CPN-Maoist party led by hardliner Mohan Vaidya “Kiran”, who recently broke ranks with the Prachanda-led Maoists to form a more radical outfit. Delhi Public School Dharan is affiliated to India's Delhi Public School.

ANNFSU-R had also enforced a two-day shutdown in Dharan and Sunsari districts over the last two days to protest against schools operating under foreign investments, promoting foreign culture and charging high fees.

“It's a heinous crime to attack school buses despite the fact that schools are declared peace zone," Dil Kumar Ban, Chairman of Private and Boarding School Organisation Nepal (PABSON) said in a statement.

 

 

 

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Reality Check for China: The Government’s failure to isolate Tibet

 

July 20, 2012

 

China’s economic retaliations against foreign countries that officially greet the Dalai Lama have ramped up dramatically since 2002. Below is Jayadeva Ranade’s superlative analysis of this trend and its negligible results.

 

Sentiments of Tibetans inside China and elsewhere would have undoubtedly received a boost with recent developments indicating an apparent turn around in policy and fresh international support for the Dalai Lama. This coincides with the suspension of regular channels of contact between the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the Dalai Lama and rising incidence of self-immolations by Tibetans — which number has now reached 39 — including for the first time in front of the Jokhang Temple in central Lhasa.

 

In mid-May when the Dalai Lama travelled to the United Kingdom to receive the Templeton Prize, British Prime Minister David Cameron met him privately in the basement of St Paul’s Cathedral. Cameron was accompanied by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg.

 

The meeting took place despite Beijing’s warnings that it could adversely affect Sino-UK relations. A Chinese foreign ministry official said it “hurt the feelings of the Chinese people” and “seriously damaged the relations between China and the UK”. The UK was additionally asked to “stop conniving and supporting Tibetan separatists.” The Global Times, a subsidiary of the party newspaper People’s Daily, went to the extent of demanding suspension of all diplomatic relations with UK ‘for a while’.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chinese Politburo Standing Committee (PBSC) member, Wu Bangguo, cancelled an official visit to the UK scheduled for late May. Wu Bangguo is due to retire at the upcoming 18th Party Congress to be held this October. China also flexed its economic muscle and Britain’s trade and investment minister, Lord Green and foreign office minister, Jeremy Browne, who had travelled to Beijing, were unable to meet any of the Chinese ministers with whom meetings had been scheduled. A cloud also hangs over the British prime minister’s visit to China later this year. A possibility that British companies may be targetted could be offset, however, by ongoing discussions between British and Chinese officials, including on London becoming a major trading hub for the Chinese yuan and bid by a Chinese state-owned power company to build nuclear power stations in the UK.

 

 

 

 

The British prime minister’s meeting follows one earlier this April in Ottawa between Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the Dalai Lama. The European Parliament too is active. On June 14, it adopted a resolution urging the European Union (EU)’s vice president of the Commission for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy to appoint a special coordinator with a mandate to report regularly on Tibet. It asked the EU vice president’s office to address the human rights situation in Tibet at every meeting with representatives of the Chinese government. The EU is on the verge of appointing a special representative for human rights. Taiwan, Japan and South Korea also recently received senior representatives of the Central Tibetan Administration in Dharamsala.

 

 

 

 

 

Of major significance, though, is the meeting between Myanmar opposition leader and practicing Buddhist, Aung San Suu Kyi and the Dalai Lama. This ‘private’ meeting, details of which are scanty, took place in London on June 19, when the Dalai Lama was back in the UK for a pre-Olympic tour of various British cities. Tibet supporters have planned protests during the Olympic Games.

 

Especially worrying for Beijing would be that the meeting represents incrementally increasing contacts between Myanmar’s Buddhists and the Dalai Lama. The first hint was an article in Myanmar Times in September 2009, which passed the official censors. The article, which reported on the Dalai Lama’s visit to Taiwan, assumes relevance as it was the first mention of the Dalai Lama in Myanmar’s official media in 20 years. Later, in November 2011, Myanmar’s Buddhist ecclesiastical hierarchy was represented at the Global Buddhist Congregation held in New Delhi by a strong contingent of its senior-most leaders who remained present throughout the proceedings and met the Dalai Lama. The possibility that Myanmar’s Buddhist clergy might now invite the Dalai Lama to visit Myanmar for a religious function, which initiative the new Myanmar government would find difficult to reject, must worry Beijing. China would perceive such a development as making its south-western flank more vulnerable.

 

 

In this backdrop three reports attract notice. A study released late in 2010, by a European university observed that while the Dalai Lama commenced travelling abroad since 1967, China began retaliating to his reception by senior world leaders with punitive economic measures only from 2002. Analysing trade trends between China and 159 countries in the period 1991-2008, it assessed that exports to China from countries where senior leaders received the Dalai Lama declined between 2002-2008, or during Hu Jintao’s term. In such cases there was a drop of 8.1 per cent to 16.9 per cent in the exports of these countries to China. Machinery and transport equipment were mainly affected. The adverse impact lasted, on average, about two years. The study concluded that as China’s economic power grows, it will increasingly use trade as a foreign policy tool. It suggested that if countries receiving the Dalai Lama coordinated policy the economic impact would be lessened.

 

 

 

 

 

These findings are contrasted by a report released a month ago by the New York-based Rhodium Group. This reveals a surge in outbound direct investment by Chinese firms in Europe. From less than $1 billion (€700 million) each year between 2004-2008, China’s annual OFDI flows to Europe tripled to roughly $3 billion (€2.3 billion) in 2009 and 2010 before tripling again to almost $10 billion (€7.4 billion) in 2011. China’s OFDI is directed mainly towards France, the UK and Germany. The majority of Chinese OFDI investors are privately-owned companies motivated by the compulsion of surviving in an increasingly competitive domestic market. They want to acquire reputed international brands and high technology. The study discerned no evidence of OFDI declining where nations run afoul of China politically over issues such as Tibet or arms sales. It concludes that, while Chinese officials might threaten to withhold direct investment, Chinese firms are less subject to Beijing’s directions than believed.

 

Finally, the UN’s new ‘Inclusive Wealth Index’, which faults calculation of national wealth only on the basis of GDP, suggests that China’s economic strength is exaggerated. It places China in third position globally far behind the US. The US is assessed as the world’s biggest economy with an inclusive wealth of $118 trillion in 2008. Japan comes second with $55 trillion and China third with an inclusive wealth of $20 trillion, equivalent to Germany.

 

With the economic downturn beginning to affect China, Beijing might find that using trade as a coercive foreign policy tool may no longer get major countries to reduce pressure on Tibet and human rights issues.

 

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First published yesterday in The New Indian Express. Jayadeva Ranade is a former additional secretary in the Cabinet Secretariat, Government of India.

 

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Potential for Conflict: Sharing the natural resources in a federal Nepal

 

July 19, 1012

 

Below is an analysis issued yesterday by IRIN, a service of the UN office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. 

 

Nepal’s politicians should give greater consideration to the distribution of natural resources in their ethnicity-based quarrels over how to federalize the fledging Himalayan democracy.

 

“If state restructuring is not properly planned, taking into account the distribution of Nepal’s natural resources, people will eventually be at each other’s throats,” Ratna Sansar Shrestha, a water analyst affiliated to Kathmandu University, warned. The geographically diverse and resource-rich but impoverished nation of 30 million wedged between China and India has been without an effective government since 2010.

 

Nepal’s road to democracy has not been easy, with much of the current debate now focusing on ethnic federalism and how to implement it. In late May 2012, the 600-member Constituent Assembly (CA) was dissolved after failing to draw up a constitution in its fourth and final attempt since the 10-year armed conflict between Maoist insurgents and security forces, which left over 13,000 people dead, ended in 2006. The next CA election will be held on 22 November 2012.

 

A 2012 World Bank outlook points out that 25 percent of Nepalese live below the international poverty line of less than US$1.25 per day, and two out of three live in rural areas, where they depend on agriculture for their livelihood. In the UN Human Development Index it is ranked at 157 out of 187 countries - among the poorest in the world. Only 16.7 percent of Nepal's land is arable, yet agriculture makes up one-third of its GDP.

 

Although the situation now is relatively calm, some experts believe that access to natural resources - specifically water, forests and land - could easily prove a flashpoint for future discontent. A report by the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), a regional think-tank, noted that local-level conflicts, caused by scarcity and the multifunctional nature of resources, were an inevitable part of Nepalese society. Many believe Nepal’s most recent armed conflict, which devastated the country, was sparked in part by regressive policies regarding people’s rights to access natural resources.

 

 

 

Hari Roka, a member of the recently dissolved CA and its Committee for Natural Resources and Means (CNRM), said the uneven distribution of resources had been a factor in high rates of under- or unemployment, leading to growing dissatisfaction with the ruling elite.

 

Political parties have not paid enough attention to how the boundaries in a federalized Nepal would separate dependent communities from their access to resources, said Jailab Rai, a researcher at the local NGO, Forest Action, and a lecturer at Nepal's Tribhuvan University. “Our leaders have not yet meaningfully engaged on this issue and its implications - It seems they are not serious about the customary rights of indigenous communities.”

 

A few years ago, residents in mountainous Manang District fought with the villagers of neighbouring Gorkha District over the right to harvest "yartsa gunbu", a fungus found in Manang District, which resulted in seven deaths.

 

The only thing everyone agrees on is that dividing up this landlocked nation and keeping everyone happy won’t be easy. Nepal has 102 ethnic groups and 17 officially recognized languages. The four failed attempts to produce a constitution illustrate the impact of their competing demands.

 

There are five development regions - Eastern, Central, Western, Mid-Western, and Far-Western - and 75 districts. Once a new CA has been elected, critical talks on resource distribution in relation to federalism should be held as soon as possible. “No one state or ethnicity will be immune. For better or for worse, the redistributed access to resources will affect everyone,” said Shanta Chaudhary, another former CA member.

 

Water as a flashpoint

 

Everyone needs water - for irrigation, drinking, transportation, energy, and even to promote tourism. In an underdeveloped setting like Nepal, “Federalisation… could lead to conflicting claims on the shares of water for irrigation and drinking,” said Pitamber Sharma, chair of the Resources Himalaya Foundation, a think-tank based in Kathmandu, the capital.

 

The “increasing production and productivity of hill agriculture is contingent on the expansion of year-round irrigation facilities. Sharing of water in the case of inter-provincial rivers could be a very contested issue,” Sharma noted. Less than half the cultivable land - 47.5 percent - is irrigated. 

 

The World Food Programme (WFP) lists Nepal as a food deficit state, with rates of chronic malnourishment in children aged under five estimated at 48 percent, and an average rate of 60 percent in mountain areas, which is comparable to the rate of 42 percent found in Somalia.

 

With a number of major international dam projects now in the works - including a $1.8 billion dam being built by the Chinese across Nepal’s West Seti River - provinces with high hydro-potential in the hill and mountain areas may have an edge on economic and developmental progress as opposed to the southern Terai region, which is known as the country’s bread basket but has traditionally been under-represented in national politics.

 

How much energy a province - many of which stand to make millions by selling electricity to neighbouring India and China - should make available to others is still being disputed. The former CNRM’s Roka said ways should be found to ensure that local inhabitants also benefit from hydropower.

 

Kathmandu University’s Shrestha warned of “resource colonization”, in which the demands of neighbouring countries for energy ignore the needs of the Nepalese people.

 

“Provinces formed on the basis of single ethnic identity are likely to divide hydro-potential watersheds between provinces, leading to possible conflicts over the location of dams, sharing of costs - economic and environmental - and benefits from power generation,” Sharma said.

 

The 1991 Water Resources Act prioritizes water usage, with drinking water followed by irrigation in the top two spots, and hydropower placed fourth.

 

What next?

 

Roka said the CNRM had discussed the distribution and protection of resources, as well as the economic and environmental impact on provinces - for example, how deforestation in the Terai would have an effect on mountain regions.

 

"To ensure users' rights, the CNRM proposed a federal act that gives the right to use forests, as well as the responsibility to protect them, to the locals." But there is no way of knowing what support such a bill would have once it is formally tabled in a newly elected CA.

 

Other experts have suggested that many of the members on the CNRM knew very little about natural resources, which hampered their progress. Rai cautioned that a driver of resource-fuelled conflict could be how politicians deal with communities, and whether they act with votes or economic and social development in mind. Chaudhary notes that ongoing water-sharing disputes in India have affected the way communities defend their user rights.

 

“Inter-provincial tensions may arise when upstream communities are unable to use their water source lest it affect the capacity of the hydro-project downstream,” Shrestha warned. Politicians should not buy into the stereotype that Nepal is a water-rich country. “We have a severe temporal problem - four months of the year we have too much water, resulting in destructive flooding, and during the other eight months we have effective droughts,” he pointed out.

 

Most farmers rely on rainwater, but water shortages, more extreme temperatures and poor crop yields are pushing rural villagers closer to the brink as climate change grips Nepal, according to Oxfam.

 

Meanwhile, questions such as what provisions for water resources should be included in the new constitution are still being asked, with many now requesting additional research.

 

 

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What China’s new military leadership changes mean

July 17, 2012

 

From yesterday’s DNA, written by Jayadeva Ranade:

 

 

This is a crucial year for China, when large-scale changes at the top echelons of the Chinese Communist Party as well as the People’s Liberation Army will be approved at the 18th Party Congress scheduled to be held in Beijing in October 2012. The changes coincide with rising domestic discontent and increased turbulence in China’s neighborhood.

 

 

 

 

 

 

They also overlap with widening resentment against corruption and spread of pro-Mao nostalgia in the country. At least two PLA generals of impeccable ‘revolutionary’ lineage, Mao Zedong’s grandson Mao Xinyu and General Liu Yuan, former Chinese president Liu Shaoqi’s son, have spoken out strongly against corruption. Like the CCP, the PLA has been buffeted by the recent factional infighting centering on Bo Xilai. This has given prominence to the issue of the PLA’s ‘absolute loyalty’ to the Party and could blight the promotion prospects of some senior officers.

 

The implications of the forthcoming changes are far-reaching. They will usher in a virtually new Central Military Commission, with seven of the current 10 uniformed members reaching the retirement age of 70 years. This includes both the uniformed CMC Vice Chairmen.

 

 

 

 

China’s Vice President Xi Jinping, ranked first among the three CMC Vice Chairmen, would, in the normal course, be expected to take over as CMC Chairman from Hu Jintao. In view of the unsettled political situation and repeated exhortations by senior officers and official media urging the PLA to be ‘absolutely loyal’ to the Party and rally ‘more closely’ around ‘Chairman Hu,’ it appears probable that Hu Jintao will retain the position of CMC Chairman for at least another year. The two CMC Vice Chairmen who retire will be replaced by two of the three remaining CMC members. The third CMC member will be appointed Minister of Defense.

 

Reports suggest that the number of Vice Chairmen will be increased and Air Force General Ma Xiaotian, a ‘princeling’ close to Hu Jintao and Xi Jinping and a frontrunner for the position of PLA Air Force Commander, will instead be appointed Minister of Defense with the rank of CMC Vice Chairman.

 

There is also a proposal to symbolically assert generational change and appoint only those born after 1949, or after ‘liberation’ of the People’s Republic of China. If accepted, the changes will encompass Military Region Commanders and other senior officers.

 

There will be new Commanders for the PLAAF, People’s Liberation Army Navy and Second Artillery. The head of the PLA’s General Staff Department, who is equated with the Army Chief, will be new, as will be those of the General Political Department, General Armaments Department and General Logistics Department. All are members of the powerful CMC.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

General Liu Yuan, presently Political Commissar of the GLD and friend of China’s putative President Xi Jinping, is tipped to be CMC Vice Chairman overseeing the PLA’s political work. This, however, entails a double promotion and he might just be appointed Director of the GPD, which still makes him a CMC member.

 

The newly constituted CMC will have some new features. Prominent will be that it will overwhelmingly comprise ‘operational’ officers and, for the first time, have increased representation from the PLAAF, and perhaps PLAN. This will give renewed emphasis to Hu Jintao’s concept of ‘Joint Integrated Operations’, focused upon since 2004 when Hu Jintao first introduced changes in the GSD’s structure to include PLAAF and PLAN officers at senior levels.

 

The presence of two PLAAF officers in the CMC guarantees the Air Force will pursue its modernization program and that at least 10% of the defense budget will continue to be spent on aircraft procurement and R&D. The Navy’s modernization program will similarly proceed apace. PLAN and PLAAF are both anticipated to adopt more operationally assertive postures. The new head of the PLA GSD will certainly have an operational background, which means increased attention to the Sino-Indian border and China’s other troubled frontiers.

 

 

Finally, of the 16 identified ‘princelings’ in the PLA’s senior echelons, for the first time there will be three or even four in the CMC. Like in the CCP, they will influence national strategic policy giving it a harder inflexible edge and, additionally, be Xi Jinping’s core supporters.

 

The changes, however, do not reduce the primacy of PLA ground forces, or PLAA, as they are being designated. Of 57 senior General Officers in the PLA, for example, 37 are from the PLAA. All seven Military Region Commanders are from the PLAA. The PLAA, with considerably larger manpower, receives a larger proportion of the budget.

 

The PLA’s overall political clout is likely to remain unaffected with representation in the Politburo probably remaining at two and it probably continuing to retain 24 seats in the  Party Central Committee.

 

 

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Nepal’s Anti-Indianism & Its Impact on Indo-Nepali Relationship

 

July 15, 2012

 

 

 

Yesterday, in India, Pentagon Security International published India's Neighbourhood: Challenges in the Next Two Decades. It was brought out by the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA) – a government-supported think tank –  and edited by Ashok K Behuria and Rumel Dahiya of the Institute. The book was launched by Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai.

 

Anyone interested in Nepal’s relationship with India should take a look at it.

 

The chapters in the book take a prospective look at India's neighborhood, as it may evolve by 2030. They underline the challenges that confront Indian policymakers, the opportunities that are likely to emerge, and the manner in which they should frame foreign and security policies for India, to maximize the gains and minimize the losses.

 

There are nine major chapters devoted to India’s neighboring countries including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, the Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

 

In the case of Nepal, the book cautions the Indian government against micromanaging Nepali politics. The perception that this is what has been going on in Delhi has greatly contributed to anti-Indianism in Nepal.

 

From the book’s Introduction:

 

“Will the present comprehensive political, economic and social transformation underway in Nepal have a positive impact on India-Nepal relations? Despite the current political crisis emanating from the inconclusive process of Constitution making, in the next 20 years, a new Nepal will emerge. It is likely to be republican and more democratic. This could pave the way for a deeper and friendlier relationship between India and Nepal. But uncertainties remain. The new political system has not yet crystallized as the Constitution has yet to be finalized. The Maoists have been mainstreamed to a considerable extent and have contributed two Prime Ministers in the last three years. However, the big questions relating to federalism, the form of the Constitution, language, economic system, etc., are still unresolved. The next 20 years will most likely be taken up by the long and complicated process of nation-building.

 

“Anti-Indianism in Nepal, hydro-electricity and open borders are the three major issues studied in this volume. Because India is a major factor in the life of an ordinary Nepali, anti-Indianism is a fact of political life in Nepal. While millions of Nepalis benefit from close relations with India, the media and political parties routinely accuse India of interference in their country. It is unlikely that this tendency will disappear altogether. Likewise, cooperation for the generation of hydro-electricity, which could benefit both Nepal and India, has become a symbol of mistrust rather than a catalyst for friendship. This is likely to continue as the Nepalese people regard water as their most important resource which they would not allow to be ‘exploited’ by India. Open borders, which bring so much benefit to India and Nepal and are a unique symbol of friendship between the two countries, have become criminalized. In the business as usual scenario, Indo-Nepal relations will continue to be bedeviled by these factors.

 

“However, it is possible to imagine scenarios where India emerges as a key contributor to prosperity in Nepal. India will need to review its policies and take steps to correct the existing impression as an interfering neighbour. Indian assistance should go towards building Nepal’s economy and society irrespective of which party or coalition is in power. India’s role should be that of a trusted partner in Nepal.

 

“On the negative side, continued uncertainty in Nepal could push it into a deep crisis. In such a scenario, China’s influence might grow. The unrest in Tibet could also fuel instability in Nepal. India’s endeavour should be to involve Nepal in regional cooperation projects. India will also need to shield its own Nepali speaking areas from instabilities in Nepal. India should avoid getting drawn into Nepal-Bhutan tensions. India will have to craft policies that would mitigate the negative effects of an unstable Nepal and the growing influence of China.

 

“The game changing event that can be imagined in Nepal could be the inability of the political leaders to resolve the federal issue that is causing major and minor revolts, particularly in Madhesh, close to the Indian border. The federal question could result in fragmentation of Nepal. The growing influence of China in Nepal could be a factor in Indo-Nepal relations. India might perceive Chinese presence in Nepal to be an acute security dilemma. India will need to prepare itself for meeting such eventualities which may have low probability but high impact.”

 

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The key findings that emerge from this volume are: the geopolitical situation in the neighbourhood is likely to change significantly due to uncertainties in the global economy, chronic instability in the Af-Pak region, increasing salience of external factors in regional politics, continuing anti-India sentiments in some of the countries, demographic pressures, growth in illegal migration, and adverse consequences of climate change. However, there are also signs of greater desire for economic integration, strengthening of democratic institutions in some countries, and emphasis on regional cooperation. While India may face increasing security challenges due to instability in certain countries, there will be an opportunity for it to better integrate its economy with the region.

 

To purchase the book or download the e-book follow this link:

 

India's Neighbourhood: Challenges in the Next Two Decades

 

 

 

 

 

Publisher: Pentagon Security International

ISBN 978-81-8274-687-9

Price: Rs. 995

 

 

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POWER PLAYS IN BEIJING: Factions in China’s leadership visible ahead of Party Congress

 

July 11, 2012

 

 

 

 

 

Jayadeva Ranade has written an interesting piece for DNA (July 10, 2012) on the political positioning leading up to Beijing’s October showdown:

 

 

 

Barely three months before the 18th Party Congress convenes in Beijing late this October, the positioning of Party cadres in key slots is visibly entering the final stages. This is apart from the efforts of top leaders, including retired yet influential veteran cadres, to ensure the induction of their protégés into the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Central Committee (CC)’s Politburo (PB) or Politburo Standing Committee (PBSC).

 

The meeting likely to be held around mid-July at the seaside resort of Beidaihe will be decisive in the finalization of candidates for the PB and PBSC, the CCP’s two highest echelon bodies. Agreement will also be reached on whether membership of the PBSC will be retained at nine or, as claimed by Hong Kong’s ‘South China Morning Post’, be reduced to seven members as suggested in a recent questionnaire surveying the views of 371 members of the CCP Central Committee.

 

Meanwhile, the elections completed by provincial congresses early last week for the positions of provincial Party Secretaries and members of Provincial Party Standing Committees, reveal the extent of influence exercised by the competing leadership groups. They also suggest the possible contours of the policies that will be followed by the new generation of leaders who will assume charge after the Party Congress this October.

By last week all 31 provincial party congresses had completed their elections and all but one had re-elected the incumbent Party Secretaries. In the case of the major municipalities and provinces like Tianjin, Shanghai, Guangdong, Chongqing, Hebei and Xinjiang, this leaves open the possibility of their elevation to the PB or PBSC. Of the re-elected provincial Party Secretaries, seven are from the Communist Youth League (CYL), assessed as Hu Jintao’s power base.

 

[Note: The Communist Youth League of China (CYL) is a group of youths between the ages of fourteen and twenty-eight, run by Communist Party of China. The league is organized on the party pattern. Its leader is its First Secretary and is also member of the party's Central Committee. The CYL is responsible for guiding the activities of the Young Pioneers (for children below the age of fourteen). 2007 estimates put the number of Youth League members at 73 million. Founded in 1922, the organization was first called the Socialist Youth League of China.]

 

 

 

Beijing was the solitary and significant exception. Its congress elected 65-year old Guo Jinlong, Mayor of Beijing and a close associate of President Hu Jintao, as the new Communist Party Secretary. Guo Jinlong worked for four years, till 2000, with Hu Jintao in the Tibet Autonomous Region. His election to the influential and powerful post of Beijing Party Secretary strongly hints at the possibility of Guo Jinlong’s elevation to the PB.

 

Virtually all Party Secretaries of Beijing, since the time Peng Zhen occupied the position from 1948-1966, have been full or alternate PB members. Alternately, this could be a stopgap appointment, which Xi Jinping could change next year.

 

The congresses also elected 402 new Provincial Party Standing Committee members. 148 of those newly elected, or 37%, were in the CYL and many among them will be selected for provincial or central ministerial appointments. Others will be groomed for senior positions in the central Party apparatus. The election of younger and better-educated cadres will shape future policies. The majority have higher degrees in Economics, Business Administration and Law.

 

 

The majority of those newly elected also belong to the same generation as China’s probable next President and Premier, namely Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang respectively. Only eight of the 402 regional party officials, or fewer than 2%, were born in the 1940s. 277, or 69%, were born in the 1950s and 29% or 117 were born in the 1960s. The process of selecting the sixth and seventh generation of cadres has undoubtedly begun.

 

A pall hanging over the upcoming Party Congress is the decision on the fate of former Politburo member, Bo Xilai. Following his suspension from the Party in mid-April, no charges have yet been formally brought against him despite rumors that criminal charges could be framed. Reports nonetheless indicate that teams of the Central Discipline Inspection Commission (CDIC) are carrying out investigations in the jurisdictions of the 13th and 14th Group Armies and that Party cadres and senior military officers known to be close to Bo Xilai are being investigated. Meanwhile, Bo Xilai’s supporters continue to be sporadically active.

 

 

 

A few minor protests occurred in Chongqing after Bo Xilai’s ouster. In May 2012, the Japanese magazine ‘Yukan Fuji’ published an interview purported to have been given by Bo Xilai, portraying him as confident of his return. This report was later established as false, but suspicion remains that it was engineered by Bo Xilai’s supporters. On June 29, the New York-based Bloomberg financial news service published a report estimating the wealth of Xi Jinping’s family at approximately $376 million, which was promptly blocked in China. A possibility exists that the investigating journalists were unwittingly ‘guided’ by neo-Maoist elements or Bo Xilai’s supporters. Most recently, on Bo Xilai’s birthday on July 3, anonymous slogans praising him appeared on some walls in Chongqing.

 

Neo-Maoist forces remain a sizeable force in China. The seriousness of the charges against Bo Xilai and when they are framed will also indicate the extent of the present CCP leadership’s strength.

 

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Jayadeva Ranade is a former additional secretary in the Cabinet Secretariat, Government of India. 

 

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Saudi Arabia: A deathbed for Nepali workers – 1 out of 162 perish. (Video and article)

 

July 9, 2012

 

According to Himalayan News Service, up to 3,000 Nepali migrant workers have died in Saudi Arabia since 2000. During that period, 484,701 Nepalis migrated there to work.

 

Government data reveals that one in every 162 Nepali migrant workers who enter Saudi Arabia dies while working in extreme conditions and a totally different cultural environment.

 

Food habits, hot climate, cultural orientation and dangerous work conditions all contribute to the high mortality rate for Nepalis working in Saudi Arabia, according to Nepali ambassador in Riyadh Udaya Raj Pandey.

 

Though the government provides orientation to workers, it is insufficient. "They need country and job specific orientation," said Mahendra Pandey, president of Parvasi Nepali Coordination Committee, which works for safe migration of workers. According to him, the government should strictly monitor outsourcing agencies, make diplomatic missions aware about labor issues and provide sufficient budget for the rescue and welfare of workers. "We still do not have a separate budget for migrant workers facing difficulties," he said.

 

He said the government should allocate at least Rs 100 million to ensure rescue and legal aid for migrants who face trouble. There are more than 200 Nepalis in Saudi jails seeking legal aid but the government is doing nothing for them.

 

Labor expert Chiranjivi Nepal echoed Pandey's views. He said besides proper orientation, the Labor Ministry should establish strong monitoring system to regulate the sector. He said manpower agents should ensure fair treatment for migrant workers, as they are in close contact with employers. The government should hold them responsible for the safety of those they send abroad, he said.

 

Amnesty International paints an even grimmer picture. Please take a moment to view this 10-minute video:

 

 

 

 

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Nepali police rescue 124 child workers from sari embroidery factories in Kathmandu Valley

 

July 6, 2012

 

On July 4^th, Nepali police rescued 124 child workers from sari embroidery factories [alternately called Zari or Jari factories – see below] in the Kathmandu Valley. The children were below the age of 14.

 

46 sari embroidery factories in the tourist town of Bhaktapur were raided, with the help of Bhaktapur District Administration Office, Bhaktapur Metropolitan Police Range, UNICEF, CIWIN, Concern Nepal, Save the Children, Child Extraction Network and the Children Development Society.

 

According to Jubraj Roka, a researcher at the Chile Development Society (CDS), there are “more than 80 embroidery factories in the Kathmandu Valley that employ more than 500 children, mostly below 14 years of age.”

 

The children have been taken to Lalitpur-based Carnet Nepal following their health check-up. Police have handed proprietors of 39 embroidery factories over to the labor office. Other sari embroidery factory owners managed to flee.

 

Bhaktapur Chief District Officer (CDO) Jitendra Bahadur Bhandari said the rescued children will be handed over to their parents in a month. “Preliminary investigation shows that most of the children had been forced into the job due to poor financial status of their families. So, we will see if we could do anything to help these families,” said Bhandari, adding that the rescue campaign was launched after non-government organizations working for child rights pledged to extend their support.

 

 

In late June, police summoned the factory operators and warned them not to employ children under 14 years of age and to run their businesses only after getting them duly registered. Today’s crackdown followed after the embroidery factories paid no heed to the warning.

 

Programme Officer at The Children Development Society Yubraj Roka said out of 320 children working at the 46 sari embroidery factories, 260 were under 14. “Most of them are 7 to 10 years of age and they are forced to work for 10-17 hours a day,” said Roka.

 

The Children Development Society had been studying sari embroidery factories in the Madhyapur Thimi area for the last two years.

 

ZARI (or JARI) FACTORIES

 

Zari is a brocade of tinsel thread meant for weaving and embroidery. It is manufactured by winding or wrapping (covering) a flattened metallic strip made from pure gold, silver or slitted metalized polyester film, on a core yarn, usually of pure silk, art silk, viscose, cotton, nylon, polyester, P.P., mono/multi filament, wire, etc. Nowadays, it is broadly divided into 3 types: “real zari” made of pure gold & silver; “imitation zari” made of silver electroplated (thinly) copper wire: and “metallic zari” made of slitted polyester metalized film.

 

 

 

CHILD LABOR IN NEPAL TODAY

 

There are an estimated 1.5 million Nepali child workers between 5-17 years. Even though the minimum legal age of employment in Nepal is 14, children as young as six can be seen working in roadside restaurants, factories, offices, and even in homes.

 

"Poverty and lack of opportunities are driving many families to use children as safety nets and sending them out to earn without caring about the physical and psychological dangers involved," says Helen Sherpa of World Education, which has been working on educational projects to combat child labour in Nepal.

 

Although the number of child workers under-14 has dropped from 2.6 million ten years ago, surveys show there has been an alarming rise in the number of children working in hazardous environments like mines, brick kilns, factories and “entertainment” industries.

 

Factories that make zari, dance bars, massage parlors and cabin restaurants have become new hotspots for the exploitation and abuse of child workers in Nepal.

 

"Eleven to twelve year old girls are working in dance bars and restaurants," says Pramesh Pradhan of Change Nepal, which works with women and children in the 'entertainment business'. "These days Nepali girls are smuggled not just to India but also within the country. There has been a surge of young girls forced into commercial sex work."

 

After the clampdown on zari factories in India, many young Indian boys and girls have been found in fabric factories across Nepal. Children as young as five are forced to work up to 14 hours a day because they are docile and have nimble fingers.

 

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With eye on Tibet, Beijing leader graces Kathmandu with warnings and political snubs

 

July 3, 2012

 

 

Ai Ping – Vice Minister of the International Department of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and Beijing’s point man on South Asian affairs -- paid a weekend visit to Kathmandu. He conveyed China’s growing concern over Nepal’s governmental quagmire, the country’s economic instability and the dubious political promotion of ethnic federalism.

 

Obviously, it’s to China’s advantage to have a politically, economically and socially stable southern neighbor. But China’s core issue with Nepal remains unchanged: Tibet.

 

 

 

 

 

According to Beijing-based analyst Hu Shisheng, Deputy Director of the Institute of South And South Asian Studies in the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, China fears that Nepal’s current impasse sets the stage for new free-Tibet activities.

An Illustrated Timeline of Nepal’s Constitutional Stagnation – from 2005- 2012

 

June 30, 2012

 

 

IRIN, a service of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, just published a very useful timeline of Nepal’s post-war constitution. I have added relevant photographs to IRIN’s copy.

 

Additional Indian troops along Nepal border

 

June 29, 2012

 

India has just announced that it will deploy an additional 8,000 troops along its borders with Nepal and Bhutan. The deployment will largely be achieved by July.

 

 

The Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) guards the 1,751-km Nepal and 699-km Bhutan borders. The SSB (“Armed Border Force”, in English) is one of India's Central Armed Police Forces. It is often referred to as a paramilitary force, although it is not one of the three officially defined paramilitary forces of India. It is currently under the administrative control of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), Government of India. It was formerly known as the “Special Service Bureau”.

The Clock Has Stopped in Nepal

 

June 28, 2012

 

The following analysis, "A Long Stalemate",  was written by Prashant Jha on June 27, 2012

 

On his return from Brazil on Monday, Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai said he would hand over power to the next PM elected once a new parliament was constituted. Till then, this government would stay on. This was the clearest indication of the PM’s determination to stay on, and it sparked a predictable outrage among the opposition parties demanding his immediate resignation.

 The Maoist-Madhesi Morcha decision to continue and the NC-UML-Upendra Yadav-Kiran insistence of getting rid of the government is thus the defining hallmark of the political alignment. In this, two other figures stand out.

Withdrawal Of Oil Companies From Nepal: Realistic Interventions – Analysis

 

June 25, 2012

 

The following article was written by Pradeepa Viswanathan, Research Officer for Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies:

In June 2012, Nepal witnessed the withdrawal of two oil companies – the US-based Texana Resources Company and the UK-based Cairn Energy. These companies withdrew from their allocated blocks in the Terai region citing bureaucratic hurdles and lack of cooperation from the government. Against this backdrop, this commentary attempts to answer two questions: what are the reasons behind the current withdrawal? And what does the withdrawal mean for Nepal’s investment environment in general and its petroleum exploration plans in particular?

 

Reasons Behind The Withdrawal

 

Nepali rupee slips to new low against US dollar

 

June 23, 2012

 

Yesterday, the Nepali rupee plummeted to an all-time low against the U.S. dollar as the central bank fixed the exchange rate at 90.58 rupees per dollar.

 

The devaluation of the Indian currency (with which the Nepali currency is pegged) against the U.S. dollar is to blame for the weakening of the Nepali rupee.

 

High demand for the U.S. dollar from the Indian oil importers pushed dollar value up. The ongoing Eurozone crisis could also be a factor, according to some analysts.

DRONE VIDEO – Nepal’s innovative approach to catching RHINO POACHERS

 

June 22, 2012

This week conservation activists announced the introduction of drones as a new means to help protect endangered species in Nepal, particularly rhinos. The drones will address the combined effects of poaching and habitat destruction on Nepal’s most treasured wildlife.

The pilotless aircraft were developed by World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and first used in Indonesia. The drones are cheap to buy and operate and they may signal a significant boost to conservationist activity throughout the developing world.

Condemned: Latest attempt by Prime Minister Bhattarai to repress Nepali Media

 

June 20, 2012

 

While Nepal’s prime minister and his two-dozen-member entourage enjoy a change of pace in Rio de Janeiro, media watchdogs have strongly condemned two recent incidents that took place in Nepal, one of which directly involves Baburam Bhattarai and a move on his part to censor free press:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Freedom Form/IFEX Alert

 

The government led by the Unified Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (UCPN-M) grilled the state-run Nepal Television (NTV) management about the live broadcast of a programme involving opposition parties.

 

Prime Minister Dr Baburam Bhattarai personally questioned NTV General Manager Deepak Mani Dhital and Director Rajendra Dev Acharya saying, "Why did you broadcast live the programme organized by 22 opposition parties?"

With Nepal in freefall, the prime minister heads to Rio

 

June 19, 2012

 

On Monday, Baburam Bhattarai, Nepal’s Maoist prime minister, flew to Brazil at a time when the country is reeling from serious political and constitutional upheaval.

 

Bhattarai’s reason for flying to South America was to attend the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development – the Rio +20 Summit, to be held from June 20-22.

 

By going to Rio, Bhattarai has ignored his own party’s order not to make foreign visits because such a move is not in keeping with the situation in Nepal and plays into the hostilities of opposition parties.

 

But by Monday, Bhattarai may have come to regard his own party as one component of the opposition.

Official split within Maoist party announced

June 17, 2012

 

Baidya proposes revolt as line of new party           

by Kiran Pun

 

KATHMANDU, June 16: The Central Committee meeting of the dissident faction of the UCPN(Maoist) led by Senior Vice-chairman Mohan Baidya has endorsed a political document that proposes revolt as its main political line and terms the acceptance of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement one of the major mistakes.

 

The 17-page document prepared by Baidya will be presented at the national gathering of leaders and supporters of the faction starting from Saturday in Kathmandu.

As China prepares for the 18th party Congress in October

 

June 15, 2012

 

The following analysis by Jayadeva Ranada was first published by DNA on Wednesday, June 13, 2012.

 

Events of the past four months, especially those leading to the ouster of ‘princeling’ Politburo (PB) member and Chongqing Party Secretary Bo Xilai, stunned the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leadership. The widely publicised attempt by the Chongqing Public Security Bureau chief to seek asylum in the US Consulate in Chengdu, followed within weeks by the dramatic escape of a blind dissident activist from under house arrest to the US Embassy in Beijing, deeply embarrassed the Party. With inner-Party factional in-fighting unabated and popular resentment growing, the months before the 18th Party Congress convenes in Beijing late this October could prove to be rather rocky. The CCP is now badly bruised and weakened.

Nepal: Chinese cynicism over Maoist leaders’ economic dream world

 

June 14, 2012

 

The political situation in Nepal is a train wreck and even Chinese media, which normally treads softly on Kathmandu’s politicos, reflects Beijing’s growing impatience with Maoist leadership.

 

In a Xinhau editorial published on June 11, “Who Smothers Nepali Dreams?” author Zhou Shengping lampoons Prachanda’s vision of turning Nepal in to the “Switzerland of Asia” and Prime Minister Bhattarai’s, “oft-told dream, a real dilly, that Nepal can be ‘a vibrant bridging state’ not only between India and China, but also of South Asia and East Asia.

 

“Time tests all,” the article continues. “Prachanda's dream turned into a very short- lived passion that decayed upon growing inter-and intra-party rifts, resulting in a jest of media critics thanks to deadlocked politics and stagnant economy. With lots of bureaucratic hurdles and without a stable investment environment, Nepal, one of the poorest countries in Asia stands foreign investment off.”

Nepal’s political situation: Governance in the Street

 

June 11, 2012

 

On June 8, 22 opposition parties in Nepal launched a campaign to remove Maoist leader and “caretaker prime minister” Baburam Bhattarai from power on the grounds that his dismissal of the Constituent Assembly (CA) and his “unilateral” calling for new elections were illegal. At the rally, they denounced Baburam’s latest action as but the latest of a long series of ruses employed by the Maoists to achieve their ultimate goal: to establish totalitarian rule in Nepal.

On the same day, the Supreme Court issued a “show cause” notice to the Bhattarai government over its decision to dissolve the CA and to announce fresh polls. A single bench of Chief Justice Khilaraj Regmi issued the order acting on a writ filed by a group of senior advocates seeking annulment of the cabinet decision to hold fresh polls on November 22. They have appealed to the apex court to reinstate the CA for a day, since Bhattarai dissolved the CA without holding a formal meeting. Bhattarai, meanwhile, claimed the Constituent Assembly was dissolved because there was no other option before the government.

Legal analysts have stated that – within the interim constitution – two articles stand out.

One is Article 63, which specified two years for the CA:  This was amended four times and the attempt to extend it for the fifth time was thwarted by the Supreme Court. The second is Article 158, which states that if any difficulty arises in connection with the implementation of the constitution, the President, on the recommendation of the council of ministers, may issue orders to resolve it with the proviso that it has to be endorsed by the parliament within a month.

The question then: How can parliament endorse any presidential order if they no longer exist?

At the June 8 rally, prominent leaders included Nepali Congress (NC) president Sushil Koirala and vice president Ramchandra Poudyal; former prime ministers Sher Bahadur Deuba; Madhav Kumar Nepal and Jhala Nath Khanal from CPN-UML; Surya Bahadur Thapa from Rastriya Janashakti Party; and Lokendra Bahadur Chanda from Rastriya Prajatantra Party.

Now it’s the Maoists’ turn. On June 15, Bhattarai’s party plans to show its muscles with a rally to justify the move to hold elections on November 22.

 

Once again, it seems, the struggle for creating a democracy in Nepal will be choreographed in the street.

 

 

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