Monday, October 31, 2005


Reuters - Sun Oct 30, 6:57 AM ET
Nepali journalists from the Periodical Publications Network wear black masks during a protest rally against the government's new media ordinance in Kathmandu October 30, 2005. The new media law prohibits the criticism of the royal family and ban on the FM news broadcast. REUTERS/Gopal Chitrakar
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Two dozen more journalists held in Nepal

Date : 2005-10-31

Kathmandu, 31 October, (Asiantribune.com): Only a day after police arrested 16 journalists from protest rallies in Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu, police crackdown on media workers continued on Oct. 30 with the arrest of over two dozen journalists from demonstrations in the Himalayan kingdom’s eastern town of Dharan.

As on the previous day, these journalists were demonstrating against the recently introduced draconian media ordinance when they were rounded up. Police manhandled the journalists before rounding them up, according to reports.

Among those arrested on Oct. 30 are vice president of the Federation of Nepalese Journalists Sanjay Santoshi Rai, the federation’s Sunsari district chairman Govinda Ghimire, secretary Janak Shree Rai, Himal Rai, Jas Kumar Rai, Kishor Karki, Keshav Ghimire, Dambar Krishna Shrestha, Rimesh Shrestha, Bhim Rai, Sita Mandemba, Bhuwan Lingden, Shaligram Pandey, Raj Kumar Karki, Gopal Dewan, Ikwal Ahmad, Ravin Giri, Babu Ram Subedi, Rajen Pokhrel, Shashi Thapa Subba, Bed Raj Poudel, Harsha Subba, Arjun Pokharel and Pradip Mayongbo.

The latter four are associated with the country’s most powerful media house, Kantipur that has been the main target of Nepal’s autocratic regime in recent days.

Meanwhile, the sixteen journalists arrested on Oct. 29 have been released.

Protests against the draconian media ordinance promulgated in early October gathered steam after government served a 24-hour ultimatum to Kantipur FM, a popular radio station here last week, even while a Supreme Court verdict on a case filed by the FM station against an earlier police raid and seizure of transmission equipment from the radio station was pending.

Supreme Court begins hearing on media-related appeals

Nepal’s Supreme Court has began hearings on two different cases filed against government attempts to muzzle press freedom in the country. The cases include one seeking the annulment of the media ordinance and another seeking return of equipment seized from Kantipur FM.

A special bench of Chief Justice Dilip Kumar Poudel, Justice Kedar Prasad Giri, and Justice Sharada Prasad Pandit are hearing the cases. The hearing will continue Monday.
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Saturday, October 29, 2005


Nepalese police watch people walking at the Durbarmarg in the capital Kathmandu October 28, 2005. Hundreds of people walked to work and most schools and businesses shut down in Kathmandu on Friday as a strike against a new law banning the media from criticizing Nepal's royal family paralyzed the capital city.
REUTERS/Gopal Chitrakar Sphere: Related Content

Friday, October 28, 2005

Opposition to strike over media curbs in Nepal- The Times of India

[ Thursday, October 27, 2005 01:13:15 pmIANS ]
KATHMANDU: Seven major parliamentary parties in Nepal have called for a 24 hour countrywide shutdown on Friday to protest a fresh move by King Gyanendra's government to close down the biggest private radio station in the country.

The seven parties, who formed a coalition to unitedly oppose the monarch's power grab in February, have also asked members of civil society to join them in a human chain around the office of Kantipur FM station on Thursday to prevent a possible effort by the government to close it down.

The agitating parties include the Nepali Congress, the country's oldest and largest, Nepali Congress of deposed and jailed prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and the four left parties.

The Central Mass Movement Coordination Committee of the coalition, formed after the royal coup to spearhead a public movement against it, held an emergency meeting on Wednesday evening after the government dealt a fresh blow to Kantipur FM.

The ministry of information and communication sent a letter to the broadcaster on Wednesday, giving it 24 hours to explain why it had not stopped airing news programmes or face the withdrawal of its licence.

The broadcaster, owned by Kantipur, the largest media house in the kingdom, fell foul of the royalist government after February for its opposition to it and defiance of a controversial media ordinance imposed by Gyanendra this month that imposes stringent curbs on the media.

Armed policemen raided Kantipur FM at midnight earlier this month, seizing its broadcasting equipment and preventing its programmes from being aired outside Kathmandu valley.

The US government issued a statement from Washington, condemning the raid and expressing doubts about the fairness of the civic polls to be held on Feb 8 next year in view of the absence of a free media.

The new media decree bans FM stations from broadcasting news, from airing programmes simultaneously from more than two places and any criticism of the king and the royal family.

However, Kantipur FM has challenged the decree in court, saying it violates the freedom of expression guaranteed by Nepal's constitution.

The shutdown called by the opposition comes after a long absence of such disruptions and a lull in violence following a three month unilateral ceasefire called by the Maoist insurgents from Sep 3.
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Saturday, October 22, 2005


AFP - Sat Oct 22, 1:46 AM ET
More than 1,500 Nepalese journalists, teachers, lawyers and other professionals demonstrated in Kathmandu against a strict new press law seen as an attempt by the government to further muzzle the media.
(AFP/Devendra M. Singh)
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China is our real friend, says Nepal's army chief- The Times of India

[ Saturday, October 22, 2005 12:48:46 amPTI ]
BEIJING: Nepalese Chief of Staff, Pyar Jung Thapa on Friday said China is the Himalayan Kingdom's 'real friend' who respected the country's sovereignty and did not meddle in its internal affairs.

Thapa said this when he called on senior Chinese Communist Party leader, Jia Qinglin here on Friday.

He said China, as "real friend of Nepal, respects the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Nepal and never interferes in the country's internal affairs," the Xinhua news agency reported.

Jia, on his part assured Thapa that China will further promote bilateral ties with Nepal, including on the military front.

Jia, also Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the top advisory body of the nation, said China appreciates the support from Nepal on issues of Taiwan, Tibet and human rights. Sphere: Related Content

Friday, October 21, 2005

Hospital roof collapses in Nepal; 10 dead

(AP)
Updated: 2005-10-21 09:01

The roof of a hospital in central Nepal collapsed Thursday, killing at least 10 people and injuring nine others, an official said.

The roof, made of corrugated fiberglass sheets, fell on people who were sitting in a waiting area in a pavilion next to the seven-story Manipal Teaching Hospital in Pokhara, said Yog Raj Poudel, the area's top official.

Most of the dead were patients and their relatives, Poudel said, adding that workers were still looking for victims under the debris.

Authorities pointed to faulty construction as the reason for the collapse in Pokhara, about 125 miles west of Katmandu.

Building collapses are common in Nepal, a country where construction laws are poorly enforced. Sphere: Related Content

Thursday, October 20, 2005


AFP/File - Thu Oct 20, 3:25 AM ET
Nepal's Election Commission has set a 30-day deadline for political parties to register for local polls early next year.
(AFP/File/Devendra M. Singh )
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People's Daily Online -- Over 29 guerrillas surrender, four arrested in Nepal

At least 29 anti-government guerrillas surrendered before the district administrations in mid- western Nepal on Wednesday, Radio Nepal reported.

About 25 guerrillas including some district-level leaders surrendered to the district administration in Humla district, some 700 km west of Kathmandu, on Wednesday, the state-owned radio said.

Likewise, four guerrillas surrendered before the district administration in Dailekh district, some 680 km west of Kathmandu, also on Wednesday.

Guerrillas' brigade commander Yam Bahadur Bista was among those surrendering, according to the radio.

Separately, four guerrillas have been arrested in the last two days in far-western Bajura and Achham districts.

Security forces arrested three guerrillas, who were involved in extortion and abduction in Kalagaon area of Achham district, on Tuesday.

In the same manner, a district leader of guerrillas was arrested by the security forces on Monday in Bajura district, the radio added.

Source: Xinhua" Sphere: Related Content

Monday, October 17, 2005

India, While Seeking UN Security Council Status, Takes Nepali Land

By Princess Shrestha, Kathmandu

Princess Shrestha writes from Kathmandu

Exactly one and a half months ago Indian Border Special Force (Sima Sasastra Bal) (SSB) began chasing Nepali families from Triveni Susta Village saying the territory lies under the jurisdiction of the Indian State of Bihar. About 1000 Indian farmers, who had entered Susta with the help of Indian forces, destroyed about 10 hectares of sugarcane planted by Nepali farmers and also manhandled men and women. This clearly shows India's interest to displace about 350 Nepali people from their homeland.

Nepali farmers didn't keep quiet this time. They formed a Committee for a "Save Susta Campaign" coordinated by Gopal Prasad Gurung. They took their appeal to Kathmandu, asking the government to intervene immediately and start fixing the border. The team met with the Home Minister Dan Bahadur Shahi and requested him to begin border demarcation talks with the Indian government. The villagers also requested the Home Minister to deploy security forces in Susta for the safety and security of Nepalis living there. Surprisingly, the minister did nothing, only saying that the forces were focused on fighting against Maoist rebels. The Royal government, which is more concerned with convincing the international community including India about its current position, is still quiet while Nepali farmers face harassment by Indian farmers and SSB personnel.

However, human rights defenders, researchers, border specialists and historians couldn't keep quiet. They visited Susta village to inspect the problems last week. The situation they describe is horrific, created by the "big brother" of South Asia. Nurjaha Begum broke down when the team led by Chetandra Jung Himali of the Civic Committee for Border Concerns listened to what Susta dwellers have been going through. Nurjaha told the team: "Indians beat Nepali men; and women are beaten up too, particularly they hit on sensitive parts of women. Indian forces accuse us that we have relations with the King and Maoists; they harass us stating that we smuggle tiger skin, which is not true."

The seven-member inspection team found the Indians to have encroached further into about 200 hectares of Nepali land. Indian farmers were found building houses in those areas, and about 1000 SSB were stationed there. "Now the total Nepali land that India has grabbed in Susta alone has reached about 14,000 hectares," says Buddhi Narayan Shrestha, a noted border specialist and historian in Nepal. India has encroached onto Nepali land in Susta on several occasions in the past.

Nepal-India border dispute not limited to Susta

The Narayani River flows from north to south, from Tribenighat to Sustait, forming a 24 kilometer border between Nepal and India. No physical demarcation was made on either side of the river though "boundary delimitation and delineation" was done after Nepal and India signed the Sugauli Treaty in 1816. This has created room for border disputes.

The International "Fixed Boundary Principle" and "Fluid Boundary Principle" are in practice for border demarcation. In Nepal-India's case, the 9th meeting of the Joint Technical Level Boundary Committee of the two countries in the first week of January 1988 had agreed to demarcate the riverine sector on the basis of the Fixed Boundary Principle. According to this principle, says the border specialist, Shrestha, "the borderline should be fixed along the course followed by the Narayani River in 1816 no matter whether or not the river flows along that area today." India does not accept this principle in Susta, while it has created disputes in the Mechi River area in eastern Nepal by erecting new border posts inside Nepali territory as per the Fixed Boundary Principle. The two cases of Mechi River area and Narayani River area are exactly the same in nature but India has imposed two different principles for them.

To stop encroachment, a police post was established in Susta. The government also built a health post and school in order to maintain Nepal's territorial integrity but time and again stories of confrontation between Nepali and Indian farmers have been coming to light. Also the locals narrate cases of Indian farmers trying to get Nepali citizenship by means of fraud and forgery in order to own those areas. However, Susta is not the only case, as Nepal shares over 1800 kilometers of border with India and border disputes exist in at least 85 different places. Boundary posts at dozens of points have disappeared; the 10-yard wide strip of no man's land between the two countries is getting blurred day by day and in addition 372 square kilometers of the Nepali territory of Kalipani at the tri-junction of Nepal, India and China has been occupied by Indian troops since the 1960s.

A map was drawn with the help of the Canadian government in 1985 and in 1992, another map was drawn with the assistance of the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA). In both cases, the maps show the whole Susta area in Nepal's territory.

The actual scientific demarcation of the Nepal-India boundary had started during the topographical survey of the whole of Nepal carried out by the Survey of India in 1926-27. But India has delayed making all the topographical maps available. For instance, it has not made available 17 sheets of which 12 sheets pertain to the Nepal-India border of the Kalapani area, and 5 sheets pertaining to the Nepal-China border. Several attempts have been made at the national level to resolve the Susta issue but nothing has happened due to a negative Indian attitude. Indian bureaucrats always suspect a ploy being hatched by Beijing or Islamabad when Nepal brings any agenda for discussion. Early this month the Nepal-India Joint Technical Level Boundary Team met in order to resolve border disputes, but like many previous meetings, it ended inconclusively.

What does Nepali Civil Society say?

Nepal is a sovereign country and the government should take immediate action against Indian encroachment. "In fact the issue should be internationalized as India, claiming itself a representative of South Asia, is seeking a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council," says Gopal Siwakoti Chintan, a human rights defender. He questioned, "Would India's hegemonic nature towards smaller countries in the region qualify it to achieve the permanent seat in Security Council? The government should raise this question while dealing with India, which needs smaller countries' vote in UN elections."

Other members of Nepali civil society say that only a political commitment in both countries may resolve the border problems. However, what is happening in Susta tells a different political scenario. Bihar State of India, which shares the border with Nepal in the South, is holding elections of its State Assembly in January next year; and Indian politicians are influencing voters by distributing disputed Susta land to Indian farmers. It may also be mentioned that Sima Sasastra Bal (SSB) told Nepali families that they would be provided a land ownership certificate from India if they said that the territory belonged to India.

"1000 Indian farmers have entered in Susta, it is not only encroachment in our land, but also an encroachment in our nationality," said Ram Chandra Chataut, an activist. Adds the border specialist, Shrestha, "Historical documents should be collected in order to begin border demarcation immediately. If we remain quiet, those Nepalis living in frontier would become foreigners in future."

The Civic Committee for Border Concerns is launching programs under the Save Susta Campaign both in Nepal and India. Border specialist, Shrestha, historian Dr Surendra KC, human rights defender, Chintan and others are seeking an audience with King Gyanendra to request him to intervene immediately for resolving the Susta border dispute, and ending harassment faced by Nepali farmers. They will also submit a memorandum to the Indian government through its embassy in Kathmandu. They will meet with the Chief of the Army Staff of the Royal Nepalese Army to ensure security for Nepali people living along border areas. The Committee will make a documentary on the reality of Susta and organize interactions in New Delhi in order to inform concerned Indian citizens.

"India is using its media to misinform even Indian citizens. Recently, Indian TV spread a false story about my book, which was published seven years ago and tells the reality of Nepal-India border issues. Thus, we should not keep quiet," says Fanindra Nepal, a researcher.

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Sunday, October 16, 2005

(AFP/Devendra M. Singh)
A Nepalese soldier stands guard in Kathmandu. At least three Maoist rebels were shot dead by soldiers in a clash at the weekend, the army said, despite a unilateral three-month ceasefire by the guerillas.
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Nepal Minister blasts India for criticising Press laws

Kathmandu, Oct 16.(PTI): A senior minister has flayed India for issuing a statement against the Royal government's new draconian Press Ordinance, saying New Delhi should not intervene in the internal matters of Nepal.

"Government of India should not intervene in the internal matters of Nepal...It should not be India's concern what the Nepal type of ordinance Nepal government brings," Education Minister Radhakrishna Mainali said on Saturday.

Extending moral support to press freedom in Nepal, India has recently issued a statement expressing concern over the restrictive press ordinance issued by King Gyanendra's government.

Mainali also criticised the recent visit of some Indian leaders representing the United Progressive Alliance Government saying "it was a naked show of intervention in our internal affairs."

Nepal's seven agitating parties including Nepali Congress and Nepal Communist Party-UML, human rights organizations and the Federation of Nepalese Journalists have issued separate statements opposing the government's move to introduce the restrictive press ordinance.">The Hindu News Update Service: "Nepal Minister blasts India for criticising Press laws

Kathmandu, Oct 16.(PTI): A senior minister has flayed India for issuing a statement against the Royal government's new draconian Press Ordinance, saying New Delhi should not intervene in the internal matters of Nepal.

'Government of India should not intervene in the internal matters of Nepal...It should not be India's concern what the Nepal type of ordinance Nepal government brings,' Education Minister Radhakrishna Mainali said on Saturday.

Extending moral support to press freedom in Nepal, India has recently issued a statement expressing concern over the restrictive press ordinance issued by King Gyanendra's government.

Mainali also criticised the recent visit of some Indian leaders representing the United Progressive Alliance Government saying 'it was a naked show of intervention in our internal affairs.'

Nepal's seven agitating parties including Nepali Congress and Nepal Communist Party-UML, human rights organizations and the Federation of Nepalese Journalists have issued separate statements opposing the government's move to introduce the restrictive press ordinance."
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Saturday, October 15, 2005

The Hindu : International : Nepal King for elections in 2007

KATHMANDU: Nepal's King Gyanendra has directed the Election Commission to conduct parliamentary elections by mid-April 2007.

``We have commanded the Election Commission to conduct elections to the House of Representatives within the year 2063 BS by further strengthening the favourable environment created with the holding of the municipal elections,'' the King said in a message to the nation on the occassion of Vijaya Dashami on Wednesday.

The major political parties representing over 90 per cent of the seats in the dissolved Parliament and local bodies have already said they would not accept elections under the direct rule of the King.

``Meaningful multiparty democracy is possible only by re-energising representative institutions through free and fair elections,'' the King said.

``Therefore, to honour the collective wisdom of all enfranchised Nepalese, everyone with faith in multiparty democracy must contribute to its consolidation by participating in the forthcoming municipal elections, '' he said.

The Government has already declared the election for the municipalities in February next year.

The major political parties struggling to establish "full-fledged democracy" have said the election is not possible without resolving the Maoists insurgency which has claimed over 12,000 lives since 1996.

The mainstream political forces have demanded the revival of the dissolved House and form an all-party government to hold talks with the rebels before holding the election. Sphere: Related Content

Thursday, October 13, 2005

AP - Thu Oct 13, 6:02 AM ET

A member of the Gurkha contingent, elite Nepalese fighters who gained fame in the British armed forces, stands guard at the international Sea Cruise Center and ferry terminal, Thursday Oct. 13, 2005 in Singapore. Sea entry points into Singapore are now being guarded by Gurkhas as part of security measures following the recent Bali bombings. Singapore, a United States ally, fears it is on the list of targets of attack by regional and international terrorist groups. Experts have warned that ships could be hijacked or turned into floating weapons by terrorists.
(AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)
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Journey from Nepal to Iraq reveals exploitation underpinning war

Thu, Oct. 13, 2005

(KRT) - The jolting news out of Iraq came to the woman from a neighbor boy.

"What's your son's name?" the child cried out, his voice ringing through their village in the Himalayan foothills, almost 4,000 miles from the American theater of war.

"Bishnu Hari Thapa," the woman called back.

"Turn on your television," the boy shouted.

Peering at the small screen in her family's apartment, Bishnu Maya Thapa saw the solemn face of her firstborn son. Worried for three weeks, ever since he'd left an alarming phone message, she now saw him posed before a black banner emblazoned with Arabic, holding his passport open with his right hand, just below his chin.

Someone beyond the frame's edge held a rifle's muzzle over Bishnu Hari's head. Alongside him stood 11 other Nepalis, as if gathered for some kind of class photo. The 12 men had been seized by terrorists in Iraq, the announcer said, the words robbing the mother of her breath.

It had been only seven weeks since she sent her 18-year-old son off to earn a paycheck that would bring their family a better life. But that paycheck was supposed to come from the safety of a five-star hotel in Jordan, not the combat zone of Iraq.

Whether Bishnu Hari and most of the other 11 Nepalis even knew before leaving home that they were headed to Iraq remains a mystery.

At least three did, but they were deceived about key details. Most of the rest, including Bishnu Hari, appear to have been lured with fraudulent paperwork promising jobs at the luxury hotel in Amman.

They learned Iraq was their real destination only after their families went deeply into debt to pay huge sums demanded by the brokers who sent these sons and brothers to the Middle East.

The stench of grease, scorched cumin and sweat coats the brown thatch walls of the New Bamboo Cottage, a Tiki-hut restaurant on the edge of Katmandu, Nepal's sprawling capital.

In the early summer of 2004, Bishnu Hari worked odd jobs around the restaurant. At night, he would sleep on the pale linoleum tables shoved together, side-by-side and end-to-end, after the restaurant's final customer had gone home.

He was 5 feet tall and wore blue jeans and sandals. His face often sported fuzz that wouldn't trouble a razor. But in Nepalese society he was already a man, expected to help his family. That was why his mother, like so many here, had prayed for a son.

For Bishnu Hari, sleeping on the restaurant's tables was about finding a chance to improve the lot of a mother who earlier in her life had crushed stones at a quarry for pennies a day. It was about helping a father shouldering the burdens of rent, food and clothing for a family of five.

In Bishnu Hari's hometown of Siudibar, a rural village named for a wildflower, there are few opportunities beyond subsistence farming. But he was trained as a welder and electrician, giving him the skill to fix the wiring rigged all around the New Bamboo Cottage. In return, the owner let him stay there for free.

Being close to Katmandu was his real reward: Bishnu Hari dreamed of getting a job in another country with help from one of the city's more than 400 manpower agencies.

For a fee, often 10 times more than Nepal's per capita income of $270 a year, those agencies send men to labor in the Persian Gulf region, Malaysia and beyond. While onerous, the fee is a gamble that any job in the Middle East might yield a salary of $200 a month, an unimaginable sum in Nepal.

Tourism, once buoyed by Westerners in search of Shangri-La, was an early casualty of Nepal's nine-year-old civil war with Maoist rebels. Almost 40 percent of the country's nearly 28 million people live on less than $1 a day.

So the estimated $1 billion wired home each year by overseas Nepalis outpaces tourism, all exports and foreign aid combined.

Many from Bishnu Hari's remote village, in a district ravaged by the Maoist war, had made the five-hour bus ride to Katmandu before him, following the same dream.

---

Kumar Thapa, a former neighbor from Bishnu Hari's village, was living in Katmandu. During a visit back home, he had offered to help the young man.

Thapa is what Nepalis call a dalal, which is a Hindi-derived word once used to identify a pimp. Now it's synonymous with "middleman" or "agent." Dalals are vital to the overseas labor system. They don't have licenses. They only take cash. There are no receipts. Nothing is written down.

Thapa was an amateur in this world, but he earned the dalal's reward. He pocketed a fee for each man he sent to the labor agents. And he hoped for another commission, helping get Bishnu Hari into the New Bamboo Cottage and close to the action.

After sleeping on the restaurant's dining tables for three weeks, Bishnu Hari found an advertisement in the June 13, 2004, edition of the Kantipur Daily, the leading Nepalese-language newspaper.

In the bottom corner of Page 16, it read: "Vacancies in Amman, Jordan."

More than 100 jobs were waiting for Nepalese men, the ad promised. They would fetch $200 to $500 per month. Just one month's salary would be enough to cover rent for Bishnu Hari's family for more than half the year. Enough for him to send his little brother to college.

---

With the American presence in Iraq making Amman a boom town, the city needed cleaners, laborers and laundry workers. Butchers, bus drivers and mechanics, too. There were even four openings for a "salad man."

But there was a price to be paid to secure such a job, as there always is here. The agency's cut of the fee ranged from the equivalent of $1,000 to $1,285, a huge sum for a Nepalese boy.

"Preference will be given to candidates who have already worked in hotels," the ad stated. "Probable flight for selected candidates within two months."

Near the bottom of the ad was a logo, a crescent moon and six stars slung low over two mountain peaks. Arching over the stars and the mountains like a rainbow were the words "Moon Light Consultant Pvt. Ltd."

Moon Light also stated in the ad that a "demand letter" for the hotel jobs in Amman from its Jordanian counterpart - called Morning Star for Recruitment and Manpower Supply - was on file with the government, as required by Nepalese law. Job interviews were scheduled for the next day.

In less than three months, Moon Light's logo would become the focal point of rage for thousands of Nepalis wielding torches, tire irons and Molotov cocktails in their own streets. They would burn and loot Moon Light's office, along with scores of others.

But on June 13, it was still a symbol of hope for men such as Bishnu Hari.

He could have gone straight to the job agent himself. But instead, like many other inexperienced young men from rural villages, he entrusted his future to an older, more experienced man, the dalal who understood the world of overseas work. So he took the newspaper to Thapa.

Moon Light listed its Labor Ministry registration number in the ad, so Thapa figured it was aboveboard. He knew the office, so he took the young man from his village there.

If Bishnu Hari or any of the other men responding to the ad that day had questions about Moon Light, the firm's full-color brochure would have offered answers.

Printed on 42 glossy pages, it was more like a soft-cover book or the special edition of a top-selling magazine. "Our motto is `Right workers for the right job' so that all of our clients are happy with us," it announced on its first page.

Inside were copies of 32 demand letters from Moon Light's broker-counterparts in the Middle East, including Morning Star.

---

The brochure also carried a picture of the smiling Prahlad Giri, Moon Light's general manager.

At 6 feet tall, Giri would have towered over most of the men who responded to the Moon Light ad. Although just 24, Giri ran Moon Light, his family's business. Dressed in a three-button suit, shirt collar open, he would poke the air with his slender fingers when he spoke or touch the tips of all 10 together and prop his hands below his sharp chin, like a man saying something profound.

Would-be workers swarm the offices of such brokers after job ads appear. Lines stream outside the doors, into hallways and even streets and alleys unprotected from the hot sun of Katmandu summers.

Among the job seekers, Bishnu Hari was a standout. Unlike many young Nepalese men, he had graduated from high school. He was experienced in wiring and welding. And he was ready to pay the fee.

Giri said in an interview that he didn't mention anything about Iraq to the applicants that day. Because of the danger, the Nepalese government had prohibited job agents from sending men there.

But Giri said he did offer Bishnu Hari and the others who interviewed a warning: Jordan's Morning Star is a multinational company, and it might send you somewhere else.

Bishnu Hari's dalal, though, said Iraq wasn't mentioned, only Jordan. In any case, at the end of the day, Bishnu Hari got the one piece of news he really wanted to hear: He had passed the interview. He was told to have his money ready.

Within days, Giri's office filed paperwork with the Nepalese Labor Ministry for Bishnu Hari and 34 others to head to Jordan for Morning Star. He and at least eight other men, the paperwork said, had contracts to work at Amman's five-star Le Royal Hotel.

In the days ahead, Bishnu Hari couldn't wait to get out of the New Bamboo Cottage - for good. He excitedly asked Thapa, the neighbor who recruited him, "When will I go?"

In late June, Bishnu Hari spoke by phone with his mother. It was time to pay the fee for the job, he told her, so please arrange to get the money.

She borrowed more than $2,100, about $400 of which came from the local development bank, a sort of savings and loan. The rest came from lenders in the village who charged 36 percent interest a month, she said.

Bishnu Hari made the five-hour bus ride back to Siudibar the next day to collect the cash.

If his mother had known what awaited her son, "I would have kept him by my side even if I had to do backbreaking work," she said. "For me, he was still like a newborn babe, just like a chicken that hatches from an egg."

The promise he made before leaving still echoes in her mind:

"Life is hard for us, Mummy. I will earn and send money home. We will buy land and build a small house to live in."

She handed him the cash, sending him out of their small apartment and back to Katmandu.

---

Bishnu Hari was among many young men following a route that would take them to Katmandu and then to the Middle East. The 11 others who eventually would be kidnapped with him in Iraq also came from rural areas, stretching from the hills of northwestern Nepal to the nation's low-lying plains in the southeast.

They ranged in age from 18 to 27. Their lack of opportunity at home was evident in the professions written in their passports - "farming," "helper," "labor."

One of them, 19-year-old Ramesh Khadka, began his journey from a mud-and-brick home with a blue tin roof in a village where he helped farm his family's fields near the nexus of two majestic river valleys, the Nalu and Lele.

In another Nepalese village hundreds of miles away, three best friends who would later meet Bishnu Hari boarded a bus. Budhan Kumar Shah, Manuj Kumar Thakur and Lalan Singh Koiri were inseparable in their hometown of Mahendranagar, in Nepal's lower plains.

Just weeks before, a recruiter had trolled their village, promising that any willing young man could earn $700 a month serving food to U.S. soldiers in Iraq.

The three best friends had listened together intently. They and their families knew little of Iraq, the American war, its dangers or the nation's daily atrocities. "Don't worry," family members recalled the recruiter telling them. "You are working for American soldiers. The plane will take you to the camp, and in the camp there is no danger."

The oldest, Shah, marveled at the idea that just one-month's salary was more than four times what he earned all year as a ticket-taker at the local movie house. His two friends, Thakur, a 23-year-old college student, and Koiri, a 21-year-old farmer, were equally dazzled.

Together, they persuaded their families to borrow money to pay the broker, who had demanded $3,500 per head. And together they boarded a bus, which rolled down a road where oxen pull carts filled with dung and straw before passing under a canopy of mango trees and reaching Nepal's only east-west highway.

It would take them all night to reach the Nepalese capital.

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Bishnu Hari flagged a taxi in early July outside the restaurant where he'd been working, and waiting, for weeks.

The cab took him to Katmandu's Tribhuvan International Airport, which fills nearly every day with young men headed to the Middle East. The volume is so great that Gulf Air even reconfigured its Boeing 767s to accommodate more workers.

Destinations roll across the airport's flight boards: Doha, Dubai, Manama, each a hub for the network that sends South Asians to labor in the Middle East.

Bishnu Hari and several of the other men took a night flight, landing at Queen Alia International Airport on the Fourth of July.

About three weeks later, he phoned Nepal. Bishnu Hari called the New Bamboo Cottage and spoke briefly with his younger brother, Krishna, who had taken his place at the restaurant in the hope of landing a job overseas as well.

Bishnu Hari started to ask his brother how things were, but the line went dead.

He called back later, and the fractured message he left haunts his mother to this day.

---

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Wednesday, October 12, 2005

Xinhua - English | Nepal offers 50,000 USD in relief to Pakistan

www.chinaview.cn 2005-10-12 14:47:16

KATHMANDU, Oct. 12 (Xinhuanet) -- Expressing deep sorrow over the tragic loss of lives and destruction of property caused by the earthquake that struck Pakistan on Saturday, the Nepali government has decided to provide 50,000 US dollars to Pakistan, Radio Nepal reported Wednesday.

This was stated in a press statement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Nepal, the state-owned Radio Nepal said.

The government also expressed solidarity with Pakistan at this moment of national anguish.

At least 41,000 people have been killed in Pakistan in the earthquake that also struck parts of India and Afghanistan.

Earlier, Nepali King Gyanendra, in separate messages to Indian President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf and Afghanistani President Hamid Karzai had extended heartfelt condolences and sympathies on behalf of the Nepali government and people on Sunday.
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Tuesday, October 11, 2005


REUTERS/Gopal Chitrakar
Reuters - Tue Oct 11, 4:30 AM ET
A Nepali lady gets her palm 'traditionally tabooed' at Bhadrakali temple on the seventh day of the Dasain festival in Kathmandu, Nepal October 11, 2005. Nepalis are celebrating the Hindu festival of Dasain, depicting the victory of good over evil. Many offices, business and education centres are closed for ten days during the festival.
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Nepal on the brink

Its political leaders do not have much time left to come up with a plan

RHODERICK CHALMERS
Posted online: Wednesday, October 12, 2005 at 0002 hours IST

For Nepal there can be no going back. February’s royal coup, growing pro-democracy agitation and unilateral Maoist ceasefire are bringing the nine-year conflict to a head. Rapid developments of the recent past have left the 237-year-old monarchy staring into the abyss. Whatever the days ahead may bring, Nepal’s future cannot lie in a return to an earlier status quo.

It may yet be that Nepal manages to arrive at a new distribution of power peacefully: that the king sees sense and offers concessions, that the political parties build both policies and public support, that the Maoists deliver on their promise to become good mainstream democrats. But to assume any or all of these will happen easily is to be over-optimistic. The powerful political dynamics that have been unleashed are more likely to usher in dangerous contingencies for which no one, domestically or internationally, is well prepared. Apart, of course, from the Maoists.

How has a situation that many read as a bloody but nonetheless stable stalemate started unravelling so quickly? First, any sense of stalemate was illusory. The Maoists may not have decisively won but they have consistently been gaining political ground. It is no coincidence that the sea-change in popular mood over the last few years, most dramatically illustrated by the tilt of conservative mainstream parties to republicanism, has been almost entirely in the Maoists’ favour. The inability of successive governments to respond to the rebel challenge has now been exposed.

Second, many crucial actors have been blinded by wishful thinking. Otherwise sensible observers in Kathmandu reassure themselves that the Maoists will collapse. The outside world has been little better: perhaps only now, as it faces a possible collapse of royal authority, is New Delhi shaking itself out of complacency towards the precarious state of its closest neighbour. America has braved isolation with its warnings of imminent Maoist victory, but its own policy of bolstering an ineffective military loyal to an adventurist king has only hastened the slide. Third, and most crucially, history may well remember King Gyanendra as the catalyst that sparked the final denouement of Nepal’s painful drama. Among supporters of constitutional monarchy, the fear that the king himself is hastening his dynasty’s demise is palpable. As those close to the palace prepare their fall-back plans, move their assets out of Nepal and furnish their second homes abroad, a sense of quiet panic is spreading. Even the king’s closest advisers have started dropping hints that they are urging moderation and cannot be held responsible for the February gambit. It seems only those at the heart of Narayanhiti Palace are still refusing to acknowledge the urgent need to step back from the brink.

If the king does indeed insist on seeing his gamble out to the bitter end, there is little doubt which way it will go. The irony is that had he played his cards more astutely, he could almost certainly have won the international community over in the wake of his power-grab. He might even have been able to deliver some token achievements to a population yearning for peace and progress, and disillusioned with the shortcomings of elected administrations. With imagination, the palace could have turned the Maoist ceasefire to its advantage, claiming credit for having pressured the rebels into the truce and being magnanimous in victory by offering a full reciprocation.

“If the king were sensible...” is the hypothetical preface to almost every effort at second-guessing the palace’s next moves. But the monarch’s actions to date — from crushing relatively harmless mainstream dissent to presiding over an economic deterioration that is alienating the business community and international backers — leave even sympathetic observers with little hope. Others want the king to stick to his hard line so that the end is hastened. There is a further, more bitter, irony to come. Party leaders have only reluctantly turned against the monarchy. “None of us really wanted to embrace republicanism,” a standing committee member of the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist) told me recently, “but we couldn’t resist the pressure from society any longer.” He could have been speaking for any of the mainstream leaders who have doggedly clung to the hope that they could return to the comfortable accommodation with the palace that had served them well enough for the first dozen years of democracy.

The king himself recently compared palace-party relations with the quarrels between a husband and wife. According to a Nepali proverb, marital tiffs are like a blaze in the straw: they flare up dramatically but burn themselves out quickly. But the metaphor is better framed as one of domestic violence: the long-suffering parties have been assaulted once too often and may resist the urge to kiss and make up. The parties also have other suitors now in the Maoists. Political leaders have ridden on a brief surge in popularity and profile. Their new-found republican rhetoric if not heartfelt at least appeals to a growing section of opinion-formers and more radical young supporters. But there is also a quietly gnawing fear that in a fit of careless enthusiasm, they may have unleashed forces beyond their control. That republicanism is a fine principle but that defending their own non-violent democratic principles in the face of a disciplined insurgency may be difficult if the bulwark of the monarchy is removed. The Maoists may lack popular support but they have not lost momentum. If the monarchy is seriously weakened, the army’s behaviour will initially decide the course Nepal takes. A measured transition to an all-party interim government, backed by a democratically accountable military, is the sensible ideal. But if the army insists on tying itself to the palace, the prospects are bleak. Without political leadership it cannot maintain order, and brutally repressive moves would fuel discontent in the restive lower ranks hoping for a ceasefire.

The Maoists stand ready to fill any power vacuum, though they would be canny enough to preserve at least a pluralist facade. They may yet be brought into non-violent mainstream politics but only if the moderate forces are backed unequivocally by the outside world. And only if someone else has a better strategy than they do. For the time being, they are in the driver’s seat.

Nepal’s political leaders and external friends do not have much time left to come up with a plan. Pushing for a bilateral ceasefire would be a start: it might not resolve the central power struggle but would at least act as a brake on the accelerating slide towards further violence and instability.

The writer is a visiting fellow, Nepal’s Tribhuvan University and deputy director of the International Crisis Group’s South Asia Project
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Sunday, October 09, 2005

REUTERS/Gopal Chitrakar
A Nepali father rings the bell with his child at Bhagawati temple in the capital Kathmandu while observing Dasain festival October 9, 2005.

Nepalis are celebrating the biggest Hindu religious festival for ten days with all the government offices, education centres and other businesses closed during this period, as they celebrate the victory over evil worshipping Goddess Durga Bhawani.

A three month unilateral ceasefire announced by the Maoist rebels has added enthusiasm among the celebrants.
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Saturday, October 08, 2005

Nepali girls enjoy playing on a swing in Tinkune, in the capital Kathmandu, October 8, 2005. Nepal is celebrating the Hindu festival of Dasain, one of the biggest festivals in the country, during which government offices and many other businesses remain closed for a period of 10 days to celebrate the biggest Hindu religious function depicting the victory of good over evil. REUTERS/Gopal Chitrakar
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EU warned of possible Nepal collapse

KATMANDU, Nepal, Oct. 6 (UPI)

Tom Phillips, leader of the delegation, told the BBC that failure of constitutional forces could lead to a breakdown of government institutions.

King Gyanendra seized direct power in February saying politicians had failed to tackle a Maoist the insurgency.

The EU team also accused the Maoists of recruiting child soldiers despite calling a cease-fire last month.

"We are greatly concerned that unless all involved move quickly to address the country's problems effectively, there is a strong risk of political collapse in Nepal," Phillips said at the end of a three-day visit.

He urged the Nepalese government to reach out to the political parties to return to multiparty democracy.

Phillips said the government and security forces must combat what they called the "culture of impunity" on human rights violations. But, he told Maoist rebels the EU rejected the use of violence.
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Friday, October 07, 2005

The Hindu News | India to discuss tiger poaching with Nepal, China

New Delhi, Oct 7. (PTI): Concerned over reports of sale of Indian wildlife articles like tiger and leopard skins in China and Nepal, India on Thursday decided to take up the issue with the two countries through diplomatic channels.

"The Minister of State for Environment is expected to visit China shortly to personally take up the issue with the Chinese authorities and request them to act urgently on the matter," Prime Minister's Media Advisor Sanjaya Baru said in a press statement here.

He said responding to reports from environment organisations regarding sale of tiger and leopard skins in countries along the northern border, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has "directed that the issue be taken up with the authorities in China and Nepal through diplomatic channels".

The Prime Minister has also directed that a detailed proposal for a National Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (NWCCB) be placed before the Union Cabinet by the third week of this month.

It has been decided that the Environment and Forests Ministry would immediately organize training of the staff of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), the Sashakta Suraksha Bal, the Border Security Force and Customs, who man the routes along the northern border which open into China and Nepal, for detection of cross-border trade in wildlife articles, Baru said.
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Thursday, October 06, 2005

73 Maoist rebels surrender in Nepal


Posted online: Thursday, October 06, 2005 at 0000 hours IST

KATHMANDU, OCTOBER 5: Seventy-Three Maoist rebels have surrendered to civilian authorities in Nepal in two separate incidents, a media report has said.

‘‘Of them, 68 Maoists surrendered to the district administration in Gulmi regretting their past acts of terror and violence and committed themselves to peaceful life,’’ state-run Radio Nepal said, quoting security sources.

‘‘Five rebels have surrendered in Dhading district,’’ the radio added.

Meanwhile, a Royal Nepalese Army soldier was killed in Hetauda in Makawanpur district yesterday when he accidentally shot himself with his own gun, a senior officer said.

In another incident, Maoists shot dead a civilian in Rautahat district. The victim’s mother was also attacked by them with sharp weapons and sustained injuries.

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Wednesday, October 05, 2005

AFP/File - Wed Oct 5, 5:35 AM ET
(AFP/File/John McHugh)
British rockstar Elton John has donated 25,000 pounds to Nepal's only gay rights group, the Blue Diamond Society, to help fight HIV in the Himalayan nation.
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EU team meets political leaders in Nepal

Kathmandu, Oct 5.(PTI): The visiting European Union (EU) delegation today held talks with leaders of political parties of Nepal in connection with King Gyanendra's February seizure of power and efforts to restore democracy in the Himalayan Kingdom.

The delegation, led by Tom Phillip, director for South Asia and Afghanistan at the UK Foreign and Common Wealth Office, will prepare a detailed report on Nepal, which will be the basis for EU's development assistance and other cooperation to Kathmandu.

The delegates has begun consultations with Nepalese political parties, government officials and members of civil society regarding the King's power grab, efforts to restore democracy and the Maoist problem, Nepali Congress (Democratic) leader Prakash Sharan Mahat said.

The EU is one of the major donor groups helping Nepal's development efforts.

The delegation last year visited Nepal when Sher Bahadur Deuba was the Prime Minister and increased assistance to Nepal from earlier 17 million Euro to 120 million Euro after assessing the situation, said Mahat, Foreign Minister in the deposed Deuba cabinet.

But following the February move, the EU did not release the additional assistance to Nepal.

During their brief stay in Nepal the Troika will hold meeting with Nepali Congress President Girija Prasad Koirala, Nepal Communist Party-UML general secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal, King Gyanendra's deputy Tulsi Giri, high officials of the Royal Nepalese Army and Nepal Police and leading human rights activists, said sources in the UK Embassy, which is currently heading the EU's Nepal mission.

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Tuesday, October 04, 2005

AFP/File - Tue Oct 4,12:27 AM ET
Nepalese soldiers. The mother of a teenaged girl killed while in military custody in Nepal demanded the soldiers responsible be tried in a civilian court after a military tribunal sentenced them to only six months in jail.
(AFP/File/Devendra M. Singh)
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Nepal govt has not fulfilled Human Rights Commitment:UN

Posted on 04 Oct 2005 # UNI

Kathmandu : Nepal's government has not fulfilled its own commitments on human rights expressed at the United Nations, a senior UN official based in the country said.

''There is gap between the commitment and its implementation,'' Ian Martin, the representative of the Office of the UN Human Rights Commission said at a function here, The Kathmandu Post today reported.

The official was referring to the government's 28-point commitment to human rights and international humanitarian law.
He alleged that the government had not implemented its commitment that arrested individuals will be informed of the reasons for their arrest.
''Also no steps are being taken to informing the whereabouts of individuals in detention to their family members and allow the detainees to talk to family members and lawyers,'' he said, noting that ''the government had committed itself to respect the orders of the judiciary or other suitable orders vis-а-vis habeas corpus and effective remedies.'' ''The government has also reneged on its pledge not to torture an accused, physically and mentally in the process of investigation.Besides, as per the commitment, the government had assured that the exercise of the right to assemble peacefully without arms would be permitted in an unobstructed way,'' Mr Martin warned that '''if peaceful means failed, UN member states were ready to take collective action.'' ''It is hard to find causes for optimism looking around the world. However, the global trends of accountability, and the responsibility to protect civilians, sovereignty notwithstanding, offer hope,'' he note.He reiterated the UN stance that it is important for political conflicts to be settled peacefully rather than by taking up arms.Mr Martin quoted UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour as saying that rulers and dictators who thought themselves immune are today facing trial.
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Monday, October 03, 2005

AP - Sun Oct 2,11:38 AM ET
Senior Maoist leaders Suresh Ale Magar, left, and Matrika Prasad Yadav, right, come out from a court at Patan, on the outskirts of Katmandu, Nepal, Sunday, Oct. 2, 2005. A court in Nepal began taking a statement from Yadav on Sunday, 20 months after he was arrested and held in isolation. The government, under pressure from the courts and rights activists, allowed the men to appear before the Lalitpur Appellate Court. Yadav is considered one of the top leaders of the Maoist rebels, who have been fighting since 1996 for a communist state.
(AP Photo/Binod Joshi)
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Guerrillas abduct 333 civilians in eastern Nepal


www.chinaview.cn 2005-10-03 16:17:01

KATHMANDU, Oct. 3 (Xinhuanet) -- The anti-government guerrillas of Nepal have abducted 333 civilians from different villages of a eastern district of Nepal, local government office confirmed here Monday.

"The guerrillas abducted them from Bharapa, Subhang, Panchami, Tharpu, Yoyang and Nagi villages of Panchthar district, some 500 km east of Kathmandu," District Administration Office said in a press statement.

The guerrillas took civilians to unidentified locations, the statement noted, adding, "The abducted, mainly between 17 and 35 years of age, included teachers, students and farmers from various parts of the district."

The guerrillas force the civilians, teachers and students to take part in their "ideological" programs and usually free them after a few days unharmed.

Meanwhile, 60 guerrillas have surrendered before the District Administration Office of western Gulmi district and mid-western Jumla district, state-owned Radio Nepal said Monday.

A total of 60 guerrillas including the heads of the self-styled"local peoples' governments" and some members of the militia force of the guerrillas outfit surrendered in Gulmi district, some 400 km west of Kathmandu.

Similarly, six guerrillas have surrendered in Jumla district, some 700 km west of Kathmandu.
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Saturday, October 01, 2005

Jet Airways bomb hoax triggers panic in Nepal



Sudeshna Sarkar (IANS)

Kathmandu, September 29, 2005|00:05 IST


A message received at Nepal's only international airport of a bomb in a Jet Airways flight from India on Thursday turned out to be a hoax. But the incident triggered panic and scary memories.

The memory of an Indian aircraft hijacked from Kathmandu in 1999 was revived at Nepal's Tribhuvan International Airport here when the airport authorities received a message that an Indian aircraft flying in from New Delhi had a bomb in it.

There was alarm at the airport as the aircraft belonging to private Indian airline Jet Airways, carrying 115 passengers and nine cabin crew, flew in.

The authorities activated all security agencies, along with the fire brigade, a rescue squad and emergency services, and the Boeing 737 was made to land at the airport at 1.40 pm.

After the landing, it was parked separately, passengers were evacuated and their belongings unloaded. However, the threat turned out to be a hoax with nothing suspicious being discovered on board.

Ultimately, the aircraft was released for its regular flight to New Delhi at 5 pm. The authorities did not say immediately how they received information about a possible bomb.

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