Monday, March 14, 2005

Ideological Overture To The Nepali Maoists (2)


From Encyclopedia Britannica Online: " ...... system of political and economic organization in which property is owned by the state or community and all citizens share in the common wealth, more or less according to their need ..... Like the Soviet Union, Communist China also underwent fundamental changes in the 20th century. Following the economic failures of the Cultural Revolution (1966–76), it adopted a modernization plan designed to attract foreign investment; to improve agriculture, industry, science and technology, and defense; to allow greater individual freedom of choice; and to reduce the influence of political dogmatism in nonpolitical spheres of life. The economy, especially in South China, grew at a record pace from the late 1980s as the government introduced extensive free-market reforms, which were expanded further at a Communist Party plenum in November 1993. In March 1999 the People's Congress adopted two constitutional amendments, one affirming that private enterprise is "an important component of the socialist economy," the other stating that the country "should implement the principle of rule by law." ....."

To: Prachanda and Baburam.

I have tried hard in my own small way to build a bridge between the Maoists and the democrats. And you have come out in public statements since 2/1 stating support for a "multi-party democratic republican" framework. But I feel you still have some work to do to build a bridge of trust with the democrats. In short, I feel like you need to confront your ideology itself.

I have not read Dr. Bhattarai's book that has been widely praised as a major scholarly work, the one that is a Marxist analysis of Nepal's agrarian situation, calling for major land reforms. I know from personal experience the need for land reforms in Nepal has been stark. But land reforms, no matter how "revolutionary," might be a little behind times. The real social transformation might lie in universal education and health, perhaps paid for by an abolition of the army.

Violence is what is holding you back. You need to cooperate with those international human rights activists who want you and the army to sign the Human Rights Accord, to be monitored by those international experts. This is not asking you to disarm or be disbarred. If you all can not come around to signing this Accord, there is little ground possible between you and us democrats. And if you can not show respect to these human rights activists, who are not affiliated to any state, what are the chances you will show respect to the UN, whose mediation you have sought in the past? Mind you, the respect you showed to the UN in word by seeking their role in mediation did you some good, showed you were capable of some reason.

If you come out for the Accord, and the army and the monarchists do not, then you win a symbolic first step victory. That builds some trust between you and the democrats.

Human Rights are independent of political ideology. They are of universal value, and should be universally implemented. No political organization anywhere on the planet that does not abide by the doctrine of human rights is legitimate. My number one grudge with the king is not that he has executive powers, but that he has just thrown the country into a major human rights quagmire. That is unforgivable.

So, come around to it. Cooperate and sign the Human Rights Accord that you were already inching towards before 2/1. Or at least make an announcement that you are ready if the Monarchists are ready.

Second, let's work out a Common Minimum Program. My push would be for a two word platform: Democratic Republic. But some parties in the democratic camp might still not have gotten over their love affair with the monarchy, and they have every right to their opinion, and the Monarchists certainly will not go for it.

So we do the next best thing. We go for a Common Minimum Program of a Constituent Assembly. That can not come in the form of a unilateral statement, but rather in bilateral and multilateral dialogue with all the democratic forces, in exile as well as in the country.

After you have signed the Human Rights Accord, or have unilaterally expressed support for it, and have worked toward a common minimum program of a Constituent Assembly, if the junta has not budged by then, the internatioal pressure and the pressure from the people will be too great. The regime will collapse.

Let's move towards that.

I read your statement of March 13 with great interest, and found many hopeful possibilities therein: " ..... aspiration of achieving full democracy ...... artless drama of repeating 1960 ..... democratic revolution, the overdue since 1950 ..... establishing a broad front of all the political parties, civil societies and intelligentsia ..... a concrete understanding among the political parties to unite the broad masses ..... our party would like to clarify its preparedness for the sacrifice necessary from our part through this statement ..... to help conduct political activities in any part of the country without any hindrance, our party thinks necessary to go ahead by carrying out criticism and self-criticism among the political parties and maintaining unity in a new basis ..... we would like to request humbly all the political parties in and outside of the country not to have any doubt in our party’s declared policy of Constituent Assembly and multiparty democratic republic ..... "

Let's move from statements to bilateral and multilateral dialogues. And I hope you come out taking as clear a stand on human rights as you have on the question of a multiparty democratic republic.

One way for you to show you really mean what you say about other parties is to show that any worker from any party is perfectly safe doing their peaceful agitation work in any of the 4000 villages in the country. That would be an important confidence building measure between the Maoists and the democrats.

Other References

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Sunday, March 13, 2005

International Intervention: The Only Way Out


For a country that gets the majority of its annual budget through foreign aid, it is laughable to claim UN or third party mediation to resolve the civil war situation would impinge on its sovereignty. To describe any possible UN intervention as an issue of sovereignty is to not understand the UN as the ultimate international body.

The intransigence is on the part of the king and his coterie. They will put the country through any amount of violence, any amount of economic hardship, any amount of political paralysis so as to preserve their monopoly on power.

One of the reasons given by the king for his taking over has been his fear of "ethnic fragmentation." That might be his term for a possible federalism in Nepal. The guy shuts down the Dalai Lama's office. And uses terms like "ethnic fragmentation." Makes me very suspicious. I guess he is The Ultimate Nepali Speaking High Caste Male. More the reason for the monarchy to be abolished.

The foreign powers need to take stock of the true face of this regime. They have to see the king and the army top brass for who and what they really are. And they have to allow for a transformation of the Nepali Maoists. They have to be given a way out. They should have the option to become a force within a democratic, republican, multi-party framework, as they have said time and again since 2/1. To ignore their change in stance is to ally with the king's language of "ethnic fragmentation," to send signal that what these other parties are offended by is the Dalit-Janajati empowerment theme of the Maoists.

And the Americans really need to get their nose out of the books, out of their readings into Russian communism in the 1930s, Chinese communism in the 1960s, of Peru, of Cambodia, and look at the Nepali Maoists in terms of the Nepali ground realities. They should be given the option to become a peaceful force by the others stopping to sideline their political demands. It would be amazing if the Americans were to preach monarchy to the Maoists. It is Americans who got rid of their King G - G for George - to become what they are today. The same logic applies to Nepal. No taxation without representation. I mean, are the Americans against a Constituent Assembly for Nepal, something for which they have laid down American lives and dollars in Iraq!

It is true the Maoists are a significant presence in hundreds of districts in Nepal and India. But the answer lies in giving a greater say to Human Capital in globalization. I am all for globalization. I think overall it is a great, positive force. It is globalization more than anything else that will bridge the North-South divide. But globalization will have to be modified such that it benefits (1) Physical Capital, (2) Financial Capital, and (3) Human Capital equally. So far, the third one has been shortchanged. I believe the discontent among the poorest on the sub-continent has to be seen in that light. I believe the poor have every right to demand a greater share of the riches, particularly in terms of education and health and micro credit for them so they can at least put their foot up the first ladder of socio-economic upward mobility.

I believe India should take the lead. It should consider trade sanctions, like in 1989. It should consider seizing assets of the king and the army top brass in India. It should ultimately consider doing a US-In-Haiti in Nepal. The Monarchists and the Maoists can not be made to feel like they are the only guns. The democrats should maintain the threat of force, if only to not have to use it, and to neutralize the guns of those other two forces.

Pakistan's threat to supply arms to Nepal should be taken seriously. If the Pakistani regime can act to support autocracy in Nepal, the democratic forces all over the world have a right to undermine the autocracy in Pakistan. Only a democratic Pakistan might be capable of seeking a meaningful peace in the region.

It is high time Condi Rice did a Mubarak on Musharraf. It is great that the US went heavy on Pakistan after its ambassador made a gross remark about supplying arms to the junta. Keep it up.

The international community will have to bring to an end its love affair with the monarchy in Nepal. That is what it boils down to. A monarchy that refuses to stay constitutional is absolute, and it makes no sense to keep offering the constitutional monarchy voodoo. There is no taker, so beat it.

March 14
  • Nepal police arrests 500 protestersExpress Newsline, India ..... around 350 protesters were detained in a peaceful protest in the southern town of Janakpur
  • India: Asian human rights watchdog slams America for helping Nepal ...Keralanext, India ... slammed America for messing up Nepal's humanitarian crisis by refusing to suspend military aid to the tiny kingdom ..... given wrong signals to an already defiant King ..... "The United States is part of the problem because they see the problem in Nepal as part of the war against terror. They are trying to ignore the ground realities, which prevail in Nepal.
  • Human Rights Groups Demand International Intervention in Nepal PolitInfo.com, Germany Asian Center for Human Rights wants the international community to suspend humanitarian aid to Nepal ..... Maoist rebels are solidifying their control outside the capital ..... international interventions in respect of involvement for mediation between the Maoists and the government
  • DRC: UN envoy gives militiamen ultimatum to disarmReliefWeb, Switzerland ......gave a two-week ultimatum on Sunday to militiamen in the embattled northeastern district of Ituri to disarm and be integrated into the country's national army ..... According to the National Commission for Demobilisation, Disarmament and Reinsertion, some 3,783 militiamen have already gone through the disarmament and community reinsertion process, intended for the combatants of the various militia groups in the district, estimated to be 15,000, including 6,000 children. .... 3,708 of these combatants had been demobilised and 75 integrated in the army.
  • India's menu card for Rice: F-16s and NepalTimes of India, India The fact that India is her first stop in Asia, even before China, has not gone unnoticed here. After the F-16 issue has been sorted out, on top of the agenda will be Nepal. It has been a point of unprecedented cooperation between US and India, which have calibrated their reactions to the Nepal palace coup. The US has told India that it has leaned on Pakistan to desist from stirring trouble in the Nepal hotpot. While this message was gently made until recently, Pakistan ambassador Zamir Akram's comments in Nepal late last week, has prompted a more vigorous US diplomacy with Pakistan. Pakistan government had assured the US of Islamabad's compliance. Akram, it is now being said, was flying solo with his offer to make defence supplies available to the King. "It is unlikely that Pakistan would want to anger the US on this issue," they said.
  • Nepal will be a failed state without foreign intervention: report Khaleej Times “An estimated 400,000 Nepalese have been displaced from their villages and millions have fled to India to escape atrocities.” “The international community is not recognising this as a humanitarian crisis because there are no refugee camps there, like in Sudan. There are no actual numbers of the Nepalese migrants, but the figure is believed to be more than 10 million.” .... the United States and Pakistan were complicating the situation further .... accused the army of “acting as a law unto itself”, citing cases of arbitrary arrests and extra judicial executions ..... The ACHR has asked donors to suspend all military assistance to Nepal, impose visa restrictions on ministers and army officers and freeze the assets of the royal family.... It has asked the UN to appoint a special envoy to Nepal to solve the Maoist problem and stop recruiting Nepalese soldiers for peacekeeping operations.
  • India is crucial in Nepal's rights battle at GenevaHindustan Times, India Last year, it had bailed Nepal out in Geneva..... It was touch and go for the Himalayan kingdom with Switzerland moving a draft resolution that asked the 53 member countries to vote for moving Nepal from Agenda 19 to Agenda 9. To be on Agenda 19 means the rights record of a country is in a serious situation but can be improved through advisory services and technical cooperation. However, to be put on Agenda 9 means it is subject to systematic violations and beyond rectification, a situation that calls for international monitoring. It will be interesting to see who rescues Nepal this time - maybe Pakistan, China, Russia and Cuba. ..... the draft needs to be approved by the majority of the 53 member countries. ..... India wanted Nepal's support to enter the UN Security Council ...... The royal coup affects India since New Delhi fears an escalation in the Maoist insurgency that will trigger fresh Nepalese migration to India and even Maoist infiltration. India-Nepal joint ventures in Nepal are at an increased risk.
  • Nepal's rising vigilante violenceBBC News, UK King Gyanendra's handpicked government admits it has encouraged violence by anti-Maoist vigilantes. ...... civilians have been butchered by the anti-Maoists, with the rebels responding brutally. ..... hundreds of houses in many villages destroyed, and people axed, shot, even burnt to death - people who may or may not have had anything to do with the Maoists. .... the mob raped a 12-year-old girl ...... At the height of the violence, three government ministers came to address a crowd. Home Affairs Minister Dan Bahadur Shahi says he knew they had beaten 12 men to death. Recourse to the courts "is not relevant during a war", he continued. "They gathered, found them and killed them. I thought I should praise them." Thirty-year-old Rikh Bahadur Gaha Magar, his face blank with grief, found his cousin's body. "His brain was oozing from his head. He'd been axed and pierced with a spear, and we think he was cut with a sickle because his hand was broken in two places," he says. "The Maoists used to force ordinary people to attend their programmes. Now in the anti-Maoist violence, the same civilians' houses have been burnt down just because they attended rallies" ...... Major Sunil Gahle .. the government might soon distribute firearms to villagers. Maoist violence and misdirected counter-violence are taking on a frightening life of their own. And the king's government is encouraging the vigilantes.
  • Maoist rebels, political parties launch nationwide protests ...ReliefWeb (press release), Switzerland Scores of police and security forces, including plain-clothes policemen, patrolled the market and other locations throughout the city ..... Acting President of the Nepali Congress party Gopal Man Shrestha ..... Maoist leader Prachanda issued a notice on the rebel website Sunday calling for "general strikes, a transport blockade and blockade at local and regional level between March 14 and April 1" ..... "We urge all the political parties to create a new basis for re-establishment of democracy by forgetting past differences," Prachanda said Sunday. ..... Maoist rebels have called for a nationwide general strike between April 2 and April 12
  • Govt ready for discussion on Nepal developments: LS toldDeccan Herald, India Yogi Adityanath, BJP, warned that Pakistan's decision to supply arms to Nepal and China's strong interests in that country would have an adverse fallout for India..... a coordinated response of the international community to the developments
March 13

  • Nepal's Parties Ready for Pro-Democracy Protests MondayVoice of America
  • Restore multiparty government or face agitation: sacked Nepal PM: New Kerala The five political parties have announced widespread demonstrations on March 14 against the royal coup.
  • Royal coup, Maoist blockades have Nepal economy in tailspinNewindpress, India Nepal's economy is on the verge of complete collapse and the blockade could push it over the edge...... Nepal lost one per cent of its estimated GDP of 400 billion Nepalese rupees during the 15-day Maoist blockade last month....... From Monday, the Maoists have announced a ``thousand-day blockade''. ...... the fast-shrinking Nepalese economy ..... New Delhi's reading is that the King remains defiant even while the economy is spinning out of control and political confrontations seem imminent. It has predicted that things in the Himalayan kingdom will get a lot worse before they get better.
  • Nepal Maoist rebels calls for nationwide protests Reuters India Prachanda also asked the guerrillas to step up attacks on security forces to protest the king's move to suspend democracy, end civil liberties and impose strict curbs on the press ...... an 11-day nationwide strike from April 2 ..... Mainstream parties have refused to join the rebels in protests unless the Maoists, who want set up a single-party communist republic, gave up the use of violence.
  • Civil liberties to be restored soon in Nepal Indian Express
  • Fresh strikes set to hit NepalTimes of India, India ..... 'people's actions' from March 14 to April 1 ...... from April 2 with a 10-day strike across Nepal ...... "From now onwards, we will assist the political parties in their activities, not disrupt it. We guarantee their safety and security in the districts to carry out their activities." ...... none of the parties have reciprocated, citing past anti-party violence by the rebels ..... the Maoists appear to be trying hard to lure the parties
  • Top Nepal official in dock over Maoist connexion:New Kerala, India
  • Police arrest 21 ahead of pro-democracy agitations in NepalPress Trust of India, India
  • Nepal imbroglio onStatesman, India Six-time Prime Minister Mr Surya Bahadur Thapa ... launched the Rastriya Janashakti Party (RJP)
  • Pak move may alter India's Nepal policyTimes of India, India The decision to revisit the issue now that the king shows no sign of making concessions shows India's dilemma. ..... the UPA government's conviction that the Maoist menace is India's biggest security threat ...... 170 Indian districts were under Naxal influence ..... the outlawed KLO in the North-East was developing links with the Nepalese Maoists and ULFA ..... King Gyanendra might have his way after all. The next meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security will review the issue of military assistance to Nepal in the light of Pakistan's open offer to supply arms to Kathmandu.
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Saturday, March 12, 2005

A Lot Of Good Got Done During The 1990s


The official line of the junta is that the 1990s were a circus, and so the king was forced to take over. The facts show otherwise.

Nepal Democracy Network: Did Democracy Fail in Nepal?

..... several socio-economic indicators show that more infrastructure developed than the past thirty years combined ...... the road network increased from 6840 Kilometers in 1990 to 13, 233 Kilometers in 2001 ..... In the last ten years alone the per capita income of Nepalese people has almost doubled, the poverty rate has fallen below 30 percent, more people, about 91 percent, now have easy access to education, and more than 37 percent now enjoy electricity up from 14 percent a decade ago. Roads and potable water continued to reach more households. During the decade of democracy there was a huge growth in communications sectors. From only one state-owned Television, Radio and daily newspaper we have now at least five Nepali language televisions, tons of radio stations, many community controlled FM stations and a plethora of daily newspapers both in Nepali, English and local languages...... Non-profit and non- governmental organizations sprang up abundantly. Human rights groups, child rights organization formed; associations for ethnic and women rights were established all over the country. Under the substantial pressures from these organizations, government announced social programs such as equal property rights from women and freeing of Kamaiyas from life long bondage. Such developments are considered significant progress by any standards, and even more impressive is that they occurred in a decade.

The point being compare the 10 years of semi-democracy to 250 years of monarchy. The facts speak for themselves.

The problem in the 1990s was too little democracy, not too much.

And I just found a pretty neat article on the monarchy at the CPNM site.

Relevance of Monarchy in Nepal

Some Misconceptions About the Monarchy ...... The first popular misconception, particularly among the international community, is that the monarchy is the principle factor of stability in the country. ..... The second widespread misconception is that the monarchy is the symbol of unity in diversity and in the absence of monarchy the country would not be able to sustain its unity...... The third misconception, particularly among Hindu religious zealots in India, is that since Nepal is the only Hindu kingdom in the world the monarchy there deserves to be preserved for ever...... The fourth misconception, particularly among the international ‘aid’ communities, is that without the patronizing hand of a monarchy Nepal won’t be able to embark on the path of rapid economic development....... The fifth misconception, particularly among the parliamentary democratic forces, is that the monarchy may not be abolished but just brought down to size to a ‘constitutional monarchy’. ..... If the two sides can shed off the past baggage and clinch an historic unity on a common minimum programme, the overthrow of the monarchy and institutionalization of the democratic republic is a distinct possibility in the near future.

In The News
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Dinesh Prasain, Condi Rice, and the Indian Parliament


Hello Dinesh.

On Condi Rice, my suggestion would be to get with the US Embassy in Delhi as soon as possible, because once the her schedule is set tight, it might be hard to change it. If you all can get all the exiled leaders together, then why not? I think it very possible. The events in Nepal are the number one crisis in South Asia for now. I can't see how the Secretary can refuse such an audience. So I think the challenge is more technical than one of diplomatic gravity. Let's do it. I wish you all all the best.

On the draft you have written, it is a great piece of writing. I would suggest it be widely circulated also to the Indian media and the international media. I particular dig the items on the "medium term" list. The noose has to be gradually tightened if the junta refuses to budge. If I had to add, I would say, if the junta has not budged by the end of 2005, India should do a US-In-Haiti in Nepal. Hopefully things will not go that far.

Urgent: Can we Try to Meet Condaliza Rice in Delhi?

Hi friends, Heard that Condaliza [sp.] Rice is coming to Delhi. Is there any waywe can organize a meeting with her even for half an hour? Theparticpants from our side would be political party leaders and civilsociety activists (mostly Nepalis but also our international Indianfriends) based in Delhi. Can our friends based in or actuve in or withcontacts in the US help u explore this possibility?Please do write back, even if you think its a useless idea!Best regards, Dinesh

Urgent: Appeal to Indian Parliamentarians: Draft for Comments

Friends, This is the first draft for an appeal which we intend to submit to ALLthe parliamentrians in India by Monday. Please provide comments beforethat, latest by Sunday evening. Can we make it shorter? They might notread if its more than 2/3 pages.regards, Dinesh



India’s Role in Supporting Nepal’s Democracy Movement
Appeal to the Indian Parliamentarians, Government Political Parties and Civil Society
by Nepal Democracy Alliance, Kathmandu / New Delhi
14 March 2005

Post-February 1 Situation in Nepal

  • The February 1, 2005 military coup by king Gyanendra of Nepal is yet another glaring evidence that he no longer respects the 1990 constitution of Nepal. He had taken an unconstitutional step on 4 October 2002, when he dismissed the elected prime minister and started ruling directly, in clear contravention to the letter and spirit of the 1990 constitution. Gyanendra and his military regime is therefore an unconstitutional force in Nepal, lacks any legitimacy and reigns through sheer use of force and terror. The king has proved once again that the twin-pillar theory of constitutional monarchy and multi-party democracy co-existing is no longer tenable in Nepal.
  • After February 1, 2005, all the fundamental rights of the sovereign citizens of Nepal, including the rights to freedom of opinion, freedom of _expression, freedom of peaceful assembly, right to privacy, right to mobility, and right to property, have been quashed by Gyanendra Shah, under the un-justified State of Emergency. Between February 1 and March 12, over 500 pro-democracy political leaders, students, journalists, human rights defenders have been detained. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy activists have either gone underground or fled to India. The Royal Nepal Army, police and Gyanendra Shah’s vigilantes have been issuing death threats to the pro-democrcay activists. Behind the smokescreen of normalcy, citizens in Kathmandu and other major towns of Nepal live amidst fear and uncertainty.
  • Between February 1 and March 12, over 200 Nepali citizens, including security personnel, Maoist rebels, and innocent civilians, have lost their lives as a direct result of the armed conflict. Gyanendra Shah has restricted the independent monitoring of the human rights situation by national and international human rights organizations and media. Even the Commissioners of the National Human Rights Commission have been barred from leaving Kathmandu valley. However, some fact-finding missions conducted by international human rights organizations have found out that the Royal Nepal Army is practicing with impunity extra-judicial killings of civilians (e.g., in Baglung District), arming and backing up vigilantes and criminal gangs (the so-called Village Defense Committees) to lynch, massacre, rape and beat innocent villagers in the name of retaliation against the Maoists. For instance in Kapilbastu District in southern Nepal, about a dozen civilians were killed by the RNA-backed vigilantes during the third week of February 2005. There are reports of the RNA dropping “tora-bora” bombs from army helicopters indiscriminately in villages in mid-western hill districts of Rolpa and Rukum.
  • The Maoists still control most of the rural areas of Nepal. The military coup by the king has not deterred the Maoists. Indeed, reports from most of the districts outside of Kathmandu point out that the Maoists have been the net beneficiaries of the royal move: they now have more sympathizers, and the morale of their cadres has been boosted. They have shown that they can attack government offices, enforce strikes and road blocks and hold parades and mass meetings at their will in most parts of Nepal. They have also demonstrated that they can blockade Kathmandu at their will. First-hand accounts from the outlying districts indicate that the morale of the army on the field is low, and there are also reports that even a section of the army top brass is unhappy with the strategic disadvantages brought about by the February 1 military coup. The king’s promise of a military victory over the Maoists has failed and is likely to continue failing. It has been clear that the king cannot deliver peace or stability in Nepal. The exodus to India of Nepali people, caught between the RNA and Maoists, is likely to accelerate.
  • King Gyanendra’s military coup has invited near-universal condemnation from the international community. Apart from the suspension of military aid by India, the UK (and most probably the USA), bilateral and multilateral donors have started announcing suspension of developmental aid to the unaccountable, illegitimate, and repressive regime of Gyaendra Shah. Increased military expenditure and corruption, decreased internal revenues, and declining foreign aid will likely lead to an economic disaster in Nepal, which will lead to further social and political turmoil.

Response from India

  • We are very encouraged by the strong support for democracy expressed after February 1, 2005, by the Indian government, political parties and civil society. The suspension of military aid to the unaccountable Royal Nepal Army after February 1 has been a welcome decision on the part of the Indian government. The continued and consistent call by the Indian government for: restoration of democratic process, revoking the declaration of the State of Emergency, release of detained political and civil society leaders, restoration of fundamental civil rights including the freedom of the media, have provided moral support to the pro-democracy forces and citizens of Nepal. The government of India has rightly pointed out that apart from being detrimental to the democratic process in Nepal, the February 1 royal coup also undermines the prospects for stability in Nepal, which will result in adverse implications for Indian security and demography. The Indian government has also performed the
  • The unprecedented solidarity for democracy expressed by the political parties of India, for instance through the February 24 Convention of Indian Political Parties Groups In Support of Democracy in Nepal, have provided immense moral support to the pro-democracy forces and citizens of Nepal.
  • After February 1, the Indian media has been the greatest supporter of democracy in Nepal. At a time when the free media has been completely blacked out in Nepal, the Indian media has provided large space for news, features and opinions in support for democracy.
  • The support from ordinary citizens and civil society groups for pro-democracy activists has been tremendous. Numerous individuals and groups have provided shelter, food, hospitality and moral support to the pro-democracy activists who crossed over to India to regroup in the most difficult and dark period of repression within Nepal.

Future steps requested from India

We request the Indian parliamentarians and the government to take the following concrete steps to support democracy and human rights in Nepal:

Short-term:

  1. Continue the suspension of military aid to the Royal Nepal Army until it is completely under the control of a civilian, representative, legitimate and democratic government.
  2. Issue statements frequently demanding immediate release of prisoners of conscience, lifting of the state of emergency and revocation of the all the suspended civil rights
  3. Issue statements calling for dialogue between the parliamentary political parties and the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) for preparing a common roadmap for a peaceful, just and democratic Nepal.
  4. Refuse to invite diplomatic delegates of the authoritarian king to India and refuse to accept official diplomatic invitations sent by this authoritarian government.
  5. Coordinate with other democratic countries, including the European Union and the United Nations, to step-up coordinated pressure against the king and in support of democracy in Nepal.

Medium term

  1. Review the implications of the trashing of the “twin-pillar” theory (co-existence of constitutional monarchy and multi-party democracy for stability of Nepal) by the king; facilitate (or at least not hinder) the process whereby the Nepali people can decide either through peaceful movement or through referendum or election of constituent assembly whether or not they want to retain monarchy, which has repeatedly proved that it can not co-exist with democracy.
  2. Severe all diplomatic ties with Gyanendra Shah and his government
  3. Announce bans on travel to or through the Indian territory to Gyanendra Shah, his family members, Royal Nepal Army Generals, Ministers and Secretaries
  4. Freeze the assets in India of Gyanendra Shah, his family members, Royal Nepal Army Generals, Ministers and Secretaries; encourage other countries to do the same.
  5. Recognize the parallel government if and when the major parliamentary political parties announce it through consensus; provide moral and material support to this parallel government.
  6. Open channels of communication with the Maoists and facilitate negotiations between the parliamentary political front and the Maoists for a smooth transition to a peaceful, just and democratic Nepal through a free and fair election to constituent assembly held by a representative, all-party government and closely supervised by the international community.

In The News

  • Nepal's Former Prime Minister Calls for Restoration of DemocracyVoice of America ...Deuba says, the communist rebels can be convinced to return to the negotiating table, if the king were to allow all political parties to participate in the peace talks
  • Nepal's Sacked Premier Seeks Dialogue with King Reuters "The king should enter into dialogue with political parties and give all executive powers to a new multi-party government," Deuba told Reuters .....A cheerful Deuba said the Maoists, who deserted talks in 2003, could return to the negotiating table if Gyanendra and mainstream parties agreed to discuss their demand...... "If there is a national consensus for a conditional constituent assembly the Maoists might agree to negotiations ......Deuba's phone line has not been restored and he has been unable to contact other party leaders ...... I will personally participate in the on-going protests
  • Govt enforces six-day week for bureaucrats Times of India ......scrapped Sunday as a holiday ...... "Honesty is the biggest asset and success of one's life. Dishonesty, trickery, corruption and misconduct will give pleasure only for a brief period," the government notice said.
  • Sobhraj's French lawyer to seek royal pardon Indo-Asian News Service "I am furious," said an enraged Coutant-Peyre. "How could they do this when they knew I was coming down all the way from Paris for the hearing. Such a thing could never happen in Paris." ..... She plans to meet the king's ADC Friday to hand over the letter personally. ..... Sobhraj's family in France hired Isabelle Coutant-Peyre, who herself hit the headlines in the past for representing and then marrying internationally wanted terrorist Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, aka 'Carlos the Jackal', who admits to having killed over 1,500 people for the Palestine cause
  • Chinese foreign minister to visit Nepal: report:New Kerala, India The Chinese state media has also stepped up its coverage of Nepal, highlighting what it considers the positive aspects of the new regime. ..... Beijing says Tibet is an integral part of China and there are no Tibetan refugees, only illegal immigrants who should be punished ..... Nepal, which has earlier handed over groups of Tibetans fleeing their homeland to the Chinese authorities
  • Student Leader Calls for Revolution in NepalInfoshop News ... the 'new movement would overthrow the king' and the country would 'experience true democracy – that is democracy without king.' ..... donors to cut off the flow of aid to Nepal ..... the need of new movement for the establishment of republic ...... Nepali Congress always believed on constitutional monarchy. We, the youth, always questioned monarchy....... there can be no democracy when there is the king ....... Individuals can be wrong, but that doesn't make a system wrong. ......monarchy is the most opaque and corrupt institution in the country .....where did King Birendra's property go. We want to know why there is increment in palace's budgets. Besides, the present king is a businessman – he owns businesses ..... the expression by King Gyanendra is only an unreal commitment to deceive people and international community ...... We also request all our donor communities, who support Nepal in social, political and military front to stop all the support for now. I request all Nepalis residing abroad and all the well-wishers of Nepal to closely watch our movement and to spread the words.
  • Nepal frees former Prime Minister and 20 others from detentionABC Asia Pacific, Asia
  • Mystery man with bullet injury is Maoist from NepalDelhi Newsline, India
  • Amnesty to take on Nepal at UN rights meet Indo-Asian News Service ..... "on the verge of a human rights catastrophe". "Things can get worse and we are concerned that if the international community does not act, things will get worse." ......Nepal's new cabinet headed by the king met Wednesday to decide Pandey should go to Geneva to defend the Feb 1 royal takeover .....the state of emergency had "aggravated the existing culture of non-accountability and lack of transparency".
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Phone Interview With Rajendra Mahato



I just got off the phone after a rather long conversation with Rajendra Mahto. I had the pleasure of calling him a colleague for a few short years in the mid-1990s. Mahto is a senior leader of the Nepal Sadbhavana Party (A) and a strong voice for democracy. He is now exiled in Delhi.

He was a parliamentarian.

Instead of a question-answer format, I have decided to do a write-up.

Mahto was in Delhi for the treatment of his son on 2/1. So he just proceeded to stay back. His colleague Hridayesh Tripathy, on the other hand, was in Rajbiraj on the day, and had to escape. Tripathy too is in Delhi.

I asked him if he feared for his family who are still in Nepal. And he said the possibilities of reprisals are there. The state has the army, the police, and elements of the regime have been known to use hired goons, if one is to draw upon their history during the Panchayat years.

But he was rather strong about how this was the final struggle. And this time it was for a full democracy. This movement will go far. There will be no compromises. There are people in Delhi and in the border towns in India working hard to organize major protest programs.

Mahto said the current thinking was to go back to Nepal and to organize mass protests on Nepali soil itself. People who are in exile are thinking of returning.

I asked him about his access to communication inside the country. And he said the mobile phones are still off and that was a major hindrance. The press in the country was gagged, and so it was hard to spread the word inside the country.

The net has been cast wide. Even Maobadis have been sent feelers.

I zeroed in on this topic. Are the democrats and the Maoists communicating? Can the Maoists be trusted to stay within a multi-party framework?

And he said the Maoists have not attacked workers of other parties since 2/1. That has been a major positive sign. The Maoist leader Prachanda said in an interview to the BBC a few days back that he was for a multi-party democratic republican framework. But he did stress the importance of the Maoists making such a stand much clearer. They need to come clean and join the peaceful movement, he stressed. Back channel talk is going on between the Maoists and the democrats, Mahto said.

This movement will not stop until everything goes to the people. There is a possibility the monarchy might stick around if the king agrees to follow the British example, but it is not important if the king stays or goes, what is important is that the Nepali people become sovereign. The country could very well go republican, Mahto said.

In 1990 what we got was a very limited democracy. The king stayed in control of the army. But no more. The army will have to come under the parliament, the people.

I pointed out that the Congress and the UML were the entities in the way of the demands of his party, the Sadbhavana, when the country did have its limited democracy. Will his party benefit from its alliance with those parties? Will they be more lenient on the Sadbhavana's issues?

He said that the current struggle is for democracy. And that is to be waged with all enthusiasm. Once democracy has been secured, if the Madhesi people have to wage another struggle for their just rights, so be it. Rights are not given as gifts, they are earned. A country can not ignore half of its population for long.

Changing the structure of the state is the only way out. The country will have to adopt a federal structure. That is the only way to address the Madhesi issue, he said.

There is no solution without a Constituent Assembly, he said. So far we have only had "given" constitutions, documents that were handed down. The Nepali people have never had the opportunity to write their own constitution.

We will not accept a 1980-like scenario where the king and his men get to organize a referendum. That was a show for the outside world. The elections were fraudulent.

The two guns, army and Maoists, will have to be taken care of before elections to a Constituent Assembly can take place. The army will have to go back to the barracks. And the Maoists will have to lay down their weapons. Elections will have to be free and fair. People should be able to caste their votes without fear.

I asked him if his fellow democrats in the Congress and the UML are as strong on the idea of a Constituent Assembly as he is, and he said the UML has already moved towards the idea whereas the Congress camp was less clear on the issue, but they might be coming around to it after 2/1. They need to come into the open.

I asked him about the Badri Mandal faction of the Sadbhavana. Both claim to be democratic parties, and both claim to fight for Madhesi rights, but they are split, why? And he said the two factions have two very different characters. The Mandal faction is like the RPP, a pro-Monarchy force, but that his faction was for the people and democracy. He claimed the palace was responsible for the split in the first place. There was "penetration." The palace recognized that other faction as the real Sadbhavana even before the Election Commission had a chance to come out with their decision.

He constantly stressed the need for all the foreign powers to stay the course and keep the pressure on the junta in Kathmandu. The Nepali king has murdered democracy while claiming he is going after the Maoists and corruption. No country should give any kind of military aid because if they do that will be like being on the side of autocracy and the Nepali people will not be able to forgive. Instead the foreign powers should stand on the side of the Nepali people.

He did mention that the international reaction to date was commendable. But he feared the clever talk on the part of the regime might sway them to a changed stance. That would be disastrous. The pressure has to be kept on and increased. If the international support for democracy continues, the country will soon have it. But if the foreign powers go easy on the regime, the struggle for democracy will end up lasting longer, which would be a tragedy, a waste.

I asked what he felt about the statement by Tulsi Giri that according to the constitution the emergency will be lifted at the end of April. What constitution, he asked. This king chewed up the constitution that the country had. The document has been shredded in deed and in spirit. Is this the Constitutional Monarch that the constitution talked about? No. This is very much an Active Monarch.

All the democratic, revolutionary forces will be part of the interim government once it takes shape.

I asked what if the Maoists change course mid-stream and go back to their dream of a one party communist rule. He said the democrats are alert on that topic, and have been stressing to the Maoists that they need to come out more openly for a multi-party framework.

They will have to give up arms, he said. What if they instead ask to be integrated into the army, I asked. We will follow whatever international norms dictate, and more than one option is on the table, he said.

Mahto can be reached by email at rmahto@hotmail.com
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Comrade Ramesh Nath Pandey And World Revolution


Ramesh Nath Pandey: “The future of democracy, peace and stability of India and the entire region and ultimately democracy in the world is at stake because of the Maoist insurgency.”

He has made this statement in various permutations over weeks. One can understand the compulsions of this King G stooge. He is trying to get the major powers to lift their sanctions on military aid, and otherwise normalize things with the junta, but such outlandish statements!

Some other outlandish comments have been made by others in the gang. I think it was Giri who said the leaders might be released but that does not mean they will not be tried for corruption. Another minister claimed guidelines had been provided to the media, but that does not amount to censorship. Yet another claimed leaders had been arrested "for their own safety."

These outlandish statements are symptoms. They show this regime has lost its compass from day one.

In The News Today
  • Pakistan extends olive branch to Nepal: New Kerala, India Islamabad's offer has come as no surprise.In October of 1999, army chief Pervez Musharraf himself led a coup against Pakistan's democratic government before anointing himself president...... Even the United Nations has slammed King Gyanendra's move to muzzle democracy...... India won't be charmed by Islamabad's growing clout in Katmandu ..... landlocked Nepal cannot ignore India's wishes for long ..... Many Nepalese compare Gyanendra's style to that of his autocratic father, King Mahendra, who staged a coup in 1960.
  • Pakistan offers arms to Nepal Daily Times .....a move that could upset India and Britain ..... Nepal which needs anything from boots for its 80,000 soldiers to helicopters
  • International spotlight on Nepal ISN India and the US will not cede influence in Nepal too easily to Japan and China ..... The Maoist rebels' demands have shifted since 1996, but their insistence on the removal of the monarchy's power has remained constant...... Nepal's weak economy and geographic position make it largely irrelevant to the global economy ...... In 1994, Prime Minister Koirala quit his post after defeat in parliamentary vote, beginning the current period of political instability....... King Gyanendra quickly demonstrated that he would use the throne to dominate political debate, interjecting and disrupting the process whenever he disagreed ......most Nepalese appear to feel trapped between the two warring parties, neither of which has their support ...... Deuba was given a Herculean task of bringing in opposition parties into the political fold, ending the Maoist insurgency and laying the ground work for elections to be held this year ...... the rebels favor a single-party, communist system of government ...... the Nepali public has demonstrated its discontent with the sacking of the government ..... The blockades have proven an effective tactic for undermining the government, but they are highly unpopular with the public and often require a high casualty rate for the rebels. The decision to end this blockade was not based on a weakening of resolve, but was a tactical decision. ...... India's own Maoist rebels, the Naxalites, have proven to be an intransient threat in half a dozen Indian states ...... the government's military will run out of ammunition in two months at the current usage rate ...... The king, so far, has proved unwilling to bend...... Japan announced that it would extend a US$17 million grant to Nepal for food and development assistance after the US and India pulled their aid. The grant will free up funds for Kathmandu to spend on military outlays. This is a move to gain influence on China's southwestern border, an attempt to contain Beijing's "peaceful rise" on the western front. ...... emerging conflict between the US and China and the rivalry between Japan and China ...... Should the king hold out for much longer, the US and India would likely push for a UN role in the country, an action that Japan would likely go along with...... a new geopolitical realignment
  • King’s men free Deuba, 18 leaders in Nepal Indian Express .....to deflect some of international criticism ...... Pandey was bluntly told by New Delhi that it would not be ‘‘business as usual’’ unless political detainees were freed......Nepal’s political parties have decided to start a ‘‘fill the prisons’’ movement on March 14 ...... Gyanendra’s regime is desperate for military assistance and had been giving in to some of the demands made by India.
  • Nepali FM says foreign policy to address Nepal's interests Xinhua
  • Major Nepal parties gear up for massive anti-King protests: New Kerala, India The party neither has any plan to go underground nor to be exiled, but to challenge the authoritarian rule by going to the street
  • Amnesty to take on Nepal at UN rights meet Indo-Asian News Service
  • Maoists abduct Nepal scribe Rediff
  • Nepal: Human rights concerns for the 61st Session of the UN ... ReliefWeb (press release), Switzerland The Commission should call on the Government of Nepal to allow the United Nations to deploy human rights monitors throughout the country...... Both parties have engaged in systematic human rights abuses and violations of international humanitarian law with impunity...... in 2003 and 2004, Nepal recorded the highest number of new cases of "disappearances" in the world ......Because the constitution does not allow the King's actions to be challenged in court, Nepal's population is effectively at the mercy of the security forces, which have a history of widespread and serious violations of human rights....... the parties sign a Human Rights Accord that would allow for independent and professional investigations into alleged human rights violations ...... support the NHRC's work as an independent, effective, and legitimate institution ....... The Nepalese judiciary lacks independence, professionalism, training and resources. .......
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Thursday, March 10, 2005

If The Basic Rights Were Restored


The hot news today is that the King G administration might restore civil liberties. It is bound to do so by the end of April, but that it might do so earlier. First, do we believe the statement? What is the timeline? When exactly is that to be done? Why are the ministers not being specific? What does the king mean when he says some not all emergency measures will be lifted? Either you restore all basic freedoms or you don't. I am seeing too much doublespeak. Besides, Nepal might simply be responding to international pressure. Perhaps they are testing the waters, as to how much they have to let go to tempt the donors into believing all is fine now, and so go on ahead with the aid. Personally I have a hard time believing Ramesh Nath Pandey, a total whack of a guy who has recently made outlandish comments suggesting there was only one thing standing between the Maoists and their takeover of India and the world: the king of Nepal.

Should it happen, that will mean politicians like Girija Koirala and Madhav Kumar Nepal will be released. Press freedom will be restored. People and parties will be free to organize protest rallies. Those who have sought refuge in India will be able to come back. Human rights activists and organizations will get back to work, and there might be a renewed attempt to get the Royal Nepali Army and the Maoists to sign the Human Rights Accord.

That would be a major, positive step. But then we will have to move on to the next question. What gives this cabinet its legitimacy? Are these people more qualified? If so, how? What exactly in their plan to seek peace with the Maoists?

I continue to believe, even if the fundamental rights are restored, there is no way out except to create an all-party government that includes the Maoists, that goes on to conduct elections to the Constituent Assembly.

In The News Today
  • Nepal Sends Envoy to Explain Emergency Rule to Donor Nations Bloomberg ..... International donations fund 62 percent of Nepal's development budget...... Nepal is one of the poorest in the world with 42 percent of people living below the poverty line and 80 percent of them relying on agriculture for a livelihood...... King Gyanendra said he imposed emergency rule to prevent the ``fragmentation'' of the country .....Nepali Congress yesterday called on party members to stay in Nepal and take part in a civil disobedience movement to protest the state of emergency
  • Civil liberties to be restored soon in Nepal Indian Express
  • Nepal stops activist boarding plane to US Sify Dhungana said he had been invited by the University of California in Berkley to speak at conference related to the king's power grab and declaration of emergency rule, which suspended civil liberties...... Under the emergency rule provisions, Nepalese citizens are forbidden from making comments critical of the king's takeover......Rights groups say more than 400 activists are in detention or under house arrest......But Nepal's royal-appointed foreign minister, Ramesh Nath Pandey, said in New Delhi that "very few people are in detention."
  • Nepal Says to Restore Rights, Frees Prisoners Reuters ....the king planned to revoke some of the tough emergency measures he has imposed.
  • NEPAL: Vaccination and other health drives to continue Reuters AlertNet, UK .....the concept of vaccination as a child right, and the campaign to date has been supported by both sides in the conflict.....the Maoists may call another nationwide strike blockade on 14 March ....Around every second Nepali child is stunted and malnourished.....The Nepal Vitamin A Programme started initially in just eight districts in 1993. By 2002, it had expanded to all 75 districts in the country.
  • NEPAL: Impact of conflict on food security Reuters AlertNet Kalikot, Humla, Mugu, Dolpa, and Jumla are some of the country's most neglected districts within Karnali province. Here, malnutrition is the major cause of death and villagers have a long history of chronic food shortages and periodic famines......Karnali Air, the only company allowed to transport food utilising its helicopters, was asked by the security force not to airdrop, fearing that supplies would fall into the hands of the rebels.....The plants are worth more than US $5,000 per kilo in China and India but now they are forced to exchange the precious plants for basic foods......In a country of 25 million, nearly 10 million have to cope with food shortages.
  • Pandey hints at early end to Emergency Himalayan Times
  • World Bank freezes Nepal aid Times of India
  • Nepali military torturing politicians, say leaders taking refuge ... Express Newsline .... Nepali political leaders who managed to escape to New Delhi fearing hostile action by King Gyanendra's administration, have alleged that Nepali military was illegally detaining and torturing leaders back home. The allegation from the leaders-on-exile assumes significance as it came hours before new Nepali Foreign Minister Ramesh Nath Pandey arrives in New Delhi.......Rambaran Yadav, senior leader in Koirala's Nepali Congress and a former health minister, said the military was on rampage and many of their leaders were being picked up and beaten mercilessly....... Yadav said three prominent pro-democracy activists in Jhapa in the country's eastern belt, Sudhir Shiva Koti and Udhav Thapa, both of the Nepali Congress, and a regional trade union leader Deepak Taman were tortured nearly to death by armymen....... All of the three leaders were taken into a military camp, laid down on a trench and beaten badly by the armymen with ice cold water being poured over them all through. ...... The men were beaten nearly to death. The military is torturing people and we have no control over anything. Even five to 10 people gathering at a place are arrested and tortured ..... Mahant Thakur, Nepal's former information minister, who also fled to India last week, added that it was not just the politicians but common people as well who are bearing the brunt of army atrocities....... The soldiers, he said, often barge into homes and misbehave with women ...... as for the political leaders, the establishment simply cannot stand them ..... The way the foreign minister of such a country should be treated, I urge the government of India to treat the visiting foreign minister in the same vein .....
  • Health of detainees in Nepal beginning to deteriorate: rights ... Designerz.com .....at least 450 people have been detained ..... some of the political detainees were suffering from diabetes, heart problems, typhoid, fever and other ailments.... health checkups were being done by health assistants rather than doctors or specialists ......detained activists and political leaders -- some in their 80s -- want access to newspapers, radio and television, telephone connections and contact with people outside their immediate family ..... Narhari Acharya, Laxman Ghimire, Gopali Raj Pahadi, Gopal Rai, Madhu Acharya, and former Kathmandu mayor Haribol Bhattarai.
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Sunday, March 06, 2005

News Clips: March 6 to 9


March 9
  • Let's meddle in Nepal Sify, India .....there are 9.9 million Nepali speakers in Nepal compared to six million in India ..... as a consequence of the “Maoist” insurgency states that since January 2003 the number of Nepalis entering India has been over 2,000 persons a day ..... So, whatever the king of Nepal and the India-baiting Nepali upper class might have to say, what happens in Nepal is very much our business...... Within India, in North Block, there is much information available about the “business” activities of Gyanendra: suffice to say that several of his Indian business associates are quite dubious, to say the least....... In the small political spectrum occupied by dictatorships, a despotic and kleptocratic monarchy is about the most wretched and deserves zero tolerance...... the CPN (M) is really an extreme nationalist group like the Sri Lankan Janatha Vimukhti Perumuna (JVP) ..... This leaves us just with a motley bunch of broad-based political parties and crooked politicians to support....... Democracy comes with a heavy baggage of deadweight ..... withdrawing all assistance to the RNA and putting a tight control on all material entering Nepal. The Nepal establishment has played the China card for far too long and we should leave them the option of getting their supplies from Tibet...... The Nepal Maoists could, likewise, play a historically useful role by ridding Nepal of a hated king and an anachronistic monarchy. Thus, the first priority is to get rid of Gyanendra and gang. A reformist regime and military force can then force the CPN (M) into the mainstream.
  • Nepal: Grim alternatives Rediff .....Maoists entrenched in roughly three-fourths of Nepal's total territory ..... The prospects of nurturing an indigenous political party in Nepal, which would swear by democracy and yet oppose the Maoists, is likely to grow dimmer in the aftermath of the recent developments...... That negotiations with them have collapsed occasion after occasion is directly attributable to their insistence that the starting point of any arrangement to establish viable peace in the country must be abolition of the monarchy...... Baburam Bhattarai, had his education in north Indian universities. He wrote in the late 1970s a doctoral dissertation for the Jawaharlal Nehru University, The Nature of Underdevelopment and Regional Structure of Nepal: A Marxist Analysis...... Bhattarai's book describes in frightening detail the grim nature of inequality in land distribution in Nepal......Should Nepal be overrun by the Maoists, the pressure to democratise Bhutan and dissolve its absolute monarchy would be unbearable......The American intrusion can perhaps be avoided if the government of India stands aside and encourages Nepal's traditional parties to come to an understanding with the Maoists on the basis of an agreed programme which underwrites the multi-party democratic process. Such an understanding will immediately sound the death knell for monarchy, and even the Americans will not dare to intervene.
  • Maoist insurgency in Nepal Financial Express.bd .....a month of peculiar political crisis .....It is virtually impossible to sweep through the mountainous countryside. So the army remains confined to the cities and district headquarters...... the Maoist strength in the country includes 95,000 armed guerrillas and 25,000 potential fighters who can be armed as needed and 14000 political activists .....That pits 50,000 soldiers deployed outside Kathmandu against a rebel fighting force of some 35,000, most of them poorly armed but invisible and very effective as fighters......The military actions may contribute to the possibility of a Maoist victory.
  • Report: Nepal backed anti-Maoist rampage: New Kerala, India .....Reports are emerging from Nepal the government condoned a week-long deadly rampage against Maoist rebels, the BBC said Tuesday...... 700 homes were burned and about 30 people lynched on suspicion of being Maoist rebels by mobs sanctioned by the army ..... the army soon after handed back the trio to the crowd and they were beaten to death
  • At least 300 arrested in anti-monarchy protests in Nepal: New Kerala .....50 people in Kathmandu, 35 in Tanahu, 14 in Chitwan, 137 in Dhanusha, 24 in Pokhara and 7 in Dhangadhi
  • Anti-monarchy protest launched in Nepal Kansas City Star, MO .....the first time opposition parties put together a serious demonstration against the king's emergency rule.... Anti-monarchy protests rallies were held in most of southern cities and towns along Nepal's border with India..... In Janakpur, a city 185 miles southeast of Katmandu, police arrested more than 130 protesters.
  • Police deployed to block planned Kathmandu rally Taipei Times
  • International court alerted on Nepal rights abuse: New Kerala, India Fourteen human rights and academic groups in Asia have jointly alerted the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague and its state parties to "grave human rights violations in Nepal that could amount to crimes against humanity"......Reports of attacks, arrests, torture, extra-judicial killings, rape and forced disappearances are alarming......The groups demanded that the government of Nepal and the insurgent Maoists put an immediate end to arbitrary detention, torture and extra-judicial killings......The 14 groups include the AHRC, FORUM-ASIA in Thailand, the Asian Network for the International Criminal Court, the Bangladesh Coalition for the International Criminal Court, Odhikar from Bangladesh, the Cambodia Human Rights and Development Association, the East Timor People's Action, the Women's Research and Action Group in India, the Institute for Policy Research and Advocacy in Indonesia, Minbyun - Lawyers for a Democratic Society in South Korea and the Pakistan Coalition on the International Criminal Court.
  • REGION: India says Nepal crisis can spill over Daily Times, Pakistan .....was in touch with other nations to develop a coordinated response to King Gyanendra’s power seizure .....rapidly “deteriorating” economic and security situation ..... India’s comments that Gyanendra’s move had “served to only deepen the crisis facing Nepal” ......Pandey did not explain how Nepal planned to end the insurgency and bring back democracy ..... “Either support the king to restore peace or support the terrorists who propose a one-party communist dictatorship,” Pandey told the Times of India .....“The future of democracy, peace and stability of India and the entire region and ultimately democracy in the world is at stake because of the Maoist insurgency.”
  • Royalist party in Nepal demands restoration of political freedom: New Kerala, India .....thousands of activists belonging to five political parties rallied against the royal takeover ......Two of the coalition partners have joined the pro-democracy agitation and two others -- RPP and Nepal Sadbhavana Party (B) have stayed away from it.
  • No early end to Nepal emergency BBC News ......The state of emergency in Nepal could remain in force until the end of April according to the country's constitution ......The Nepalese constitution requires the emergency to be ratified by a two-thirds majority in the lower house of parliament within three months of its imposition.....Nepal plans to relax curbs on civil rights gradually
  • Unrest slows Nepal tourism Bangkok Post, Thailand ....media reports, which show that the majority of Nepalese are against the king's decision to take absolute power .....enjoyed the nature and rice culture ..... "March and April are the best months to visit Nepal"
  • World Bank freezes Nepal aid Times of India, India ......a meeting of the World Bank's executive board in Washington DC, which had summoned Ohashi for a briefing on the Nepal situation..... A Bank statement issued in Washington and Kathmandu
  • Japan grants aid to Nepal urging restoration of democracy: New Kerala Other major donors, including the US and those from the European Union, have set preconditions for continuing aid to Nepal and demanded lifting of emergency and restoration of democracy before they provide any economic assistance.
  • Nepal arrests 200 at anti-government rally: New Kerala, India ......a small but significant rally Tuesday
  • Nepalese waiting for a democracy leader Seattle Post Intelligencer .....Nepal is waiting for a charismatic politician who can deliver them both leadership and democracy......we are going from bad to worse ......On the bright side, citizens say that in government offices, where plainclothes security officers assist people, there are no delays or demands for bribes...... streets now become deserted as evening sets in. Shops and restaurants have been ordered to close by 9 p.m......donor nations are cutting back aid, driving Nepal to the edge of bankruptcy ......"We need a leader like Ganesh Mansingh, or Madan Bhandari."
  • Nepal offers buy three and get one free offer for Indians Deepika, India
  • Nepal loses 43 percent visitors since royal coup: New Kerala
  • US urges Nepal not to arrest protesters: New Kerala, India ....."The way forward to defeat the Maoist insurgency is clear: a political process open to all who wish to participate peacefully," he said, adding that should be combined with a determined effort to bring to justice those who use terror or violence to advance their goals.
  • Nepal: Time to act - State-sponsored mob violence unleashed in ... ReliefWeb (press release), Switzerland ...... The army-orchestrated burning of hundreds of homes and lynching of about 30 alleged Maoists .....The violence and subsequent tension around the destruction of the Babri mosque in 1992; organised attacks on Muslims in Bombay during 1993; and attempted genocide of local Muslim populations by the state government of Gujarat in 2002 ..... In Indonesia the unleashing of anti-communist mobs by the military caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people in that country during the 1960s......In Sri Lanka the mob violence against the Tamil population living in Colombo during the 'Black July' of 1983 is well known. Much of the extreme political bloodshed that was to come in the subsequent years had its origin in the horrors of that time. In May 2003 the military regime in Burma deployed mobs to brutally attack a convoy of democracy supporters in the north of the country .....Through destruction, a type of authoritarian anarchy prevails. Nepal is on that path. ......Nepal is descending into an abyss of violence from which there will be no easy return .....has been plunged into this situation by the mindless actions of its dictatorial king and his accomplices
March 6
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