Subscriberís copy #184 20 - 26 February 2004 24 pages Rs 25 Cute cars Kathmandu The 3rd NADA Auto Show 2004 is underway at the BICC till Sunday. braces for a Among the sleek cars on exhibit are all the latest model sedans and SUVs. But springtime of three cute cars need special mention: Democrazy Nepal’s very own Sherpa light commercial vehicles, India’s road queen unrest the Ambassador, and the tried and trusted rear-engined Volkswagen Beetle. The Sherpa is made by Hulas Motors in Biratnagar and has launched Nepal into the list of countries with its own automobile industry.Cube International is importing the newest model Ambassadors to Nepal and promoting them as ideal taxis. The 4th Great Himalayan VW Beetle Rally kicks off on 13 March, with money raised going to cleft palate surgery. Read all about these great cars on p 12-13. Weekly Internet Poll # 124 Q. Do you think King Gyanendra overstepped the bounds of a constitutional monarch with the royal address in Nepalganj? Government supporters at the statue of King Tribhuban Thursday shouted pro-monarchy slogans. Later in the afternoon, political parties also marked Democracy Total votes:2,130 Day by shouting anti-king slogans. Weekly Internet Poll # 125. To vote go to: www.nepalitimes.com KIRAN PANDAY Q. Do you agree the extradition of two senior Maoists indicates New Delhis policy shift? KHADGA SINGH However, this week, several The Maoist campaign of sabotage late last year in an operation that district level cadres from the UML, and assassinations in the capital come also yielded a large quantity of he Maoists are still able to set Nepali Congress and RPP have been as King Gyanendra himself continues weapons and explosives. The off big bangs in the capital, gunned down in various parts of the his whirlwind tour of the Maoist Maoists blamed captured cadre T and assassinate people they country. The Maoists had pledged heartland. In what is obviously the who gave away information on dont like, but times are getting that they wouldnt target political palaces new public relations drive, hideouts, safe houses and secret tougher for the rebels. parties and this has cast doubts on television news have been showing arms caches in the capital. The Maoists faced an their credibility. The latest killings the people spontaneously greeting The five-party alliance, still unprecedented barrage of criticism are bound to further widen the gap the monarch in areas the Maoists smarting from the kings blunt from Nepali and international between the parties and the Maoists. regard as their dens. rebukes against them in the human rights organizations and Meanwhile, civilian casualties In an interview with the BBC Nepalganj address, used political parties for the murder of caused by Maoist booby traps are Nepali Service from somewhere in Democracy Day on Thursday to peace activist Ganesh Chiluwal on on the rise. Even if these attacks were India, Maoist spokesman Krishna relaunch their agitation, Sunday. The leadership appears to not deliberate, the end result is that Bahadur Mahara this week took a announcing be taken aback by the extent and at least ten civilians have been killed softer line than usual, but insisted a new phase Editorial p2 tone of condemnation and the rebels this week alone by carelessly laid that the republic demand was still of protests to Whats the point? are in damage control mode. Maoist roadside bombs, grenades on: We are prepared to accept a force the king to restore parliament. After the morale-hitting and socket devices in Kabhre, Jhapa democratic and multi-party Party demonstrators at Ratna Park extradition of two top leaders from and Surkhet. republic. on Wednesday were instructed to India earlier this month, the Maoists There have also been civilian The Maoist attacks in the Valley keep their anti-monarchy slogans appear to be reassessing their strategy. casualties at the hands of the army: have been carried out by a brand new mild and not to provoke violence. Student leaders have called off a five- in the latest incidents, soldiers Valley Team headed by senior However, some students day banda scheduled for next week, gunned down three youngsters guerrilla leader Top Bahadur immediately began chanting pro- saying they empathise with the collecting roadside donations on Rayamajhi. The previous rebel cells republic slogans and demanded a peoples hardships. Shivaratri in Chitwan. were decimated by army intelligence more radical line. l 2 EDITORIAL 20 - 26 FEBRUARY 2004 #184 Published by Himalmedia Pvt Ltd, Chief Editor: Kunda Dixit Desk Editors: Trishna Gurung, Jemima Sherpa Design: Kiran Maharjan Web: Bhushan Shilpakar Advertising: Sunaina Shah [email protected] Subscription: Anil Karki, [email protected] Sanchaya Kosh Building, Block A-4th Floor, Lalitpur Colombia and Nepal GPO Box 7251, Kathmandu, Nepal Tel: 01-5543333-6, Fax: 01-5521013 [email protected], www.nepalitimes.com Printed at Jagadamba Press, Hatiban: 01-5547018 Countries once famous for coffee and mountains WHAT S THE POINT? he errors made and land ownership, inequality, ’ T opportunities lost in resolving injustice, corruption, impunity GUEST COLUMN Nepals war bear many re- and poverty are not addressed. ith each passing day in this terrible conflict, one wonders if the Karin Eichelkraut W two sides are competing to see who can punish the people more. semblances to the early part of the Some 500 Colombian The Maoists blast a bus in Sindhupalchok. Six passengers are conflict in my own country, landowners occupy 45 percent of killed, the arm and head of a 14-year-old boy are found 100m away. Colombia. Nepal used to be known the countrys cultivable land. More students and union leaders were Children are killed by roadside bombs on their way to school. The Maoist for its great mountains and gentle than half the Colombians live arrested and there were widespread website ‘takes credit’ for the murder of Ganesh Chiluwal. Take credit for people, but that image is changing. below the poverty line, 80 percent human rights violations throughout killing a man committed to non-violence, a victim of violence himself—just the 1970s and 80s. because he diagrees with your methods? Colombia used to be known for in rural areas. The annual income Security forces surround a house in Makwanpur on a tip-off and coffee, today it is known for the of the wealthiest 10 percent of The deteriorating economy apparently mow down everyone inside. And on Wednesday, when there was world record it holds for gross Colombians is 42 times that of the opened the door for the narcotics full-scale conventional warfare in progress in Mudbara with air support and violations of human rights. poorest 10 percent. Although the trade, making the guerrillas and drug artillery, the rest of the army was on Tundikhel simulating helicopter-borne There are economy has done well, it is lords initial allies. But as they grew assault on a mud hut. What were 20 violent inequality more than poverty that richer and more powerful, the drug onlookers outside the fence supposed to think? deaths per day in is a cause of the violence. lords began to resemble the If the political parties ever trusted Colombia, and Colombias conflict dates back oligarchs. The cash-starved guerrillas the Maoists’ pledge not to target their the toll in Nepal to the late 1940s, when FARC started extortion and kidnapping of workers, after this week’s murders they is coming up to (Armed Revolutionary Forces of landowners and their relatives. In won’t do so again. that level. There Colombia) first emerged from a order to defend themselves, the We are now in the same notorious landlords created paramilitary league as Guatemala or Colombia for are more than group of peasants fighting for land human rights violations. If the military two million reform. During the 1960s more groups, which grew into a brutal and the guerrillas can’t stop fighting, displaced guerrilla groups came out. The force during the 1980s involved in they can at least pledge to fight by the people in upper classes were alarmed and so social cleansing: the elimination of rules. Signing the human rights accord Colombia, was the United States. real or suspected drug addicts, ex- would mean ensuring that innocent Nepal is getting The government first tried convicts, thieves, criminals, Nepalis who do not agree with this slaughter and want no part in it, are not there. Colombia violent eradication during the mid prostitutes, homosexuals, beggars harmed. is proof of how 1960s, by allowing the military to and street children. A civil society The Maoist leadership must now badly things can arm civilians, which is what the that shared these interests tolerated acknowledge that the path of armed go wrong in a Nepal government is now doing. the excesses. struggle they embarked on eight years country. Successive presidents ruled under By the 1990s, the spiral of vio- ago has degenerated into mayhem and lence had gone out of control violence. All this has achieved in eight Equally a state of emergency for over two years is militarise the country and important: it decades, giving the military more leading to a culture of violence in spread misery. It has strengthened the shows how power and cutting civil liberties. society. Moral values declined, army, tripled its budget in three years. badly things can The military budget soared and so media turned to sensationalism and It’s time for the comrades and the go wrong in any did foreign financial aid, training bias, and aggression and intolerance generals to ask themselves: what is the country when and hardware for the armed forces. became common. Today, 85 percent point? GOING FOR THE SPREE, ACRYLIC ON LOKTA PAPER root causes of Freedom of press was restricted, of violent deaths in Colombia are BY KARIN EICHELKRAUT L ETTERS BIG GULF there an original, immediate, MEDIOCRE Maoists for the current state of the money and market share when the I flew from Kathmandu to Abu socially responsive and socially I used to admire and respect country, shouldn’t media also take country is in such a grave Dhabi last Saturday night in a responsible intervention to support Daman Nath Dhungana as a responsibility? On top of this, situation.