HIMALAYAN MOUNTAIN BIKE RACE SERIES p8-9
Ashmina Ranjit in Japan p15 #119 15 - 21 November 2002 16 pages Rs 25
EXCLUSIVE Mahara on CNN Chief Maoist negotiator in the failed peace talks last year, Krishna Bahadur Mahara, spoke on camera to CNN from an unspecified hideout. Mahara flatly denies the Maoists are recruiting children and Peaceniks on warpath killing civilians, and tries to use the Activists launch campaign against military aid to Nepal. deadlock between the king and the survived after winning a confidence vote in political parties to his The reverberations of the conflict are no August, but the weapons will not be advantage. Highlights: BHAGIRATH YOGI ○○○○○○○○ ○○○○○○○○○○○○ armed insurgency in 1996 lead us to the Are you terrorists: more confined to Nepali hills and valleys. supplied until after Belgium’s parliamentary ore than 600 people, mostly western opposite conclusion,” claimed the ANHS. “We are a political Buoyed by increasingly convergent world elections in November. force and do not scholars and peace activists based in The Association of Nepal and The association has posted the petition on opinion against terrorism, former prime the web (www.petitiononline.com/ support terrorism. We Mthe US and Europe, have signed a minister Sher Bahadur Deuba travelled to Himalayan Studies (ANHS) at a one-day demonepa/petition.html) for signatures. condemn all types petition urging US lawmakers to stop militaryWashington and London in May this year conference, “War on Terrorism: War as of terrorism. This “It is our considered view that military aid to Nepal. Dozens of Nepali rights activists seeking military assistance. Terrorism” at the University of Wisconsin’s is a people’s and development workers have also aid will not help bring about a negotiated Nearly a month after South Asia Centre on 12 October adopted a movement, a people’s war. It is a people’sjoined in. petition to be sent to the United States settlement, but instead deepen and prolong an force. We are not terrorists and that is the London meeting of donors already devastating civil war. Rather than clear.” to Nepal (June 19-20), the government calling for a halt to the planned military aid. The petitioners said the aid increase the chances for Nepal to achieve a Why do you recruit children: “We British government announced an aid have no children in our fighting force. We “could resolve nothing and would do untoldpeaceful functioning do not admit anyone below 18 in our army. package of £ 6.5 million to procure two harm both to innocent Nepalis and to the democracy in the This is a baseless allegation.” helicopters as well as provide training and prospects for a political resolution to the foreseeable future, Editorial p2 Why do you kill civilians: “The other logistics for the Royal Nepal Army. insurgency.” such aid will only Reaction and allegation of Maoists killing civilians is The Bush administration announced in In its 2 August 2002 decision, the US aggravate the present also false. In fact the government is conflict, leaving Nepal andrevolution the region to cope responsible for all those killings.” August that it would provide a supple- government said the $20 million emergency with unintended repercussions and untold Prospects for talks: “The reason the mental $20 million as military aid to “supplemental funding” would force the suffering far into the future,” says the ANHS. government is opposing talks is that it is Nepal to buy “non-lethal” equipment andMaoists to decide that a military victory is not preparing for a full-fledged war. If the services for the army. possible and that negotiations provide the best Those who signed the petition come from government agrees to a political solution, a wide spectrum. Interestingly, their diversity is we are even ready for a ceasefire.” But things don’t seem to be moving hope for realising their goals. The petitioners do not agree. “Our collective experience in reflected not only in their understanding of the Prospects for peace: “The whole exactly the way Nepal would like. There has issue, but also in the way they lobby for a world is putting pressure for peace talks, the study of Nepali society and our close been reaction against military aid to Nepal. “noble” cause. There are many names and then an interim government. In such a Belgian Health Minister Magda Aelvoet attention to the course of events since the situation, the king does not have any other commencement of the CPN (Maoist)’s recognised in Nepal as scholars of experience, possibility but to take these talks forward.” resigned over the proposed sale of 5,500 and also a few who seemd to have “walked” automatic rifles to Nepal. The government into the website and signed on. of Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt see p6
responsible political system landed him a 14-month prison sen- tence. Shaha never served in a public post after that, but became Weekly Internet Poll # 59 Rishikesh Shaha,prolific as77 a scholar. He was a visiting professor at the Jawaharlal Q. Which of the following offers the best solution to Nehru University and Regent’s Professor at the University of the present political impasse: Nepal’s scholar-statesman Rishikesh Shaha died Thursday shortly after Calfornia at Berkeley. His books, mostNepali notably, Politics: Retrospect and Prospect, Essays in the Practice of Govern- DEEPAK THAPA had visited him and written this tribute. We print this piecement in Nepal and Modern Nepal: A Political have History in the present tense to keep Shaha’s memory alive. become standard reference works, whileIntroduction his to Nepal and Heroes and Builders of provide Nepal perhaps here is something particularly winsome about an ailing old man lightingthe bestup and introduction to the country. giving you a smile of welcome. That is how Rishikesh Shaha greets you when you Rishikesh Shaha’s deep commitment to the issue of enter his room. After the initial shock of seeing how wasted he looks, the first thing personal freedom was evident when he founded and led Tthat strikes you is the dhaka topi that somehow remains perched on his head even in the Human Rights Organisation of Nepal in 1988; no repose. Then the sadness creeps over you as you realise that there lies a piece of Nepali mean feat during the authoritarian Panchayat days. He history, and he is dying of lung cancer. later left the organisation but did not relent in his own While working with Himal South, we Asian used to describe Rishikesh Shaha as personal crusade against injustice. Nepal’s scholar-statesman, and I doubt if there is any other Nepali who can shareIn recent that years, Shaha was accused of being an interim all-party government designation. Just look at his accomplishments. A founding member of the Nepal apologist for the Maoists because of his friendship constituent assembly elections Democratic Congress, one of the constituents which later became the Nepali Congress, reinstatement of parliament with Baburam Bhattarai, with whom he corre- he later sided with Dilli Raman Regmi in the Nepali National Congress, and was even none of the above sponded even after Bhattarai went underground. part of the People’s Front together with Tanka Prasad Acharya’s Praja Parishad and the But Shaha was also accused of being pro-absolute Total votes: 1,885 Communist Party of Nepal to oppose Nepali Congress policies. monarchy for asking the king to step since he believed Thereafter, he left for New York to set up Nepal’s permanent mission to Newthe politiciansYork in were ruining the country. Weekly Internet Poll # 60. To vote go to: www.nepalitimes.com 1956, and also served as the country’s first ambassador to the US. It is a measureBut heof hiswas above all a humanist, and a keen analyst of Q. Do you support US military aid to Nepal? stature in the world body that in 1961, he was appointed chairman of the international the Nepal’s political evolution. Writing in 1996, a couple of commission to investigate the death of Dag Hammarskjøld, the UN secretary-general who months after the “people’s war” began, Shaha said: “The died in a plane crash in the Congo. signs of an imminent legitimacy crisis are already visible in Shaha was brought back to Nepal in 1960 after King Mahendra’s takeoverNepal’s to serve fledgling as democracy, and the immateriality a cabinet minister. For the next couple of years, he was shunted around as accordedForeign to the civilian deaths in Rolpa is a foretaste of Minister, special ambassador to the UN and as chairman of the commissiondifficult to draft days the ahead.” Only a statesman with vision can
Panchayat constitution. Having won a Rastriya Panchayat seat from the graduates’foresee events so far into the future. MIN BAJRACHARYA constituency in 1967, his statement calling for a more representative and a more