Nepali Times in an Exclusive Interview
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www.nepalitimes.com #166 17 - 23 October 2003 16 pages Rs 25 Weekly Internet Poll # 106 Q. Who bears more responsibility to break the current political impasse? MANJUSHREE○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ THAPA Gorkhaland movement. I thought the government would also free four groups, in particular, dashed hopes that hutani civil rights activist Tek Nath Rizal was briefly jailed for submitting the Lhotsampas from the refugee camps. they might all someday return to their Rizal arrived in Kathmandu this the petition, which was deemed seditious. But 14 rounds of talks later, there has homeland. The four classes are: bonafide Total votes:1,315 week just as preparations got Upon release he came to Nepal to head the been no workable solution to the refugee Bhutani who may have been forcefully Tekunderway for the 15th round ofNath bilateral Peoples Forum for Humantakes Rights, but in crisis. The classification on of refugees intoThimpuevicted, Bhutani who emigrated, non- Weekly Internet Poll # 107. To vote go to: www.nepalitimes.com ministerial talks to end the refugee crisis. November 1989 the Panchayat government Bhutani, and Bhutani who have committed Q. Should overseas Nepalis be given extra incentives to BThe talks start next week in Thimpu. extradicted him to Bhutan. He was jailed criminal acts. invest in Nepal? Rizal is highly regarded in liberal under inhumane conditions for over a democratic circles for his struggle on behalf decade under a National Security Act continued ð p6 of 100,000 Bhutani refugees who have been promulgated three years after his arrest. In living in camps in eastern Nepal for the past 1993, a royal edict stated that Rizal would 12 years. Rizal was a National Assembly be released only once the refugee crisis was MIN BAJRACHARYA member for 17 years, and in Bhutans Royal solved. Yet, for reasons that remain unclear, Advisory Council where he was known for he was released in 1999. his stand against corruption. I was really very hopeful when the Rizals travails began in 1988, when he, government released me from jail, Rizal along with DP Bhandari, petitioned King told Nepali Times in an exclusive interview. Jigmi Singye Wangchuk about the discrimination against ethnic Nepali Lhotsampas in the census which was seen then as an attempt to curb the Lhotsampa Nepal extradited who made up 40-50 percent of the Bhutani political activist population. The Sharchops constituted some 40 percent and the Ngalops 20 Tek Nath Rizal to Thimpu percent. The Lhotsampas had been granted in 1989, but he is back citizenship in a 1958 royal edict, but Thimpu considered them dangerous not in Kathmandu to lobby just for their numbers, but also for their for the return of increasingly democratic politics, and their imagined or real affiliation with the fellow-refugees to their homeland. ENJOY Every Friday Nepali Times: Is it true that the government is preparing for elections? How do you assess the counter-insurgency operations of the The Sumptuous Barbecue Dinner Kamal Thapa: Yes, the government Missionis trying to create the basic environment impossible?security forces? at our illuminated Courtyard and Garden of security and hold the elections to local bodies. The army has not gone all out against the insurgents. But the security forces including the army have been significantly upgraded in terms of training, weapons, For Vegetarians How can elections be held when there is an insurgency going on? institutional strength and efficiency. The army will be more aggressive and Special Sish Kebabs and many more. It won’t take place right away. We certainly don’t claim that the environment is effective in the days to come to control Maoist violence, murder and terrorism. conducive to elections. But, we believe with adequate security, free and fair We will not work in a half-hearted manner, we will make security more effective. For Reservation: 552 1810 polls can be held as early as possible. Yet increased militarisation has brought complaints of human rights How early would that be? violations. I can’t say, we may have to wait some time. Because of the constitutional The security personnel have been working within the framework of the vacuum, we need to hold elections at the earliest. If everyone cooperates, we constitution. Even if there is no state of emergency, the anti-terrorism act is in will be able to hold it. force and the security apparatus is working within that legal framework. The But everyone is not cooperating. government is committed to respect human rights and the rights of citizens. We No democratic political party ever refuses to go to elections. We will try to will also take action if violations occur deliberately. But we must understand that convince the parties that we are trying to create conditions for polls to be held. the country is going through an extraordinary situation, and in such conditions Reinstatement of the house is not constitutionally possible, so the only abnormal things happen. alternative is elections. The government is criticised for not being able to use the executive But you have made the parties more defiant by making appointments to powers it claims it has. local governments. There is no truth in this charge. The government has been using all the It was the parties themselves who complained that the government should not Government spokesman executive powers enshrined in the constitution. There is no need to drag the have allowed bureaucrats to run local bodies. There was a political vacuum at Kamal Thapa is monarchy into controversy. The government bears full moral responsibility the local level, so we requested political parties and previous officials to confident he can fulfil for both good and bad. resume duties. This is only a temporary measure till we hold elections. the cabinets three But the appointments to constitutional bodies has not been made by the How can you win the support of the parties when you don’t even have the immediate priorities: king, and many people take this as proof that the king still calls the shots. backing of your own RPP? security, elections, and The appointments will take place in line with the constitution. Even if there has I am also the general secretary of the RPP, I can assure you the party does winning over parties. been any delay, it is not in defiance of the constitution. It must be due to some support the government. Excerpts of interview. technical reason. 17 - 23 OCTOBER 2003 2 EDITORIAL NEPALI TIMES #166 Nepali Times is published by Himalmedia Pvt Ltd, Chief Editor: Kunda Dixit STATE OF THE STATE by CK LAL Desk Editor: Trishna Gurung, Design: Kiran Maharjan Webmaster: Bhushan Shilpakar [email protected], www.nepalitimes.com Advertising: Sunaina Shah [email protected] Subscription: Anil Karki [email protected] Sales: Sudan Bista [email protected] Sanchaya Kosh Building, Block A-4th Floor, Lalitpur GPO Box 7251, Kathmandu, Nepal Tel: 01-5543333/ 5523845 Fax: 01-5521013 Printed at Jagadamba Press, Hattiban: 01-5547018/17 It is easier to instigate the masses against something than to ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ AUGHTER SLAUGHTER Thepersuade○○○○○○○○○○○○○ them wobbly to follow somebody. group Darely a month after children all over the country rang peace bells, a week n reporting human casualties, mainstream Totalitarian groups do not regard the Bukharin, at the bottom of his heart, after they celebrated a subdued Dasai with families, and just before sisters and brothers were getting ready to celebrate Tihar came the Anglo-Saxon journalism has a rule of masses as self-determining human beings. Its cherishes the hope of getting on, of growing horrific story of four school children killed in a Maoist-Army firefight in Doti. thumb: one American equals 10 Europeans not just the Old Regime of active monarchists rich. A pressure-cooker bomb is a shortcut What happened at the Sharada Higher Secondary School in Mudbhara on equals 1,000 Chileans equals 100,000 that treats its subjects as objects of royal to everything. Tuesday afternoon is symbolic of the utter waste of this conflict. No war is Rwandans. Judging from the coverage Nepal munificence. Even the pioneers of the New To ensure the acquiescence of other B Ihas started getting in the western press, we must Regime dont believe that we-the-people are groups, the Maoists have adopted methods are sane, but even by the senseless standards of these mad times, Mudhbara was a descent into hell. How many Doramabas, Mudbaras, Jogimaras do we need fall somewhere between the Chileans and capable of rationally deciding our own fate. For based on another axiom of political science: before we regain our senses? How many more Dipak Gurungs, Sushila Joshis, Rwandans. After eight years of insurgency and the top guns of the Maoists, the masses are its much easier to instigate the masses Harina Bhandaris, Yadunath Joshis, and Mandari BKs need to be killed before over 8,000 lives lost, we have now been subjects in a war that have to be taught to toe against something or someone than to they end this lunacy? officially discovered by the international the party line, or else. persuade them to follow some ideology or A human rights organisation has already returned from an on-site inspection media. The threat is rarely so explicit, but the somebody. The Maoists have intentionally in Doti, the army’s Human rights Cell will no doubt conduct its own investigation And their correspondents all have one message is seldom lost. It is like the Maoist left the outline of their New Regime vague, into this ‘collateral damage’, and the two sides bearing arms will predictably standard query: What proportion of Nepals with a grenade dangling from his belt who but they have very concrete plans about blame each other for provoking the firefight.