#73 21 - 27 December 2001 20 pages Rs 20 Exotic new year getaways 10-11 Sitar sudha 19

UNDER MY HAT 20 Rivers run through it

BINOD○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ BHATARAI line: who is calling the shots? Prime Minister ne month after the declaration of the Sher Bahadur Deuba has repeatedly assured state of emergency and an informa- the public that the government will use O tion blackout on the military’s emergency powers only against the Maoists, campaign against the Maoists, questions but the emergency automatically suspends civil arise about an exit strategy. rights including press freedoms. The Royal Constitutionally, the government needs Nepal Army has requested media to get to muster a two-thirds majority in reports, commentary and pictures on the war parliament by midnight 25 February to “fact-checked” before publication, while the extend the emergency by another three government says there are no restrictions Emergency Willexit declaring an months, and after that parliament can whatsoever. This week two journalists were decide to extend it for yet another six picked up from their homes at night on emergency prove months. But till then, what? When are we unspecified charges, and released more than 12 going to know that we don’t need the hours later. to be easier than emergency anymore? There are also reports of arrests in the “Our constitution deliberately limits districts, but the government hasn’t getting out of it? the duration of a state of emergency,” divulged who have been taken in and where Narahari Acharya of the Nepali Congress. they are being held. The human rights Acharya said Tuesday at a panel discussion organisation INSEC estimates as many as organised by Himal Khabarpatrika. Acharya 1,300 people may be in custody. “We’ve maintained that the country was still under not been able to verify the incident reports, civilian rule. “An emergency does not mean or question eyewitnesses,” Subodh Pyakurel martial law,” he added, “the constitution does of INSEC told us. “We don’t have access.” not allow that.” Official tallies show more than 80 Speaking at the same panel, Krishna Maoists and security personnel killed after Khanal, professor of political science at the emergency was declared on 26 Novem- Tribhuvan University, saw no visible presence ber. This does not include the estimated today of civil authority. “We don’t know how 250 killed between 23-26 November in free we are to speak out about what we see, Dang and Salleri. So far, 24 Royal Nepal and we also don’t see an exit from the Army soldiers have been killed in action and emergency,” he said. “There is danger of the another 58 wounded since the Maoist government finding it more comfortable to attacks in Dang. There is no independent work under an emergency, and larger parties verification of these casualties, or the also seeing their short-term interests secured numbers of wounded, from human rights by backing it.” groups or the International Committee of There is confusion about the do’s and the Red Cross (ICRC) which have no access don’ts of emergency regulations. The bottom to the front. The independent Human Rights member told us. like the detention of the two editors this Commission tried to do some fact-finding Shanker Pokhrel of the UML’s Rapti week will intimidate others. “This ulti- on Monday by inviting the Home and Zonal Committee, who is just back from mately calls into question the credibility of Editorial p2 Weekly Internet Poll # 13 Defence Secretary for a Q&A. The Dang, is concerned about the reliability of the civil government,” researcher Pratyoush Animated suspension Q. Do you think the government is doing a good job with news dissemination? Commission was concerned about emer- official reports of deaths on the frontline. Onta told the panel on Tuesday. Media Seira Tamang p6 gency medical equipment, hospitals in He asks: “How is such information going to commentator, CK Lal, was more worried Emergency soul-searching conflict zones which have rarely had doctors affect the credibility of the state and about self-censorship in media and how this Puskar Bhusal p7 in the past, and the security and wherea- democracy?” would undermine democracy. Politics as usual bouts of those arrested. “We were unable to Some critics say the media’s credibility get a satisfactory answer,” a Commission has already been compromised, and actions Go to p6 “This is not a Royal Army, but the Royal Nepalese Army.” Nepali Times brings the full transcript of the much talked-about interview of Chief Total votes: 1009 of Army Staff Prajwalla SJB Rana by Vijay Kumar broadcast by Nepal Television in its Dishanirdesh programme on Monday, 17 December. The army chief re-iterates that his goal is to disarm the Maoists and bring them back to the negotiating table. He also asks his own questions about the roots of the insurgency, and

whether or not the army should have been called out earlier. ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ Vijay Kumar: Now that the RNA is deployed against the Maoists, people away from the insurgency. say the army should have stepped in earlier? But the Maoists attacked Prajwalla S Rana: This question is now outdated, because in 1996 terrorist us unnecessarily, and we activity was only a spark. Now it has caused massive loss of life and na- had no other option but to tional property. After the RNA analysed the problem, it came to the respond and carry out our conclusion that the problem had grown into something that could affect duties. national security and today it has spread like wildfire. That is why we So the army deployment under the ISDP was a defensive posture? recommended to the government that the ISDP be implemented. If you look That is correct. at the terrorist problem now, it has spread nationwide. This is why if the army had not been deployed it would have threatened national security. The But after their attacks, the army is now also on the offensive. Would it have deployment is constitutional: it was done at the recommendation of the been easier to control the situation if we had been offensive before? council of ministers, and His Majesty the King, in accordance with the I have already told you that decision is of the government, whether we are to Constitution of Nepal Article 115 (1), declared a state of emergency and we be on the defensive or on the offensive. The army cannot take that decision on have now been ordered to this task. its own, based on its assessment, but has to obey the governmentís orders. They overran the Dang barrack and took our weapons. Now it is our duty to get Would things have not been as bad if the army had been deployed ear- the weapons back. A soldier loses prestige if he loses his weapons. This is lier? why we had to go on the offensive to retrieve our hardware. In my view if army had been deployed earlier, this situation may not have come. We have to be deployed in accordance with the constitution. We were So why did you wait to go on the offensive? deployed under the ISDP to implement development programs and provide It was the order of the government this time, we were ordered to get back the security to the citizens. So we moved into several districts, Rolpa, Rukum, weapons so we went on the offensive. We did not have a similar order before. Jajarkot, Salyan, Gorkha, etc. We had been deployed for development. Our goal was to win over the hearts and minds of the people and wean them Go to p4-5 222 EDITORIAL 21 - 27 DECEMBER 2001 NEPALI TIMES Nepali Times is published by Himalmedia Pvt Ltd, Chief Editor: Kunda Dixit Editor: Anagha Neelakantan Design: Swosti Rajbhandari, Kiran Maharjan [email protected], www.nepalitimes.com Advertising: Sunaina Shah, Anup Adhikary [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: 01-543333-7, Fax: 01-521013 Printed at Jagadamba Press: 01-521393 ANIMATED SUSPENSION Weíre not sure if anyone reads editorials anymore. There is a creeping sense of frustrating futility about pontificating from this pulpit. This is the moment of truth that all arm-chair analysts face: it is easy to be a critic, aloof and removed from responsibility, and raise a finger once a week to say: ìI say, lads, arenít you all making a bit of a mess of things?î It is much harder to be accountable than to call others to account. It is easier to give unsolicited advice than to make things work. At this time in our nationís history, many of us self-appointed guardians of public opinion have rather unquestioningly given up some of our liberties so that our future freedom will be guaranteed. This is so that the Royal Nepal Army can wage a war that will win a peace. You have to live through the night for the dawn. As the commander-in-chief argues in the interview with Vijay Kumar (translated on page 1,4-5) no military likes a civil war, the army does not get satisfaction killing fellow-Nepalis, but it has been given a job to do. And Gen Prajwol Rana says he is going to do it quickly, and with as few casualties as possible. But he knows as well as anyone else that a war alone will not bring peace. We have been asked not to ask how well or how badly the army is doing its job. Fair enough. But this is the Age of Infowar. In essence, the army and the Maoists are both engaged in a war to win the hearts and minds of the people. In this struggle, news and information are as important as mortars and land mines. And the potency of information as a weapon depends on the credibility of the source. The army brass seems to understand that, but it must also realise that in this day and age you donít win hearts and minds with an information clampdown. os The Americans learnt a lesson or two in Vietnam about informa- STATE OF THE STATE by CK LAL tion warfare, and during the Gulf War tried to manage information Worrying about Nepal in Paris And independent nation has to think independently. PARIS - The Centre National de la Recherche scholars are charmed when they find that their The charged atmosphere at the CNRS Scientifique, popularly known by its initials ‘research’ merely confirm their biases. Nepal section puts me in mind of the stale air CNRS, is France’s premier research institute. The sole Nepali member of the team at the of the almost moribund CNAS (Centre for Fully funded by the government, it is a huge CNRS is Mahesh Khakurel, and everyone Nepal and Asian Studies) at Tribhuvan organisation with sections that conduct agrees that he is more French than most French University. How many of our so-called India scientific research in various disciplines, scholars at CNRS. Mahesh speaks upper-class experts pursue the with heavy-handed restrictions Dainik Jagaran, Aaj, Amar including the humanities. The seven-member French with the right accent, is a connoisseur of Ujala, or the Rastriya Sahara published from and one-sided access to the team at CNRS that studies Nepal is a small French wines, and concocts the cuisine with Patna, Gorakhapur, Varanasi and Bareilly, front. Only grainy television part of a section devoted to the study of the such style that he could put some of the best respectively? footage showing smart societies and cultures of the Himalaya. French chefs to shame. Mahesh, who is That apart, we in Nepal seem to have given bombs hitting crosshairs But the relatively small size of the team working on his doctoral thesis, has lived in the miss to producing knowledge. As in things were seen by the world. But this selective working on Nepal section is rather deceptive. France for almost a decade and has contacts in all else, we have become mere consumers of coverage ultimately backfired because of a credibility gap. During the Every member is a hardcore Nepal enthusiast the highest corridors of power in Paris. ideas. Even the few academics that we have current Afghan campaign, the US militaryís information managers have and knows more about our country than many By Nepali standards, Mahesh is pursuing research in the social sciences often been much more sophisticated about it. of us do back home in Kathmandu. One of remarkably well-off. But I sense a trace of follow the agenda of donors funding their Our own Maoists have launched their email war bulletins to counter the them is Philippe Ramirez, who has a Nepali melancholy in his voice when he says, “Life project. They are—as some of their own breed governmentís official version of events. This is going to turn out to be a war calendar featuring Madan Bhandari on the wall here is without meaning. You wait for death call them behind their backs—intellectual of press communiques in cyberspace if we are not careful. Both sides are above his desk, and who is compiling a by living in comfort.” Is he merely repeating bharias carrying the load for researchers from going to exaggerate their accomplishments and downplay defeats. A half- genealogy of the Koiralas and has studied in the existential dilemma of Albert Camus, abroad. In the long term, such intellectual truth is as bad as a half-lie. The side that has kept its credibility intact is the detail all the Bhusal family feuds. another Parisian, (“Rising, street-car, four- subservience can turn out to be even more one that is going to come out victorious in this battle. And those on the side In another corner, Marie Lecomte- hours in the office or factory, meal, street- damaging than aid dependence in our of freedom must always have more credibility. They must allow media Tilouine is typing up a paper on kingship in car, four-hours at work, meal, sleep, and economy. outlets the space to exercise their freedoms so that when the time comes, Nepal, which she has been asked to present at Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Marie shares my gloom about social if nothing else, it can use their public trustworthiness. a seminar on the royal houses of the world. Friday and Saturday according to the same science research in Nepal—or lack thereof. It is better to give it straight, only keeping back the operational details that She is an authority of sorts on Magars and rhythm”)? Or is his search for meaning She says that most social research in Nepal would jeopardise troops. The Nepali media has in general been sympathetic to talks so fondly about her days in the country representative of the frustrations of otherwise these days is carried out by journalists. That the security forces even before the emergency went into force, and the army that you would be forgiven for assuming that successful Nepalis living abroad? I have no may not be so bad in the short term, but should not squander this support. Governments can antagonise media and the her maiti was somewhere in the hills of mid- way of knowing, but if the impotent rage of this trend is not sustainable. Journalists public by deliberately misleading, or by misusing the provisions of the emer- western Nepal. Whenever in doubt about the NRNs (Non-Resident Nepalis) writing tend to be generalists and often lack the letters to the editor of this paper are any rigours of academic discipline, and tend to gency to gag journalists they donít like. Both are counterproductive and, need- proper equivalent in English for a French expression, she unconsciously lapses into indication, the Nepali diaspora does seem to be too involved in “here-and-now” to be less to say, would harm the cause of freedom. chaste Nepali, often surprising me with her lack an anchor. Mahesh has found a dispassionate about events and trends. choice of word. Another trio of researchers is constructive outlet for his anger—he runs an Catch-phrases and sound-bites are fine even waiting for things to settle down a bit before organisation in Paris that channels funds to for reporting that strives to be factual and COUNTDOWN FOR SAARC they can resume fieldwork in Dailekh. These the impoverished schools of the Nepali fair, but deeper analyses need the kind of SAARC Summits are like a mirage, the closer we get to it the further it are all the real pros of the academic world. I countryside. patience and persistence that only a re- seems to recede. The last time two years ago, the countdown had begun, have to be on my guard constantly to ensure I searcher has, free from the pressures of half the airport road had been repaved, the flagpoles had been painted over don’t make a fool of myself. One slip of the deadlines and space-restrictions. No wonder, and fresh chrysanthemums planted at the Birendra International Conven- tongue, and the shallowness of my journalese then, that six years into the insurgency not tion Centre. Then Atalji decided he didnít want to shake hands with the could be exposed. one substantive work on the Maoist move- General and that was that. We Nepalis went back to sleep. For months Marie is presently reading Bir Charitra, an ment in Nepal has emerged from afterwards, the airport road remained half-paved. No one thought it particu- old Nepali book published by Jagadamba Kathmandu. Academics have been writing larly necessary to pave the unpaved half. Prakashan. At my surprise that she reads opinion pieces in the manner of columnists. This time, the SAARC Summit preparations are happening during a state of Nepali with such fluency, she says bluntly, Depending on foreign aid for our “You can’t pretend to know Nepal without economic development has its flip side—it national emergency. The deconstruction of Kathmanduís traffic islands is reading Nepali. Despite what you write, the gives birth to a class of neo-rich that doesn’t therefore being carried out on a war footing. If only the rest of the countryís English press and the English books on Nepal care much about its social obligations. There is development could happen with as much determination, resolve and speed barely scratch the surface. To get a feel of the much to fear direct foreign investment in there would no trouble at all for us to catch up with Uganda (see p 8-9). undercurrents, one has to dive deep into media—it may turn newspapers into In one sense, all this demolition, flower planting and street widening Nepali language publications, not only from products peddling illusions. Inviting would go to waste if Atalji once more decides not to shake hands with the Kathmandu, but from outside the Valley as foreign troops to fight our ‘war’ is close to General. But with Uncle Sam breathing down both South Asian necks, this well.” Now that is something which many hara-kiri—a nation saved by others auto- time we may actually have liftoff. western scholars studying Nepal fail to realise matically becomes subservient towards its But even if the SAARC countdown is once more aborted at the last even after spending years poring over saviour. But most dangerous of all this is moment, all is not lost. We will have one more opportunity two years from Hamilton, Kirkpatrick, Leo Rose and intellectual servitude. A nation that cannot now for demolition, flower planting and street widening. Hrishikesh Shah. Looking at the surface is think independently cannot guard its reassuring—it reflects your own image. Even Camus independence for long. 8 PROFILE 21 - 27 DECEMBER 2001 NEPALI TIMES 333

You may say he’s a dreamer BEENA○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ SARWAR

veryone is a prisoner of his past,” Madanjeet Singh is a multi-millionaire. And he’s giving it all away. ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ said Madanjeet Singh, “We are all ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ “E affected by events in our lives.” The is already financing various projects. ment, computer programming and engineer- during Partition, the scenes he saw still haunt alone. That is what we will spend. I do not 78-year-old former diplomat was speaking SAF has one trustee from each South ing, and communications. him. He doesn’t dwell on this, but these need money for myself. I have written eleven informally at the end of a two-day conference Asian country, who also acts as chair of the Also set up earlier this year was the experiences and memories have all contrib- books. The royalties from my Himalayan Art last week at the Yak & Yeti Hotel to discuss the national board. Most are former or serving Rainbow Partnership Organisation’s Docu- uted to the making of a man who, now that book alone are enough for me. So I decided South Asia Foundation he recently set up, ministers: Kamal Hossein (former law mentation and Information Centre in New he has a lot of money, wants to use it to help to put all the money into this project.” making use of his considerable fortune. minister, Bangladesh), Lyonpo Sangay Delhi, which includes a vast portal that “aims others grow. Madanjeet Singh’s son, whose name is An artist, writer and former ambassador of Ngedup (former education minister, to be one of the most comprehensive online In 1998 Singh instituted the $40,000 Jeet, put aside an interest in music to study India, Singh is a UNESCO Goodwill Bhutan), Inder Kumar Gujral (former sources of serious academic research on South UNESCO-Madanjeet Singh Prize for the IT and rode the software wave with his Ambassador based in France. But it was his prime minister, India), Ibrahim Hussain Asia”. With so much work already underway, Promotion of Tolerance and Non-Violence. company, the Art Technology Group. Now personal conviction and passion rather than his Zaki (former Minister of Tourism, the Kathmandu meeting was meant to draw in Distressed by India and Pakistan’s nuclear Jeet provides the funds with which his father CV that really convinced the fifty participants, Maldives, and former Secretary General of people to help Singh implement these and tests, he designated the prize to be jointly can engage in philanthropy. Says Singh: some initially sceptical, to support the South SAARC), Bhekh Bahadur Thapa (Nepal’s other plans for regional development and peace. shared by Indian and Pakistani anti-nuclear “Earlier, you would have had to go to Asia Foundation as a people’s organisation ambassador to New Delhi), Javed Jabbar It wasn’t an easy task, there were all kinds activists. The jury was made up of an interna- Western foundations for a small amount of dedicated to regional amity and development. (former Minister of Information, Pakistan), of objections—the structure of the SAF is too tional jury including former United Nations money, now we have a South Asian founda- Their scepticism revolved mainly around and Lakshman Kadirgamar (Sri Lanka’s vague, the plans too ambitious and idealistic, Secretary-General Boutros Boutros Ghali, tion that can provide substantial help.” the need for yet another South Asian organisa- outgoing Foreign Minister). the project too closely linked to SAARC to former India prime minister IK Gujral and Singh is patient with criticism, but will not tion. Not surprising, considering that there The projects currently funded by SAF work, the individuals involved, ie, the trustees, French Rabbi René-Samuel Sirat, and was let much hamper his projects. “I am not doing were three other South Asian-themed confer- include the UNESCO programme of Integrated had too establishmentarian a past to represent chaired by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Arch- this because I want aggrandisement for myself, ences running parallel to this one, conducted Education, Health and Capacity Building for the ‘people’. Still others suggested that the bishop Desmond Tutu. although some people think that,” he says. by the South Asia Forum for Human Rights, Adolescent Girls being implemented by foundation was floated to promote the persona Singh is deeply committed to the idea of a “Putting my name to SAF did not make it a the Regional Centre for Strategic Studies, and women’s aid groups such as Maitri (Bangla- of Madanjeet Singh. Yet, by the end of the South Asian identity. “I travel with a laissez South Asian foundation, so I got trustees from the South Asia Free Media Association. The desh) and Maiti Nepal, and the dozens of meeting, the general consensus was that here passez, the blue United Nations passport. all SAARC countries, and registered it in difference seems to be the South Asia Founda- community development was an organisation that was different from When I visited Karachi a year ago, the Switzerland. Bureaucracy and paperwork can tion’s thrust on education and grassroots centres operated by others of its ilk. As one participant put it, immigration officer asked me what is your slow down an organisation, and here in South development, and Sarvodaya Suwa-Setha Sewa Singh has shown a willingness, “to put his nationality, and I answered ‘South Asian!’ I Asia there is no time to lose. We need to move the funds at its Society in Sri Lanka. money where his mouth is”. The participant very much liked doing that.” Arguments that fast, it’s a question of survival.” disposal. This Particularly impressive is added: “If he contributes to a cause, why the agenda of the SAF and SAARC are too close Singh tells one last story that shows why so is an organisa- the Bastar Saarc project— should we grudge him the publicity. to work don’t cut any ice with Singh—he many people have been won over by him. “I tion with a purse about 40 solar powered Besides, how many local philanthropists do strongly believes that in order to make life was in Lahore four years ago, I visited Govern- of its own, and it health and education centres we have in South Asia who actually reach better and safer for people in this part of the ment College,” he says. This was Singh’s alma in a remote tribal area of Madhya into their own pockets like this?” world, regional countries must come together at mater, thanks to having been asked to leave Pradesh. Other projects include Most objections were swept aside by all levels, governmental and outside. This is a Banaras and his state, Uttar Pradesh, after his a six-month IT crash course Singh’s personal account of his motives, his conviction whose strength has only grown with prison sentence. “The auditorium was packed. I in Bhutan, a Computer obvious sincerity and commitment—and solid the years, he says, recalling his stint as India’s asked the students whether I should speak as a Laboratory in financial credentials. “I have not always had ambassador to Uganda. “I have always been and diplomat or an old student, and they shouted, Maldives, a SAARC money. I have seen poverty,” he said, talking felt a South Asian. Back then, during the ‘Punjabi ich gal karo!’ So I spoke in Punjabi Cultural Centre in about growing up as the son of a university stressful times there, my driver had taken off and spoke my heart out. I told them, you are Kandy, Sri Lanka, and professor in Banaras. While still a schoolboy, and I myself used to drive to outlying regions talking of Kashmir? Indians and Pakistanis have the appointment of two travelling to South India, the young Madanjeet from Kampala to pick up Indians, Pakistanis destroyed Kashmir. I have been there, the teachers to upgrade the saw something that has stayed with him and Sri Lankans and bring them to safety. I houseboats are lying vacant, the beautiful lake is BSc courses in the forever. “On a railway platform, I saw a hardly felt the need to sit back and distinguish choking with weeds… Kashmir is of strategic Government College, woman cooking something in a small pot, between the nationalities. Back then, in the interest only because India and Pakistan are Lahore, including using paper to fuel the fire. She had two 1960s, they were all South Asians to me.” fighting. There is not even any oil there, like in software develop- children, one of them in her arms. As I And where does all this money come the Gulf, to interest Americans.” watched, she took a piece of paper from under from? “In 1995, my mother died, and I Singh continues: “When I finished, I the pot. And she…” Singh paused, too sold my house in Vasant Vihar (New Delhi) thought I had overdone it… the students are overcome with emotion to continue. “She for INRs 50 million. I set up the Sumitra going to call me an Indian, a communist… But was putting paper in the pot to feed her Foundation, named after my mother, and you know what happened? They stood up and children. That sight left a lifelong went to Bastar”. Bastar was where Singh’s applauded. Afterwards, the principal came up impression on me.” long-time dream of solar energy-powered to me and said, ‘We don’t come together Another event that shaped his health and education centres would become because we are both (unprintable expletive, perceptions, was a nine-month long reality. “Many of my friends in Delhi which Singh says unhesitatingly).” stint in jail for participating in Mahatama thought I was a madman to sell my house The genteel gathering at the conference in Gandhi’s non-violent Quit India movement and put my money in a tribal area.” Kathmandu greeted the unprintable with against British colonial rule. In Banaras’ “Things happen by accident. My only stunned silence, and then laughter. Some Mirzapur prison, “I met people who had son, who went to MIT, set up a software were embarrassed at Singh’s unexpected deliberately committed crimes to be arrested company. I had put money into it, and he demonstration of his Punjabiness, but he and get two secure meals a day. And political had given me some equity. It turned into went on, unfazed: “Every time this issue prisoners who had taken to violence… because millions. Some was in shares that have comes up, I think of that. Now we have made they had no other way to survive.” Soon dropped since 11 September, but it is still nuclear weapons, and there’s a woman afterwards, he was exposed to the “ugliness of substantial. It is no secret… We get putting paper in the pot to feed her children. communal violence”. In Benaras and elsewhere approximately $700,000 a month in interest Aren’t we [expletive]?” 8 MIN BAJRACHARYA

LETTERS NEPAL’S NEPAL important role to play. When has islands are being made, hoard- WORKING AT HOME Re: Interview with Madhav Madhav Nepal played a con- ing boards and temporary Alok Tumbahangpheyís ìFor Kumar Nepal (#72). Madhav structive role? What did Madhav it has nothing but government that the Maoist insurgency is shelters demolished, posters some children, the home is no Nepal and the likes of him in Nepal do when he was briefly in statements on the progress of fundamentally a failure of being blasted off walls, within place to grow upî (#72) was the opposition make me sick (I power? How many times has the war. This is a struggle development and the political days (and nights). Lets hope very touching and sheds light on am not saying that the Nepali Madhav Nepal done about turns between the forces of freedom leadership. As you say, it will that from next time onwards, the the condition of child domestics Congress is any better). In a in his position? How can he and those opposed to it. You do not be resolved on the battlefield summit takes place in other parts in Nepal. So what is the alterna- responsible democracy like blame only the Congress party not fight Maoists by destroying with Nepalis killing Nepalis. We of the country as well, and they tive? We should start some- ours, the opposition has a very for the mess that the country is freedom and suspending wish you all the best. may also get a facelift. Here is where, but where? in? The Congress party will not democracy. That is exactly what N Thapa and L Gurung the answer to Nepalís develop- Can the government play a do it because they do not have they want you to do, isnít it? New Delhi ment, have more SAARC more active role in abolishing the moral authority to do it, but I Please, letís not be like the Summits. child labour? think the Emergency should be enemy. MORE SUMMITS Sunil Narayan Shrestha Rajil Risal widened to bring all politicians Janak KC If only there were more SAARC Pennsylvania, USA by email and everybody who have Kathmandu summits in Nepal, the country CORRECTIONS plundered in the last twelve may be a better place! The The last issue of Nepali Times was mistakenly numbered. It should have years to book. This would go Let me commend you on your recent efforts by the Govern- been #72. some way to address the hard-hitting editorials ìUncivil ment and Kathmandu Metropoli- The photograph of men sunning themselves outside Patan Museum in problems of our country that you warsî (#72) and ìPressure tan City to clean up the capital ìImage and imaginationî (#72) was mistakenly credited. All pictures were taken have so well outlined in your cooker warî (#71). We can so as to give an impression by Navin Joshi. editorial, ìUncivil warî. imagine the constraints that you about the beauty of the city to NAVIN JOSHI R Khadga work under with the new media the distinguished guests of the by email guidelines, but it is encouraging summit, came as a no surprise. SUBHAS RAI to see sober and responsible Same was the case during the I really see no point in reading voices like yours who still call a last SAAF Games. Roads are the Nepali press anymore, since spade a spade, and remind us being widened, new traffic 444 NATION 21 - 27 DECEMBER 2001 NEPALI TIMES “If the Maoists are smart, they will lay down their arms and come to the negotiating table…if they

don’t we will be forced to defeat them.” - Prajwalla SJB Rana from p1 Your concern is that the army has to be deployed constitution- Our work is different, the police have theirs and we ours. We are ally? trained to fight, police are trained in maintaining law and order. Possibly, Vijay Kumar: Earlier it was said the army was unwilling to move Absolutely. they (Maoists) did not understand that the army is unlike the police. They against the Maoists? are now seeing the result. This is all you want? Prajwalla S Rana: That is wrong. I said it yesterday and will repeat: Yes. We got a constitutional order and now we are deployed. What are the chances of civilians being caught in the crossfire? there is a constitutional process for mobilising the army, there is a law. The army is sensitive about the protection of citizens and their Do people in the army have political knowledge? The army has to be deployed under the provisions of the law, that is our property. That is why we have called on people not to be present in The RNA will not put its hands into politics because that is not our position. The RNA wonít be deployed without fulfilling that process. areas where there are Maoist activities. They are using human shields profession. But because politics is associated with national security, it is and when we attack some civilians may be harmed, we cannot deny So it is not true that the army refused deployment? important for us to understand politics. that. In such types of operations there is also a possibility that some Not true. So you understand politics? physical infrastructures could be damaged. The army has taken Then why the controversy over that? Yes, we have to understand it because it is related to national measures to avoid such losses and has set up systems to solicit the The army never stirred that controversy and will not do so. Our position security. help of citizens. is that we can de deployed legally, and then we will follow the govern- You are aware of what is happening in politics? What is your report on the reaction in the Maoist camp after the mentís orders. That is it. Yes we have to know. army moved against them? So the controversy is baseless? It is still early in the operations. But we understand that their morale has Once your are aware arenít you tempted to intervene? Yes. We have not raised any controversies on our side. If others do been affected. If we are able to push harder we could That is not our profession. that, it is not our problem. cause greater damage in the long run. How are you tackling the Maoists now? You are trying to say the army was not ordered in this manner Before the army moved the Maoists were on the offensive and Based on our orders we are moving ahead successfully, in some areas. before? state on the defensive. What is your position now? In Salleri, Ratamate, Kapurkot, we counter-attacked and we were able Yes. We were not ordered this way. We need mandate from the After they looted weapons, it has become very necessary to get back to inflict heavy casualties on them. So far we have lost 24 brave men, government in accordance with the constitution, and that mandate is an the weapons and we have to be offensive to get the weapons back and and 58 have been injured. Our morale is high, and will remain high. order based on which we will move forward. we are. Because they are unable to face us, the terrorists have shamelessly A strictly constitutional (mandate)? targeted our families and families of former servicemen. That is unac- Have we recovered some weapons? Absolutely. We have to move in accordance with the constitution. Let me ceptable to us and it will be very counter-productive to the terrorists if Yes, some. Not all. This has been made public. explain. If the army is not deployed in that manner, in accordance with they continue doing that. Are you satisfied with the operation so far? the constitution, then there is the danger that we may move on our own. How do you feel about fighting a war within the country? I am satisfied absolutely, but we are trying to do better. The RNA can even do that but no army in any country can move without In any country, not only in Nepal, no country likes having to fight its own constitutional orders. On the other hand, if the army is not legally How long will the operation last? people. Definitely, our intention is not to kill Nepalis. We were not after deployed it could taint both the government and the army which is not in There wonít be a time limit to the operation because of the nature of the the Maoists or their lives, we were engaged in ensuring development. the nationís interest. That is why we say give us an order that is terrorist problem and our training, we cannot fix the time for the opera- But they attacked us and we had to respond. Our patriotic army will not constitutional and we move forward. That is the bottom line. tion. But if all citizens and army come together and move forward let those that have committed wrongs to get off lightly. together, this operation could end fast. What I mean is we could use Sometimes we say ìRoyal Armyî, is our army a Royal Army? Why do you think they dared to attack your base in Dang? information on the Maoists. If that happens we can intensify our action I would like to correct this. I have to. This is not a Royal Army but the I cannot say we did not expect them to attack. Invariably in the army we and try to end this fast. Royal Nepalese Army. ìRoyalî is only a title. This is a Nepali army, and by have various options, and a possible option was an attack. We made a that we mean the army of the state. It is an army for the state, for its What type of support are you getting now, from the citizens, mistake and had to face a reversal in Dang, in other places we are ok. security. politicians, the state? It was a surprise attack in Dang? From government we have very good support. But other departments, if What is its mission? Yes that is correct. they were as dedicated as we are, it would be better still. The RNA is not something formed today. The RNA has been around since unification. It was there yesterday, is there today and will be there Are there possibilities for another surprise like that? What about the press? tomorrow. Many people do not know about the armyís tradiiton. If you It will now be difficult for them. On this, in an emergency the press has a major role. News has to be read our history, youíll understand our traditional positions. We have to correct, and if that can be done and the nation informed Do you think the terrorists thought they could defeat you like abide by the traditions. What this means is that we have to be deployed accordingly it would be good. From our experience we feel some they did to the police? constitutionally, there would be controversies the moment we are newspapers have been disseminating unnecessary information and Possibly. deployed unconstitutionally which is not in the interest of the nation. The confusing the people. If they play a responsible role to inform citizens armyís concern is not about politics, only national security. How do the strengths of the police and army differ? then the role of the press can be very important in this campaign.

HERE AND THERE by DANIEL LAK Death in Dang BOTULPUR, DANG - Fear lives here, as real as an explosion in the dead of Amid this doom-laden devastation, a ray of the way. By now, we were getting tired of bogie men lurking in the bushes so night, as intangible as a mythical demon from the dark tales of centuries past. we took a local guide and set off. The road lead across a dry river-bed, empty We came here to find out what everyone in the capital, Singha Darbar and hope shone brightly: resilient Nepalis without of both water and rebel fighters. Another safe passage despite local advice, the newsrooms of the nation, was afraid of. We also wanted to shed some the time or luxury to indulge in angst. but we’re not feeling cocky or proud of ourselves. light on this murky war of press releases couched in patriotic piety and the In the village a grim, yet somehow encouraging drama awaited us. Up on growing paternalism of authority. the river bank, behind a screen of trees, a wrecked house was the centre of The remote battlefields of the middle-hills lie concealed behind the mists village attention. Several dozen people were bent over shovels and baskets, of early winter, and the uncertainties of a self-censoring press treading new clearing rubble and poking gingerly through piles of broken mud bricks and territory. I hoped to hear the real story from intrepid local journalists, scraps of paper. It was the detritus of a family’s life wrecked by violence, by campaigning NGOs or ordinary people caught in a war zone. The latter, at ideology, by a dreadful mishap involving Maoist bomb makers and at least least, did not disappoint. six innocents. I averted my gaze as I walked over a heap of earthen shards, a From the beginning, our trip was fraught with risk, real and imagined. wall once, perhaps a bedroom. But on the far side, a severed human foot The drive from Nepalganj to Tulsipur took us along a deserted Mahendra reminded me of how such bloody interventions in the illusion of daily life Highway. Armed police at the lone checkpost looked us over sceptically, but are ignored at one’s peril. it was too cold for more than a perfunctory search. Up we drove into hills The village chief told me in anguished tones how much of a surprise it wreathed in low cloud, along a narrow bumpy road little better than a path. all was. “We don’t support the Maoists,” he said in Tharu-Nepali, “And this Halfway along, I realised this hadn’t been a wise choice of route, from family was one that we respected. No one knew that the eldest son had such the point of view of safety. You couldn’t see more than a hundred metres, connections.” A stranger, he said, had come that night with two black bags. and thick jungle grew right up to the roadside. We stopped an outbound Shredded flesh and torn papers from schoolbooks hung from trees bus and he told us the 12 remaining kilometres to the Dang valley were around the house. Yet even amid this doom-laden devastation, a ray of hope clear, no fallen tree check points, no land mines that he was aware of. I shone brightly, a glimpse at the resilience of poor Nepalis without the time thought of my first aid kit, sitting at home in Kathmandu, forgotten by the or luxury to indulge in angst. Most of the women sifting through the door in the rush to get going. wreckage were looking for one thing—rice grains from this year’s harvest. Emerging at the top of the outer Mahabharat hills, we were above the But then a local human rights activist told us we’d driven through two They carefully carried baskets of rubble to a nearby farmyard and tossed it clouds, awash in sunlight. A sense of security flooded over us with the “Maoist villages” on our way down the hills. All we saw were people going to offer on nanglos, separating the brick dust and bone chips from the precious food. warmth, but the descent into cloudy dankness restored the fear of the puja, or beginning the day’s labour. No camouflage or side arms in sight. “For the survivors,” one woman explained, ”We can’t stop working and unknown. A forest admired from above for its lushness became a haven for We heard about the explosion in nearby Botulpur, seven, possibly eight, helping our neighbours, however horrible the tragedy.” Can Kathmandu’s beasts, an ambuscade concealing guerrillas in the mist. Later, safely in dead after what seemed to be a ghastly accident. “Don’t go there,” advised self-indulgent elite learn something from the villages? Self evident, I’d say, Tulsipur and feeling slightly foolish, we laughed about our concerns. our activist friend. The army may stop you and there could be Maoists along but what do I know... 8 NATION 21 - 27 DECEMBER 2001 NEPALI TIMES 555

India arrests Maoists ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ Delhi Police arrested two Nepali nationals said to be involved in supplying explosives to Nepalís Maoists this week, according to the Press Trust of India. Police, acting on a tip off, reportedly arrested Krishna Bahadur and Suraj Bahadur from Old Delhi Railway Station on 19 December as they were preparing to leave the Indian capital for Nepal. The two were held with 50 kg of poly-propylene powder, 389 detonators, 46 fuse wires and 28 gelatine sticks. The suspects are said to have admitted belonging to the rebel group and were to deliver the consignment to one Karan Bahadur. Maoist violence has continued is different pockets of Nepal, mainly in the mid-West, even after the army was sent to fight the The press has it own problems about information flow from you. towards national security. rebels on 26 November. On Wednesday a Maoist leader told the We have not distorted any information we have received in our BBC that the insurgency would continue despite the army Does the army have a solution to solve the Maoist problem? statements. We have been passing on the news based on facts. For operations. He added that his party was ready to come to peace Basically, in every country there are problems. It is necessary to find example, our helicopters may have attacked Maoist columns and killed talks if government would agree to form a constituent assembly ways to solve them and there are ways to do so if you try hard. The them, but our troops are not on the ground. How can we provide to draft a new constitution. RNA did not ask for the present situation, and as the prime minister has information on their casualties? We cannot provide that information, said: ìWe wonít go to talks until the Maoist terrorists lay down arms.î because of the terrain. Newspapers say this happened in so and so

Until that time, the RNAís duty is to create an environment for holding Bhutani verification place, it that verifiable or not? We have been giving the information we ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ talks. can give without distortion. The verification of Bhutani refugees living on one of seven camps in What type of environment? You donít give operational details? Nepalís Jhapa and Morang districts was completed last week. On We have orders from government to defeat them. Defeating them means We will not give operation details to anyone. That is a military secret and Sunday officials of the Joint Verification Team said they had killing many Nepalis, which may happen. But before that happens, if the could be used by the other party against us. Operational details are screened 12,071 people from 1,935 families housed in the Maoists are smart they will lay down their arms and come to the strictly on a need-to-know basis, even parts of the army will not know Khundunabari refugee camp. However, this may not mean that the negotiating table. We may be forced to disarm them and that may get what the others are doing. refugees will begin returning home any time soon because the two them to the table. If that does not happen, we will be forced to try to governments have yet to agree on how to move on. Nepal wants the The impression is that the army aloof of national life, what can defeat them and bring them to the table. repatriation process to begin, while Bhutan has been insisting on be the relationship in a healthy democratic system? What would you like to happen personally? completing the verification of the remaining camps before continuing. Frankly, the army has its traditions, beliefs, character and discipline I feel Nepalis should not kill Nepalis. The Maoists should realise this, and The verification process began on 26 March and refugee sources which bind us. We in the Royal Nepal Army havenít intermingled with avoid more Nepali bloodshed. They should peacefully hand over their say that at this rate it could go on forever unless both governments citizens except in times of natural disasters. That is when we have been weapons, and I believe that the government would talk with them if they decide to expand the verification teams. Roughly 100,000 refugees directly involved with the problems of national life. do that. have been living in the camps in Nepal since the early 1990s. If you need support of all for national security, where does this Anything else you would like to add? fit? Before the Maoist problem is resolved, we have to seriously try and find Kamaiyas still in the cold I will give you an example. We have a military academy at Kharipati to ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ out how this problem emerged. We have to ask: did this situation arise Thousands of kamaiyas, or bonded labourers, who were freed by a train officers. In our career structure we found that the education was because of the lack of good governance? Our country Nepal, after not uniform and to bring that to one level we tried to bring the education government decree about a year-and-half ago are still homeless. unification, has never been a colony of any power. It has been a garden Reports from Bardia, Dang, Kailali and Kanchanpur districts suggest at Kharipati to the Bachelorís level. For that we need affiliation with of four castes and 36 ethnicities. A visionary king and sacrifices by our Tribhuvan University. We requested for that and they said security was that the government brave forefathers made all this possible. In this historical hour all citizens may not be able to not our subject, how could they affiliate us? I told them that national have to gear up for the security of our motherland, to take on national security was the responsibility of every citizen, not just the RNA. We resettle the responsibility and move forward. Today we have a question we should kamaiyas by its mid- should have a syllabus in every campus and that would help all. They all be concerned about: should we Nepalis be united or should we be said they had not thought about it this way and gave us the neces- January deadline. divisive? I hope all Nepalis get the opportunity to develop in accordance Of the 2,600 sary permission. with the values and norms laid down by the Constitution of Nepal, under What I am trying to get at is the thinking of the people, institutions and our kamaiyas who the able leadership of the symbol of the nation and unity, His Majesty the were registered in culture. All these have made national security the responsibility of only King. That is what the Nepalis want and is what the Royal Nepal Army the army. We have to change that. Every individual has a responsibility Bardia, so far only believes in. Long live the Nation, long live the Monarch. 1,200 have been resettled. However, this number does not include another 1,000 kamaiyas who have applied for government support, but have not been registered by the authorities as genuine claimants. In Banke, EASY TIMES the government claims to have almost completed the resettlement of It’s never been easier to 165 former bonded labourers but the problem in this district is there subscribe to are over 800 others who claim to be kamaiyas but are not registered Nepali Times. by government. Just dial this number and

leave your address. Child workers ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ The International Labour Organisation says Nepal has close to 2.6 million children working as domestic help in the countryís urban centres. The numbers could be higher because this does not account for children helping out in rural families. Besides this, there are another 42,000 children working as porters or engaged in other forms of labour.

Bert van den Hoek ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ Bert van den Hoek, a Dutch anthropologist who conducted research and wrote on Nepal, especially Newari culture, was killed last week in a car accident in India. Van den Hoek worked at TU and at CNWS at Leiden and was also into documentary filmmaking. With Dirk Nijland and Bal Gopal Shrestha he made Sacrifice of Serpents, which was shown at the Film South Asia 1999 in Kathmandu. He also contributed to Anthropology of Nepal, edited by Michael

543337 Allen and published by Mandala. 666 NATION 21 - 27 DECEMBER 2001 NEPALI TIMES COMMENT by SEIRA TAMANG from p1 Emergency soul searching Calling on civil society to defend our rights in these troubled

times is pointless. Just consider what we call civil society.

○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ ollowing the unfortunate, but ity in the events leading up, finally, to challenge outrages that we should have who constitute civil society sat down necessary, declaration of a state of this emergency. It is difficult not to protested against—not because they and did some serious, honest soul- F emergency here, critical voices sceptical about the ability of our so- directly affect us, not because they searching. Perhaps such an activity will have been saying with some frequency called civil society to function, at least happen to fall under the umbrella of that we need to monitor the state’s its current form, as a force for the specific agency we happen to be The UML’s Shanker Pokhrel is convinced it would be in the govern- actions as we go through this unprec- democracy. working for, not because these are ment’s interest to let civil society function more independently. He edented situation. The suspension of There are scores of instances of so- issues that we are particularly told the forum on Tuesday: “I know of locals that have been killed in fundamental rights means we need to called civil society being simply interested in, and not because we the offensives, some were even Congress supporters. In the villages think about the present and future of missing from places it should have will profit in some material or people are frightened of being shot from the sky.” democratic Nepal. All this concern been most active in. I will only point other manner. We should The other civil society concern is about the economic cost of the takes the form of calling upon civil to a few: Civil society had little to say have spoken up because war, and the lack of transparency in procurements. “It is a national society to stay alert to the dangers of when famine regularly hit Humla and these are, quite simply, tragedy we’re being forced to divert funds from development to unrestrained state power. Jumla. Where were the street protests injustices that affect The assumption in such calls is on behalf of fellow Nepalis having to fellow Nepalis. armaments,” said professor of political science Dhruba Kumar. He that there exists in Nepal a civil society suffer the annual outrage of not having It is not asked: “Can we afford this? How long can we fight the Maoists using that, while admittedly small, is still their basic needs tended to by the surprising then the army?” Kumar was also concerned about the tendency for ready and willing to defend the state? We never objected to television that so many “rightist forces” wanting a greater say in government decisions in interests of democracy. Amidst the clips of politicians grandly dispensing offences were times of conflict. The military was planning major weapons upgrades images of poor government leadership, foodgrains to the respectful namastes of repeated, in even before the fighting began, and there is an added sense of urgency bickering political parties, the poverty recipients—food that was not a gift, similar about it now. and short-sightedness of Left politics but a right that had been withheld form or in The Nepali Congress’ Narahari Acharya is sanguine that after the and so on, civil society remains the from them. We never demanded different emergency is over, there will be an opportunity to take excesses to court. unsullied arena upon which democ- apologies from our politicians then. guises, in Trouble is, no one knows when that will be. However, there is one racy now heavily relies. At a time of And why did it need an uproar in the other places, constitutional clause saying the king can cancel the emergency order at national urgency, civil society needs to British press for Nepali politicians to against other anytime while it is in effect. 8 rise to the occasion. finally start pushing for equal pensions people. It is not far- Perhaps reasons for its past for ex-British army Gurkhas? More fetched to argue that had inability lies with the usual suspects— generally, feminists have not pushed we stood up for the rights of political parties, state leaders, for the rights of dalits, nor have Humlis or rice farmers, perhaps corruption, the short period of janajati activists called for day-care the Maoist’s overtures might not have A TRYST WITH SANTA... democratic experience, etc. But it is provisions for women working in appealed to so many. still unclear where exactly civil society factories. Human rights activists have And now, because we did not is coming from today, and what not and do not demand that rice prices speak out demanding that the rights of at direction it will take. As for the outlook be stabilised for poor farmers. our fellow citizens be secured, we find on civil society’s willingness and We take the moral high ground in that we ourselves are in danger of move us away from the narrow Yak & Yeti ability to fulfil its designated role, our isolated tundikhels, and sit in our losing our rights. And to whom will confines of “civil society” to the other well, that is equally murky. Just little zones of “activism”, “issues”, and we turn for an outcry of rage on our spaces of our own democratic potential. 8 consider civil society’s history of “projects”. And in doing so, we have behalf? This particular historical 20th Dec - 1st Jan defending democracy and the rights of made ourselves individually and moment is important on so many Seira Tamang is a student of people, and it is hard not to come up collectively vulnerable to the state and levels, and if we are lucky, it will go political science. SANTA'S CHALET with questions about its own culpabil- the usual suspects. We did not down as a time in which those of us a delightful variety of Christmas goodies including x-mas pudding, yule logs, chocolates, christmas cookies & stollen. Hampers available on advance order

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For Reservation & Information Contact Guest Relations at 248999, Extn. 2865 543337 NATION 21 - 27 DECEMBER 2001 NEPALI TIMES 777 SOMEWHERE IN NEPAL by PUSKAR BHUSAL Politics as usual The country doesn’t need a constituent assembly or constitutional amendment to what could be his strongest claim solve its problems. But we could inquire into the causes and effects of the to staying in office. Meanwhile, on the battlefront,

phenomenal economic prosperity of the political class. those risking their lives and limbs ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ ○○○○○○○○○○○○○ countering the insurgents have their or almost a month, out the rebels from their remote after having served as the speaker of ministries or are offering to do all minds on root causes. The military Nepalis have been hideouts. a precariously hung parliament. But they can from where they are. The can disarm misguided youths this F surveying the state of Ordinarily, such magnanimity you can’t stop wondering how Sadbhavana people are able to time, but they can’t do the emergency from all conceiv- on Koirala’s part should have more much more this man could have exude maturity because most of Politicians’ job of rectifying the able sides. The swings than bolstered Deuba. It should done for his country if he were a them had sensed a national anomalies that spawned the between the euphoric repose have inspired humility in the prime little more modest about his ability emergency during the panchayat dangerous sense of social alienation of the present and recurring minister, who appeared to relish his to make sacrifices. years, when the group was still in its in which the Maoists thrived. The anxieties about the future predecessor’s tribulations at the Maintaining its illustrious incarnation of a parishad. country doesn’t need a constituent have often been strenuous. hands of the combined opposition tradition, the CPN-UML has The smaller communist assembly to make those corrections. Nevertheless, the people, during the stalled winter session of chosen to sit on the fence. It’s hard organisations are testing how far It doesn’t even need a constitu- worn out by six years of parliament. But when key lieuten- to say whether the main opposition they can incorporate the teachings tional amendment. The objective of violence, vendetta and ants of the Congress supremo like party supports Deuba’s recommen- of the Great Helmsman in their “obtaining to the Nepalese people vituperation, are enduring Sushil Koirala and Govinda Raj dation to impose the emergency. If cause without being branded justice social, political and eco- the oscillations as a vital Joshi begin defining those terms of you’re confident it doesn’t, try to terrorists. The tiniest parties are nomic, to be available long into the part of the process of encouragement, they take on crack this one: what alternative having the best time, especially with future” is enshrined in the second national recuperation. Our entirely different connotations. If would the courtiers at Balkhu NTV carrying tight shots of the paragraph of the preamble to the leaders, however, took little Deuba feels he needs to keep his Darbar have proposed? Actually, most obscure personalities solemnly constitution. Perhaps a palpable time in discovering that it’s jumbo cabinet intact even under the shadow cabinet hasn’t been contemplating the Nation’s future. beginning would be to probe the politics as usual. the state of emergency, it’s because keeping the people entirely in the You can castigate Deuba as causes and effects of the phenom- The ruling Nepali he’s been reminded so often by dark. The UML has been warning much as you want for resorting to enal economic prosperity of today’s Congress is cavorting in the party satraps also to read between the government not to take the military action against the Maoists political class. But our leaders have same gyrations of internal the lines while executing the central opposition’s support for granted after all those grand promises of a launched a pre-emptive strike by conflict. The faction in power committee’s directives. Similar when the emergency proclamation negotiated settlement. But you warning how a prolonged state of takes justifiable pride in the apprehensions lay behind the comes up for ratification in can’t accuse him of not having emergency would be detrimental to army’s advances against the urgency with which the government parliament. But it has also been given peace a chance. For some multiparty democracy. Can Maoists insurgents in our own is making changes in the bureauc- suggesting that a government of reason, though, the prime anything stop politicians from doing Tora Boras. The anti-govern- racy and corporations. national unity, complete with an minister isn’t emphasising enough what they’re best at? 8 ment camp, although aware of Struggling to stretch out his equitable distribution of portfo- the electoral benefits the entire own space, Ram Chandra Poudel lios, might help Deuba not only party stands to gain in case the steps in with the latest update on get his two-thirds majority but AVAILABLE WORLDWIDE IN HARDCOPY Maoists’ political leadership his one-man crusade for political also marginalise rivals within the regains control of the cockpit renewal. The latest revelation from ruling party. Nepali Times is now available on and decides to make a safe the nation’s pre-eminent middle-of- To be fair, the Rastriya PEPC Worldwide vending machines landing, doesn’t want the prime the-roader is that he knew all along Prajatantra Party has maintained at major airports and hotel chains. minister to take all the credit. the prime minister’s job was coming some consistency. The party is still Receive 40 pages of the latest Nepali Congress President Girija his way and all he had to do was pushing the “broad national editions of Nepali Times and Prasad Koirala has pledged his stick with Koirala for a few more consensus involving all parties and selected material from Himal South “full support” to Prime Minister days. But Poudel tells us he had his institutions” it enunciated two Asian and Himal Khabarpatrika in 150 cm x 70 cm format on high- Sher Bahadur Deuba and the inner eyes firmly set on the nation’s years ago. quality paper printed while you party’s spokesman can’t stop interest. Granted, such altruism is Okay, no party can solve watch commercial video content speaking about the “broad rare in a career politician, especially Nepal’s problems alone. But you on the monitor. Price: US$ 2.50, all mandate” the government one who invested so much in the still can’t understand whether the major credit cards accepted. has been given to smoke deputy prime minister’s post even former panchas want their own

FOLLOW-UP Tinkune and Maitighar In this new weekly feature, Nepali Times will follow up on a previously reported story, update it and pick up where we left off. This week we focus on the pre- SAARC demolition at Tinkune and Maitighar. Nepali

Times first covered Tinkune in August 2000, #4.

○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ SRIBHAKTA○○○○○○○ KHANAL ulldozers moved into Tinkune on Sunday and razed shanties in the triangular eyesore on the road from the airport to the city. Next to B go are residences and businesses at Maitighar, the triangle near the Army Headquarters. The landscaping of both Tinkune and Maitighar are part of the governmentís effort to clean up the cityscape in preparation for the forthcoming summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Buildings at Maitighar triangle, and Indira Parajuli. Cooperation (SAARC) in Kathmandu. The plan is to use the land to build

public parks. Mayor of Kathmandu, told us. PRATIVA PANDEY Something like this was long overdue for Tinkune, but the haste with The Tinkune dispute goes back to 1974 when which the demolitions were carried out and the uncertainties about the government first appropriated the land to build compensation have raised hackles against the government. The govern- a park. It did not build the park, but it did not ment issued a public notice giving the owners and tenants at Tinkune acquire the land legally either. An earlier feeder just 15 days to vacate the property. On the 15th day the bulldozers road allowed construction within five metres from the centreline, but arrived and began tearing down the buildings. with the Ring Road, the rule is 15 meters. However, after a lawsuit in the ìAs citizens we expected at least individual notifications, because mid-1990s, the Supreme Court ruled that the government had not this was private property,î says Rajendra Sharma Parajuli, whose three- completed the acquisition procedures, and the landowners moved into storey building was pulled down to the ground. ìThis is unfair.î Like what used to be largely open agricultural land. Parajuli, 14 other families claiming ownership of the land, say they will The story at Maitighar is slightly different. Ten households have been not accept the compensation offered by government because it is far living in this triangle since 1955 and there were no plans whatsoever to less than prevalent rates. turn this 0.52 ha patch into public space. ìI have spent a lifetime here, The government is offering Rs1.6 million, but house owners say where can I go and find space to live within this short period?î asks 84- Maitighar owners are getting Rs 6.4 million and they should get the year-old Indira Parajuli. The Parajulis are not as unhappy with having to same. In ìnormalî times the Tinkune episode would have attracted much move outóit is a government decision anywayóbut with the way in political opposition. But the pressure of pre-SAARC beautification and which the decision was implemented. ìThe money they are offering is the emergency mean these are not normal times. ìThey are willing to also far less than the governmentís own evaluation for tax purposes, it give up the land, but they want to be paid equally,î Bidur Mainali, deputy is completely unfair,î she adds. 8 888 NEPALI ECONOMY 21 - 27 DECEMBER 2001 NEPALI TIMES BIZ NEWS ECONOMIC SENSE by ARTHA BEED

Load shedding

○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ Winter is here so can long, daily blackouts be far behind? Perhaps not, this year. The Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) is expecting a shortage of 50-60 mW as peak winter demand for 11:59 electricity shoots up, but says the blackout schedule may not stretch for months, as was the case in the past, because a new power project is coming on line. NEA sources say the Nepalis have a curious penchant for the last- power cuts wonít be formally announced, but will take placeó to manage demand and supplyóuntil the second week of minute and the short-run. February when at least one generation unit of the Kaligandaki A project is expected to begin work. ho says Kathmandu is against the erring structures. Sure, boring. It is positively the buildings are being pulled

Telecom loan hopping with action these down, but that is a short-term

○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ W The World Bank has approved a $22.56 million loan to finance telecom reforms. The bankís investments in days, preparing for the SAARC solution. Those who constructed Nepal had come to a virtual standstill pending financial sector reforms, especially the inability of govern- Summit. An event like this allows them are not being penalised, and ment to bring in external firms to manage the Nepal Bank Ltd and the Rastriya Banijya Bank on schedule. Nepal to showcase its hospitality there is no sign that building The telecom loan is a way of recognising more successful efforts at liberalisation, including establishing an industry as well as the sensitivity regulations will b enforced more independent regulator. The money is to be used to strengthen the regulatory capability of the Nepal (or otherwise) with which we strictly in the future. Telecommunication Authority and provide capital subsidies to private companies that will deliver telecom preserve our culture and heritage. Millions of rupees have been services to 534 rural communities. For instance, there are cleverly poured into patchwork repairs on preserved antique lampposts (sans roads, pavements and other places,

MTEF initiative lamps) inclined at various degrees all for the short run. We need to

○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ and covered with cursory coats of have preventive and regular The government has begun exercises to adopt the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF), essen- paint. The city is a canvas— of resources. Are we just resigned to maintenance so scare resources are tially an instrument used to match development plans with available resources. Implementing the MTEF is potholes are being covered and the fact that these events are spent better. We need stringent also a precondition for getting budgetary support form donors, who would also need assurances that sidewalks plastered, and positively moneymaking opportunities for construction guidelines that are money put in the basket is not siphoned off. As things stand now, the National Planning Commission (NPC) Cubist white lines being drawn people and things will get back to enforced, and we must devise ways prepares five-year plans but these are not backed with budgetary commitments, and hence are effectively through roads. Yes, a lot is normal once the circus leaves town? to manage the proper functioning little more than a ìwish listî. The mismatch of projects and funds is one of the reasons for the low rate of happening. The shopkeeper who has been of our city’s systems. We need, project completionóthe NPC says this is only around seven percent. As with so many other things evicted and the hawkers who have above all, to have regulated a your Beed has drawn attention to been thrown off the sidewalks know marketplace that gives all players a

Net billing in this space, the Trade treaty being it is just a long holiday for them, level playing field, and help shacks ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○

○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ just one of them, this is another but they can always return. that survive by paying protection Paying your bills online in Nepal may still be a distant dream, but the Internet is making it easier. The Nepal example of the Nepali love of doing This SAARC madness and money into retailers that pay rent Telecommunication Corporation has begun making the monthly telephone bills of its customers in things at the eleventh hour and other fits like it are among the and electricity. Kathmandu Valley available online. You need to go to www.ntc.net.np and complete formal registration fifty-ninth minute. We have come reasons for Kathmandu’s growth as What sort of a future are we procedures using information from your last receipt. Upon completing registration, you get password- to the conclusion that this reflects an unplanned urbane jungle. If it creating for ourselves? Hasty last- protected access to your bill. The corporation is said to also be working on ways to enable customers to two possible aspects of our national were not for this event, squatters minute decisions always cost the eventually pay the bills online. psyche—either we are brilliant with and hawkers in many areas would country dear. From the way we deadlines and work best under have converted their spaces into negotiate treaties to the way we

Bleak outlook pressure, or we are plain compla- permanent homes. We conveniently handle enterprise labour relations ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ cent. A less sanguine view, though, forget how in some similar time to even the way we dig our roads The signs of an economic downturn have been evident since early this year, and now we have the sorry is that we are so engrossed in the shack owners were evicted with and install electric poles, a lot figures. The Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) says economic growth in fiscal year 2001-02 will be the vicious circle of moneymaking promises of compensation along needs to change. For the greater lowest in the past 14 years. That is because of lower than expected agricultural yieldówhich was through convoluted nexuses that we Exhibition Road, turning a good, we need to learn, otherwise it washed out by late rains in east Nepal last yearóand slowdown in both manufacturing and tourism. The simply succumb to the dictates of potential hub for exhibitions into will always be like this, with a few GDP, based on data for the first three months of the current fiscal year, may grow by just 2.5 percent, people who gain by making haste. lanes of shops. The squatters for making good off the stupidity of the barely a third of the projection announced in the budget in July (6 percent). Agriculture contributes roughly It is an awful thing to say, but it their part simply moved on system. 8 40 percent of the GDP, and the growth in the past years mainly reflected the increased agricultural yields appears that Nepali mediocrity in elsewhere. The various agencies thanks to good monsoon rains. Agriculture this year is expected to grow by just 2.1 percent. The non- thinking and doing has stooped so that have allowed haphazard Readers can post their views at agricultural sector, which grew by 5.6 percent last year, is expected to slow down to just 2.6 percent, the low that no one bothers to even constructions for decades are now [email protected] result of increasing disruption of industrial production and tourism by unstable politics and Maoist violence. comment about this blatant misuse calling foul and want to take action

INTERVIEW “The answer is providing politicians and civil servants the right incentives to deliver the goods” - Emmanuel Tumuslime-Mutebile, Governor, Bank of Uganda deliver. The incentive structure for politicians fiscal policy. But from our experience in Uganda I can tell you that and for public servants is perverse from a this stability can go up in flames overnight the minute the development point of view. government begins to use central bank borrowing to finance its expenditures because that is creating money. As darkness Did you sense some positive signs? follows daylight, it will cause inflation, not in years but in months. The prime minister is serious and wants to see change, wants delivery of public services, How serious is the possibility of us overspending in a war which is clear from his eight-point program. It is economy? also clear from his analysis of the root cause of Hereís how you should handle the war. It is the new priority and the insurgency, that ultimately it is due to the it must displace some other priority. You should reprioritise all failure of government to deliver public serv- government expenditure in such a way so as to create enough ices to the grassroots. The answer is resources to fight the war within the existing sources. Once providing politicians and civil servants the donors have seen that you are doing your best within the right incentives to deliver the goods. resources available, it is most likely that they will come in and give you money for the non-security-related expenditures. But I What about resources, how do you deliver doubt if they will give you money for the budget unless they can when you canít pay for it? see evidence that you are re-prioritising. One has to be very frank about this. I think it is not a question of resources, it is a Have you got some sense of the donor role in Nepal so far? question of priorities. Resources will never There has been a policy and program vacuum (on government Youíve met different Nepali officials, tell us what you found. be enough, at least on earth (in heaven there might be). We are part) and donors have moved in to fill that vacuum. That is why It is a bit presumptuous for me to draw conclusions on the condemned to having scarcity of resources relative to needs. there are so many different small projects financed by this or basis of the short experience. I have come away with an I think the ultimate objective of any government or political that donor. Because this money is being put in Nepal without a overwhelming sense that there is a need to find a mechanism activity ought to be delivery of public services with the re- coherent framework it is virtually being wasted because it is like for lengthening the planning horizons of politicians, in particu- sources you have. pouring water into a sieve. There must be a coherent framework lar, lengthening the planning horizon of government leaders. identifying priorities within the budget constraints, donors can When prime ministers change so quickly one runs the risk that What about borrowing? then come in and help once they see the good intentions. Nature politics becomes the politics of shuffling the deck, moving from You can, but prudently. Certainly not from the domestic banking hates a vacuum, they (donors) are there and they will come and one person to the another without giving anyone enough time system. I was amazed about your long record of macroeconomic fill it if you keep the space. What you need to do is to channel to think strategically and implement programs they want to stability. Clearly this has been a result of prudent monetary and their resources to where you want it to go. Donít allow them the ECONOMY 21 - 27 DECEMBER 2001 NEPALI TIMES 999 donors were hesitant in the beginning, but it did not take them long to be convinced. “Once donors see you are serious with what you want to do Learning from Uganda they will put money because they also want to be associated with • “I see the credibility of the state economy, where the dollar was sold success,” says Mutebile. Today, is a major problem, and this may for 10 times the official exchange Uganda’s economy is growing by haunt Nepalis even after the Maoists rate. If that was not bad enough, about 6 percent each year and more are crushed” HIV/AIDS struck Africa at about and more donors and private • “I have been talking to many the same time. investors are willing to be a part of politicians here and I regret to say “We worked with a cash the success story. Aid is flowing that I have the impression that budget based on spending only faster making up about 30 percent politics in Nepal is only about who how much revenue we were able of its GDP annually. sits in the chair. If this goes on and if to earn,” says Mutebile. “If a One reason why all that was we meet in 10 years from now Nepal ministry did not have money it did possible according to Mutebile will be worse off” not spend it.” It was a tough was political vision, and the space • “Political power must be used to decision and put many develop- for the political leadership to deliver public services. Leaders must ment programs on hold, but that deliver on its promises. Mutebile have a tenure that is long enough to also put pressure on the govern- says Africa doesn’t have a make it possible to deliver what they ment to create resources, by shortage of strong leaders promise. Maybe having a agreement improving revenue collection and (Uganda’s own Idi Amin was on this between political parties checking leakage. Simultaneously, one), but it has lacked leaders would be the place to start and the government was forced to with vision. Mutebile’s prescrip- nurture real development” prioritise development invest- tion for Nepal is a visionary and Uganda’s remarkable turnaround after decades of Uganda has seen the worst a ments—which it actually did, by strong leadership, political will, a country can. In 1989 it had almost 60 throwing out over 50 percent of political consensus on develop- conflict holds important lessons for Nepal. percent of the people living on less the programs it funded and ment priorities and fiscal disci- than one dollar a day and a parallel concentrating only on a few. Many pline. 8

BINOD○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ BHATTARAI nation around. Uganda’s remarkable Product comes from agriculture. n terms of human development, recovery did not happen by sheer Nepal may have better resources in Nepal is at the botom of the heap good luck, it was sheer hard work. terms of hydro and tourism potential, Iin Asia, but with the economy “Even up to the mid-1980s we but Uganda has superior governance stagnant there are indications that were literally like playing a game of structures which have been key in our country is even more badly off political musical chairs on the deck of improving development parameters. than some countries of sub- the Titanic,” Mutebile told us. “The key is the involvement of Saharan Africa. “Governments were changing fast and the political leadership in develop- Now with a full-blown insur- all were unable to deliver basic public ment and poverty alleviation gency raging in the countryside, there services.” The transformation began programs,” says Dr Shanker Sharma is a real danger that vital resources in the mid-1980s after Yoweri of the National Planning Commission will be sucked away from develop- Museveni was elected president. As who was in Uganda earlier this year. ment. But there is hope: if a country the Governor of the central bank, “That has not happened in Nepal so like Uganda could rise from the Mutebile helped clean up its far.” In fact the key seems to be ashes, why can’t Nepal? moribund financial system and keep visionary leadership that can impart That was the message watch on the government’s purse. direction and hope to a country Emmanuel Tumuslime-Mutebile, Nepal and Uganda have many ravaged by poverty and war. governor of the Bank of Uganda had things in common: both are land- Mutebile is careful not to for Nepal last week at the end of a locked and about the same size in sound too prescriptive. “I should be four-day visit. Mutebile was one of geography and population. Both are careful not to say too much about the key technocrats hired by relatively resource-poor, and share the my hosts,” he told us, “but not Uganda’s visionary president Yoweri same economic make-up—over 40 saying anything won’t help either.” Museveni to turn the east African percent of the Gross Domestic Some of his observations:

freedom to pick and choose. Donors have, through their interventions, taken the pressure off Nepalis in positions of power to effect changes for the benefit of the people. Fortunately the National Planning Commission and the Ministry of Finance have started the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) which is an important development. It means the government is beginning to confront the constraints.

What is this new acronym, MTEF? A MTEF is essentially about three things. It is about overall fiscal discipline, meaning that the resource you have is the limit for your expenditure. Of course, the resources include money committed by donors to the budget to the extent you get them to put in the support. But that must be the limit to public expenditure. Secondly, there must be strategic prioritisation of resources within and between sectors. For example your priorities could be agriculture, roads, power and water. Everything else is not a priority. You may now have to add security to the list, and cut re- sources from elsewhere to pay for it. The third point is operational efficiency to get the output you want, which you have to achieve through cost-effectivity.

Assuming we do everything right, what does your Ugandan experience tell us about the turnaround time for Nepal? Improvements can be obtained very quickly, if you determine what outcome you want. You can reduce percentage of people living in poverty or increase health delivery, agriculture productivity very quickly. In Uganda we reduced poverty from 56 percent in 1992 to 46 percent 1997, we had a reduction of 10 percentage points in the poverty head count in five years. That is not a long time to deliver such reduc- tion. I cannot see why it cannot happen in Nepal because you have a similar economic structure and you have been even better in terms of macro-stability and external reserve management.

If you were asked to start something tomorrow, what three things would you start with? I would try to increase agriculture productivity which would require high-yield seeds, irrigation and extension services to farmers. I would deal with transport more generally and mainly building feeder roads in the mountains. I would also attempt to increase the number of children going to school. Our program in Uganda doubled the number of school-going children in one year. Over more than five years we have increased the number of primary school goers from 2.5 million in 1996 to 8 million this year.

But how do you deal with a bureaucracy that barely functions? Without apologising for civil servants, I think that politics is the most important. Once the politics is right, once the incentive framework is improved from your short-term preoccupation (to get to power), in the longer term the civil servants will also have the right incentives to implement projects. You should not transfer people from one office to another, as it seems to be happening here, but one should also not be a permanent fixture. People should be kept in an office long enough to see a program through. If they have that prospect they then have the incentive to do things. It is thus important to change the incentive structure facing both the politician and civil servant to lengthen their planning horizons. Political leaders of all parties need to have some sort of a compact: they should ask the prime minister to provide a vision and he should be given at least five years to deliver. 101010 GETAWAYS 21 - 27 DECEMBER 2001 NEPALI TIMES

StopPlaces the to get awayworld from it all this new and year. let me Shangri-Laoff Village, Pokhara t’s been a rough 12 months. guide to celebrating the festive truly block out the world was… Valley from Pokhari Thumko, the world. The resort has special Manakamana temple, get out to Conventional wisdom has it season has some rather different Nepal. We’re willing to bet that barely an hour’s drive from the discounts for the holiday season. Pokhara or stop in on the way I that the dawn of the new year suggestions. We asked where one no beach in Thailand, and no eastern edge of Patan, from the 418922 back from a tiring jungle trip in needs to be celebrated with lots could go to get away from it all, jungle in Indonesia will come Ring Road towards the old town River Side Springs, Kurintar Chitwan. Or, if you’re short on of food, drink, people, really and truly. Where one close to offering the pure relaxa- of Lubhu. At 2,000 m and time, you could just stay here and A resort with a difference, River noisemakers and funny hats, in as would see few people, catch the tion that our eight picks do. Go approximately 15 km south-east enjoy the white sand. The resort Side Springs is perfect for families as exotic a location as one can news two days late, if at all, and on, get out into the country. What of Kathmandu, the Adventure is extremely well-equipped, and well as couples and groups of friends. Tented Camp offers the perfect even the hard to please will have A two-and-a-half hour drive from Adventure Tented Camp, combination of sweeping views of Pokhari Thumko snow-covered peaks and magical sunrises, sunsets, and night views over the Valley. You feel like you’re in deepest forest here, surrounded in season by luxuriant rhododendrons, magnolia, wild orchids, and an astonishing variety of other greenery at all other times. A great place for nature lovers and birdwatchers, ALL PICS COURTESY RESORTS IN STORY. RESORTS PICS COURTESY ALL the Camp is also the ideal starting manage. We beg to differ. Sure, be able to pass the hours just are you waiting for? point for short hikes and bicy- the food, drink and stunning watching unbeatable vistas, Adventure Tented Camp, cling over to Panauti and River Side Springs, Kurintar locale all make sense. But does a walking, reading or talking to a Pokhari Thumko Phulchwoki, among others. The year like the one just passing loved one—without being thatched roofs give a whole new Kathmandu (102 km), just beside a little to complain about—there is need to get any more hectic than startled by the collective clicking If you can’t go too far, don’t meaning to camping, and the lazy bend in the Trisuli river, the a large landscaped swimming it has already been? Perhaps not. of a busload of tourists’ cameras. worry. There are splendid views Country Kitchen provides resort is a good way to begin or end a pool, an a la carte restaurant, a So this year, the annual NT We realised that the best place to of both the mountains and the delicious cuisine from all around holiday. You can make a short trip to gymnasium, a mini movie theatre, and pony rides. 241408 Horse Shoe Mountain Resort, Mude In Mude village in Sindhu- palchowk district, 110 km northeast of Kathmandu, the Horse Shoe Mountain Resort is a spectacularly scenic place. It is confusing—so nice you want to tell people about, but so very nice, really, that you don’t want it overrun. Run by a retired army major and his wife, the Resort is at a height of 2,800 m, has simple, clean rooms, and a very homely restaurant and bar that serves Nepali and continental food. Their trump card, though, is the Finnish sauna. Short one- day hikes to nearby villages, and trips to the Dolakha Bhimsen and Kalinchowk Mahi temples can be taken from the resort, while the sunrise and sunset, and mountain views are worth just sitting around. Special Christmas and New Year discounts are available. 011-63174. Everest Panorama Resort, Daman There are few places you can get absolutely brilliant views of the Himalaya without having to trek for hours. Daman is one of them, and the Everest Panorama Resort is a worthy addition to it. 80 km from Kathmandu along the Tribhuvan highway, Daman is one GETAWAYS 21 - 27 DECEMBER 2001 NEPALI TIMES 111111 in the heart of the Royal Chitwan National Park. One of the few deluxe jungle resorts, Temple Tiger offers the usual jungle trips a lot more. For one, you don’t have to venture out into the forest for a glimpse of the wildlife, you can do just as well from the Lodge itself. It has individual villas furnished with twin beds, attached baths, and private balconies with hammocks Everest Panorama Resort, Daman and umbrellas, well suited to relaxed wildlife watching. And if of the premium mountain viewing data ports, minibars, television you want a real thrill, the Lodge locations—at 2,500 m above sea with satellite connections, private has trained naturalists and ten level, it offers views of the balconies, and terrace gardens. elephants to guide you. If you Himalaya from Dhaulagiri to Hanging around the swimming go now, there is a new beyond Everest on a clear day, pool and outdoor jacuzzi are a addition to the stable, so to and such days there are plenty. There are walks to be taken Nagarkot Farmhouse Resort, Nagarkot among pine and oak forests, with an abundant variety of bird-life. speak, a calf called Ojaswao Nepal Wildlife Resort There are plenty of safe and The Resort has luxury facilities Prasad, the first time in The Royal Bardia National exciting opportunities to go such as modern rooms with recent years a healthy baby Park is about as far as you can wildlife-spotting, and it is central heating, cottages and elephant (a cross between a go from the Valley and the idea particularly exciting to look private balconies, all facing the wild and a tame elephant) of Mountainous Nepal. The across the river from your porch mountains. In addition, you can has been born in Nepal. In Nepal Wildlife Resort at the and spot a wild boar, blackbuck, walk up the viewing tower the evenings you can relax southern border of the park tiger or even Asia’s largest wild equipped with powerful binocu- with the excellent food and sits right beside a tributary of elephant. There is more to do in lars, and in the evenings, sit at listen to the sounds of the the Karnali river. The Resort the evenings than just the time- the cosy bar with a comprehen- jungle and the low tones of has all the facilities of a jungle honoured safari tradition of sive range of local and imported men recounting their war having a couple of chhota Nepal lodge. The fact that it has no drinks. There is lots more—a stories, such as wrestling electricity and has to make do pegs—Tharus from surrounding friendly restaurant, a mini golf Wildlife with tigers. Special offers are villages come to dance for guests Resort with generators in the evenings green, a tennis court, a children’s on. 244651 only adds to the safari feeling. at the Resort.246923 playground, a jacuzzi, suana, and perfect way to spend the after- indoor games including a pool noon as more energetic people go table. You can take a short hike on short hikes and less wired ones take a nap. The Village offers special Christmas packages. 412999 Nagarkot Farmhouse Resort, Nagarkot Calling the Farmhouse a resort is inaccurate. This is possibly the most soothing retreat in the country. Just two km from Nagarkot proper, the Farmhouse feels like the former home it is. And few hilltop resorts can offer what it does. Surrounded by thousands of fruit trees, it is a typical Nepali building with to a nearby monastery or to the traditional art and huge windows surrounding Tamang villages, or from which to look through to go fishing in the nearby Indra spectacular mountain views. Sarovar. 415373 There is a cosy and homely Shangri-La Village, Pokhara restaurant with an open fireplace, This isn’t any old resort with a which truly feels like sitting in a mountain-view, it actually friend’s home. The food is all complements the majestic local and organic, and set meals Annapurna range. The Shangri-La are the order of the day. If you’re Village Pokhara, a “boutique feeling spiritual there is also a resort”, is just about a five- meditation hall and a white minute drive from Pokhara Buddhist stupa. There are day

Temple Tiger Jungle Lodge airport, but you’d never guess it. trips, short hikes and mountain The traditional Nepali architec- bike-rides to be taken along the ture is appropriate, comfortable Valley rim, but the Farmhouse is and beautiful, and the garden is also the perfect place to just be. stunningly landscaped, with water 271545 bodies strewn around here and Temple Tiger Jungle Lodge there. It is hard to think of a There are many places to stay in more perfect place from where to Chitwan, but few like Temple sit and take in Machhapuchhre Tiger Jungle Lodge and Wildlife and its neighbours. The Village is Camp. A two-hour drive from a deluxe resort with modern Narayanghat, and another 15 facilities including rooms with minutes more across the Narayani individual temperature controls, River in a safari jeep, the Lodge is 121212 TECHNOLOGY 21 - 27 DECEMBER 2001 NEPALI TIMES Video voyeurism In the brave new world of Reality TV, war is adventure, crime is drama, politics

is competitive sport, and all of existence is reduced to spectacle.

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The more faithfully these drives highlights and leave out the uneventful are documented, manipulated, or, in a rest. The material of life when growing number of situations, recorded, edited and scored to the recreated, the more convincing the tune of the real thing produces an effect of reality. In “Who Wants to be experience that is arguably more a Millionaire,” the thrill of answering believable than the real. questions is less important than the TV stations superimpose the gratification the audience gets seeing words “actual footage” on screen to contestants crumble under pressure or help viewers differentiate fact from lured by greed. what has become known as In many ways, Reality TV is more “faction”, or the reconstruction of than just a genre. It is a set of factual events using fictional techniques that aim to simulate the methods for visualisation. real. Since not all events are captured When the texture of reality on tape as it happens in real time, cannot be simulated by footage and what is not recorded is reconstructed. sound, it is reconstructed for the Today, a lot of effort is spent making viewer by the reporter. A reporter’s video material look and feel like the self-conscious narration and point of original experience of living. If view has been around since the traditional television entertainment beginning of broadcast news where it two examples of how recreating the programmers to seek formats that idealises life with polished scenery and has been used to point out detail and texture of reality can make for provide more bang for the buck. breathtaking camera work, Reality context otherwise not obvious in the convincing fiction. Variety shows, dramas, and sitcoms TV provides the opposite by report. But in Reality TV, reporters But the fundamental difference are becoming too expensive to approximating the viewer’s imagina- become the news event themselves. between reconstructing reality as produce because those rely on tion of the natural texture of reality. Why the emphasis on a reporter’s fictional entertainment and reproduc- bankable stars, professional directors, The rough, the gritty, and the jerky inner conflicts and fears, innermost ing it as news is often overlooked and established scriptwriters, and a whole are replacing decades of traditional joys and epiphanies? In Reality TV, underestimated. When fiction army of production personnel to run

camera and editing techniques. viewers’ experience of reality is made simulates reality and reality resembles them. Compare that to the often ○○○○○○○○○○

DAVID○○○○○○ CELDRAN Journalistic methods are According to this “new” aesthetic even more real when authenticated by fiction, the line that separates fact scriptless and raw production values of hen life resembles fiction, combined with the techniques of (which was actually popularised years the reporter’s presence. When a from make-believe evaporates in the reality programs and the choice to reality becomes the biggest entertainment to document true ago by MTV), the less “staged” a reporter thinks aloud, it creates the minds of viewers, thus making it network bosses is clear. W blockbuster in town. Aware stories, and in cases where footage is scene comes across to viewers, the effect that he or she is whispering to increasingly difficult for them to see In the rush to plug the holes in of this, entertainment companies are unavailable, to simulate reality. The more authentic the experience of the viewer in a private conversation the world objectively. network programming, news scrambling to package this phenom- common thread that runs through reality becomes. Never mind the fact that resembles a secret among friends. This is what the social theorist departments are fast crossing the enon called life on television. Just take these programs is the ability to that humans experience life in colour, This personalised approach not only Jean Baudrillard calls the phenom- already-fuzzy line separating news and a look at the growing number of capture reality unfolding in the raw and not in the grainy, black-and-white verifies reality but also gives it a more enon of hyperreality—the postmodern entertainment. Across networks, reality-based programs. This television and in real-time—or at least the look habitually used by Reality TV exciting meaning. And by stepping condition where television dissolves journalists are stretching the definition genre is called Reality TV, which impression of it. producers. Or forget for a while that into the lives of the reporters that into life and life dissolves into of news and current affairs to include a encompasses news and talk Because human beings are a we go through each day without once cover reality, viewers can go beyond television. In hyperreality, people can variety of subjects based on reality. programs, game shows, sports, complex bundle of drives and hearing background music rise and fall merely watching life to living life—if no longer distinguish between the Under this ever-widening definition comedy, horror and drama. In fact, instincts, Reality TV attempts to with every emotion we feel. only vicariously. spectacle and the real as the line that fall topics like celebrity gossip, the each reality show is often a bit of all record, through the use of the Scoring and splicing—these are One can argue that such divides reality as it is and reality as it occult, human adventure, and even these rolled into one. omnipresent video camera (hidden or the other ingredients that are being techniques of Reality TV are not should look like dissipates. comedy, as in the case of America’s Once again, a news reporter otherwise), how ordinary people, put employed to simulate life. Because different from traditional methods Extending this analysis, television Funniest Videos. revisits sensational crimes and under extraordinary situations, grapple reality unfolds in a timeline different used by novelists and filmmakers. To does not mirror reality, television As reality and the imaginary shocking acts of terror through the with their primordial selves and from the limits imposed by television be sure, the detailed style of an Ann creates it. News becomes a collage of become indistinguishable from each increasingly common use of news succumb to or overcome greed, lust, schedules, footage is spliced and Rice novel and the cinema-verité select and fragmented images that other, so too does the role of the footage spliced with drama sequences fear, and the basic instincts of survival reality edited into easily digestible methods of the blockbuster suspense have no original, no source or journalist with that of the entertainer. reconstructed for television. and self-preservation. sequences that pick the juicy movie Blair Witch Project are only counterpart in the real world. What The primary objective of journalists, we perceive to be real is nothing more of course, is supposed to be to provide than a simulation of it. Reality the public with information that is not programs, therefore, do not only run only relevant, but also accurate and the risk of providing a distorted view truthful. At the same time, for it to of life, but also a sometimes imaginary reach the widest audience possible, version of it where entertainment co- journalism should attempt to be opts reality and repackages life to out- interesting and engaging, although it do life itself. should be careful not to become pure This ability to inflate reality entertainment. explains the global popularity of the In the new century of hyper- genre. Hit series like MTV’s Real reality, Reality TV has emerged as a World, Survivor, Cops, and America’s powerful and inescapable form of Most Wanted are just some of the entertainment. For as long as viewers programs that have been captivating crave for entertainment that resembles audiences worldwide. And this is no life, reality programs will continue to surprise. The success of Reality TV is proliferate, change the way we cover based on the same impulse that makes news, and redefine our notions of us stare at accidents on the highway or objective reality and truth. The at a couple arguing in the next table. challenge to journalists is to stop The endless melodrama and spectacle considering Reality TV as the next life dishes out on a daily basis satisfy evolutionary stage of journalism, but this voyeuristic appetite. rather just another form of entertain- Reality TV has been likened to ment that is cheaper to produce than gladiatorial combat where spectators traditional forms. As such, network cry for blood for no apparent reason news should keep to producing news other than the entertainment it offers. and leave the entertainment—reality- The more carnage the better, the based or otherwise—to the entertain- more intense the conflict the more ment divisions. This divide is satisfying it is to viewers. This may all necessary, if only to keep journalists sound extreme, but the public isn’t from framing reality in the language of the only one lining up for a bit of the entertainment where war is adventure, action—so, too, are television crime is drama, politics is competitive networks. After all, reality is double sport, and where all of existence is the entertainment value at a fraction reduced to spectacle. 8 (PCIJ) of the price of fiction. The current recession and the David Celdran is a producer with corresponding dip in advertising the Philippine television channel, revenue have forced network ABS-CBN. WORLD 21 - 27 DECEMBER 2001 NEPALI TIMES 131313 ANALYSIS by IAN DAVIDSON

Budget trouble

○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ cabinet, where Foreign Secretary Jack ○○○○○○○○○○○ Straw argued for an international OTTAWA ñ The Canadian parliament is debating a national budget peace-keeping force in Afghanistan, that would dramatically increase military and security spendingó but was opposed by Defence Secretary some say at the expense of health, education, and international aid. Going solo Geoff Hoon, who agrees with the The budget includes $5 billion in new money for security measures Pentagon’s hostility to such proposals. over the next five years, $1.5 billion of which would be spent on Third, it is extremely difficult, air travel. Other security-related additions to the budget include $1 perhaps impossible, to imagine Article billion for police and spy agencies, $750 million for the military, and 5 can be invoked again. You cannot $630 dollars for tougher screening of immigrants and refugees. By say “we call on NATO for collective contrast, the government proposes spending $250 million over defence,” and in the next breath say, three years on international aid. The Canadian Catholic Organisa- “we don’t need you, we’re doing it our tion for Development and Peace expressed disappointment. ìHow way.” NATO’s centrepiece seems can Canada set an example by allotting only $250 million over three seriously, perhaps fatally damaged. years to foreign aid while in the same budget setting aside $1 The fourth conclusion mirrors this— billion per year, creating a false sense of security?î the agency the US has been patently reluctant to said. Gerry Barr, president of the Canadian Council for Interna- accept help offered by European tional Cooperation, noted the aid budget included an increase of NATO members. Public opinion in $80 million in the Canadian International Development Agencyís favour of European NATO will be budget. ìItís real, but moderate, and some good may come of it,î he vulnerable if the military campaign said. Parliamentary opposition leader Stockwell Day said Canadaís does not produce fairly quick political foreign aid ìall too often goes to countries steeped in corruption.î successes, more so if the US moves Other critics of the budget, including eight of Canadaís ten provin- to a wider military war against “state cial premiers, also criticise the government for not increasing sponsors of terrorism.” support for domestic priorities like the cash-strapped universal Finally, this crisis may have health care system, the homeless and the unemployed. (IPS) seriously damaged efforts to create a

common foreign and security policy Nowhere to go ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ between members of the EU. ○○○○○○○○○○○ BRUSSELS - MÈdicins Sans FrontiËres/Doctors Without Borders NATO might be irreparably damaged by the American Everything Blair has done since his (MSF) has strongly criticised governmentsí attitudes to asylum- rush visit to Washington after 11

“war on terror”, and EU is not unharmed either. seekers accusing them of failing to meet their international obliga-

○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ September seems designed to tions and endangering lives. Rafael Vilasanjuan, MSFís director prevent integrated EU response. His general, said on the release of MSFís Activity Report 2000-2001: s wars end, diplomatic and other defensive alliance in history, in sometimes seemed that this disengage- systematic promotion of meetings of ìThe image of refugees is related to conflicts, crises, infectious political autopsies begin. It is the sense that it incorporated an open- ment from its friends overseas might “big” European countries, inde- diseases and so on. So the international community finds solutions A not too early to draw some ended guarantee of collective defence. soften under Secretary of State Colin pendent of EU institutions or to the problem without increasing the right of choice for refugees. preliminary conclusions from the “war Here was a momentous event in Powell, events since 11 September mechanisms, culminated in the Their solution is the return of refugees, no matter what the on terrorism”. One concerns the NATO’s 52-year history. You’d think have confirmed that this US adminis- recent farce over a dinner at conditions in the country. They fund for repatriations, but give revolutionary changes being contem- its activation would lead to collective tration remains unilateralist. Downing Street. Intended as one little money for refugees to be attended to outside these plated in NATO’s relations with defence by NATO. European NATO Second, the attempt by the British between Europe’s Big Three troubled regions.î People suffering because of war, violence, Russia. Less visible is the deep and allies, including Britain France, Italy to secure influence and advantage by (Britain, France and Germany), it exclusion, displacement, famine and neglected diseases have self-inflicted wound that, I suspect, and even Germany, offered military playing on the “special relationship” ended up with determined but been the focus for the organisation, which this week marks its has opened within NATO itself. forces. But the Bush Administration with the US is again exposed as a unwelcome gatecrashers from the 30th anniversary. This year is also the 50th anniversary of the After 11 September, NATO’s intended to fight this war by itself, it myth. Prime Minister Tony Blair has EU’s other governments. The Big 1951 Refugee Convention, created to define protection and European members, among others, did not want NATO involved, and made heroic efforts to exert influence Three have often resented being rights for those who flee countries because of insecurity and promptly lined up with the US in Britain’s was a small, essentially on the US, by total military commit- dragged behind the US on defence. persecution. A ministerial conference in Geneva on 12-13 moral and political solidarity, and marginal military contribution. ment to support for the US campaign Now smaller EU members fear December adopted a declaration which committed signatory offers of cooperation. For the first time Some conclusions follow. First, it in Afghanistan, and by arguing that being co-opted into an EU foreign nations to ìimplement our obligations under the 1951 Convention since NATO’s founding, Article 5 of is clear that President George W the war can only be won if it addresses policy in whose development they and/or its 1967 Protocol fully and effectivelyî. At a time when the Washington Treaty was invoked. Bush’s administration remains as political and economic issues, not only had no say. 8 (Project Syndicate) Article 5 is the keystone of the unilateralist as it seemed coming to military ones. But Blair’s influence on countries are reaffirming the Convention, ìwe see a continuous deterioration of the conditions on these people,î said Treaty—it says an attack against one power 11 months ago. It has opted US military strategy is as marginal as (Ian Davidson is a fellow of member of the alliance shall be out of or denounced multilateral Britain’s military contribution to the the European Policy Centre, Vilasanjuan. MSF began the year with refugee crisis in Guinea and are ending it with a big humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan. considered an attack against all. This engagements, such as the Kyoto American military campaign. This Brussels, and columnist with The EU annually takes in about 500,000 refugees and displaced article distinguishes NATO from any protocol on climate change. Though it dilemma is clear inside the British The Financial Times.) persons, three percent of the worldís estimated total 14.5 million; there are over 3 million in Africa and 6 million in the OPINION by SUSIE LINFIELD Middle East. Liesbeth Schockaert, an MSF jurist, said the EU was applying border control policies, non-arrival policies and other deterrents, to push for reception of people in the regions they come from. While Europe is shutting its doors, said Schockaert, countries like Iran, Pakistan, Kenya and Guinea are THE ILLIBERAL LEFT expected to host large numbers of refugees, sometimes for round the world, the Left was Yet another irony: our belief in decades. (IPS) thrown into crisis after human rights in some ways abetted A Khrushchev’s 1956 speech this betrayal. I often hear it said that exposing (some of) Stalin’s crimes. It human rights are inalienable—as if wasn’t only Communist Party rights, like genes or DNA, reside members dazed by Khrushchev’s “within” us from birth. This is revelations; progressives of all stripes— convenient. Who needs to defend, from trade unionists to Trotskyites— much less create, something innate? were forced, if they were honest and But rights are not natural: they are brave enough, to reassess long- artificial constructs, the result of cherished beliefs. 11 September has thought and history, of ethical and thrust those of us who consider political work. We don’t inherit rights: ourselves progressives—who believe in we make them. They cease to exist the democracy, feminism, human rights moment we stop building institutions and socialism—into a 1956-type crisis. Is it 1956 for the Left? Well, yes. that embody them and resort to Questioning authority must now start sentimentalising them. Hannah Arendt with our own. Years of political correctness have resulted in muddled, strident put it well in 1951: “No paradox of contemporary politics is filled with a more and obtuse ways of approaching (avoiding?) the world. This piece is primarily a poignant irony than the discrepancy between the efforts of well-meaning idealists self-critique, but though the universe of “progressives” I am addressing is not who stubbornly insist on regarding as ‘inalienable’ those human rights, which infinite, it is larger than one. are enjoyed only by citizens of the most prosperous and civilised countries, and The holy grail of much Leftist thinking over recent decades has been cultural the situation of the rightless themselves… Equality… is not given us, but is the relativity. Terrified of being thought racist, imperialist, arrogant, elitist or “too result of human organisation insofar as it is guided by the principle of justice. Western,” we averted our eyes from (and sometimes supported) barbarisms of all We are not born equal; we become equal as members of a group on the strength types. Along with this came an odd reverence for “traditional cultures”—strange of our decision to guarantee ourselves mutually equal rights.” for those who fancy themselves forward-looking rationalists. For example, a Starting in the 18th century, the Left has defined itself as the defender of student of mine defended female genital mutilation in Africa on the grounds that knowledge, science, secularism, progress, sceptical thought and universal (not it is “traditional.” True, I replied, so was slavery in the American south. That’s relative) freedoms. All this has been horribly turned on its head. 11 September— different!, she cried. Ah, but it’s not. If Marx were writing today, he’d be vilified not just the World Trade Center massacre, but the skein of reactionary for blasting the idiocy of rural life. Then there is the opiate of the people, which worldviews and organisations it revealed—is a clarion call. We must un-learn the has somehow metamorphosed into a self-conscious, nay dialectical, cry for wretched habit of thinking truthfulness resides in the messenger, not the message. national liberation. Ah, but it’s not. If a neo-liberal or conservative has more to tell us than a Noam Chomsky, so be Bitter irony: this attempt to purify ourselves of racism resulted in a racist it. All morality begins in realism: our ability to see the world as it is, rather than worldview. What else can we call our wilful ignorance of the agony of so many in as we want it to be, must henceforth be the starting point of Left-leaning politics. the underdeveloped world: the torture chambers that litter virtually every Arab Are we honest and brave—and scared—enough to shuck our romantic fantasies nation, the million “martyrs” in the lunatic Iran-Iraq war, the thousands of state about the downtrodden, and our shameful rationalisations born of guilt, bravado executions in China, the grotesque subjugation of women? (The Taliban’s and indifference? 8 (Project Syndicate) strictures against women make the Nuremberg Laws look almost mild, though in spirit the two sets of decrees are one.) Our “solidarity” with the Third World has (Susie Linfield teaches Cultural Reporting and Criticism at New been anything but. York University.) 141414 ASIA 21 - 27 DECEMBER 2001 NEPALI TIMES

ANALYSIS by HADI SOESASTRO The emperor’s new clothes ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ DHAKA - Global recession and the 11 September terrorist attacks in the United States have dealt a heavy blow to Bangladeshís garment sector, with at least 1,000 ready-made clothing factories (almost 30 Indonesia’s radical Islam percent of the total) already forced to close in Dhaka and as has happened with the creation by Chittagong. If the situation does not improve, more will have to some regions of internal close, with serious repercussions for the countryís economy. The trade barriers. garment sector earns 75 percent of Bangladeshís annual foreign Regional autonomy has not pacified exchange revenues that reach more than $5 billion. It is also one of ethnic tensions either. Violent conflicts the countryís biggest employers, with nearly 10 million people among Indonesia’s myriad ethnic and depending on it directly or indirectly. Kutubuddin Ahmed, president religious groups continue. Radical of the Bangladesh Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Associa- tion (BGMEA) says ìwe are faced with disaster. Over 60 percent of the Muslim groups have declared holy war, garment factories are lying idle.î The industry has been feeling the “jihad,” which has complicated and pinch since the US Congress passed the Trade Development Act aggravated conflicts in the Moluccas. (TDA 2000) May last year, allowing 72 sub-Saharan Africa and Fundamentalist Islamic groups raised Caribbean countries duty and quota-free access to the US markets, the most consistent challenge to presenting competition for local exports. Such access to the US Megawati’s “secular” government even market is crucial for Bangladesh, having been the source of some 45 before the attacks on America. They are percent of the 4.86 billion apparel export earnings last fiscal year. A not yet a serious threat, because they BGMEA study says exports to the US market in the current fiscal year aren’t backed by Indonesia’s powerful could plunge by 60 to 70 percent should the downtrend in the global Islamic political parties. Megawati’s economy continueódown by $600 to 800 million from the previous challenge is to keep these parties within record figure of $2.19 billion. (IPS) Indonesia’s conventional political framework. In the beginning of the

“war on terrorism”, some Islamic No road to success ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ political parties were drawn into anti- TOKYO - Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is bracing Japan for deep American protests and even Vice economic and institutional reforms to pull the worldís second largest Can Megawati handle the Islamic and separatist groups? President Hamzah Haz (chairman of economy out of over a decade of stop-go growth. Following his one of Indonesia’s strongest Islamic campaign pledge of ìstructural reforms without sacred cows,î Koizumi parties) was tempted to join in. During has launched a move to privatise or abolish 157 of 163 government ith the Taliban on the run, start the economy. The Assembly is integrity seems to be coming apart at Megawati’s trip to America to support agencies, aiming for sighs of relief can be heard dubious about her, but Megawati was the seams. The unified Indonesia of President Bush, Jakarta was almost extensive changes in Japanís W as far away as Indonesia. heartened when Assembly Chairman the past 40 years or so is finished. A incapacitated by these small, noisy and political culture. He plans to Protests against the US-led coalition’s Amien Rais foreswore any challenge to new regional autonomy law will radical Islamic groups. privatise the powerful Japan bombing campaign had roiled her presidency for the remainder of provide greater freedoms for regions On her return, Megawati restored Highway Public Corporation, Indonesia for weeks, increasing the her term, which expires in 2004. But and local communities to express her credibility by ordering the security a special state entity country’s already perilous instability. Amien Rais’ statement is as self- themselves. This decentralisation services to act. But credit for the established in 1956 and The war in Afghanistan may wind serving as it is in the interest of process is manageable now, but may absence of a truly serious Islamic considered a symbol of the down soon, and there is a fear that political stability. He is the only viable not remain so without a firm policy challenge should perhaps be given to clout of Koizumiís ruling President Megawati Sukarnoputri will rival candidate for the president’s job, hand at the centre. If the central Indonesia’s moderate and mainstream Liberal Democratic Party do little to change her do-nothing and no politician with common sense government refrains from re- Muslim leaders and groups, such as (LDP). The government ways. As Megawati’s first 100 days in would unseat Megawati right now. She imposing its power in the regions, Nahdatul Ulama and Muhammadyah, pumps in $2.7 billion office end, there is grumbling about faces daunting challenges with little administratively or militarily, they are who avoided incendiary words and annually to the Highway Public Corp, which builds her “slow motion” style of govern- chance of success. Many suspect more likely to remain within the deeds. Their responsible behaviour and operates expressways ment, but little applause for her few Megawati’s inactivity results from her republic. Granting special autonomy demonstrates the growing importance of and tollbooths throughout accomplishments—such as weathering recognition of the almost intransigent to the two most strife-ridden Indonesia’s civil society. Megawati the country. Koiichi the Islamic storm. nature of the challenges facing provinces—Aceh and Papua (Irian should forge alliances with the many Ishiyama, political commen- Public expectations about Indonesia. Hers is a “self-healing” Jaya)—may also reduce tension civil society groups emerging in tator for the Daily Yomuiri, Megawati were modest from the start. administration, events are left to run between national and local military Indonesia and which support a says decades of pork-barrel In her report to the annual session of their course in the hope they won’t get commanders. Jakarta must also democratic regime. Such activity will do politics have seen lawmakers the People’s Consultative Assembly, out of hand. Her sense of security— bring human rights abusers to ground Indonesia’s democracy than any push the construction of expressways in their constituencies. By delivered on 1 November, Megawati and indolence—are also increased justice, as Megawati promised other action Megawati might take. 8 building roads and bridgesóeven unprofitable onesóin rural areas, admitted her government had achieved because her political opponents are in earlier. Regions must be prevented (Project Syndicate) the government hands out jobs and money to big companies in little. The Assembly sought to fill this complete disarray. from promulgating regulations (Hadi Soesastro is director of the return for their votes, explains Ishiyama. Today the corporationís policy vacuum by outlining the steps But government by sleepwalking that violate national laws or impose Indonesia Council for Strategic debts are worth $250 billion. Highway Public executives, supported her government must take to jump- is risky in a country’s whose territorial negative effects on other regions, Studies in Jakarta.) by major politicians, have outlined a 50-year debt repayment plan, but Koizumi isnít buying it. He also announced plans to slash the COMMENT by LI FAN public works budget by 10 percent and review the current tax revenue for road construction. ìHe is attacking the heart of the Japanese system,î says Ishiyama. Koizumiís ìbattle against the ëresistance forcesíóthe old guard of his LDPóis entering the second stage,î says Keizo Nabeshima, a political affairs writer. (IPS)

Recrimination and rehabilitation ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ Trickle up COLOMBO - The United National Party (UNP) comfortably won the The prognosis for grassroots Sri Lankan national polls earlier this month, reflecting peopleís

democracy in China is not too bad. desire for change amid a flagging economy and a costly war, but

○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ human rights activists are not rejoicing. They are concerned that the same regime responsible for a brutal crackdown on Marxist Peopleís ritical assessments of grassroots democracy in rural China are hard to Liberation Front or JVP rebels in the 1980s, is back in power. Said a make. Have the reforms created a genuine democracy that represents a worried Chandra Peiris, chairman of the Organisation for Parents and C significant step toward participatory government? Can they be imple- Family Members of the Disappeared (OPFMD): ìThe highest number mented beyond the village level? Where does China’s Communist government fit of disappearances were recorded during their rule.î The OPFMD is in? What role will elected village leaders play in the future? leading many families of the disappeared to seek justice against the In 1987, the Chinese government quietly launched self-governance at the killers and compensation for thousands of young people who died at village level. Originally intended to liberalise agriculture and stimulate economic the hands of the military and pro-UNP death squads between 1988 to growth by allowing villagers to freely decide what they would produce, reform- 1990. The crackdown was ordered by then President Ranasinghe minded officials of the Ministry of Civil Affairs soon introduced local elections Premadasa as the JVP, now a respected third force in Sri Lankan for rural farmers to elect local leaders. Gradually, this spread to nearly every politics, caused mayhem and terror across the country to unseat the village and a simple decentralised system of checks and balances between the government. Estimates of persons who went missing over the three village committee chief and the village assembly was established. Rural farmers governance above the village. Numerous towns attempted to follow with elections years range from 10,000 to 60,000. The UNP government lost both found themselves empowered to organise themselves, criticise some authorities of their own. In response, the Chinese government prohibited township-level parliamentary and presidential polls in 1994. It is interesting to see how the UNP will now tackle justice for suspected perpetratorsóthe and even dismiss their village chief. direct elections earlier this year. Attorney Generalís office is preparing indictments, and almost 500 The regime in China remains authoritarian, and decision-making, highly Despite this, prospects for higher-level democratisation within China will cases are pending against military and police officials. Still, the centralised. But grassroots democracy has rturned political power to the people. remain. The experience of democratic empowerment, and the expression of OPFMD is not ruling out the possibility that the new government In recent years, the Party made determined efforts to weaken village democ- popular will this has allowed, has left a deep and indelible impression on might be conciliatory. The UNP under Ranil Wickremasinghe, now racy while preserving the fiscal benefits of rural economic liberalisation. One such ordinary rural Chinese people. Political rights and local elections may be at prime minister, has tried to erase memories of 1988-1990 by strategy can be seen in Party attempts to exert influence by installing their officials the mercy of the Party, but the historical memory of millions of people will promising better governance. While in opposition, it was the biggest as heads of village committees. A second method is to interfere and encroach upon not be easily erased. Village level democracy will continue to inform and critic of President Chandrika Kumaratungaís People Allianceís (PA) village government affairs through higher-level township officials. Such strategies educate individual rural Chinese on the fundamental aspects of participatory on human rights violationsóparticularly the notorious Presidential produce a highly contentious dual power structure that pits Party secretaries and government. Calls for political reform are strong at all levels in China. It is a Security Division (PSD)óof harassing and intimidating killing village committee chiefs against one another. matter of time before calls for democratic reform spread to cities and urban political opponents and independent journalists. Kumaratunga, still But the proliferation of rural elections and the establishment of local electoral communities. The question is no longer “if” but “when”. China’s political president, appointed special commissions after winning power in systems and self-governance has raised democratic consciousness, which will serve future, and the survival of the Chinese Communist Party, rest on whether 1994 to probe disappearances, punish the killers and offer compen- as a powerful foundation for future demands for higher levels of democratisation. the Chinese government chooses to continue cultivating the seeds of democ- sation to the families of the dead. The process has dragged on even Already, township elections are widely welcomed as a mechanism to stamp out racy or thwarts their inexorable growth. 8 (Project Syndicate) though the commissions identified some 3,000 people, including political corruption, and reduce conflicts between peasants and the government. officers of the armed forces and the police, as being responsible fully Three years ago, under the direction of liberal local cadres, Buyan town in (Li Fan, is the director of the World and China Institute, a non- or partly for the killings. (IPS) Sichuan held the first-ever direct election of a township chief, the next level of government institute in Beijing.) FROM THE NEPALI PRESS THIS PAGE CONTAINS MATERIAL SELECTED FROM THE NEPALI PRESS 21 - 27 DECEMBER 2001 NEPALI TIMES 151515

I did not tender my resignation. The next day at a cabinet meeting, the prime minister told everyone present that most parties had put forward their demands. He asked everyone to formulate a program so every partyís demands would be met. Poudel’s story Chakra Bastola said, îThese programs are all related to your resignation. If you do not resign, these programs are of no interest to the other parties. Bimarsa, 14 December take into account the economic and social aspects. The people have to be What do you think about quitting?î Koirala replied, ìYou either get 57 Excerpts from an interview lured away from the Maosits, lifted out of their present situation. Once you people to throw me out or wait till I vacate this post of my free will.î I then with former deputy prime have brought the people over to your side, you can force the Maoists to realised that another game was being played. The situation was very tense minister Ram Chandra settle for a political compromise. This is why security operations and and the problems could get out of hand. Poudel, NC development projects must go hand-in-hand. I discussed this with the king, The police were being slaughtered. There were already rumours that then told the prime minister what we had talked about. We formulated the many policemen would resign. I could not find a way out of the messóthe My ISDP ISDP and sent it to the palace for approval. ordinances brought forward by government were not being passed, the ÖEven before the Maoists It was delayed there for some days and I told the prime minister that I, army was not moving, parliament could not meeting, the armed police attacked Dang, I received a as Home Minister, wanted to convey my opinions to the king. We fixed an would not be formed, and the Maoists were not prepared to come to the report that clearly stated appointment and 17 of us went to meet him. Since I was Home Minister, I negotiating table. I decided that in such a situation I could not remain the three reasons the told the king that the ISDP had to be launched immediately. I further Home Minister or even deputy prime minister. History would pass its Maoists had withdrawn from requested that the two ordinances [regarding the establishment of a judgement on me. I resigned. The events that followed showed that it was the dialogue with the paramilitary force and empowering the regional administrators to coordi- the right decision. The Maoists are now cornered, and alone. For the governmentóto test the nate all army and development activities] should also be implemented nation, for democracy I sacrificed my position and the possibility of being army, if the army was not immediately. I stated all this forcefully and with total conviction. The very prime minister in the future. mobilised, to defeat the next day, both ordinances were accepted, signed and returned, and the police and threaten the ISDP program was accepted. Immediately, the army was mobilised in some Dunai and Nuwagaon government, and finally, districts and development programs started on a war footing. Rumours were spreading that the army had surrounded the Maoists in even if the army was mobilised, to defeat it. If the army was defeated, the Nuwagaon. They were using locals as human shields, which is why the army Maoists could easily reach their goals. If they could take on and defeat Sudden resignation could not attack. Everyone, everywhere was repeating this. 1,100-armed the army, the victory would silence the hawks in the Maoist party, which I was accused of resigning just as the army had been mobilised in Holleri. guerrillas in Nuwagaon had attacked a police striking base where there could then come for a political compromise. The emergency was That charge was proven wrong the very next day, when then Prime Minister were 72 policemen, and had taken all their weapons. They were on every imposed at the right timeÖ. Girija Prasad Koirala himself resigned. He said he was resigning since he hilltop, and 42 army personnel were sent in. This certainly did not mean Earlier, there was a growing concern in our party about how events was receiving no help from anyone and that the army was not being the army had been mobilised or that they had surrounded the Maoists. I would turn out if the army was mobilised. As a result, many policemen lost mobilised. If the prime minister himself resigned because the army was not told them they should not spread such rumours. They should not have their lives. We had to bear massive loses. We were thinking along the being mobilised, how could my resignation, which came two days earlier, be done this just to corner me, it would only mean bad publicity for the army. wrong lines and wrong decisions were made. I tried to get the army, tried linked to the mobilisation? Where did this conspiracy originate? There is I will not agree that news of the mobilisation of the army was spread to for the implementation of projects under the Integrated Security and no relation between my resignation and the mobilisation of the army. put me in a fix. I have asked the army why they did not help when the Development Programme, and for the control of terrorist activities. This is My resignation had been discussed for two months prior to my quitting. rebels were massacring the police. There was pressure from all sides for the the context in which the army must fulfil its responsibilitiesÖ How can When parliament was obstructed by the opposition over Lauda Air, I told army to be mobilised, which was why they sent the 42 soldiers to there be two armies in a country? I told the Royal Nepal Army that they the prime minister that he needed to win the trust of all political parties Nuwagaon. They later said that they could not send more personnel could not and should not tolerate such a thing. and take on the Maoists. I said I was prepared to help him in any way because of the weather. The fact is, the area was only four hours from When I was acting prime minister, I had a two-day discussion about possible. The Congress had been cornered and the situation had to be Dang. Enough personnel could have been mobilised from Dang to this with His Late Majesty Birendra. The king told me that the army could resolved. A few days later, the Maoists called for a bandh. I told the prime control the Maoists. Perhaps the army was not prepared to send these only be mobilised in a very co-ordinated manner. You cannot only look at minister that since I was Home Minister, it was my duty to challenge this forces. In the Dunai case, the Home Minister resignedóasked by the the problem created by the Maoists. The army is the only organisation bandh and stop it, and I would face it down in any way possible. I further prime ministerósaying that the army had not moved in. My resigna- that provides security for the whole country, so you have to think of the reminded him that the budget would be passed in a few days and re- tion is viewed against this. I want to clear up this muddle: they were not security of the nation, not only the Maoist problem. You have to make quested him to accept my resignation shortly after. He told me he himself prepared to mobilise the army and later they blamed the army for all policies that contain ways in which to deal with the Maoists... We have to should resign, not I. I did not want to put the prime minister in a fix, and so that went wrong.

Political end reach a solution. I feel there was no of the breakdown in the present had been given their rights, there down the district police headquarters These are the examples I have. If ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ way the dialogue could have been political system, most people may have would have been no Maoists. and abducted the Superintendent of innocents are going to be killed, the Budhabar, 12 December fruitful… gone on their side for fear. I was in Mobilising the army is a short-term Police. The Maoists loaded their loot prime minister should be the first Being a former army man, how Dailekh sometime ago. It is at some solution. The political parties and the onto trucks they brought inside the person to face the bullets. Excerpts from an interview with Dipta strong do you think the Maoist distance from the district headquarters. system will have to provide a long- compound. Finally, they destroyed the Your analysis of the prime Prakash Shah, MP, Upper House forces are? The army and police are all concen- term solution. local jail and set free 37 inmates. minister is different from that of You say it was meaningless for Rather than guess, let me tell you what trated in the district headquarters. In The attack on the army barracks others, who say he is a staunch, the Maoists to forsake their we have heard so far—the size of the the villages there is no police, no army. went something like this: The Maoists open and honest democrat. So

Mission Ghorahi what exactly is he like? demand for a republic. Perhaps if force is put at 5,000 to 6,000. I have The Maoists are still continuing with ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ first attacked the barracks with bombs, the government had been more also heard that some foreign nationals their activities. All the people I spoke Janadharana, 6 December killing the two sentries on duty. The I do not know what others have to say. flexible, they may not have gone provide the cadre training and with said they only follow the Maoists army couldn’t get to their ammunition Deuba’s biggest achievement was back to war… support. Every time their people are to survive. UML and Congress The people of Ghorahi say the Maoists store and had to fight with Self-loading bringing the Maoists to the They said they were forsaking the issue killed in an encounter, the Maoists cut activists, all are in the same situation. came from Nepalgunj, Salyan, Rolpa Rifles. Fourteen army men, including negotiating table peacefully, which of a republic, but were instead off the heads of their fallen colleagues Is there a way out after the army and Pyuthan along the highway. They commanding officer Major Naresh Girija Prasad Koirala could not do demanding a constituent assembly. It and take them away so the government is mobilised? Can we hope the came in buses, trucks and minibuses, Uprety, were killed. Some 25 were earlier, when he was prime minister. was their demand that a constituent can’t identify their foreign supporters, Maoists will be controlled in this dropping their cadre all through injured and the rest were captured. Former Prime Minister Krishna assembly be elected for the formation trainers and advisors. Whatever their way? Ghorahi—Tulsipur Chowk, the bus This done, the Maoists started Prasad Bhattarai was not capable of of a republic. From my analysis, I numbers, 6-10,000 they are not Army action is only temporary. For a park, Sewar Khola, the water tank, the systematically looting the barracks and doing that earlier, either, and no one think their attack is on the present trained the way our army is. If they do long-term solution, all political parties playfield of the Gorkha International loading their booty onto two army else tried. Even I could not do this multiparty system of democracy also, not have support lines, there is no must display their political School, which is very close to the traffic trucks in the barracks compound, and when I was deputy prime minister, not only on the monarchy. This is question of them being able to fight commitment and find a way out. That police station. They came fully armed a few other trucks they had brought nor could my government. But we why they have been attacking the our army. Wars are fought on the is the only way out. Absolute rule is not and started surrounding the town with them. As they were leaving, they must analyse this seemingly positive foundations of the present political basis of principles and belifs. A possible in thepresent context. A single- from these places. destroyed the barracks with bombs. step taken by Deuba. There is no system. So even though they say they French philosopher once said: “We party system cannot be put into place. At exactly at 11PM that night they Witnesses say that after all this the doubt he did something positive, he were dropping thier demand for a can resist the force of an army, but we Everyone supports the democratic began attacking. They simultaneously Maoists exploded a bomb, shouted made the Maoists stop their illegal republic, by asking for a constituent can never, never resist the force of framework, from the monarch to the attacked the office of the district slogans and departed in a convoy of activities and come to the negotiating assembly they were attacking the ideas.” I find that very few principled common man. But everyone is also administration, the Chief District some 20 buses, trucks and mini table. He believed them to an extent multiparty democracy and monarchy. people have joined the Maoists, or any complaining that today’s leaders give Officer’s residence, the District Police buses. The kidnapped CDO was put that other people did not. A person This is why the dialogue could not political force for that matter. Because democracy a bad name. If the people Office, the residence of the command- in a vehicle captured from the hurt badly will take revenge, whatever ing officer, the traffic police station, the Department of Forestry, which left for the fallout. The nation will suffer QUOTE OF THE WEEK army barracks, branches of the Nepal Holleri in Rolpa. The looted money because of this. On the issue of how In an emergency there (must be) five ministers not 40, citizens are alert and behind the army, Bank and the Agricultural Develop- and weapons were unloaded in democratic he is, he is as democratic as and the Prime Minister’s Office (must be) converted into Churchill’s War Room. ment Bank and the land revenue office. Dahwan, Rolpa at 11AM the next day. we are, so it is not necessary to sing They came in, firing guns and setting his praises on that count. off bombs. One Maoist was requesting Is there any way the Maoists can

—Editorial in Naya Sadak, 14 December 2001 Talk for peace enter the political mainstream ○○○○

residents over a public address system ○○○○○○○○○○○○ not to venture out of their homes. The Ghatana Ra Bichar, 12 December other than through violence? police reported the next day that the I still think there is a way for them to encounter in the compound of the Excerpts from an interview with Bam enter the mainstream. I believe that district administration office continued Dev Gautam, Nepal Communist they cannot be controlled through the for almost 45 minutes, after which the Party, Marxist-Leninist use of force—even in ten years. We CDO surrendered. The Maoists took You have said that even Prime must not forget that what they have him away and then destroyed the office Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba raised are political issues, and the and burnt a motorcycle and two has helped the Maoists. What problem has to be solved through vehicles. They also took 11 policemen is the basis for that remark? political means. Sometimes their and the CDO’s wife to a nearby house Did he not help them in the guise of military forces increase and sometimes and locked them up, telling the owner conducting a dialogue? He released a decrease, that is another matter. We they should only be released at 10AM lot of Maoist activists from prison, must tell the Maoists using force will the following day. saying this would help build an not get them anywhere. They have to The attack on the house of the atmosphere conducive to dialogue. come to the negotiating table and find commanding police officer also lasted Isn’t this helping them? Did he not a political solution. The government close to an hour. Four policemen were withdraw the very policies imple- must immediately start bringing killed and 14 injured. The police mented to control them? The people in about political, social and economic On elephant’s back: Emergency finally surrendered and the Maoists general and we ourselves only help the changes in the country. Only on the looted the station, carrying away all the Maoists when they aim their guns at basis of such changes will we be able Naya Sadak, 16 December weapons, clothes and communication us. We do it out of fear, while they to convince the Maoists to return to equipment they found. They burnt happily agreed to help the Maoists. the negotiating table… 161616 SPORTS 21 - 27 DECEMBER 2001 NEPALI TIMES meat is usually served up in a soup or a spicy stew and is particularly popular with old men in the belief that it boosts virility. Cats and dogs Advocates of the dog trade say it is an important domestic tradition Korean World Cup organiser bites back in Bardot row. and that Korean dog meat lovers

consume canines bred for eating, ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ ○○○○○○○○○ not as pets. About three million of SEOUL - In a bid to stifle film touches on the subject of cruelty—kept in tiny, filthy cages, South Korea’s 47 million people are criticism over Korea’s dog eating loving animals,” Chung was with cases reported of dogs being believed to eat dog meat as a culture, a South Korean football quoted as saying. The film is a blow-torched to death. delicacy. Dog meat is also eaten in official plans to send an animal- local movie about five young Pain is traditionally said to some other Asian countries, friendly video to French actress women who take turns looking improve the flavour. including China, Vietnam, the Brigitte Bardot. Chung Mong- after a stray kitten. Although it is expensive, the Philippines and Laos. 8 joon, co-chairman of the Korea South Korea has been under World Cup Organising Commit- international pressure from other tee hopes the video, titled Take animal rights activists as well over Care of My Cat, will show that its culinary habits ahead of the South Koreans do care for their 2002 World Cup. FIFA, world animals. Bardot, a vocal critic of football’s governing body, last Pay raise dog-eating, renewed her criticism month called on South Korean ahead of next year’s World Cup authorities to put a stop to ZURICH - All 32 finalists taking part in next yearís World Cup finals, which South Korea will co- animal cruelty. It said it had will benefit from a 51 percent increase in the FIFA payoffs, host with Japan. Her comments received thousands of letters of compared with the 1998 World Cup finals in France. Michel angered many Koreans who saw protest over the mistreatment of Zen-Ruffinen, the general secretary of the world organising them as a slight to their food dogs and cats in Korea. body, said after an extraordinary meeting of the FIFA Execu- culture. Bardot angered Koreans by tive Committee. The increase, sought by many finalists, In an interview published in hanging up the phone during an would also include the introduction of an incentive for the Seoul’s Daily Sports newspaper, interview this month with South teams that are successful as the rate of match fees in- Chung said he would send Bardot Korea’s MBC radio, after the creases through the tournament. the film to show the more caring anchor asked her whether she was In the past it has been a flat rate fee for each team for side of Koreans. “I plan to see the aware that some Westerners had each match played, a situation that caused fears among film and send it to Bardot as the fondly described the experience of many of the finalists for the 2002 finals, to be co-hosted by eating dog meat during visits to South Korea and Japan, that the fees would be inadequate the country. Bardot said she to cover their costs. Zen-Ruffinen also explained that each couldn’t continue an interview finalist would fly to Korea on business class, a move ap- with “liars” and said the con- proved at Tuesdayís meeting. sumption of dog meat was a The executive committee also agreed to allocate 13 on FM 102.4 savage custom. million Swiss francs for increased security measures. The Countering criticism, Chung overall budget for the World Cup has increased by 68 million said Korea has a long tradition of Swiss francs. Much of the increase is made up of increased loving animals, reflected in payments to the teams with those playing in the first round Mon-Fri 0615-0645 BBC World Today Buddhism, which bans killing now guaranteed 1.5 million Swiss francs per match. These even the smallest insects. Chung fees paid to the participants increase on a sliding scale up to Sat 0615-0645 BBC Science in Action also said that Koreans designated 2.5 million Swiss francs for the winners and 2.25 million for Sun 0615-0645 BBC Agenda a breed of dogs, called Jindo, as a the losing finalists. For the World Cup winners, the total national treasure. money to be gained is 12.4 million Swiss francsóa 70 Daily 2045-2115 BBC g]kfnL ;]]jf]]] The sale and consumption of percent increase over France ë98 and, as FIFA explained, a dog meat was banned in the run great incentive to make progress in the tournament. Daily 2245-2300 BBC g]kfnL ;]]jf]]] up to the 1988 Seoul Olympics A payment to each of the World Cup finalists of one by officials worried at the million Swiss francs was approved by the Executive Commit- unfavourable light that would be tee at its meeting in Busan, Korea, on 30 November. In effect, cast on South Korea’s reputation. the new plan approved on Tuesday means that a teamís Radio Sagarmatha However, although officially progress in the tournament will see it earn 1.5 million Swiss P.O. Box 6958, Bakhundole, Lalitpur, Nepal illegal, dog meat is still widely francs for each first round game, 1.6 million Swiss francs for Tel: ++977-1-545680, 545681 Fax: ++ 977-1- 530227 available in the country. each second round game, 1.8 million for the quarterfinals, E-mail: [email protected] Animal rights groups say dogs two million Swiss francs for the semi-finals and the third- /]l8of ] ;u/dfyf destined for the pot are often fourth playoff and 2.25 and 2.5 million for the losing finalists www.radiosagarmatha.org subject to unimaginable levels of and the winners respectively. FIFA president Sepp Blatter said that they had faced a problem because of the high costs of staging a tournament that, he said, was equivalent to two normal World Cup finals with 20 stadiums, two international media centres and two international broadcasting centres ó double the require- ments and costs of France ë98. ìThe 32 teams are the actors and they make available the funds for the progress of all the associations in FIFA,î said Blatter, outlining the background to the committeeís World Cup decisions taken during a four-and-a-half hour meeting which also considered several other more controversial PLUM PUDDING topics. These touched on a proposal to create a code of . conduct for all Executive Committee members following controversies in the Caribbean, in relation to Jack Warner PIES and the allocation of the television rights and other allega- tions of conflicts of interest involving Chuck Blazer of the United States. The meeting also resolved that the Executive HANDMADE CHOCOLATES Committee should be far more ìhands onî with the FIFA Finance Committee and would move towards that by holding a special one-day consideration of a financial report at a CHRISTMAS CAKES meeting to be organised early next year. . y COOKIES BREADS Business Advantage/GVR/12/01 24th December Opposite Hotel Greenwich Village, Kupondole Height, KathmanduA

Grand Opening on Christmas Eve For orders: Please contact 560675 / 521780 CULTURE AND SOCIETY 21 - 27 DECEMBER 2001 NEPALI TIMES 171717 NEPALITERATURE by MANJUSHREE THAPA THE ESSENCE OF NEPALI WOMANHOOD: Susmita Nepal eminist thinkers are divided over both yes and no. Her poems suggest that into a heap of grass is now encased in widowís whites whether or not men and women are though suffering is universal, the texture of then lays it down The festival which shares parcels of affec- F essentially different. The physical womenís suffering is uniquely feminine. before the hunger of cattle tion differences between them are obvious, as And the feel of a Nepali womanís suffering has now lost itself are the differences in culturally constructed is unique unto Nepal. In the first poem While milking cows, in the loose black tresses of widowhood gender identities. But are their experiences translated below, Nepal explores the in each stream she sees It is seeking the company of loved ones so divergent as to make them unlike each sacrifice of womenís identities to the the white teeth of laughing children It is forced to remain by itself other at the most basic level? demands of household chores. She is puzzled by the way pots and plates Susmita Nepalís poems might answer RICE GRAINS OF WORDS stare at herself, ablaze at the stove Sighs are gathering into a muddy flood The mind is seeking selfhood Picking stones out of rice grains of words Sorrows appear before her asking for my loverís eyelashes she prepares a meal of experience and dance rhythmically to take rest on those lashes She just gazes at them to fall sleep on those lashes Time peers from the gas stove Unspoken words she gathers where wrathful dreams wonít chase after Setting pots of emotion on the stove for her unmarried daughter me stirring word rice with a pen She wants to hide the rising moon she prepares a meal of experience in the folds of her clothes ñ Watching me now, the Teej festival a snack to erase her hunger sits quietly Each morning spills onto her face sharpened by loneliness becoming sorrowful at my sorrow Each evening squeezes her expression staring silently at my helplessness Placing these sights onto the plates of Memories of her son gone abroad It can neither say her eyes become a thousand days and vanish deck yourself in red she serves a meal of experience Each time, Mother plants seeds of hope nor can it make in the folds of forty year-old scarcity widowís whites accept me The bangles of torment tinkle and chime Hungry stomachs rumble But these seeds never grow From the tree standing tall at this divide She continues serving meals of experi- It canít be said when heíll return the Teej festival ence to fix the broken dam in her heart ñ is hurting and as she serves, she serves up herself her son gone abroad in each root branch In this second poem, below, Nepal sharp- The third poem is focused on widowhood leaf ens her fine metaphorical language to as experienced by a young Hindu woman. express the hopes and disappointments In these and other poems focusing on of a rural mother. THE TEEJ FESTIVAL womenís experience, Susmita Nepal examines, with great care and compassion, MOTHER The Teej festival the kinds of joys and sorrows that comprise is crying Nepali womanhood. Nepal is also a prose Mother cuts each morning from the fork in the branches writer, and the author of two novels. with the edge of a sickle of sorrowís tree

STEVE MCCURRY With all her strength she bundles life Adorned red in every object, this festival

ART REVIEW by MIKU DIXIT Undying serenity n image of the Bamiyan A multi-artist exhibition draws lessons from Buddhas is placed in a low

mound of gravel, surrounded the destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas.

○○○○○○○○○○○○○ A ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ by 2,500 little bottles containing fine brown sand in a spiral. Artist tranquillity is only temporary— Chandwadkar stand side by side, Ashmina Ranjit carries a handheld footprints dry up sooner or later and depicting the face of the Buddha in video recorder and films the people the water slowly grows still. “[S]hould brown, yellow, cream, gold and blue. who participate in her installation. there be a ripple in the peaceful valley The paints have a sheen that glows “Ashmina’s True Buddha Mandala… like in calm water … the waves shall across the courtyard. The Buddhas Bottled Buddha for the taking,” says a slowly calm in time and restore the serene expression and the scale of the sign next to the mound. Several bottles serenity of the valley.” The destruction paintings stand like a silent challenge have already been carried away and of the Bamiyan Buddhas of Afghani- to the physical destruction inflicted on leave small finger sized grooves in the stan, suggests Rana, is temporary in the Bamiyan Buddhas. sand. This installation is one of many the grand scale of things. The essence The main gallery displays more of in the Siddhartha Art Gallery’s of the Buddha was never really Chandwadkar’s paintings, often a Bamiyan Buddha: Icon of Peace, Hope destroyed—it was temporarily, photograph of a statue surrounded by and Renewal show that is on until 10 physically disturbed, and will settle colours and light. In addition, there is January next year. again into its inexorable calmness. a video playing on a screen nestled Red, yellow, white, blue and The notion that the Buddha and among strips of coloured cloth green—the colours of the five elements the spirit of rightness he symbolises pouring out of the belly of a large float on pots filled with water in Sunita will live on regardless of acts of painting of a Bamiyan Buddha. The Rana’s piece. The visitor is encouraged hatefulness and destruction permeates video, which features Chandwadkar to step in and out of the water. The the whole show. Inside another gallery, painted in the five colours of work, was symbolic destruction of the water’s the visitor is greeted by a crude piece made with help from a team of Korean of jute and black paper on the floor. filmmakers. The entire construction is a long strip The gallery also contains work by anchored on one end to the corner of Finnish artist Juha Holopainen and an empty picture frame and stretching Ragini Upadhyay-Grela. Most of this down the gallery, along the stairs show deals with ideas about spiritual- down, and then tapering off. Time ity and timelessness, loss and goes on, it suggests, punctuated, but continuity, Holopainen’s Ignorance is never stopped, by small events like the more direct, depicting blank outlines bell hanging from over a pile of where the Buddhas ought to be with shattered debris—disembodied clay wild dogs running about on the desert statues of the Buddha. plains of Afghanistan. Upadhyay- Kalapremi Shrestha’s seven Grela’s Buddha, Truth and Sun, if terracotta sculptures feature brown less conspicuous than Chandwadkar’s organic forms containing brutally large portraits, are also significant shattered fragments of Buddhist pieces. “In my artwork, I have tried to statues. The themes of destruction and display the Buddha in all his shining desolation are ever present, but these wisdom,” she says. “It is there, and ideas are balanced by the tranquillity will stay with us, in our hearts and and scale of Prakaash Chandwadkar’s souls, despite the fact that we will miss paintings. In the courtyard five six ft- forever the beauty and harmony of the high portraits by Prakaash Bamiyan Buddha statues.” 8 181818 CITY 21 - 27 DECEMBER 2001 NEPALI TIMES ABOUT TOWN YAK YETI YAK by MIKU EXHIBITION Bamiyan Buddha: Icon of Hope, Peace and Renewal Prints, installation, paintings, and video. Until 10 January 2002, Sidhhartha Art Gallery, Baber Mahal. A part of the proceeds from the sale of paintings go towards the renovation of the Bamiyan Buddha in Afghanistan.

EVENTSEVENTSEVENTS Korean Market for Welfare 21 December, 11AM-7PM, Summit Hotel. 521810 Chaats, chapaties, chutneys Childrenís fair, with food, games, coupons. Rs 200 per child, accompanying adult free. 22 December, 11AM-4PM, Hotel Shangri La. 412999 Kids Karnival Childrenís fair including Santa Claus, poolside buffet, games, face-painting, clowns, music and dance, food and surprise gift for every child. Rs 600 per head. 22 Decem- ber. Hyatt Regency Kathmandu. 491234 Fulbari Cup Boat Regatta Short-course race on Phewa Tal with four- CLASSIFIED member teams. Prizes for best team costume, best decorated boat and top all-woman team. 11AM, 30 December. Ring Adventure Centre Asia, Reflexology ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ The Borderlands Resort Pokhara 61-23240 or Himalayan Mountain Bikes, Thamel 437437. Technique of applying pressure to the For canyoning, rafting, trekking at Tibet Shangri-La Village Dash for Cash Two-person teams run and ride over feet, reduces stress, promotes relaxation borders, Professional Development one-and-a-half km along Pokhara Lakeside to win Rs 15,000. Bike sup- and good health. Program, Leadership Courses and many plied. 1PM, 30 December. Ring Adventure Centre Asia, Pokhara 61-23240 [email protected] more. 425836/425894. or Himalayan Mountain Bikes, Thamel 437437. [email protected]. Stupa View and Restaurant & Terrace www.borderlandresorts.com. MUSICMUSICMUSIC at Baudhanath Stupa. Well-appointed Live acoustic music Dinesh Rai every Friday at the Himalatte CafÈ. 6.30PM-9PM. 262526 restaurant and terraces with views of K-Too! Beer and Steakhouse Live music Tuesday and Friday nights at Rum Doodle Restaurant. 414336 stupa and Himalayas. International not the ìlongestî, ìhighestî, ìfirstî or any vegetarian specialties, pizza from clay other superlative. Just a relaxed, easy- CHRISTMAS SPECIAL oven, ice cream, soft guitar tunes on going bar and restaurant with the coldest Special cake shop Cakes, pastries, breads, cookies, yule logs, turkeys, stockings, pies, Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays from 5PM on. beer and juiciest steaks this side of the jujubes, terrines, mousse and other specialities. Solatee Crowne Plaza. 273999 Special events on full moon. Open daily moon. By the Kathmandu Guest House. Christmas cakes and hampers including cakes, puddings, stollen, mince pies, yule logs, 11AM-8.30PM. 480262. 433043 cookies, marzipan, shortbread, toffee. The Pastry Shop, Hotel de líAnnapurna. 221711 Christmas and Eve dinners Five courses at Chimney, buffet at the Sunrise CafÈ, 24 Kodari Eco Resort HMB Mountain Biking December. X-Mas brunch, 25 December. For details ring Hotel Yak & Yeti, 248999. Peace in natural surroundings, good Have your bike serviced or repaired by Summit Special Christmas Dinner plus tax. 24-26 December, Summit Hotel. 521810 views of Nepal/ Tibet border, jungle- HMBís Professional Mechanics at the HMB Christmas bazaar and meals Market and sekuwa 21 December, 6PM-9PM. Free entry to covered mountains, Buddhist monaster- Workshop. Riding gear, accessories and bazaar. Christmas dinner and lunch. For details ring Dwarikaís Hotel, 479488. ies, ancient Shiva cave. Hike to villages parts available. Second hand bikes Creamy delights Cookies, home-baked breads, cakes, pastries, stollen, plum cake, ginger with various ethnic groups, vantage points bought/sold/hired. New and reconditioned bread, fruit tarts, log cake and gift hampers. Hyatt Regency, Kathmandu. 491234 to Himalayas. Comfortable accommoda- mountain bikes for sale. Himalayan Christmas Eve buffet dinner with roast turkey, exotic dessert, glass of mulled wine. tion, attached bath, balcony or terraces, Mountain BikesóTours and Expeditions. Christmas brunch with live folk music. For details ring Shangri-La Village, Pokhara. 412999 good food, friendly service. 480262, 437437. [email protected] NEW YEAR’S CELEBRATION Nagarkot Christmas Special LaíSoon and 1974 AD Live music, food, 7PM onwards, 31 December. Tickets Rs 1,000 per The way to Mexico Bedroom and breakfast, three-course head available at LaíSoon Restaurant and Vinotheque, Pulchowk. 535290 is too far. Botega Restaurant and Tequila Christmas dinner, transport both ways by New Year Eve Gala in a heated thatched tent. Unlimited drinks, dinner, games, dance with Bar is near Thamel Chowk. 266433. 15 tourist bus. rs 1,440 or $19. Tel 417368, live band, DJ, prizes. 31 December, 7PM on. For details, ring Hotel de líAnnapurna, 221711. percent off-season discount. 680115.

EATING OUT For insertions ring NT Marketing at 543333-36. Tukche Thakali Kitchen Buckwheat, barley, bean and dried meat specialties, including brunch porridge and pancakes, all raw materials from Tukche village. Darbar Marg Le Cafe des trekkers Crepes of Brittany, raclette, cheese and meat fondue. 15 percent discount until 15 January 2002. Jyatha, opposite Blue Diamond Hotel. 225777 Childrenís Saturday Games, prizes and food every Saturday, 12 noon onwards. Bakery CafÈ Baneswor and Teku. Micky n’ Globi invites you to Spa and Swiss Food Spa Rejuvenation Cuisine Special brunch with use of health club and swimming pool. Sundays, 11.30AMñ5PM. Rs 750. Daily dinner fondue, Rs 1,200 for two and raclettes, Rs 900 per head. Hotel Yak & Yeti, 248999. childrenís Authentic Thai food Everyday at Yin Yang Restaurant. 425510 Barbecue lunch with complementary wine or beer for adults, soft drink for children. Saturdays and Sundays at the party Godavari Village Resort. 560675

GETAWAYS Fresh air and tranquillity in Kathmandu Valley Stay at Triple A Organic Farm Guesthouse in Gamcha, south of Thimi. Rs. 1,500 per person per night, all-inclusive. Email [email protected]. 631766 ACTIVITIES Silent Night Package Return airfare, breakfast, three nights accommodation. Rs 9,000 for · Magic Show Nepali nationals, $270 for expats. Shangri-La Village, Pokhara. 412999 Escape to Jomsom Two nights, three days, B&B package with tours and Pokhara-Jomsom · Hidden Treasure return airfare. Expats $250 per head. Valid until New Year. Jomsom Mountain Resort. 492009 · Roti Ping Short Christmas and New Year breaks Starting from $155 per couple for two nights at · Net Climbing Dwarikaís Hotel. 479488 · Swing For inclusion in the listing send information to [email protected] · See – Saw · Slide NEPALI WEATHER by NGAMINDRA DAHAL . Lucky Dip DSES-17-12-2001 0400 GMT The most prominent weather feature in this satellite picture Rate: Rs. 349 nett per adult of the subcontinent taken on Wednesday morning is the with one child huge mass of surface fog over the Ganges plains. The thick Date: 22nd December 2001FREE fog laps at the slopes of the Siwaliks and has blanketed the tarai towns for a week now. Very little sunshine gets through, and this in turn prevents surface heating and perpetuates the inversion that keeps the fog intact. Package includes a sumptuous Then there is a northwesterly front stacked up over the Pamir, but its effect over Nepal will be kept at bay by an Buffet Lunch on the lawn entrenched high pressure system over Tibet. Next week, some high and fast-moving clouds but mainly sunny. Chilly nights. KATHMANDU VALLEY Fri Sat Sun Mon Tue Village Resort Kathmandu Nepal 19-03 20-03 20-02 19-03 18-04 P.O. Box:12446, Amarabati. (Toukhel), Godavari, Lalitpur, Nepal. Tel: (977-1)560675. Facsimile: (977-1)560777, 526683. Email: [email protected] Website: www.godavariresort.com.np MUSIC 21 - 27 DECEMBER 2001 NEPALI TIMES 191919 Sitar Sudha HAPPENINGS Sur Sudha is not around any more, but

the solo career of Bijaya Vaidya is.

○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ Marahaba, which was inspired by they have managed to capture the Arabian desert, and Oriental something of the excitement and Cradle, which draws on the puppet reverence of the procession. shows of mainland China, are the The production values of the result of Vaidya’s tours around the album come as a bit of a surprise. TIGER FOR BREAKFAST: Victor Klenov and Inge Lissanevitch, the wife of world with Sur Sudha. And yet he To hear that the sitarist recorded, Boris Lissanevitch admire a photo and art exhibition of the life and times of remains grounded in his love for engineered and arranged all the Boris and Desmond Doig at the Shangrila Hotel this week. Nepali roots music and skilled at tracks on the new album in his classical renditions. There are small mud house called Mokshya tracks both upbeat and calming Ghar, at the Balaju edge of the like Birahani, inspired by the Nagarjun forest, one would not music of the Rais, Jatra, that expect too much by way of world- recalls Kathamandu festivities and class digital sound quality. And yet the jubilant Mithila dholak beats Vaidya has managed to produce a

in Janakpur. splendid album, surpassing the ○○○○○ SALIL○○○○○○○○○○○ SUBEDI relieved, and content. “She liked Although the album although efforts of many a sound engineer. or the first time in 14 years, it,” he smiled at, “so I know focuses on the sitar, Vaidya’s art is Always modest, he says, “But for Sur Sudha was missing Bijaya many others will, too.” strongly supported by a beautiful friends like Louis Betignac, who F Vaidya. A few weeks ago, It is now official, the trio that mix of eastern and western classical introduced me to this recording when the superstar classical music introduced to the world at large guitar played by guitarist Sasindra software, I would have had a hard trio played at the Hyatt Regency their classical take on Nepali folk Rajbhandari. Present on almost all time bringing the sounds I wanted EMERGENCY MEETING: Himal Khabarpatrika publisher Kanak Mani Kathmandu, fans were surprised to music have broken up. Sur Sudha is the tracks, this unexpected touch in formal recording studios.” Dixit and editor, Rajendra Dahal, at a panel discussion on the emergency see them without the sitar virtuoso. no more, but the passion they helps give the album its distinctive The moods and textures that Kathmandu, 18 December. (See report p. 1) There has been speculation that a brought to their music lives on. sound. The closing track The Rain Vaidya has managed to create are split in the band was imminent, but Each member will now go down God is different, though. Vaidya completely different and more none of them were talking. Until, their own road. Vaidya has already says the sounds of water plopping experimental than those in his that is, we chanced upon Vaidya begun his new journey with the into a pool stands for peace. “Drop albums with Sur Sudha, although outside the Kumari house in release of his first solo album, by drop, let that peaceful feeling they clearly draw on the same Kathmandu Darbar Square. Sitar Sudha. “Everything changes gather a pool,” he smiles. expertise showcased there. Sitar The maestro was carrying a doesn’t it?” he asks. “Time has There are other goodies in this Sudha also includes a wider range ALL PICS: MIN BAJRACHARYA gift—a CD player and a music changed people’s taste in music. polar-encased CD—the cover is by of sounds—traditional percussion disc for the living goddess. “I And if you are a serious musician renowned Poubha artist Lok like the khi and the dholak, and always make an offering to the and willing to devote your life to Chitrakar, and such as sounds many other little acoustic effects. goddess when I am starting producing good music, you also taken from the new Kumari’s first Vaidya is enthused about his something serious,” he said. It have to develop, become more big Indra Jatra earlier this year. It new creative identity. In fact, he will come as no surprise to intense. That’s what I’m doing,” was difficult for Vaidya and his has three more albums in the anyone who’s heard Vaidya play, says Vaidya. colleagues to record the sounds in pipeline. “Energise your efforts,” that when the little Kumari heard Vaidya’s imagination travels the rain and crowd the day when he says. “With skills, meditation DECONSTRUCTION AT TINKUNE: Houses being demolished at the his latest—solo—venture, she across the globe. Two of the most the young Kumari was taken out in and sincerity, things will turn airport triangle at Tinkune in preparation for the SAARC Summit (see Fol- smiled gleefully. Vaidya seemed haunting and melodious tracks, her chariot for the first time, but out well.” 8 low-up, p. 7) 202020 21 - 27 DECEMBER 2001 NEPALI TIMES Under My Hat NEPALI SOCIETY by Kunda Dixit China Kumari’s green thumb ìOutstanding Female Highland Farmerî by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation Rivers run through it (FAO) and travelled to Bangkok to receive her award from Thailandís n a recent walking tour of various nooks and crannies The waters teem with microscopic organisms which have Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn. in the Valley to inspect areas of archaeological been rescued from the brink of extinction by the raw sewage (See picture, left) O significance, I had the distinct privilege of savouring that flows into the river, replenishing it with valuable FAOís Y.S. Rao Award went to the idyllic settings, the interesting aromas and the bucolic nutrients. River sampling is an art, and is a unique four outstanding farmers from environs of the rivers, streams, brooks and creeks that flow individual experience making use of our senses in order to Bangladesh, Indonesia, Thailand through our great capital. Every ancient civilisation is appreciate its strength and character. and Nepal this year. known by the rivers that ran through them. No civilisation The Bagmati on a recent morning had a brut non- FAOís citation for China is complete without a river, a river is for a civilisation what a vintage redolence. The light-golden straw-colour with its hina Kumari KC is a farmer coriander ensuring her family year- Kumari said: ìShe has overcome flush tank is for a WC. Take the Nile Civilisation, effervescent bubbles was very soft on the nose, rich and in Dunai in Nepalís rugged round food security and annual social, economic and geographi- Euphrates Civilisation, Indus Valley Civilisation well-structured. The powerful aroma is a combination of C Dolpa district at the foot of cash income of Rs 80,000 a year. cal odds to become a successful and, in our own neck of the woods, the Tukucha digestive biscuits and radish gundruk. Dhaulagiri. Raising seven children And China Kumari is now helping farmer in one of the worldís Open Sewer Civilisation. Over at the Bishnumati, the water is deep green and and managing a small homestead 160 other farmers in Dolpa to most difficult agro-ecological There are no historical records of exactly why has an attractive nose with intense notes of semi-digested on a steep Himalayan slope at follow her exampleóshe is a role conditions.î some of these cultures withered and died, but momos in spice. It is supple on the palate, round, velvety 3,000 m, China Kumari was barely model for many women farmers in Hunger is as much a cause of carbon-dating of ancient garbage piles on the but well-balanced, and very reminiscent of a 1997 Riesling making ends meet. Two years ago, this district. poverty as its result. Better she decided to start rotational Her contribution to farming nutrition for the hungry in poor outskirts of Moenjodaro seem to prove that they Cuvée Sainte Catherine. cropping of vegetables with maize innovation had been recognised by nations results in faster economic collapsed under the weight of their own trash. By afternoon, the anaerobic fermentation of the sludge and wheat on her 0.1 hectare farm. the government in Kathmandu, growth. China Kumari has certainly This is why it is important to look at the along the bed of the Tukucha near the western wall of the That was a bold decision, and and she has bagged numerous shown how one person with state of our own Kathmandu Valley Rastriya Samachar Samiti is releasing a lively elegance a gamble. But it has paid off. awards. Now, she has also got initiative, commitment, and rivers before it is too late, and we too conveyed by citrus aromas, with a Today, China Kumari grows high- international recognition. China knowhow can persevere over are wiped out by the relentless march of hint of roasted almonds and a yield potato, onion, radish, Kumari was recently chosen overwhelming odds. 8 history, geography and arithmetic. bouquet of buffalo innards. This a After my brief inspection trip, I am strong sample, and not for the glad to report that these fears of faint-hearted. imminent civilisational collapse are Among the reds, the totally unfounded. In fact, our Hanumante is a deep crimson Kathmandu Valley rivers are in fine since it is situated downstream from shape. There is no danger of our a carpet dyeing unit. Against the civilisation withering and dying at all, light, the water looks full-blooded and at least not in the unforeseeable future. is imbued with a racy nose with a hint of And, if I may say so myself, everything licorice, a touch of gameyness and the is hunkydory in the boondocks. It is plethora of unidentified floating objects now becoming apparent that we have giving it a robust frutiness and a rounded worked ourselves up into a needless finish. frenzy of worry over the Bagmati and But for the preimium brand among reds, Bishnumati. These are mature rivers, there is nothing to beat the Bagmati at and can take perfect care of themselves Chobhar which has a strong purply-red hue without us becoming unduly concerned. with a tangy floral aroma of over-ripe grape- Let us begin by looking at the fruit. There is slight froth due to aroma they emanate. Unlike sterile incomplete enzyme activity, but the European rivers, the Bagmati is a biodiversity sanctuary. finish is rich and persistent. 8

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