www.nepalitimes.com #139 4 - 10 April 2003 16 pages Rs 25 Maoists, police and soldiers are rushing home MIN BAJRACHARYA ‘‘‘ to meet families while the Peace bridge peace lasts. in KALIKOT MANJUSHREE○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ THAPA athletes have joined a regional few weeks into the ceasefire, volleyball competition. A driver who and Dailekh bazar is trans- weekly plies the Nepalganj-Dailekh ’’’ Out in the open A formed. “Nobody dared to road says hundreds of people who had The Maoist negotiating team hasn’t had a move about like this before,” marvels a fled during the state of emergency are moment to spare as it made its high-profile young man, eyeing the bustle. “The returning. “The Maoists, the police comeback in Kathmandu this week. Maoists didn’t dare come here, and the and the army are rushing back to meet Baburam Bhattarai and Ram Bahadur their families while the peace lasts.” Thapa have been giving back-to-back security forces wouldn’t go to the interviews to media, meeting political villages alone. Now they’re all talking Further afield in Dullu, the scene is leaders and diplomats and reiterating their to one another.” even more festive. Many village men three-point demand for a roundtable A few Maoists are openly attending are stoned on the occasion of Holi, in conference, constituent assembly and an passing-out ceremonies in local schools. flagrant defiance of Maoist puritanism. interim government. A rally in Tundikhel In nearby Chupra village, Maoist “We welcome the talks,” says Maoist on Thursday, two months after the ceasefire agreement, was attended by about 15- area secretary, ‘Rebel’, talking to us at a 20,000 supporters, mainly from outside the hotel close to where a man, high on Valley. Bhattarai said: “It is today’s hard Weekly Internet Poll # 79 bhang, is ranting about a monarchy- reality that the king is a force to be Q. ‘No war in Iraq’: Agree, Disagree, Don’t know reckoned with, and for now we need to Maoist conspiracy against democracy. MANJUSHREE THAPA “We’ve had to resort to violence out negotiate with him...But if the talks fail we will go back to the jungle.” The rally was a of necessity, not desire,” Rebel says. show of force timed to precede King “We agreed to the peace talks because Gyanendra’s public felicitation in the people want relief. We are commit- Dhangadi on Friday. Victims of Maoists ted to moving forward through talks.” also held a black-flag demonstration near Tundikhel to coincide with the rally, saying, OVER TROUBLED WATERS: Villager being pulled across the Karnali at continued p8 “Stop terrorism once and for all, don’t use Ö Raraghat above the remains of a suspension bridge blown up by Maoists last year. the talks to grab power.” Total votes:561 Weekly Internet Poll # 80. To vote go to: www.nepalitimes.com Q. Should the Maoists be included in an all-party government of national unity? Pollution, poaching threaten Chitwan’s success in SAURAHA KUNDA○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ DIXIT eight rhinos that have died were killed by poachers. hen Crown Prince Paras released a nursery-bred gharial into the Narayani River at the “This is a serious threat, it could undermine three decades of successful conservation in Royal Chitwan National Park on Monday, he may not have known that toxic effluents Chitwan,” says Chandra Gurung of WWF Nepal. The park authorities say they are aware of the W were pouring into the river from factories upstream. problem, and with the ceasefire the army says it plans to re-occupy abandoned posts. The Earlier in the day, his send off for the first of 10 Chitwan rhinos being translocated to the outspoken ex-MP from Chitwan, Jagrit Bhetwal has no doubt who the culprits are. “Rhino poachers Royal Bardia National Park came as conservationists sounded alarm are in cahoots with local politicians,” he told us. “Rhino killing increased bells over a worrying rise in wildlife poaching. Crown Prince Paras is after the 1996 elections, and it became really bad after the army pulled chairman of the King Mahendra Trust for Nature Conservation, and back.” officials hope royal patronage will galvanise government resolve to Overcrowding in Chitwan means rhinos often raid crops on the park control the twin threats of pollution and poaching in Nepal’s parks. perimeter where villagers poison or electrocute them. Translocations The gharial release is one of Nepal’s most-successful efforts to reduce the pressure on villages in Chitwan, and also to develop an save endangered species. Since 1978, more than 400 of these alternative viable population for rhinos in west Nepal. Of the rhinos in endangered fish-eating crocodiles have been bred and released into Bardia, 83 have been moved from Chitwan. But Bardia is in the heart of the wild. In that time, urbanisation and industrialisation have degraded the insurgency, and translocation expert the Narayani River so seriously that it threatens the program. Shanta Jnawali admits things are difficult Another conservation success story is the comeback of the rhino. and there is little monitoring. “The army has see also p4-5 Hunting and habitat destruction had nearly wiped them out from moved out of seven of the 11 range posts Narayani pollution Chitwan by the 1970s, but since then the rhino population has in Bardia and our guess is that there is multiplied five-fold to nearly 400 today. Tigers have also made a poaching going on,” he told us. dramatic rebound. The illicit trade in rhino and tiger parts follows laws of supply and Part of the reason for this success is that Nepal’s reserves have demand: as long as affluence creates a demand in China and Japan, there been under military protection since 1976. But after the army was will be poor farmers and criminal middlemen in the subcontinent willing to ensure supply. “We have to look into the demand side in China,” says deployed for counter-insurgency two years ago, only seven of the 32 PHOTO OPPORTUNITY: Crown Prince Paras with Claude Martin, director general of WWF International, who was in Chitwan guard posts in Chitwan are manned. Poachers have moved in, picking Princess Himani and their daughter Purnika petting this week to oversee the rhino translocations. “And we also need to off rhinos with the biggest horns. Last year, 37 of the 54 rhinos that an orphan baby rhino in Sauraha on Monday. died in Chitwan were killed for their horns. So far this year, four of increase vigilance in Nepal and India.” #139ntpepec.p65 1 4/6/03, 1:08 PM 2 EDITORIAL 4 - 10 APRIL 2003 NEPALI TIMES #139 NATION 4 - 10 APRIL 2003 NEPALI TIMES #139 3 Nepali Times is published by Himalmedia Pvt Ltd, Chief Editor: Kunda Dixit STATE OF THE STATE by CK LAL FLOW CHART by GAURI PRADHAN Desk Editor: Trishna Gurung, Design: Kiran Maharjan Webmaster: Bhushan Shilpakar [email protected], www.nepalitimes.com Advertising: Sunaina Shah [email protected] Subscription: Anil Karki [email protected] Sales: Sudan Bista [email protected] Sanchaya Kosh Building, Block A-4th Floor, Lalitpur GPO Box 7251, Kathmandu, Nepal Tel: 01-5543333/ 5523845 Fax: 01-5521013 Beyond the iron gate Printed at Jagadamba Press, Hattiban: 01-5547018/17 What does SLC-topper Baburam Bhattarai have in mind for the nearly HE ATHMANDU SPRING 200,000 Nepalis who will not pass this year? ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ T K ○○○○○○ Many of us are dazed by the dramatic changes in the z Is there a way out of the constitutional deadlock? or two whole months now, the guns have been silent. The Kathmandu spring has already thrown up some dramatic scenes of reconciliation: the prime minister his week nearly 300,000 students are national economy. such skills require the ability to play with political landscape post-ceasefire, and especially after top z Can a roundtable conference play the role of an F shaking hands with a Maoist ideologue who goes on to speechify like an sitting for their School Leaving Like in most other prismatic societies words and numbers. These are the subjects Maoist leaders surfaced last week. To focus our minds “interim parliament”? incumbent minister, a relaxed Maoist military commander answering questions softly on T Certificate examinations all over the where traditional ties and modern that the middle-class doesn’t resent. a talk show on state-owned Nepal Television, a Maoist negotiator visiting the Federation country. Despite the introduction of the aspirations co-exist, nepotism and the afno For the SLC-failed unwilling to pursue on the task of peace-building that lies ahead, there is a z What happens to the Maoists' 'people's liberation of Nepali Chambers of Commerce and Industry to announce that his group has always 10+2 system, SLC continues to retain its manchhe culture dominates the Nepali job formal education, trade education can be need to look step-by-step at where we are and where we army'? supported the free market, and the entire leadership out in the open at Tundikhel for a mystic importance as the gate to future market. But the absence of trade education an alternative option. Better trained want to go. z Are a constituent assembly and referendum the way mass meeting to rival the royal rally in Dhangadi. Can there be more surprises as this career options. Students (and, even more, in the school curriculum is no less of a masons, metalworkers, fitters, tailors, season of peace wears on? We certainly hope so. their parents) regard the exams with a factor in flooding the offices of prospective shoemakers, hairdressers and waiters are The existing power balance between the king, the out? But while we are distracted by scenes of sensational bonhomie on television, mixture of hope and trepidation.