WITHOUT F EAR OR FAVOUR Nepal’s largest selling English daily Vol XXVIII No. 200 | 8 pages | Rs.5 O O Printed simultaneously in Kathmandu, Biratnagar, Bharatpur and Nepalgunj 34.2 C 15.8 C Saturday, September 12, 2020 | 27-05-2077 Nepalgunj Jumla Tug-of-war ends, but ruling party leaders wonder how long truce will last Oli and Dahal’s joint proposal commits a lot. But since it fails to address some key issues, insiders say irritants are likely to emerge sooner rather than later. TIKA R PRADHAN joint proposal by chairmen Oli and KATHMANDU, SEPT 11 Dahal. According to Shrestha, the party Seven weeks of tug-of-war in the won’t interfere in the daily works of ruling Nepal Communist Party finally the government, but important poli- seems to have ended. The players, cies and matters of national impor- however, have switched sides. Pushpa tance are decided as per the party’s Kamal Dahal has now once again guidelines. extracted “executive chairman” sta- The party has decided to hold a tus and sided with chair KP Sharma unity national convention on April Oli, leaving Madhav Kumar Nepal and 7-12 next year for which the party’s Jhala Nath Khanal seething. central committee meeting will be When the party held its Standing held on October 31-November 2. Committee meeting on June 24, Dahal, On the Millennium Challenge Nepal and Khanal were baying for Corporation Nepal Compact, Oli’s blood, demanding his resigna- according to Shrestha, the party tion both as party chair and prime decided to endorse it with minister. revisions and it will arrive at a conclu- The Standing Committee meeting sion on the issues that require revi- POST PHOTO: DEEPAK KC concluded on Friday, eighty days sions, considering a report presented A delivery boy pushes a cart loaded with cold drink bottles at Ghantaghar in Kathmandu. later, saying the party has man- by the Khanal-led three-member aged to iron out all major differ- panel. ences. Leaders said the party may have “Dahal will look after the managed to avoid a split for now, but party works with executive pow- irritants will continue to emerge in ers while Oli will focus on the the coming days because as of now In cases involving members of Chand-led government,” Narayan Kaji everything seems to be pro-tem man- Shrestha, the party’s spokesper- agement. son, told the media after Friday’s They believe that the two chairmen outfit, police are violating court orders meeting. “Now the government have agreed for a truce for various will run under the party’s guide- reasons, including the Covid-19 pan- lines.” demic. Members of the group have been rearrested multiple times despite courts The meeting also endorsed a >> Continued on page 2 ordering their release citing the lack of evidence. BINOD GHIMIRE Maoists ended their war against the KATHMANDU, SEPT 11 state and one of the Maoist leaders, Ram Bahadur Thapa, helms the Home Ignoring repeated court orders, Nepal Ministry under which falls the coun- Police has been re-arresting leaders of try’s police department. the Netra Bikram Chand-led Thapa and Chand once were com- Communist Party of Nepal immedi- rades in arms. Years after the Maoist ately after releasing them, in what is party, led by Pushpa Kamal Dahal, reminiscent of the days when officials decided to join mainstream politics, treated detainees during the dec- both Thapa and Chand had deserted ade-long armed conflict. the party and formed the Nepal Since December 28, police have Comunist Party-Maoist along with arrested Uma Bhujel, a politburo Mohan Baidya in 2012. member of the Chand-led outfit at But two years later, Chand decided least 14 times. Bhujel, who was first to part ways with Thapa and Baidya. arrested in Sunsari on charge of her In 2016, Thapa returned to Dahal’s involvement in violent activities, was POST FILE PHOTO Maoist party, which in 2018 merged released on bail by the Sunsari District Many court orders have been defied. with then CPN-UML. Court for lack of evidence against her. In the KP Sharma Oli government, But police rearrested her on the Senior Advocate Ek Narayan Thapa was appointed the home minis- court premises and took her to Bhandari, Bhujel’s lawyer, said the ter. Weeks after two blasts in the Dhanusha, where the district court police department did not abide by Capital resulting in one person’s ordered that she be freed. After arrest- court orders in cases related to the death, the government on March 12 ing her from the court premises, Maoists during the insurgency. “It is last year declared the Chand-led party again, police took her to Saptari after exhibiting a similar approach when it a criminal outfit and banned all its they failed to present any evidence comes to people like Bhujel,” he said. activities. against her at 12 different places. It has been 14 years since the >> Continued on page 2 Despite poor rights record, Nepal eyes another term at Human Rights Council Nepal government has largely failed to uphold the promises it made in 2017 in the lead up to the election for membership for the 2018-20 period in the UN body. that the Nepal government is commit- ted to completing the transitional jus- tice process based on victims’ concern respecting the directives delivered by the Supreme Court in 2015, interna- tional instruments that Nepal is a party to, the local reality and the Comprehensive Peace Agreement. Despite repeated promises at home and before the international commu- nity, Nepal has yet to investigate a single case of the transitional justice process, depriving thousands of con- flict victims of justice even a decade and a half after the end of the fighting. Ahead of its first term in 2017, in an eight-page aide-memoire, Nepal had pledged over two dozen commitments at the national and international levels. Completion of the transitional jus- tice process was one of the major commitments. PHOTO VIA FOREIGN MINISTRY/TWITTER Nepal had promised to address Nepal faces criticism for failing to honour its human rights commitments. human rights violations during the Maoist conflict, provide justice to vic- ANIL GIRI those which it made before its election tims, and ‘promote sustainable peace, KATHMANDU, SEPT 11 to the UN body for the 2018-20 period. harmony and reconciliation in society’. On Wednesday, while addressing the The government’s treatment of the Nepal is seeking yet another term on pledging session organised by leaders and cadres of Communist the Human Rights Council for the Amnesty International and the Party of Nepal led by Netra Bikram 2021-23 period, amid rising concerns International Service for Human Chand too has drawn global attention, over the country’s commitment to Rights, Nepal’s Permanent with rights bodies saying Nepal has rights issues and criticism for failing Representative to the United Nations failed to uphold human rights. to uphold its past promises, including in New York, Amrit Bahadur Rai, said >> Continued on page 2 C M Y K SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2020 | 02 NATIONAL Industries and factories begin operations Despite poor rights record, Nepal eyes in Province 5 with local labour force another term ... Local workforce is filling the vacuum created by foreign workers who left for their home when the pandemic hit. >> Continued from page 1 On June 20 last year, police in Sarlahi killed Kumar Paudel, a MADHAV DHUNGANA workforce to grow once the industries member of the Chand-led party, in what officials claimed was BHAIRAHAWA, SEPT 11 start producing to their maximum capaci- an exchange of fire with the armed outfit. However, an investi- ty,” said Dhungana. gation by the National Human Rights Commission, launched Many foreign migrant workers employed Likewise, there are 11 steel industries in after complaints from family members, found that Paudel died in cement and steel industries in Rupandehi, Nawalparasi and Kapilvastu under suspicious circumstances and concluded that Paudel’s Rupandehi left for their home country districts. “Nepali workers have started was an extrajudicial killing. The commission had recommend- when the pandemic hit and the nationwide visiting our factories in search of jobs. ed action against officials involved, but the Home Ministry has lockdown was put in place back on March Since most of our workers have returned asked the commission to review its recommendations. 24. Most of these migrant workers were to their native countries, we have started UN human rights experts in Geneva too had taken cognizance from India. The vacuum created by their employing more Nepalis in our factories,” of Paudel’s killing. departure is now being filled by workers said Suraj Upreti, operator of SR Steel Earlier this month, Human Rights Watch called on the Nepal from within the country, according to the Industry in Madauliya, Rupandehi. government to punish rights abusers and protect the independ- Province Planning Commission in Similarly, industries in the Lumbini ent National Human Rights Commission. Province 5. Corridor have also started receiving work- On October 28, 2009, three United Nations special rapporteurs The data available at the commission ers from Palpa, Dadeldhura, Bhojpur and wrote to the Nepal government regarding Paudel’s killing as showed that more than 200,000 migrant Dhangadhi. well as the alleged extrajudicial executions of Dipendra workers in Nepal have returned to India POST PHOTO: MADHAV DHUNGANA Sher Baha Gaha, 38, of Palpa Dovan, Chaudhary on January 23, 2019 and Saroj Narayan Singh on and overseas in the last five months. More than 200,000 foreigners working in Nepal have returned to their native countries in the last five said he used to work as a daily wage work- June 29, 2019.