#702 11 - 17 April 2014 20 pages Rs 50 FAREWELL 2070 BIKRAM RAI HEALING THE s 2070 draws to a close, a lone bicyclist pedals on Nepal’s longest pedestrian Abridge across the Mahakali River of the country’s westernmost district of WOUNDS OF WAR Kanchanpur. The Nepali New Year on Monday, 14 April is part of a regional tradition of BY RUBENA MAHATO new year festivals in Thailand, Sri Lanka, India, BABY PAGE 3 IRRECONCILABLE Burma, even southern China -- underlining a TRUTHS shared cross-border cultural heritage. In Nepal, the old year will be remembered for an election THINK NATIONALLY, EDITORIAL SPA PAGE 2 that reaffi rmed the people’s faith in democracy. PAGE 10-11 ACT LOCALLY But sluggish movement on the constitution has BY DAMAKANT JAYSHI cast doubts if it will be fi nished within 2071. A bill tabled in parliament on Wednesday REVIVING THE TRADITION with blanket amnesty provisions for war criminals defi es a Supreme Court ruling and OF BABY OIL MASSAGE PAGE 4 international norms. 2 EDITORIAL 11 - 17 APRIL 2014 #702 IRRECONCILABLE TRUTHS even years ago this week, Kathmandu saw this week: “I agree with the idea hundreds of thousands of people massing of reconciliation. But you just Sup in the streets against a king who wanted can’t turn the page. to turn the clock back to the era of absolute You have to read that page before monarchy. From the other side, the Maoists were you turn it.” Bangladesh and busy exterminating ‘class enemies’. Democracy Cambodia have shown that sooner was being squeezed from both the extreme left or later war crimes have to be and extreme right. But what the Maoists could addressed. not achieve with ten years of war and 17,000 ‘Reconciliation’, ‘transitional deaths, was achieved in 19 days of peaceful pro- justice’, ‘truth’ may sound like democracy street protests that forced Gyanendra to donor vocabulary, but survivors step aside. everywhere need closure. They Whatever the glorifiers of violence and need to know what happened to apologists for brutality may say, April 2006 relatives, why they were killed “You just represented a moral victory for peaceful political and by whom, and justice must struggle. It proved that in this day and age one eventually be served to prevent can’t turn the need not kill a whole bunch of people to bring the wounds from festering. Every about political change, even to remove a state that country takes its own path, and page. You perpetrates structural violence. Nepal’s road to reconciliation The Maoists are not the type to say sorry, should be much easier because have to read or admit that their ideology is obsolete and ours wasn’t an ethno-separatist counterproductive. The question is how do we or religious strife, but a class that page deal with the post-war legacy of violence, the war. There is much less bad simmering anger among survivors and relatives blood, relatively less of a sense before you of victims, so as to help the healing process. How of revenge, but that doesn’t mean should we handle reconciliation in the aftermath there isn’t a need for truth and turn it.” of a conflict that neither side lost, and both want reconciliation. to forget? Collusion between former Wars leave scars. The deep wounds take enemies has led to the tabling of a decades to heal. Twenty years later, Rwanda is bill in Parliament on Wednesday still trying to come to terms with the abhorrent to set up commissions for atrocities of its genocide (see page 3). The Tutsi truth and reconciliation and leader who took over avoided retribution against disappearances. The NC and Hutu mass murderers to help heal his country. the UML were glad to let the South Africa took a similar step by naming and Maoists take the flak for obstructing the bills, but It is now meaningless to ask which side shaming rather than trying apartheid era crimes. they aren’t pushing it much either. The Maoists, perpetrated a war crime. Both sides are now Nelson Mandela’s famous maxim was to “forgive, in characteristic fashion, blocked task force the state, and it is the state’s responsibility to but not forget”. negotiations on parameters of the bills, while deliver truth and justice to the families of Krishna In Spain, an amnesty pact between Franco stalling parliament proceedings to protest delays Adhikari, Maina Sunwar, Dekendra Thapa, and the leftists protected a fragile democratic that they are primarily responsible for. But all the Doramba 18, the Kotbara 35 or the tens of transition. But 40 years later, a survivor who is four main political groups are responsible for thousands of others. Without truth and justice, taking his torturer to jail told The New York Times Wednesday's bill to white wash their past. these questions will remain irreconcilable. ON THE WEB www.nepalitimes.com URGENT NEED If Kanak Mani Dixit recalls, the has not missed any attempt to hurt the and India is understandable at a If we do not have a constitution population neither demanded nor sentiment of the god fearing Hindus time when the debate on global come January, we should all plan a voted for Secular Nepal. It is up to of Nepal. But then, he’s not alone, all warming and climate change is at real revolution (‘Urgent need for a Nepali citizens to decide whether the English-language papers of South its peak. His contribution in the fi eld sense of urgency, Editorial, #701). this country should be called a Hindu Asia are guilty of untiringly vomiting of education in Hong Kong is also The leaders are getting richer by the nation again or not. It’s not for Modi venoms against Hindus which in a way worthy of praise. minute, while the poor masses are to decide. In the current context, a is helping us to unite. Kalu reeling under poverty- no jobs, water, referendum has become a necessity. Shashi K Thapa electricity, petrol, law and order. However, Modi’s premiership might Donations, grants and We, Nepalis, are extremely stupid. help in counterchecking EU’s Nepali Times has tried its best to assistance breed a culture of We have elected the same men in sponsored rampant conversions as analyse the election trends in India dependency that will undoubtedly power who have been abusing their Hindu related organisations in Nepal which after all will have a big impact on shackle Nepal into a cycle of authority for over two decades now. will get a power boost. Nepal. Thank you. poverty. We are great at being poor, And yet, we believe them capable Sumir Jha and earning pity and attention. It’s of improving our lives. With Nepal’s time we stand-up as a nation and potential in hydro and tourism, we Your article began with a great KADOORIE work towards Nepal’s economic should be living comfortably, but it’s question (and I paraphrase): What the China and India’s dependence on coal prosperity. Rather than reading quite the opposite. Most of us are The people of Gujarat elected him three elevation of the Hindutva hawk (Modi) in producing almost more than 70 per about other countries building still struggling to provide ourselves times, so he cannot be all that bad for will do to his country, and also how will cent of electricity and energy needs is toilets for us, we should be doing it one square meal a day. The time is them (‘Modi’s momentum’, Kanak Dixit, it impact Nepal? Unfortunately, you well known (‘Kadoorie in the land of ourselves. here for the people to unite against #701). Let the Indian people decide spent more time talking about the fi rst Gurkhas’, Kunda Dixit, #701). China Nepali our corrupted netas and proclaim whom they want to vote for. They are part and left the second part almost Light and Power Holdings in which that enough is enough. not stupid, and they obviously want their untouched. I am sure other Nepalis Kadoorie holds a majority stake is Narayana Prasad country to do better. felt the same way. I was hoping to now facing pressure from the Chinese Even today, almost 67 years after read a little more detailed analysis government to discontinue using coal Weekly Internet Poll #702 Nepal risks becoming lost in the Independence from the British, the on how Modi’s election will impact in generating electricity in its coastal Indian Ocean with all passengers on majority of Indians still live in poverty. Nepal, but I all I got was a beating cities like Hong Kong, Guangdong, Q. Who do you think will emerge strongest from India’s general elections? board. Maybe people are just tired of the around the bush with some mundane Beijing and to adopt the west policy @pigreen suffering, especially when many speculations. to meet its energy demand. You may Total votes: 618 countries with less resources are doing luv Nepal have seen pictures of Chinese cities When society lives in perpetual much better. covered in smog in the news and how ‘emergency’, a sense of urgency is The lesson for Nepali leaders is that There’s much anti-Hindu bias the use of coal, petrol and China’s not an urgent need. people everywhere are more informed in this article (‘The shaky pillar of rapid industrialisation have heated up @SubasKC1 nowadays, and will vote for parties with Indian democracy’, Anurag Acharya, the earth to the point of explosion. a track record of good governance and #701). Anurag seems to have paid no Kadoorie’s decision in possibly MODI’S MOMENTUM not those with empty populist and fear- heed to the plight of Hindu minorities investing in Nepal’s hydropower sector, Weekly Internet Poll # 703.