Is the UN out of Nepal?
Posted on 02. Sep, 2010 by admin in Around the Planet
The UN mission in Nepal is drawing to a close, but the Maoist military may not want them to leave too soon. Film@11 correspondent Rajneesh Bhandari reports from Kathmandu in the latest episode of “Around the Planet.”
The Never-Ending Election
Posted on 24. Aug, 2010 by admin in Around the Planet
It has been more than seven weeks that Nepal is without a prime minister.
For the fifth consecutive time, none of the candidates received enough votes to claim the majority. Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal got only 246 votes in his. Nepali Congress’s Parliamentary Leader Ram Chandra Paudel garnered only 124 votes.
The inability to elect the New Prime Minister has affected the peace process and writing for new constitution. It has also affected the working atmosphere in government offices.
Critics claim that the Maoist Supremo Prachanda’s failure to win the election has affected his image in Public. The next election will be held on September 5, 2010. But it is still not clear whether Nepal will get a new prime minister on that date, with the growing indifference among political parties.
CPN UML and Madhes-based parties who have got winning votes have remained neutral in the voting that took place five times.
–Rajneesh Bhandari
Nepal Terrorism Threat
Posted on 11. Aug, 2010 by admin in Around the Planet
Even though Nepal is not a safe haven for international terrorists, the United States has cautioned India that Nepal could pose a threat.
A report from the US State Department was made public last week warning India that members of extremist groups could transit from Nepal. The report claimed that Muhammad Omar Madni, a member of the terrorist group Lashkar-e Tayyiba (LT), traveled through Nepal en route to New Delhi in June of last year.
“The large ungoverned space along the Nepal/Indian border exacerbates this vulnerability, as do security shortfalls at Tribhuvan Airport, Nepal’s international airport,” the report says.
However, the report has given Nepal a clean sheet on international money laundering, saying, “There were no indications that the country was used as an international money laundering center. There were no prosecutions or arrests for money laundering in 2009.”
Regarding the bombing of a Catholic Church in May, the report said that it was conducted by the Nepalese Defense Army (NDA), a Hindu extremist group that was responsible for shooting a Catholic priest and bombing a mosque in 2008. The leader of this group has since been arrested and their activities appear to have ceased, the report said.
- Rajneesh Bhandari
Indecision in Nepal
Posted on 06. Aug, 2010 by admin in Clickables
There was a hope today that Nepal will get a new prime minister. But Nepal has failed to elect a new one for the fourth time in a month after Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal resigned from power. In the fourth round of election held on Friday, Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal bagged 213 votes while his opponent Nepali Congress’s Ram Chandra Poudel garnered 122 votes.
The Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) (CPN-UML) and an alliance of four Madhes-based parties today decided to abstain from voting. While parliamentarians gathered on Friday in the House in New Baneshwore to vote for their candidate, a dozen lawmakers missed the opportunity as they arrived too late. Deputy Prime Minister Bijay Kumar Gachchhadar and a few others reached the House after the doors were already closed and voting started.
Just a few hours ahead of voting, the Communist Party of Nepal ML split up after serious disputes erupted over choosing a candidate. The Indian Government sent former ambassador to Nepal Shyam Sharan to help broker a deal between the three major political parties, but the attempt failed as none of the nominees got a majority.
It has been over a month since the prime minister resigned, and such a power vaccuum is uncommon even for Nepal. People are confused and hoping that the next election – some two weeks away – will bring needed certainty.
- Rajneesh Bhandari
Watch an interview with Rajneesh below:
Nepal Denies Serpent Honeymoon
Posted on 05. Aug, 2010 by admin in Around the Planet
Twenty-two year old Nihita Biswas was hoping for a honeymoon at last with her 66-year-old husband. But the Supreme Court of Nepal denied any possibility of this when it sentenced the man known as “the Bikini killer” to life imprisonment.
Biswas’ husband is Charles Sobhraj, the French serial killer also known as the “Serpent” who is suspected of at least 12 murders throughout Asia. He was ultimately convicted of the 1975 murder of American radiology student Connie Jo Bronzich.
Sobhraj has had a storied career as a con man, drug dealer, jewel thief and murderer, with ambitions to start his own “Manson family.” But Biswas, who studies political science and literature at a university in Kathmandu, denies that her husband is anything other than “intelligent and different from the crowd.”
“I am the wife of Sobhraj, I will remain the wife of Sobhraj, and my love will remain the same,” Biswas said. “I went in front of the jail and stayed there till midnight (on the day he was convicted), though it was raining.”
Biswas fell in love with Sobhraj while working as a translator, and they claim that they married in the jail. The affair and the marriage made Biswas a celebrity overnight.
After the court’s verdict on Friday, Biswas and her mother, Sakuntala Thapa, who is one of Sobhraj’s lawyers, accused judges and the court of taking bribes and issuing a bias verdict.
Two lawyers filed a contempt of court against them on Sunday, and Biswas and her mother were detained by the police for one day. They were released after apologizing for their accusations.
Life imprisonment in Nepal lasts 20 years. Biswas could get her honeymoon, then, after all—13 years from now.
–Rajneesh Bhandari
Tiger, Tiger Burning Bright
Posted on 29. Jul, 2010 by admin in Around the Planet
Tigers amaze tourists and scare villagers in Nepal, but maybe the incense burned and the diyos lit for the tiger god Bag Bhairav are working.
The tiger population in Nepal has increased this year, according to a recent data released by the government on the occasion of the first “Tiger Conservation Day.”
There are total of 155 adult tigers—or, about six adult tigers per 100 square kilometers. Last year, the record showed a total of 121 adult tigers in Nepal. Officials said this was a good population for breeding purposes.
This is good news for conservationists, as the worldwide tiger population is decreasing due to deforestation, encroachment and poaching. The total population is estimated to be 3,500.
The governments of Nepal and India signed a joint resolution to work together to conserve tigers. India and Nepal together hold over fifty percent of the world’s tigers.
The resolutions were signed as an outcome of the 4th Nepal-India Consultative Meeting on Trans-boundary Biodiversity Conservation, at a function held in Kathmandu on Thursday.
“Besides having common boundary, we are facing similar challenges of tiger conservation. Such relation is extremely important for combating illegal wildlife trade and landscape level conservation for tigers and other wild animals,” said SP Yadav, the joint director of the National Tiger Conservation Authority of India.
Tiger Population Monitoring was done in Chitwan National Park under the coordination of Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation and with the support of WWF Nepal and National Trust for Nature Conservation.
Authorities have said that Nepal’s habitat is best for tiger conservation, as tigers look for peaceful and dense jungles. The Nepalese government says it is committed to increasing the tiger population to 250 by 2022, which would be the next Year of the Tiger.
—Rajneesh Bhandari
Buddha Boy Not So Zen
Posted on 27. Jul, 2010 by admin in Around the Planet
The 20-year-old “Buddha Boy” of Nepal, who is famous for meditating in the dense forest of Ratanpur village since 2005 and whose followers claim is the reincarnation of the Buddha, beat up more than a dozen villagers last Thursday before locking them in a room.
Ram Bahadur Bomjan told officials that the villagers were smoking cigarettes and disrupting his meditation.
Bara District police superintendent Manoj Neupane said in a phone interview, “Seventeen people have come to us claiming that they were beaten by Bomjan and we are investigating the issue.”
Bomjam, who claims to be in penance (or, meditating), has advocated non-violence and campaigned against the mass sacrifice of animals. Last year, he even addressed the public highlighting non-violence and peace.
Bomjam has claimed that he can mediate for months without eating food. But the 17 villagers, who say they were in the jungle to collect firewood, told police that Bomjam beat them and detained them. Police have sent the injured for medical checks in the nearby Bara Hospital.
The “Buddha Boy” told journalists and police that he slapped the villagers “as a punshiment” for smoking and mimicking him.
–Rajneesh Bhandari
Kathmandon’t
Posted on 21. Jul, 2010 by admin in Around the Planet
After nearly a month since Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal resigned from his post, Nepal was expecting a new prime minister today.
The government—after missing the deadline to write a new constitution—did nothing specific in the past 21 days except wait for a new government to take over. While millions of Nepalis struggled through the workday with only four hours of electric power, the three major political parties–Maoists, Nepali Congress and CPN UML–were claiming political power. But, none of the three prime ministerial candidates managed to score a simple majority.
One of them looked very familiar. Maoist chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal—“Prachanda”—was back a year after being forced to resign as prime minister after an attempt to sack the army chief was revoked by president Ram Baran Yadav.
A candidate needs to get 300 votes in his favor to win, and as none of the parties have majority, the candidates need to find coalition support. The intrigue began in early morning Wednesday, when Maoists decided to support the CPN UML if they got a two-thirds majority in the election.
By the afternoon, CPN-UML’s Jhalanath Khanal—who had joined the race thinking that Prachanda would withdraw—came close to securing the PM post after Maoists and two other parties expressed their conditional support to him. Khanal himself went to meet members of one group, the Front, asking for support. The Front declined, saying that they “will not vote as none of the candidates agreed to fulfill [our] demands.”
In the two different rounds of election organized in the evening, Prachanda scored 242 votes, Nepali Congress’ candidate Ram Chandra Paudel managed 124 votes. Khanal withdrew from the voting process after being unable to secure two-thirds support.
The next election between Prachanda and Paudel will take place on Friday. “I am confident that I will win the election in the second round,” Paudel said. The lights were still on in Constituent Assembly Hall as he exited, but the rest of Kathmandu flickered and went dark.
–Rajneesh Bhandari
It Works! (Nepal police claim….)
Posted on 05. Jul, 2010 by admin in Around the Planet
After Maoists rebels laid down their arms to join the Nepalese peace process in 2006, no fewer than 109 separate armed outfits–gangs and rebel groups–sprang up to replace them in the southern plain of Terai, which sits on the border with India.
People ages 16- 35 joined these gangs and were involved in killing, abduction, extortion and even attacks on police posts in some places.
The criminal activity got so bad that, a year ago, businessmen throughout the country–tired and frightened after several kidnaps, murders and ransoms–demanded the government do something, and even the UN described the area as “a tinderbox that could spiral out of control.”
Now, according to the Nepal Police, the Special Security Plan that was implemented has worked.
“There were 109 armed groups, now there are only 10 outfits in Terai,” said police spokesman Bigyan Sharma. “Most of the people involved in the groups are arrested, and they are in the jails.”
Sharma added that out of the ten groups remaining at large, only a few are politically motivated. The deadly splinter group Goit–which killed parliamentarian Krishna Shrestha in 2006–and Jwala are among those still active.
-Rajneesh Bhandari
It’s On! (Or is it?)
Posted on 30. Jun, 2010 by admin in Around the Planet
Ending a month-long constitutional stalemate, Nepalese Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal resigned today after just over a year in office.
Addressing the nation, 57-year-old Prime Minister Nepal said, “It is already too late to table the annual policies, program and budget in the Legislature-Parliament. Despite having a clear majority in the House, I decided to tender my resignation, with the hope that peace process and constituent making process will be completed, as it would not be right to keep the nation at indecision and confusion in situation like this.”
And there has been a lot of confusion. Four weeks ago, the three major political parties agreed that they could not agree on a new constitution. Instead, they extended the process for another year, and in the meantime hammered out a three-point agreement. The prime minister’s resignation was key for the Maoists.
The other parties are demanding the dissolution of Maoist’s sister organization Young Communist League, which has been charged with violating law and human rights, as well as demand that Maoists return property seized during the conflict. The major disagreement between the Maoists and the other parties is about the issue of the integration and rehabilitation of Maoist army.
Because of the political deadlock, the discussion on major issues such as army integration, the structure of the government: presidential form or prime minister as the chief executive; questions about the numbers of states under federation and the judiciary system; and whether it will be independent or under parliament, is disrupted. Whoever leads will not have an easy time to get consensus on these issues.
–Rajneesh Bhandari