Highway will bring Nepal and Tibet 'in from the cold

By Joanna Jolly 
BBC News

The Himalayan mountains on the Nepal-China border are some of the most remote and inaccessible in the world.

But deep in the valleys next to the green, flowing waters of the Kyirong River, Chinese construction workers are blasting through the jagged landscape to turn an ancient trading track into a modern road.

This small stretch of road - just 17km (10.5 miles) long - from the border to the Nepalese town of Syabrubesi is costing the Beijing government almost $20m.

But it's an important investment because this mountain pass not only connects Tibet to Nepal - it's also the most direct land route to India's capital, Delhi.

Huge difference

"There is an old Chinese saying, 'To get rich, build roads first'," says the Chinese team's engineer Zhang Peng.

"When this road is ready, living standards and the economy around here will improve," he says.

"Nepalese people will be able to visit Lhasa, in Tibet, and other parts of China, and Chinese tourists and businessmen will come here."

The road will make a huge difference to communities on both sides of the border.

Traders still walk the old path that runs alongside the new road - an ancient thoroughfare across the roof of the world that connects Nepal to the historic Silk route.

Thirty-five-year old Mingma Dorje Ghale has walked this small, rocky path since he was a child.

He and his friend have just trekked back from Tibet, a day's walk away, carrying bottles of Chinese brandy on their backs.

They plan to sell their goods in Nepal's border towns.

"When this road is built, I won't have to carry this heavy backpack up and down," he says.

His friend's five-year-old daughter leads their yak.

'Easier'

Until now, yaks and mules have been the only way to transport heavy goods across the border and children often take the job of leading them.

Mingma Dorje Ghale hopes that the new road will mean he can drive in and out of China and that his children will be spared the journey, so they can stay at home and attend school.

"Life for the next generation will be easier," he says.

Squeezed between the growing economies of China and India, the Nepalese government welcomes this sort of infrastructure project that it hopes will bring wealth to an impoverished nation.

The government is keen to maintain a good relationship with its giant neighbour to the north.

Nepal is home to a sizeable Tibetan community, many descended from refugees who've been fleeing Chinese rule since Beijing occupied Tibet 60 years ago.

China is worried that opening up the border could enflame an already unstable Tibetan plateau.

Nepalese Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal says he has reassured Beijing that his government will not allow Tibetan dissidents to operate in his country.

"China has only one concern, that is the concern of Tibet," he says.

"That is why our policy towards China has been consistent. We believe in the One China policy, Tibet is an integral part of China and the soil of Nepal will not be allowed to be used against Tibet and China."

For those living in the remote border region, this policy is not a problem.

Phurpu Tsering Tamang, a local turned trekking guide who is himself part-Tibetan, says for the local community gaining access to Chinese wealth is more important than politics.

"After Chinese occupied Tibet, some people told us the Chinese are very rude and very tricky," he says.

"But what I see when I visit Tibet is that they are building roads everywhere and they're building houses for the people, so they have an easier life."

Nepal will need to continue to reassure China even after this road is finished next year.

It's hoping to attract more Chinese investment - and eventually create a trans-Asian highway that will cut through the Himalayas, linking China to India and opening up this secluded country.

Clock Ticks for Nepal to Settle Its Future

By JIM YARDLEY
New York Times


KATMANDU, Nepal — For anyone living in a country where reforming health care is regarded as an insurmountable challenge, consider the political calendar in the struggling Himalayan republic ofNepal. By May 28, or roughly four months off, the entire country must be reorganized.


First, a new constitution has to be drafted to reaffirm fundamental rights for Nepalese citizens, restructure the national government and create states in a country where none previously existed. The positions of president and prime minister (the king has been deposed) must be clarified: Should the country have a directly elected, powerful executive? Or should a parliamentary system prevail?


Then there is the army. Or armies. Two of them. One is the Nepalese Army. The other is the People’s Liberation Army controlled by the country’s Maoists. For a decade, the two sides fought a savage guerrilla war. Now the peace plan stemming from a 2006 accord calls for blending them together, except no one can agree how to do it, so both armies remain intact, resistant to civilian oversight and increasingly testy.

There is so much to do — the docket includes establishing affirmative action policies, redistributing land and recognizing several new official languages — that few people consider the May 28 deadline realistic. For months, the process has been deadlocked by lingering bitterness between the Maoists, now a political party, and other parties. Yet missing the deadline could push Nepal into the unknown: the interim Constitution expires on May 28 and no one is certain what will happen on May 29 if a new constitution has not been approved.

“The public has put its faith in this new constitution,” said  Kanak Mani Dixit, an influential journalist who has ties to Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal. “If the constitution is not written on time, it is possible people will lose heart. The Nepali public hasn’t had experience in democracy, but they understand it and they have been fighting for it.”

The fragility of the situation and the potential for deepening political instability have ramifications for the rest of Asia as well. Nepal is a strategic buffer between China and India, and it controls the headwaters of rivers providing water for hundreds of millions of people in the region.

India’s military chief and minister of external affairs have paid visits in the past two weeks, as has  Patrick Moon, the American diplomat responsible for South Asia. TheUnited Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, recently warned that the peace process could collapse.

“The brinkmanship and confrontation between the Maoists and the government, accompanied by a sharp and dangerous hardening of positions, is making a negotiated solution significantly more difficult,” Mr. Ban warned in the most recent  quarterly United Nations update on Nepal. “The country is now entering a crucial period.”

Nepal’s hurried timetable is actually the final stage of one of the world’s most wrenching political evolutions. In five short years, Nepal has discarded a feudal monarchy, converted from a Hindu kingdom in a secular state, created a new Constituent Assembly and declared itself a democratic republic.

The political potency of the Maoists was demonstrated in 2008, when they unexpectedly won a plurality in the first Constituent Assembly elections and took control of the government.

Nine months later, the Maoists withdrew from the government after the president overruled the Maoist prime minister’s firing of the army chief, and they spent the ensuing months trying to destabilize the coalition government that replaced them. Now, the Maoists want to replace the country’s existing parliamentary-style democracy and produce a constitution based on a directly elected, powerful executive. Rival parties say the Maoists oppose a true multiparty democracy and are trying to insert elements of a Communist system into the Constitution.

In Katmandu, the capital, the deadlock has loosened slightly in recent days. After calling a three-day strike in December that paralyzed the country, Maoist leaders canceled plans for a new, indefinite strike that could have shut down the constitutional debate. Meanwhile, a committee comprising leaders of the three dominant political parties, including the Maoists, has been convened to try to broker a deal.

The immediate pressure point is the effort to integrate the two armies. Under the November 2006 peace agreement that ended the guerrilla war, the Maoists agreed to place their weapons under United Nations monitoring and temporarily station their soldiers in different quarters while politicians negotiated the details of integration. More than three years later, however, the roughly 19,000 soldiers in the Maoist army remain inside the cantonments, still training, after efforts by the United Nations to expedite integration stalled during 2009.

January brought the first small sign of progress. The Maoists  agreed to release from the cantonments about 4,000 former combatants who had been deemed ineligible for integration into the Nepalese Army, including many who fought for the Maoists as minors.

“It was all supposed to be solved within six months,” said  Kul Chandra Gautam, a former top United Nations diplomat now retired to Nepal. “Now it has been three years. Finally, something concrete is happening.”

Minendra Rijal, a member of the special committee negotiating the fate of the two armies, accused the Maoists of stalling military integration to heighten their influence in the constitutional negotiations. He said the Maoists wanted to place the courts under control of the legislature and write language into the constitution that would ban certain types of political parties.

 “Maoists have deliberately delayed the process so they can keep their army and use it for leverage,” said Mr. Rijal, a member of the Nepali Congress Party. “They want to have a guarantee that the constitution will have certain elements written into it. We want to make sure that when the constitution is promulgated that a political party will not have an army of its own.”

But Janardan Sharma, a top Maoist leader, said that the Maoists represented the interests of Nepal’s marginalized people and that the ruling elites were trying to engineer a constitution that protected their interests. He blamed the Nepalese Army for resisting integration and said the coalition government had failed to adequately compensate Maoist soldiers. He also disputed accusations that the Maoists were trying to create a constitution that would allow them to “capture” the state.

“We are committed to peace,” he said. “We are trying to create a new system. But the people who were in power in the past do not want it. We want to empower the people.”

For now, the clock is ticking. Nepali pundits and politicians are already debating what will happen if the May 28 deadline is missed. Some say the Constituent Assembly can simply amend and extend the interim Constitution. Others argue that doing so would overstep the assembly’s authority and that power would consolidate in the office of the president, a ceremonial post.

“Nepalis are known to do things at the last moment,” said Mr. Dixit, the editor. “The hope is that it will come together in the end.”

UN envoy to Nepal: resolve outstanding issues to advance peace

Nepal has such potential as a destination that it is pity that the country’s instability has gotten in the way of its travel and tourism industry from succeeding.

Cognizant of the importance of establishing peace and order in Nepal is a top United Nations envoy, which has encouraged Nepalese parties to work productively to advance the country’s fragile peace process and create the conditions to permit the world body to wind up its work there.

The appeal comes one day after the security council, supporting the government’s request, extended the mandate of the UN Mission in Nepal (UNMIN) until May 15.

“During the remaining mandate period, the government and parties are expected to focus on creating the conditions under which UNMIN’s functions are no longer needed,” the secretary-general’s special representative, Karin Landgren, told a news conference in the capital, Kathmandu.

“We will work with the parties and the government to discuss and put together the arrangements for the withdrawal of UNMIN. Until then, UNMIN will continue its activities in support of the peace process,” said Ms. Landgren, who heads the mission, set up at the request of the Government in 2007 to support the peace process which ended a 10-year civil war between the government and Maoists.

UNMIN is also tasked with monitoring the management of arms and armed personnel of the former Royal Nepal Army and the Maoists.

In her briefing to the council last week, Ms. Landgren underlined that the peace process remains fragile, but the renewed urgency shown by the political leaders to address central peace process issues and the recent actions by the government and the parties can herald “a freshly constructive stage” for Nepal’s democratic transition.

She noted that the council welcomed the understanding between the Government and the Unified Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (UCPN-M) on having a time-bound action plan for integration and rehabilitation of Maoist army personnel, and called on them to work together to ensure its completion and implementation.

“These are the arrangements which, when agreed, will truly advance the peace process and will allow UNMIN’s activities to be completed,” said the special representative.

Ms. Landgren also cited as a positive development the action plan agreed by the government, the UCPN-M and the UN on the discharge of those Maoist army personnel disqualified in 2007 for having been minors at the time of the ceasefire agreement.

Nevertheless, she added, it is acknowledged that the peace process needs consensus-building and confidence-building, and the hope is that the recently established high-level political mechanism can strengthen important aspects of the process.

Former Nepal army head denies responsibility for chaos

By Joanna Jolly 

BBC News, Kathmandu

Nepal's retired army chief, who refused to admit former Maoist rebels into the army, has said he is not responsible for the instability that followed.

Gen Rookmangud Katawal told the BBC that despite major differences between the army and the Maoists, he believed the peace process was still on track.

The former Maoist Prime Minister, Prachanda, unsuccessfully attempted to remove Gen Katawal over the issue.

Prachanda later resigned leading to the collapse of the Maoist government.

Fighters' fate

"I don't think I'm responsible for all that that's happened. I don't want to come into any political controversy, as a man in uniform and even after I retire," Gen Katawal said.

The integration of Maoist fighters into Nepal's army has become the main sticking point of the peace agreement, which is looking increasingly fragile.

It was the general's insistence that the army would not admit a large group of Maoist fighters - a key understanding of the 2006 peace accord - that sparked the row that led to the fall of the Maoist government in May last year.

But Gen Katawal remained firm that the army would not accept a large number of former Maoists into its ranks.

"I don't think it would be a good idea and I don't think it would do anything good to the institution or to the country to accept them in groups.

"Probably the national army may lose its national characteristic - neutral characteristic, apolitical nature of the army," he said.

Confidence in peace

Despite having retired last year, Gen Katawal is still very much a political player in Nepal.

As the ex-army chief of staff, he maintains close ties with his former employer.

However, the general also said that it was important that the peace process in Nepal should not fail.

"If everybody gets together, and is honest, and everybody is sincere enough and they all commit to the issue of non-violence, fundamental human rights and the democratic political system, I don't think the peace process will be out of the league," he said.

More than 13,000 people died during the country's 10-year civil conflict between Maoist rebels and the state.

Gen Katawal said it was important not to return to violence.

He also spoke out on the issue of justice for human rights violations committed during the conflict. A number of soldiers have been accused of crimes such as murder and rape, but so far the army has prevented its members from being brought to trial.

Gen Katawal said the army was sincere about human rights and was not above the law, but that all allegations had to be proved first.

The Maoists ended their decade-long armed struggle in Nepal three years ago when they decided to enter the peace process.

They won general elections in 2008.

Why are so many women killing themselves?

KATHMANDU - Suicide has emerged as the single leading cause of death among women in Nepal aged 15-49, outranking other causes such as accidents and disease, according to a government study.

The Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Study2008/2009 undertaken by the Family Health Division (FHD) of the Department of Health Services looked at changes in maternal mortality in Nepal since 1998, when the last survey was done.

The year-long study from April 2008 of women of reproductive age (15-49 years) was carried out in eight districts chosen to represent different ethnicities and levels of development in Nepal.

The total population of women of this age group in these districts was over 86,000.
But in preliminary findings that the study described as shocking, of the 1,496 deaths recorded, suicide - rather than maternal-related issues - was the single leading cause of death, accounting for 16 percent of deaths.

In the 1998 study, suicide ranked as the third single cause of death.

The finding "highlights the urgent need to address this issue, which has received little attention since its significance was first noted in 1998," the study said.

The second single leading cause was accidents, accounting for 9 percent of deaths; no details were specified about the nature of these. 


"We are absolutely concerned with the findings. This was totally unexpected," Bal Krishna Subedi, who led the study and is a former FHD director, told IRIN. "It has opened our eyes to delve into this issue," he said.

The study also found the overall maternal mortality rate in Nepal had improved to 229 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births, compared to 539 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births in 1998.

Causes hard to pin down 

The study said mental health problems, relationships, marriage and family issues were factors in suicides, as was youth, since 21 percent of the suicides were committed by young women aged 18 years and under.

However, it did not elaborate on these issues and noted that more research was required into the causes.

"Research is needed to improve understanding of the circumstances and contributory factors of these tragic events, to guide interventions," it said.

"We need more analysis to find the causes behind suicide, in order to go forward to address this serious concern at the community level," said Sushil Baral, health adviser for the Nepal office of the UK Department for International Development (DFID), one of the study’s funders.

"Gender-based violence could be one of the major cause(s), but to what extent it actually impacts, needs to be further studied," he said.


Suicides under-reported

Women activists said the study results were not surprising, and that the problem could be even more widespread because suicides are under-reported.

"Most families will never report suicide cases as they are afraid of being entangled in police cases," Pinky Rana, director of Samanta, a local women’s rights NGO, told IRIN.

The only way to prevent suicides is to criminalize the causes of death, such as dowry disputes and domestic violence, said Sapana Malla Pradhan, a member of parliament and president of the Forum for Women, Law and Development (FWLD).

"Once there is suicide, the case is closed and never investigated on what led women committing such [a] drastic step, said Pradhan.

There was a need for proper research to get an accurate picture of suicide among women. However, most aid agencies were not interested in funding such research or studies, she added.

Women’s groups also said there was a need for psychosocial counselling in many parts of the country to help women to cope with issues such as depression.

"There is a crucial need for counselling training programmes and we need more counsellors to help these poor victims," said Pradhan.

Nepal 'to stage gay weddings on Everest'

Nepal is set to stage same-sex weddings on Mount Everest as part of a bid to promote the country as the homosexual tourism capital of Asia.

Nepal's homosexual community, which is led by Asia's only openly gay member of parliament, will next month host a tourism conference to explore how to attract wealthy gay visitors to boost the country's war-ravaged economy.

The country's new constitution will legalise homosexual marriage in May this year, when "Pink Mountain" will begin offering luxury honeymoon and wedding packages.

Sunil Babu Pant, a Communist legislator and leader of the country's homosexual rights movement, has launched a travel company dedicated to promoting the former Hindu kingdom to gay tourists in an effort to tap the so-called "Pink Pound" and dollar.

The company will offer elephant-back bridal processions, Everest base camp ceremonies and weddings in remote Tibetan enclaves in the Himalayan republic.

Mr Pant is hoping to build on the government's new determination to maximise income from tourism by targeting all potential markets. The country's tourism minister wrote a welcome statement for the International Conference on Gay and Lesbian Tourism in Boston last October, in which he said he believed Nepal will benefit from an increase in gay visitors.

Mr Pant has said if Nepal can attract ten per cent of the world's gay tourists, its economy would receive a significant boost.

"Most Asian countries don't welcome gay visitors, so we can have the maximum benefit for the Nepal economy which is fragile after years of war.

"The government is hoping to increase the number of tourists from 400,000 to one million next year and has taken a positive attitude to welcoming gay and lesbian visitors to help meet their ambitious target," he told The Daily Telegraph on Tuesday.

Telegraph

Impunity in Nepal Blocks Peace Process: Report

The International Crisis Group says both the Nepalese government and the Maoists have made commitments to investigate disappearances and address human-rights issues, but the group says no action has been taken.


A new report says Nepal's peace process is in danger because of a failure to address crimes committed during the country's decade-long civil war.  The research organization International Crisis Group says prosecution of those responsible for the most serious atrocities must be one of the country's top priorities.  

International Crisis Group Asia Program Director Robert Templar says impunity is a major problem in Nepal.

"There has been a real lack of accountability following the signing of the peace process," he said. "And that lack of accountability on both sides risks worsening the problems with that peace process, which at the moment is in a tense and delicate stage."

About 13,000 people were killed and more than 1,000 disappeared during Nepal's decade-long civil war, which ended with a peace agreement in 2006. 

The International Crisis Group says both the Nepalese government and the Maoists have made commitments to investigate disappearances and address human-rights issues, but the group says no action has been taken. 

It says the top priorities need to be prosecuting the most serious crimes, investigating disappearances, and vetting state and Maoist security forces.  It says, the United Nations needs to do more to lead the way towards bringing an end to impunity. 

The U.N. Mission in Nepal was set up in 2007 to support and monitor the peace process.  But Templar told VOA the international organization is losing its credibility in the country. 

"Large numbers of Nepali officers join international peacekeeping missions around the world. In many cases those same officers have been accused of abuses at home," he said. "I do not think it is acceptable for the U.N. to be giving often very lucrative, very prestigious positions to people who have abused their own citizens at home."

Charu Lata Hogg, Nepal analyst at London-based research group Chatham House, says bringing those responsible for abuses in Nepal to justice will serve as a deterrent in a nation wracked by violence.  

"Prosecutions and bringing an end to impunity are intrinsically linked up to the future peace in Nepal," said Hogg.

But she says the structure of Nepal's judiciary, police force, and army stands in the way of prosecution. 

"The way the political culture in Nepal has evolved in which there is extreme corruption - the bureaucracy is overladen, the attorney-general's office is not independent, the judiciary is not independent and is under political influence - is another important factor which has created a situation of rising impunity and no actual violations being tried," said Hogg.

The U.N. mandate in Nepal is due to expire January 23.  But this week U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon expressed his concern over a political stalemate in Nepal and recommended that the UN's special mission be extended.

Gurkha veterans lose UK court battle on pensions

LONDON — Former Gurkha soldiers from Nepal lost a test case against Britain's Ministry of Defence over pension rights at the High Court in London on Monday.

The ruling came after the British government last year granted Gurkha veterans the right to settle in Britain following a high-profile campaign led by actress Joanna Lumley.

The legal action was launched by the British Gurkha Welfare Society, which says around 24,000 Gurkha veterans who served before 1997 and their dependents receive only a third of what their British counterparts get in pensions.

It said afterwards that it would appeal against the ruling.

The test case which focused on two claimants, Surbarna Adhikari and Tikendra Dewan. They served 15 and 31 years in the army respectively.

"It is very regrettable that the Gurkhas were yet again forced to take the British government to court and disappointing that we did not win the case, though we have understood that this was not likely to be the end of the road," said general secretary Chhatra Rai.

"This is above all a moral issue as the majority of Gurkha veterans in this group are now becoming increasingly old and fragile and do not have the level of English necessary to find a job," he said.

"Most of these Gurkhas are therefore not able to work in their old age to supplement their pension."

Justice Ian Burnett spoke of the "high regard" British people had for Gurkhas, but he rejected their challenge on the grounds the Ministry of Defence had not acted unlawfully.

The ministry had argued that because Gurkha pensions are payable over a longer time than regular armed forces pensions, Gurkhas end up receiving the same amount as British veterans.

About 200,000 Gurkhas fought for Britain in World War I and World War II and more than 45,000 have died in British uniform.

Around 3,500 now serve in the British army, including in Afghanistan. Gurkhas have won 13 Victoria Crosses, the top military award for valour.

In May last year the British government U-turned to allow all Gurkha veterans with a minimum of four years' service to settle in Britain.

Lumley, the daughter of a British major who fought with the Gurkha Rifles in World War II, figured prominently in that campaign. She subsequently visited Nepal and was hailed as a heroine.

Dozens of British lawmakers have signed a House of Commons motion backing better pensions for Gurkhas.

"The Gurkhas have always been an integral part of the British armed forces, fighting the same wars and carrying out the same duties as British soldiers," said veteran Conservative MP Ann Widdecombe.

"It is an injustice to give these veterans a pension based on their country of origin instead of the country in whose army they loyally served."

Caste system traps Nepali 'hereditary prostitutes'

Durpati Nepali hides her face in shame as she recalls how she was forced to return to work as a prostitute after her husband was killed during Nepal's 10-year civil war.

The 35-year-old mother of five says she resorted to prostitution -- an occupation she first took up aged just 14 -- in desperation after the food stall she set up failed because customers were abusive and refused to pay.

Nepali was victimised because she is a Badi, a caste of so-called "untouchables" living mainly in western Nepal whose women have traditionally earned their living as sex workers.

Once high-class courtesans and musicians, the Badi are now among the poorest and most downtrodden groups in Nepal, where discrimination on caste grounds remains rife despite being outlawed more than four decades ago.

Many are disadvantaged from birth because they carry the surname Nepali, often used on the birth certificates of children where paternity is unclear, making them vulnerable to persecution.

"When my husband died, I had no option but to go back into prostitution to feed my family," said Nepali, whose husband died eight years ago, a victim of the civil conflict that ended in 2006.

"Even when I wasn't working as a prostitute, people treated me like one. But it has brought many problems," she told AFP in her tiny mud hut in the village of Bankhet in mid-western Nepal.

"Last month, more than 20 villagers came and threatened to burn down our home if we did not leave the village."

Activists say that a lack of education and continuing caste-based prejudices in majority-Hindu Nepal often make it difficult for Badi women to earn their living any other way, trapping them in a cycle of poverty and social rejection.

Nepali's mother was a sex worker, and now her two youngest daughters -- one aged 14, one 16 -- have followed her into prostitution.

"I had high hopes for my daughters, I wanted them to marry into good families. But they say they want to look after me like I looked after them when their father died," she said.

"I'm not happy that they have become prostitutes. But if they had not, there would be no food on the table."

Mahesh Nepali, director of the advocacy group Social Awareness for Education (SAFE) Nepal and himself a Badi, said the community faced discrimination even from other "untouchable" castes, and were viewed as the "lowest of the low."

"Even among the untouchables, Badis are seen as the most untouchable," he said.

"As a result they have no sense of self worth. On top of that, they are very weak economically, so it is almost impossible for them to change their destiny without outside help."

In 2007, hundreds of Badi women travelled to the capital Kathmandu where they held a series of rowdy protests to demand government help, some stripping off outside the parliament building.

Some help is now available in the form of government funding for the rehabilitation and rehousing of vulnerable Badi women, although the implementation of such programmes has been hampered by political instability.

The Badi -- estimated to number around 40,000 across the Himalayan country -- have also benefited from a recent change in the law that for the first time permitted fatherless children to obtain citizenship.

But Sapana Pradhan Malla, a renowned women's rights lawyer who last year became a member of Nepal's parliament, said the government needed to do much more to help the Badi people.

"Because of the social stigma they have not been a political priority," she told AFP.

"I urge the government to ensure justice for these people. After all, they are our sisters and mothers. How can we treat them differently?"

A handful of women have managed to change their destiny, among them Kalpana Nepali, 23, who grew up in a hostel for the children of Badi sex workers.

"My father died when I was two and a half, forcing my mother to go into the sex trade," said Kalpana, who now runs a small cooperative bank for her community.

"One day my mother and some other women sold all their jewellery to fund a hostel for the children because they did not want them to grow up in that environment.

"As a result, most of us managed to finish high school. But if it had not been for the hostel, I'm sure we would also be doing sex work."

But there are many more who have received no such help, such as Durpati's 14-year-old daughter Binita, who left school aged just 12 and went into the sex trade.

"I miss school. Sometimes I wonder why I left," she told AFP.

"I dreamt of becoming a doctor or doing some other honest job. But what can you do? We have no money so I cannot fulfil those dreams."

Maoists now see Indian hand in Nepal's palace massacre

The Times of India




KATHMANDU: Nine years after he was gunned down in his own palace, allegedly by his son over a family dispute, the assassination of Nepal's king Birendra continues to haunt the nascent republic's politics with the former Maoists now claiming the involvement of neighbour India. 


Maoist supremo and former prime minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda, who has begun making increasingly anti-Indian rhetoric in recent times, now alleges the Indian government played a role in Nepal's national tragedy that wiped out Birendra's entire family June 1, 2001. 


He is also claiming that New Delhi was behind the death of Nepal's charismatic communist leader Madan Bhandari in 1993. 


"Madan Bhandari and King Birendra were killed because they did not surrender to India," Maoist mouthpiece Janadisha daily said Sunday in a front-page report. 


The daily quoted from a speech by Prachanda Saturday during a programme to mark the fourth round of Maoist protests against the coalition government of Nepal that is scheduled to climax with an indefinite general strike from Jan 24. 


Prachanda said the government of Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal was a puppet that was being remote-controlled by the Indian government. 
"Former king Birendra and Madan Bhandari were killed because they supported national sovereignty," Prachanda said. 


The former revolutionary said king Birendra was killed because he favoured buying weapons for the state army from China instead of India and was making efforts to hold talks directly with the Maoists, who were then an underground party. 


Had Birendra not been killed, Prachanda said he would have held talks with the monarch within a month. 


Earlier, Prachanda had also said that king Birendra sent his youngest brother Dhirendra as a secret emissary to the Maoists to propose talks between the palace and the guerrillas. But the king was killed before the talks could start. 


Dhirendra and eight other royals, including the queen, Aishwarya, and the crown prince, Dipendra, died in the infamous massacre in the Narayanhity palace in Kathmandu. 


A commission formed by the government subsequently found the crown prince responsible for the carnage. The motive was apparently their threat to disinherit him as he wanted to marry a woman they did not consider suitable. 


Madan Bhandari, one of the founders of the Communist Party of Nepal (Marxist-Leninist), died in a car crash outside Kathmandu in 1993. 


However, many people still believe there were deeper conspiracies behind the two deaths that deeply impacted Nepal's politics. 


During his short tenure as premier last year, Prachanda had promised to start a fresh investigation into the palace massacre but the pledge was never fulfilled. 


In the past, the Maoists had blamed Birendra's surviving brother Gyanendra, who ascended the throne after his death, for the massacre, an allegation denied by the king before he surrendered his crown.

Child soldiers leave Maoist camps in Nepal

SINDHULI, Nepal — Thousands of former child soldiers who fought for the Maoists in Nepal's decade-long civil war will Thursday begin leaving the UN-monitored camps where they have spent the past three years.

Around 250 young men and women are due to swap their blue People's Liberation Army (PLA) uniforms for civilian clothes and begin their journey home after an official ceremony at the Sindhuli camp in central Nepal.

They are the first of almost 24,000 former Maoist fighters living in camps around the country to be officially discharged as part of the 2006 peace agreement, a key step forward in Nepal's faltering peace process.

"After a lot of delays we are finally ready to discharge the disqualified Maoist combatants from the UN-monitored camps. It is a milestone for the country's peace process," a spokesman for the peace ministry told AFP.

"We hope it will pave the way for the crucial step of rehabilitating and reintegrating Maoist combatants."

Almost 24,000 former combatants were confined to UN-supervised camps as part of the 2006 accord that followed the end of the conflict between Maoist guerrillas and the state.

In December 2007 the United Nations Mission in Nepal (UNMIN) completed a verification process and found that 2,973 former fighters were minors when the war ended and another 1,035 were not genuine combatants.

They had been slated for release soon afterwards, but the process was repeatedly delayed by disagreements between the Maoist party, now in opposition, and its political rivals.

Over the next month all 4,008 will leave the camps, a move PLA spokesman Chandra Prasad Khanal said would "send a message to the world that we are committed to peace."

"For us this is a sad moment because we are sending away our fellow fighters in the decade-long people's war," he told AFP. "But we are taking this step in order to bring the peace process to a logical conclusion."

The discharge of the former child soldiers will allow the Maoists to be removed from a UN list of organisations that use children in conflict.

Rights groups say the former rebels forcibly recruited child soldiers during the conflict, sometimes demanding one person from every home in areas under their control, although some signed up voluntarily.

Many became cooks or porters or did medical work, but they also received military training.

The Maoists want the remaining 20,000 PLA members to be integrated into the regular army, a key tenet of the peace agreement.

But the military's opposition to such a move has hampered progress, and last year a row between the then army chief Rukmangad Katawal and Maoist leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal over the issue brought down the Maoist-led government.

No one is even sure how many former fighters remain in the camps -- they are not being kept there by force and several thousand are believed to have walked out in the three years since the end of the war.

Those being officially discharged will receive a set of civilian clothes and identity papers, and each will be given 10,000 rupees (135 dollars) to travel back to their villages and begin setting up home.

There, they will be given access to vocational training and education, while UN observers will monitor their progress amid concerns they could be lured into Nepal's growing number of criminal gangs, many of which have political links.

"The release of these young people sends out a symbolic message for the new year," said Gillian Mellsop, Nepal representative of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).

"Not only can these young people now finally get on with their lives, but this also marks a new beginning at the start of a new decade for Nepal, so that it can move forward to a more stable, peaceful future."