Daily Archives: September 27, 2006

Update on Peace Process: Today's Political Developments

Posted on September 27, 2006 by | 19 Comments

Update: Thursday, Sept 28: The much-awaited “summit talks” between the top leaders of the ruling seven-party alliance (SPA) and Maoists, earlier said to be held today but postponed for tomorrow (Friday), has been put off until the conclusion of the Dashain festival. (Here is more.)

Based on a report by Balaram Baniya and Ujjir Magar
Written by Wagle

After it was announced today that the high-level talks between the ruling Seven Party Alliance (SPA) and the Maoists have been rescheduled by as much as 24 hours for Friday, the question many wanted to raise was: Will the Alliance be able to come up with concrete agreement to face the rebels on the talks table? If so, no problem, take another week, why just a day. Forest minister Gopal Rai’s state funeral to be held tomorrow is being cited as the reason for this deferment though there are very few reasons to be hopeful about SPA coming in one voice regarding the most crucial issue: the monarchy. Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala is hell bent on giving space to monarchy, that is, saving the institution that the popular and historic April uprising clearly wanted to be abolished.

Today’s central committee meeting of Nepali Congress party, of which Prime Minister Koirala is the all-powerful president, discussed on its possible stand on interim constitution, formation of interim parliament and interim government, and to which extent the government and the party can be flexible in the talks with the Maoists. In the informal meeting that took place in the residence of the Prime Minister in Baluwataar, Koirala directed Home Minister and chief government negotiator and Shekhar Koirala, a central committee member of Nepali Congress, to talk to the Maoists and prepare for the high level talks. Both Sitalula and Shekhar met Dr. Baburam Bhattarai, one of the top Maoist leaders and Krishna Bahadur Mahara, the chief Maoist negotiator, this afternoon and talked about They talked about reaching agreement on political package (interim constitution, interim parliament and interim government) along with arms management. Continue reading →

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Update on Peace Process: Today’s Political Developments

Posted on September 27, 2006 by | 19 Comments

Update: Thursday, Sept 28: The much-awaited “summit talks” between the top leaders of the ruling seven-party alliance (SPA) and Maoists, earlier said to be held today but postponed for tomorrow (Friday), has been put off until the conclusion of the Dashain festival. (Here is more.)

Based on a report by Balaram Baniya and Ujjir Magar
Written by Wagle

After it was announced today that the high-level talks between the ruling Seven Party Alliance (SPA) and the Maoists have been rescheduled by as much as 24 hours for Friday, the question many wanted to raise was: Will the Alliance be able to come up with concrete agreement to face the rebels on the talks table? If so, no problem, take another week, why just a day. Forest minister Gopal Rai’s state funeral to be held tomorrow is being cited as the reason for this deferment though there are very few reasons to be hopeful about SPA coming in one voice regarding the most crucial issue: the monarchy. Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala is hell bent on giving space to monarchy, that is, saving the institution that the popular and historic April uprising clearly wanted to be abolished.

Today’s central committee meeting of Nepali Congress party, of which Prime Minister Koirala is the all-powerful president, discussed on its possible stand on interim constitution, formation of interim parliament and interim government, and to which extent the government and the party can be flexible in the talks with the Maoists. In the informal meeting that took place in the residence of the Prime Minister in Baluwataar, Koirala directed Home Minister and chief government negotiator and Shekhar Koirala, a central committee member of Nepali Congress, to talk to the Maoists and prepare for the high level talks. Both Sitalula and Shekhar met Dr. Baburam Bhattarai, one of the top Maoist leaders and Krishna Bahadur Mahara, the chief Maoist negotiator, this afternoon and talked about They talked about reaching agreement on political package (interim constitution, interim parliament and interim government) along with arms management. Continue reading →

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Chopper Crashed, Dignitaries Died, Nepal Observes National Holiday. Why?

Posted on September 27, 2006 by | 30 Comments

Comment of the Moment [This comment was originally posted by Dukhi in this blog post]

Dukhit says:
September 26th, 2006 at 9:33 pm

The government of Nepal [yesterday] declared Wednesday [today] a day of national mourning following the confirmation of the death of all 24 passengers, many of them renowned personalities in Nepali and Kathmandu based epact community, of the ill-fated Shree Airlines helicopter that crashed in Taplejung three days ago. With all respect to the passing souls, I believe that this decision of declaring a national mourning day and giving public holiday on tomorrow was unnecessary. While writing this, I don’t want to be portrayed as an insensitive and emotionless idiot but this special treatment to those who died in chopper crash has clearly done injustice to those people who had died a few weeks ago in landslide in Ulleri village of Kaski-Myagdi border. The government didn’t even mention those who died in Ulleri its cabinet meetings. The families were left alone. Yes, I am also deeply saddened by the accident and I am remembering that moment nearly three years ago when I was talking with Dr. Harka Gurung in his office about mountains of Nepal. There were other distinguished personalities in the helicopter and all of them died.

The government has not given us reason for closing down all government offices and schools and it seems this decision wasn’t based on any legal provisions but simply a political and emotional decision. Was that because so many people died? Or because so many people died in a helicopter crash? Or because there was one minister, three government employees? Or because there were some foreign personalities and a diplomats? If this is because of the death of a sitting government minister, then I have nothing to say because there must be legal provision for such rituals. If not, the state should treat all of its citizens (living and dead) equally and duly focus its attention to those who died in Ulleri village. What about those 26 people who were poor and virtually unknown to the rest of the society? Continue reading →

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