A King Who Intends To Stay The Course

Tulsi Giri messes up big time, and the king reacts by rewarding a million rupees to Bishta. This guy is nowhere close to getting out of the way. He will play the game to the hilt. The seven parties better gear up for a sophisticated response. Minor street protests here and there will not do. There has to be a war of words that can only come forth if the seven were to engage in an open, intense, public dialogue on a future constitution. The royal intransigence could swell the republican ranks further. The party leaderships could hold the tide for only so long.

In The News

• Fierce clashes in Arghakhanchi NepalNews gunbattle that started from around 8:00 a.m. Saturday was still going on until 6 in the evening ...... 5k.m west of the district headquarters, Sandikharka
• Maoists deny their hand in Madhubani attack NepalNews It is not our party’s policy to launch joint attacks within India
• Five rebels, one security man killed in Bardiya NepalNews overnight clashes ...... Maoist insurgents traveling in a vehicle attacked security personnel manning Rambhapur check post in the Royal Bardiya National Park and also tried to enter the security base. Gun battle lasted for several hours until early Saturday..... 25 km north from district headquarter, Guleriya, along the East-West highway ...... insurgents had blocked the highway, and caused explosions near district hedquarters to bar security reinforcements from reaching the are
• Vivid account of Maoist attack in bordering Indian town NepalNews the Maoists, dressed in olive green uniforms and red headbands, were heavily armed.
• Govt provides Rs 1m ‘allowance’ to vice-chairman Bista NepalNews for housing allowance ...... Existing rules bar the government from allocating more than Rs.100,000, for housing purposes, to ministers who live outside official quarters. However, the post of the vice-chairman is not envisioned by the current constitution. As stated in the existing rule, cabinet members who stay in their own residences are not entitled to such allowance. Bista is staying at his own residence house...... for the renovation of his Gyaneshwore home.
• Constructive Suggestions Spotlight ..... helping “the government prepare national position and strategy for a three-day conference of 31 least developed countries (LDCs) to be held in Livingstone, Zambia in the last week of June and to prepare their negotiation strategy for the Sixth Ministerial Conference of the WTO to be held at Hong Kong from 13-18 December 2005.” ..... agriculture, non-agriculture market access, intellectual property rights, trade facilitation, environment, development dimensions, intellectual property rights and services...... “need-based” and effective technical assistance and capacity building in order to help LDCs in general and Nepal in particular take advantage of market opening offered by WTO membership as well as through various preferential arrangements ...... stop subsidy on agriculture; eliminate Non Tariff Barriers (NTBs); bind various preferential trade facilities as well as EBA (Everything But Arms) initiative by the EU at the WTO; push transit as a right; demand effective technical assistance to address SPS (Sanitary and Phytosanitary); allow free movement of natural persons in all categories (skill, semi-skilled and unskilled); expedite the process of reconciliation between TRIPS (Trade-related aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) and CBD (Convention on Biodiversity); restrict patenting of life forms; recognize National Certification System; and so on..... five priority areas include Agriculture negotiations; Special & Differential Treatment for LDCs; Non-Agricultural Market Access; Trade in Services; and Trade Facilitation in that order....... access to market of developing countries are equally, if not more, important than that of developed countries...... issues close to LDCs like agriculture and labor get low priority in WTO discussions
• 23rd ANA convention in Texas Kantipur the theme ‘Peace and Unity for Prosperity’
• Sharp Rise In Urban Prices, GDP Slides Further Kantipur growth rate for this current fiscal year further down to 2.1 percent .. less than half of the budgetary target of about 4.5 percent. ..... Urban Consumer Price Index, the CPI, a macroeconomic indicator that measures prices in urban areas, will rise by 4.3 percent to 161.5 by the end of the fiscal year in mid-July ..... exacerbated by the increase in prices of petroleum products—which have increased by an average of 35.7 percent this year—and the increase in the rate of Value Added Tax from 10 to 13 percent .... index of sugar and related products moved up by 28.2 percent.
• Giri Ignores Loan Settlement Deadline Kantipur The bank, that had blacklisted Giri as a loan defaulter, had sent a letter asking him to comply with the necessary procedures to settle his loan dues by Friday ..... In the letter sent by NBL Chief Executive Officer Craig McAllister, the bank had warned that it would be compelled to take action against Giri in the same vein as it takes action against other wilful defaulters, if the deadline is not met..... Giri would have to pay Rs.13.5 million out of total due amount of Rs.17.4 million.
• Members' Appointment Legal: NHRC Kantipur NHRC’s clarification comes at a time when there has been growing criticism from national and international human rights organization over its formation..... “It was rather a compulsion to appoint the members through ordinance in the absence of the Parliament.”
• Fifteen killed as security forces and rebels clash in eastern ... Forbes .... skirmish occurred when a group of rebels attacked a 90-strong security force team searching for Maoists who had been involved in a similar clash with troops earlier this week in a nearby area..... a bomb exploded overnight at private educational institute, the Nobel Academy, on the outskirts of Kathmandu, causing damage to a building and a school bus
• US warns against unecessary travel in Nepal Reuters AlertNet, UK defer non-essential travel to Nepal and advised against road travel in areas outside of the Kathmandu Valley ..... the Maoists might attempt to attack or take actions specifically against U.S. citizens
• Seminar on North Korean leader held in Nepal Monsters and Critics.com, UK A seminar on leader Kim Jong-il's famous work "On Preserving the Juche [self-reliance] Character and National Character of the Revolution and Construction" was held in Nepal on 15 June on the occasion of the 41st anniversary of his start of work at the Central Committee of the Korean Workers' Party..... it is time to seek the Juche character and national character in solving the national problem.
• ‘Bleak future for Nepal’ Kathmandu Post, Nepal
  
• PM Relief Fund Case Verdict Likely On Sunday Himalayan Times Hard days could be ahead for former prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba..... a Royal Commission for Corruption Control (RCCC) official hinted at the possibility of reaching a decision on the relief fund case on Sunday ..... Deuba, however, refused to post bail claiming the amount was distributed to Maoist victims and that he would not respond to the orders of an “unconstitutional” commission....... while the first contractor, Hanel Kaneco, had put up a bid of Rs 450 million for the job, it was awarded to CCENC-Sharma and Lama JV for Rs 950 million ..... The RCCC is doing a “study” on alleged irregularities to the tune of $10,000 by Agriculture Input Corporation...... Department of Health for financial irregularities while awarding tenders, importing vaccines, furniture; the Khotang District Education Office, and other companies. The RCCC’s Birgunj ‘station’ has begun investigation into the National Medical College, Birgunj, for evading VAT of Rs 37 lakh, Multi-ply Aluminium Factory for tax evasion to the tune of Rs 8 lakh. Several private companies in Birgunj have been found to have “illegal electricity connections”.
• South Side Map Of South Asia
• Peace Process And The LTTE Split Himal March 2004 The most appropriate feature of political life in a plural and multi-ethnic society is dialogue and compromise.
  
• CNN Interview: Mahara November 2002 Video Clip Mahara has been rumored to have been killed twice in encounters with Nepalese armies. He carries a pricetag of $65,000 on his head ..... I agree that in its initial phase, this movement, six to seven years ago, had little support....... we are a political force. This is a people's movement, a people's war. ..... The Nepalese government claims to have killed four thousand Maoists. But the truth is that more than 80 percent of them were innocent civilians...... The allegations that we fight like the Khmer Rouge are absolutely wrong. We are fighting for our cause in our own style. According to the geography, the enemy and the situation of Nepal, we are fighting according to that...... if they said that we were right then there was no need for any war or revolution....... If they listen to us then this fight can stop in a minute...... The ruling class has kept the power away from the people. We have demanded an interim government and constituent assembly. Whatever the people decide we are willing to accept and this is how peace will prevail...... The government is not agreeing to our proposal for a constituent assembly because they know that they'll lose. They just have the support of the army and certain pimps in position of power...... The slogan for constituent assembly is not ours, it is that of the capitalist..... Our slogan has always been people's democracy and new democracy. They know they'll lose that's why they are not even agreeing to our flexible demand........ The reason why the government is opposing talks is that they are preparing for a fully-fledged war..... History has shown that the people always win because the people create history. The rulers just know how to commit atrocities on the people and they create an atmosphere of fear. They can only think of making their army stronger....... The king does not want actual democracy........ the king, he does not want democracy, all he wants is the power for himself....... His strategy is to buy time ..... The king's inner desire is not for democracy ...... some sort of dialogue and interim government..... Apart from this there is no other solution for the king.