Govt., terai rebel group reach 6-point agreement

Kathmandu, 10 Jan: Government and a three-member Rajan group of Janatantrik Terai Mukti Morcha reached a six-point agreement at talks in Janakpur Saturday with the rebel group agreeing to an immediate cease-fire.
The government has promised protection for the rebel group.
The organization is the fourth among two dozen groups to hold direct talks with government.
Government team of three negotiators was led by Peace Minister Janardhan Sharma Prabhakar.
Sharma said talks will now be held with the Jwala Singh group of Janatantrik Mukti Morcha; the group is the most violent of nearly two dozen groups active in the south.
Government Saturday accepted Rajan group as a political and not a criminal organization.
Nnnn

PM Prachanda, Ian Martin hold talks; UN should never have been involved in an internal Nepali dispute

By Bhola B Rana

Kathmandu, 10 Jan: Prime Minister Prachanda Saturday assured Ian Martin, outgoing special envoy of the UN secretary-general, a special committee on integration and rehabilitation of PLA in Nepal Army and society will be formed soon.
The committee will consist of eight members, including two members main opposition Nepali Congress which opposes mass integration of PLA in the state army along with ruling biggest coalition parties of Maoists.
The coalition has six parties.
The meeting comes immediately after a report to the security council by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon saying the delayed peace process may not be completed in time. Ban has sought a six-month extension of the UMMIN for the third time after it end 23 January.
“I do not believe it will be easy to reach consensus in the special committee once it begins work. There are substantial differences in the positions and views of political parties, and sometimes within parties, and between the approaches favoured by Maoist army and by Nepal Army.
“Comprehensive peace agreement did not fully negotiate the future of armies, but confined itself to defining processes, with regard to both the special committees and the parallel commitment to an action plan for democratization of Nepal Army, “ Ban said in his report to the council seeking a six-month extension of its Nepal mandate.
UN and Martin, who is being recalled after a UN decision to downsize the UMNIN, have been accused by main opposition for favouring Maoists instead of being neutral.
In the latest dispute, Congress has supported recruitment in Nepal Army to fill vacancies while Martin has opposed it with Maoists.
Ban said the UN needed an exit and couldn’t perpetually be involved in the continued extension of the peace process.
Main opposition Congress which originally was anti-communist has taken up its old stance.
Congress united with Maoists with backing of India, USA and EU to topple monarchy in April 2005.
Congress is having a re-think.
The international grouping pushed the UN on Nepal with Maoist backing as well as western countries tried to defame national institutions like the National Human Rights Commission.
UN is now becoming a victim to Nepali real politics; the UN should have never been involved in the first place in an internal Nepali political dispute.
Nnnn



UML minister criticizes Maoists; other details

By Bhola B Rana

Kathmandu, 10 Jan: CPN-UML Industry Minister Astha Laxmi Sakya said Saturday ‘ it was a shame’ groups affiliated with Maoists heading the government were behind strikes in industrial establishments forcing their closure.
She made the remark at a programme in Bhaktapur the same say Maoist Finance Minister Dr Baburam Bhatarai charged CPN-UML for making holes in a government boat threatening it sinking.
Another CPN-UML leader and former Deputy Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli contesting the powerful chairmanship of the party in the upcoming general convention later in 2009n called for a change in government by ousting Maoists.
Oli said Saturday CPN-UML should lead a government with Maoists and main opposition Nepali Congress and idea indirectly endorsed by the party’s General Secretary Jhalanath Khanal in an interview.
‘We are for a politics of understanding and consensus. The need now is for Congress and Maoists to be in government. Maoists couldn’t lead the like the Congress in the past. CPN-UML should now take the leadership to draft a new constitution, “ Oli told Naya Patrika in an interview.
‘We are for an understanding with major parties to move ahead,” Khanal said in an interview with the same newspaper indirectly supporting Oli.
Nnnn





MEDIA GOOGLE

“”You can fail this government now. But we should give it grace marks to pass it. An opportunity should be given in an exempted examination.”

(Former CPN-UML General Secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal, Naya Patrika, 10 Jan.)

“Nepal first was a Hindu state and the king was a Hindu; That’ why the king was patron of Pashupatinath. Nepal is now a secular state and that’s why government can’t take responsibility for Pahsupatinath; a Trust should be formed for this.”

(Girija Prasad Koirala, Nepal Samacharpatra, 10 Jan.)

“It took us four months to learn; corruption centers and focal points of commission rule have been identified. Now they will be hit.”

(PM Prachanda, Rajdhani, 10 Jan.)

“Maoists are turning a deaf ear to the 12-point accord and are tending to practice communist rule. We will try our best to shatter their dream of imposing autocracy in the country.”

(Congress leader Dr Manindra Rijal, The Himalayan Times, 10 Jan.)
Nnnn