Details of a proposed Nepal, China peace treaty

By Bhola B Rana

Kathmandu, 3 March: China has proposed it won’t invade Nepal is a text of a proposed new peace treaty to be signed during Prime Minister Prachanda’s proposed Beijing visit in April/May 2009.
The details of the treaty were made public by Jana Bhawana quoting unnamed high-level impeccable sources.
China won’t invade Nepal and will always respect the Himalayan state’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, according to one clause in the treaty.
Nepal should accept and declare a ‘One China’ policy or Nepal should give top priority and accept Tibet an integral part of China.
Nepal soil won’t be used for anti-China activities.
The draft of the proposed treaty was delivered to Nepal last Thursday by a visiting Chinese delegation.
The delegation led by Assistant Foreign Affairs Minister Hu Zhengyue flew for New Delhi after a Nepal visit.
A new treaty has been proposed at a time when China feels anti-China activities are increasing in Nepal.
In the past three months, three top military delegations have visited Nepal as members of the delegation said peace along Tibet’s southern flank is important for Tibet and south China.
Areas around the Chinese embassy in the capital have been declared prohibited areas to ban protests by Tibetan exiles in Nepal on the 50th anniversary on the quelling by China of a rebellion in Tibet.
Tourists have been banned from Tibet until April.
Thousands of western tourists transit to Tibet via Nepal which is linked to Lhasa by air.
The new treaty will replace a 1960 treaty signed by Prime Ministers BP Koirala and Chou En Lai.
China has sought equal treatment for its exports to Nepal on par with preferential treatment for Indian gods and has asked for free movement of people across the 1,4000 km border.
A published report said the prime minister has sought an explanation from the foreign ministry for leaking the details of the treaty.
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Differences surface in CPN-UML

Kathmandu, 3 March: Differences have surfaced in the CPN-UML after the election of Jhalanath Khanal as the new powerful executive chairman.
Defeated rival candidate KP Oli Monday boycotted a ceremony where several members of the new central committee, including Deputy Prime Minister Bamdeb Gautam took their oaths of office.
Nearly one dozen leaders, including Madhav Kumar Nepal, Bhim Rawal and Bidya Bhandari were absent.
The unopposed election of Amrit Kumar Bohara as chairman of a disciplinary committee has been challenged; there’s been a call to investigate rigged elections as well.
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Foreign Minister Yadav flies for Geneva

Kathmandu, 3 March: Foreign Minister Upendra Yadav flew for Geneva Monday to attend the annual conference of the Human Rights Council Wednesday.
He will also visit Belgium, Germany and Qatar before returning home in a fortnight.
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Maldives asks Nepal to hold SAARC summit instead

Kathmandu, 3 March: The Maldives, which had earlier undertaken to host the 16th SAARC summit in Male, is now having second thoughts, newsfront reports.
The atoll natioin, instead, wants to pass the honour over to Nepal.
Zaki, the Maldivian roving ambassador currently in Kathmandu, met Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal on February 28 and requested Nepal to host the 16th summit or obvious reasons.
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TRADE, ECONOMY, COMMERCE

Kathmandu, 3 March: Tourism arrivals declined for the second successive month indicating international recession is affecting Nepal.
Only30,041 tourists visited Nepal is February, a decline of 16 percent compared to the same month in 2008.
Tourist arrivals fell from Europe, China, USA and Australia.
But Indian arrivals increased to 6,050 in February.
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Schools take on the Maoist govt. challenge

Kathmandu, 3 March: Nearly 800 private schools
Providing quality education have defied the Maoist-led government refusing Monday to pay a five percent Education Service Tax amid government threats students from such schools will be debarred from SLC examinations this year.
Schools said they only facilitators and guardians should dish out the money.
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MEDIA GOOGLE

“In the current transitional phase, the county needs to be led by a revolutionary party and the UML can do just do this.”

(Jhalanath Khanal, The Kathmandu Post, 3 March)
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