PM Nepal says govt. serious about news of Maoist involvement

Kathmandu, 3 June: Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal said Wednesday government has taken news of Maoist involvement in the possible abduction of Dr Bhaktaman Shrestha seriously.
“News of Maoist involvement have been coming from many quarters. Government has taken that seriously.
‘Because statements have come from Maoist leaders Dr Shrestha is
well, government believes he is well,” Nepal told a UML youth delegation demanding the cancer specialist’s whereabouts.
Nearly 20 days after abduction from Bharatpur, Chitwan, whereabouts of the Executive Director of BP Koirala Cancer Memorial Hospital in Chitwan aren’t known.
Dr Shrestha, close to Maoists, was appointed during the Prachanda regime.
The tenure of a police team to find the missing doctor was extended one more week Wednesday.
Nnnn

Former king to inaugurate temple

Kathmandu, 3 June: Former King Gyanendra will inaugurate
the temple of Mata Bishnu Debi at Parwanipur 16 June, temple construction
committee Chairman Amar Yadav said Wednesday.
The Rs 10 million temple is located on four kattha land in the Radha Krishna complex along the Birgunj-Pathlaiya highway.
The king this year had offered prayers and worship at the Ram Janaki Mandir in Janakpur and at a temple in Nepalgunj.
The visit to Parwanipur will be the last king’s third terai visit.
nnnn

India wants India to ease Nepal tensions

By Bhola B Rana

Kathmandu, 3 June: William J. Burns, US Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs said Tuesday US ‘supports’ India’s role in ‘easing tensions in Nepal’.
He top diplomat for South Asia in the current administration said this even as Friday’s three-party accord to extend the constituent assembly (CA) tenure by one year until 28 May 2011 didn’t break a protracted stalemate.
Differences erupted without hours with Maoists demanding the ouster of the one-year Madhav Kumar Nepal government and its replacement by a ‘national unity government’ with Maoists.
Burns said this while delivering a speech on “India’s Rise and the Promise of UN-Indian Partnership” at the Council of Foreign relations in Washington.
He also said US and India have ‘complementary’ interests in South Asia without ‘outsourcing’ regional policy to the other.
‘As India looks to the East, its role in its neighbourhood obviously remains critical. We-the US and India-have complimentary interests on the subcontinent, and the United States supports India’s role in encouraging a stable democratic government in Bangladesh—easing tensions in Nepal-- and promoting peace and reconciliation in Sri Lanka.
“Neither of us intends to outsource South Asian policy to the other, but more often than not our policy prescriptions converge,” text of speech available said.
The speech confirms the Obama administration the George W. Bush to pursue a ‘strategic partnership’ in South Asia – a strategy developed in the second administration of the Bush administration.
The fall of monarchy in Nepal was the outcome of that strategy.
But Washington’s push for pluralism backfired when Maoists won the 10 April 2008 constituent assembly elections to emerge as the largest party.
Washington expected UML to emerge victorious and is now attempting to regain lost ground as Nepali people and economy suffer with a transition that is entering its fifth year.
Maoists emerged victorious even as Bush in the first asked Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba to ‘find, search and kill Maoists’ training and arming Royal Nepal Army and boosting financial assistance.
nnnn