Rapti anchal shutdown
Kathmandu, 6 Aug.: Transport entrepreneurs brought life to a halt in five districts of Rapti anchal Friday as vehicles stayed off the roads protesting what they call government’s failure to trace the killers of entrepreneur Debi Prasad Dhital who also was chairman of a Dang FM radio station.
Dhital’s killers have not been found even 14 days after he was gunned down in Dang.
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Supply of POL products resumes
Kathmandu, 6 Aug.: Striking employees of Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) demanding bonus Friday resumed the normal supply petroleum products.
Striking employees of the loss-making state monopoly said the management agreed to meet 13 demands.
‘The management has agreed to follow the existing law of bonus, though our strike was not for bonus,” said Shiva Adhikari, general secretary NOC Employees’ Organization.
An employee strike disrupted normal supplies of petroleum products for several days.
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No meeting of special committee chaired by PM
Kathmandu, 6 Aug.: A meeting of the special committee on integration, rehabilitation and supervision of Maoists chaired Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal wasn’t held Thursday.
The prime minister convened the meeting.
Maoists and MJFN didn’t attend the meeting which was attended representatives of other major parties, including the NC.
No decisions were taken at the meeting.
The meeting was convened amid fresh rows over the recruitment to fill in 3,000 plus vacancies in Nepal Army; Maoists objected threatening they will also start a recruitment drive.
UNMIN came under vehement government attack for saying the recruitment violated the terms of a 12-point comprehensive peace agreement immediately after the supreme court have the army a go-ahead for recruitment.
NA has been recruiting personnel to fill in vacancies after the 2006 agreement.
The UN is only a witness to an agreement between opposing parties in Nepal to the arms monitoring agreement.
The world body hasn’t been given any responsibility in interpreting clauses of the agreement following disputes.
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Nepal Property Expo in New York
Kathmandu, 6 Aug.: Nepal Property Expo 2010 is being held 15 August 2010 again in New York, an announcement said.
First Kathmandu is the main organizer in association with Guna Colony, Oriental Group and Newa Enterprises. The online partner is HousingNepal.com.
Such expos were held earlier in New York, Sydney and Kathmandu.
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Bhandari launches tirade against PLA
KATHMANDU, Asug.: -
Defence Minister of the caretaker government, Bidhya Bhandari, has claimed “the government would mobilise security forces” to halt the recruitment drive announced by Maoist’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA), The Kathmandu Post reports.

“Legal and political problem will arise if the PLA starts fresh hiring,” Bhandari told reporters on Monday. “It will pose a challenge to the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CAP).”

She said the PLA’s move can’t be justified as the recruitment decision has been announced amid parties’ call for the transformation of the Maoist party into a “civilian party”.

Her remark comes at a time when the government and Maoists are at loggerheads over the recruitment of 3,464 personnel in the Nepal Army.

PLA on Tuesday announced to vacancy for 12,000 personnel, following in Army’s footsteps.

Defending the Army’s decision, Bhandari said the Army won’t stop its “regular recruitment” as the CPA doesn’t bar it to recruit new personnel within the ceiling of 95,000, the total strength when the agreement was signed in 2006.

“We can’t compare the national

Army with the Maoist’s army. The Army is a permanent force and we can’t suspend its recruitment for indefinite time,”

she said.

She also didn’t spare the United Nations Mission in Nepal (UNMIN) this time too. The UNMIN is “acting beyond its jurisdiction” by opposing the recruitment decision of the Army, Bhandari said. “The UNMIN has a limited mandate. It has no authority to say there can be recruitment in the Army or not.” The Ministry of Peace and Reconstruction would soon lodge an objection against the UNMIN’s position, she said.

Expressing deep concern over reports that the announcements of the Army and PLA to undertake fresh recruitment, the UNMIN on Tuesday had said recruitment by either side will breach the CPA and the Agreement on the Monitoring of the Management of Arms and Armies.


UN rights body comes clean on Sobhraj row
KATHMANDU, 6 Aug.:: The UN Human Rights Committee has dismissed news reports claiming that it had called for acquittal and release of murder convict Charles Gurumukh Sobhraj, according to the Kathmandu-based Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, The Himalayan Times reports.

“The Human Rights Committee has not ‘acquitted’ Charles Sobhraj nor called for his specific concerns about the conduct of his trial and his conditions of detention,” according to an OHCHR statement made available to this daily.

Sobhraj, in a Kathmandu prison since his arrest in September 2003, was convicted on July 30 by the Supreme Court and sentenced to life.

During its 99th session in Geneva from July 12-30, the UN committee ruled that Sobhraj was not allowed access to judicial remedies, the courts were biased and his basic rights were violated.

The OHCHR-Nepal statement reads: “Neither OHCHR in Nepal, nor the Headquarters in Geneva, is in a position to comment on the decision of the Human Rights Committee, which is an independent body of human rights experts mandated to monitor the compliance by states with the Covenant on International Civil and Political Rights to which they are a party. The members of the Human Rights Committee are elected and serve in their personal capacity, not as representatives of their countries, nor of OHCHR.”

“It is commendable that Nepal is among the few states in Asia that have signed the Optional Protocol to the ICCPR that allows individuals to bring complaints to HRC for consideration. This right extends to everyone within the jurisdiction of Nepal, including Charles Sobhraj, however notorious their cases or alleged crimes,” it added.

Sobhraj’s French lawyer Isabelle Coutant-Peyre filed a petition some years back claiming that her client had not been given a fair trial in Nepal.

International rights law expert Hari Phuyal said the HRC had no jurisdiction to acquit anyone accused of a criminal offence.

“HRC does not hold such a jurisdiction and does not exercise its mandate to acquit and release any accused facing such a criminal offence,” Phuyal told The Himalayan Times.

“It cannot direct any government to acquit or release any criminal, but can only recommend the concerned government in case the latter is found violating any provision of International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, 1966.”
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