GOING BEYOND MANDATE, UN AGAIN SUGGESTS INTERIM GOVT. ENCOURAGING MAOISTS

By Bhola B Rana

Kathmandu, 9 Sept.: Going beyond its mandate given by parliamentary parties and Maoists, UN has again suggested a consensus government directly inciting Maoists to prolong anti-government campaign.
The UN has also suggested a ‘duly formed’ government should decide its new mandate when it sought the support of the duly formed government of Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal to extend its tenure that ends 15 September.
Maoists haven’t succeed in toppling the Nepal government even in seven round of elections; the eight round will be held 26 September and the government with a majority continues.
The tussle between ruling parties is to find a replacement between them for PM Nepal.
President Dr Ram Baran Yadav called for election to elect a prime minister through majority vote in parliament when an attempt to form a consensus government failed in the first round.
The effort is completely constitutional.
UN renewed a call for a consensus government after a long silence when the world body was accused for interfering in Nepali affairs when the suggestion was first raised by going beyond its mandate.
The suggestion will only encourage anti-government and street politic of Maoists.
There’s no guarantee the peace process will be completed and a constitution promulgated by a consensus government with fundamental differences on issues between major political parties.
The whole current exercise is just to grab power.
Maoists want to establish a communist state opposed by other parties. This fundamental fact has been ignored by UN.
Despite claims to the contrary, UN is also responsible for the current mess for which people have been suffering for three years and political players aren’t bothered as they enjoy the best facilities extended by donors.
Nepal has been run by a majority government ever since the interim constitution was amended to provide for a majority government when Maoists emerged as the largest political party in the constituent assembly elections in April 2008.
Chairman Prachanda has confessed his party agreed to amend the interim constitution when an unelected parliament elected slapped a republic on the people and country without putting it to vote.
UN, has blamed political parties for the current mess and says it isn’t responsible.
THE UN IS RESPONSIBLE.
It lobbied and took on the responsibility to implement a vague comprehensive peace agreement between parliamentary parties and Maoists.
The Secretary-General Kofi Annam lobbied for the political entry into Nepal at the best of western nations and the EU which is financing thee activities of UNMIN.
UN’s top functionary of Somali nationality Samuel Tamrant negotiated with Maoist leaders in the outskirts of New Delhi when Maoists were still on the terrorist list of India, Nepal and the USA.
UN can’t say it’s not responsible for the current mess, therefore.
The UN took up a challenging but impossible job to monitor arms and armies along a 1,700 km open Indo-Nepal border by implementing a vague agreement subject to various interpretations..
UN came into controversy ever since it entered Nepal with the appointment of Ian Martin as special representative of the secretary-general.
UNMIN is the face of foreign interference and intervention in Nepal for which the people and country suffering.
This is the primary cause of the present crisis in Nepal.
UN can’t, therefore, say it’s not responsible although political parties are primarily to blame for inviting direct foreign interference.
Both parties are responsible and are accountable and answerable to the people.
He was a confirmed communist and chief of Amnesty International which is a watchdog for human rights situation worldwide.
He had no experience to handle a delicate task and came to Nepal from tiny Papua New Guinea attempting to beyond the mandate to oversee constituent assembly elections and monitor arms and armies.
UNMIN came into controversy ever since Prachanda claimed he duped the UN into getting 19,000 PLA combatants in UNMIN administered camps when the strength of PLA was only 7,000.
UN took on the responsibility to implement a vague peace agreement, subject to different interpretations.
Ian Martin, on behalf of the UN, was just a witness to the agreement.
UNMIN isn’t the final judge when interpretations differ. UN hasn’t been assigned the responsibility.
When UN says its mandate can be decided only by a ‘duly formed’ government, it’s hoping to extend its stay in Nepal hoping Maoists will takeover Singha Durbar.
An article in the peace agreement clearly lays down UNMIN will monitor activities in 28 cantonments and satellite camps by establishing a structure which has never been formed.
UNMIN argues monitoring of criminal activities of Maoists in the camps is not within its mandate.
It’s a fact major parties, besides Maoists, are dissatisfied with UNMIN performance in Nepal.
UNMIN has lost credibility in Nepal and can’t effectively pursue its responsibility, yet the political arm of the UN in Nepal is reluctant to pack its bag and return home despite threats from senior UN officials..
The reason: The UN is just a front for western donors, particularly EU member states, funding UNMIN operations.
The final decision to withdraw or stay in Nepal rests not with the UN but with the donors.
Interestingly, Chairman Prachanda held a collective meeting with ambassadors of USA, UK and France-three permanent security concil members. Envoys of other permanent members Russia and China weren’t present.
India has suggested it will support Nepal government in any move on UNMIN.
Maoists are lobbying for continued political UN presents even as it protests foreign interference, particularly from India and USA, The two counties are mentioned regularly by the main opposition.
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PM NEPAL ALSO MEETS THREE ENVOYS

Kathmandu, 9 Sept. After Maoist Chairman Prachanda held discussions with ambassadors in USA, UK and France to discuss the UNMIN future, Prime Minister Madhav Kumar also met them and briefed them on the government position.
Nepal held discussions with Maoist Vice-chairman Narayan Kazi Shrestha as well after Maoists wrote a separate letter to the UN saying UNMIN mandate should be extended without mandate change for another six months.
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PARMIALENT MEET RESCHEDULED

Kathmandu, 9 Sept.: A scheduled meeting of parliament has now been called on Monday after it was postponed through notification posted on a notice board in the legislature Thursday.
Maoists said a caretaker government can’t present an amendment to a finance bill that proposes to raise tariff on gold imports to deflect deflection to India across the open border.
The bill has been registered at parliament secretariat and was to be table din parliament Thursday to approval.
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Techniques of recording and reading tapes
Kathmandu, 9 Sept.: As the reverberations from latest Maoist audiotape scandal continue to head in all directions, this much is clear. Krishna Bahadur Mahara is having such a hard time denying that it was his voice that we all heard that he has not bothered pursuing that line of defense, Maila Baje writes in Nepali Netbook,.
.From his contention, it seems the contents of those two conversations were an amalgamation of disparate statements he might have made in different contexts. Once the answers were conveniently compiled, saboteurs easily crafted their questions.
Outlandish perhaps, but Mahara’s assertion is not implausible. The pauses, cadences, ambient noise and gratuitous whispers together with the muffled quality of the second recording raise new questions. The purported Chinese accent could very well belong to anyone sharing a linguistic legacy with the Middle Kingdom.
The first few questions could easily have come from a news reporter, a doctoral student, or a purely personal acquaintance intent on finding out what really ails the world’s newest republic.
The price tag Mahara purportedly quoted could have meant something else, like, say, his estimation of how much the Indians were paying the 50 MPs to stay away from voting for the Maoists. How are we to be sure the “help” the “friend” was offering was the Rs.500 million referred to? Maybe the “friend” had a Sun Tzu-like exhortation for the Maoists that would create uncertainties for rivals through the application of direct and indirect non-financial maneuvers.
Indeed, the haggling over the venue of a meeting between Mahara and the “friend” over the two conversations raises problems. Saying Hong Kong had a large Nepalese community that could spark all manner of speculation, Mahara wants Chengdu. But the interlocutor is reluctant, saying he does not want any impression of government complicity. Singapore is another potential destination for Mahara, but the interlocutor seems to suggest somewhere more accessible without a special permit. In the end, Hong Kong or Singapore emerge as possible venues.
Here, too, the interlocutor might be talking about a “friend” seeking to write an authorized biography of Mahara. How could a man active in Nepali Congress student politics during the referendum period emerge as a leading Maoist? B.P. Koirala sought to veer closer to the palace to ward off what he saw was a growing Indian-Soviet nexus in South Asia. Did that revolt Mahara and goad him toward a radical nationalism that no political force had espoused? Maybe someone from a leading think tank in Beijing was anxious to probe that dimension of China’s regional developments in the past to extrapolate lessons for its peaceful and harmonious rise?
Then there is the question of how the tape was recorded. Mahara insists that Nepal Telecom, his service provider, does not have the technology to do so. Did the U.S. National Security Agency listen in on a series of conversations as part of its job of monitoring terrorism chatter and forward those bits and pieces to India’s Research and Analysis Wing as part of counterterrorism collaboration? Were there willing accomplices within the Maoists, sore over the way Pushpa Kamal Dahal succeeded in keep losing the prime ministerial election for the simple intention of keeping any other rival emerging from the party? If so, were those Nepalese voices heard in between apparently directing which segments to play up?
Of course, Maila Baje concedes the tapes could be what they are. In that case, it only goes on to prove that the Maoists, as their critics contend, have a far way to go to becoming a civilian party. In a place where even walls have ears, you just don’t put money where your mouth is, especially not when you don’t know who the person on the other end really may be.
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