TASK FORCE FOR MAOIST INTEGRATION

NO MEETING OF MAOIST STANDING COMMITTEE (UPDATE)

Kathmandu, 23 March: No scheduled meeting of the Maoist standing committee was held Wednesday.
Reasons weren’t furnished by the party.
The committee was to select a second lot of party team for government..
Deputy Prime Minister Krishna Bahadur Mahara heads the four-member team in the government of Prime Minister Jhalanath Khanal.
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TASK FORCE FOR INTEGRATION MODALITY AND INTEGRATION

Kathmandu, 23 March: A special committee for supervision, integration, and rehabilitation of former 19,000 plus Maoist fighters Wednesday formed a taskforce to develop an integration modality and the rehabilitation package.
Ishwor Pokharel of UML, Janardan Sharma (Maoist), NC’s Dr. Ram Saran Mahat, and Jayaprakash Prasad Gupta of MJFN are members.
The first meeting of the special committee was held after election of Jhalanath Khanal as prime minister 3 February.
The government chief is the ex-officio chief of the committee.
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POOR ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE

Kathmandu, 23 March: Nepal’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth this fiscal year will be limited only to 3.47 percent compared to a 4.5 growth government projection, according to Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS).
A there-year interim plan projection had even estimated a 5.5 percent growth.
Nepal’s growth is the lowest in South Asia.
Non-agricultural GDP growth in 2010/11 is estimated at 3.09 percent.
Bhutan’s growth was 12 percent while the Bangladesh economy grew six percent.
India has recorded a nine percent growth while China, Nepal’s northern neighbour, regularly records double digit growth.
Nepal is a pocket steeped in poverty as economies of around it leap; even the economically backward state of Bihar across the border in India is doing well.
The bureau said poor performance of the non-agricultural pulled the growth rate below four percent even as the agricultural sector grew 4.1 percent following a good crop.
The GDP per capita will rise of $642 in 2010/11 from $ 556 in 2009/10.
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SUB-COMMITTEE TO RESOLVE DIFFERENCES ON CONSTITUTION CONTNUES MEET

Kathmandu, 23 March: An empowered seven-member
sub-committee headed by Chairman Prachanda continued meeting
Wednesday to resolve differences on articles to be incorporated in
a constitution that has to be promulgated by thezeocond ldeadline of May 28.
The sub-committee has to submit its report to the main
constitution drafting in one week.
The body headed by the Maoist chief sorted out differences on
seven of 37 contentious points Tuesday.
It agreed parliament, cabinet, president, vice-president and chiefs of constitutional bodies will continue in the transitional phase after promulgation of a constitution and elections are held for parliament
under a new constitution.
But the term of the constituent assembly (CA) will be defunct after constitution promulgation.
The sub-committee hasn’t discussed a federal state structure.
Committee members were given time until Thursday to study a report on the structure prepared by a subject committee of the main committee.
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BRITISH DEFENCE MINISTER COMING
Kathmandu, 23 March: British Minister for Defence Personnel, Welfare and Veterans Andrew Robathan arrived for a visit from 24 to 30 March—his first to Nepal.
He’ll acquaint himself with British defence and welfare activity and learn about Gurkha veteran and welfare issues, the British embassy said.
Robathan will visit British Gurkha facilities, and various development projects undertaken by the Gurkha Welfare Scheme and meet Gurkha pensioners.
He’s likely to announce an increase in pensions for retired soldiers.
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MEDIA GOOGLE

“It is my personal view that the parties should go for a fresh
mandate [call to go for constitution assembly polls if
constitution isn’t promulgated by28 May]. This has nothing to do with Indian leaders’ or officers’ opinion.”

(MJFD Chairman Bijaya Kumar Gachedhar, Nagarik, 23 March)

GOVINDA RAJ JOSHI ACCEPTS COURT SUMMONS

Kathmandu, 23 March: Former Minister Govinda Raj Joshi has
accepted summons of the supreme court four months after it was issued, Kantipur reports.
He now has to present himself in court n 15 days.
He was summoned by a bench of Chief Justice Ram Prasad Shrestha
and Krishna Prasad Upadhaya 11 December 2010.
Joshi has been charged for misappropriating Rs. 39.3 million.
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INDIAN AMBASSADOR NOT GOING BY RULES

Kathmandu, 23 March: With the meeting between the prime minister and the Indian ambassador, a rule that a foreign diplomatic representative should meet the government by appointment routed through the foreign ministy’s protocol department has been violated, Debenda Bhattarai writes in
Kantipur.
An official of the protocol department the department wasn’t aware of Indian Ambassador Rakesh Sood’s meeting with Prime Minister Jhalanath Khanal Sunday morning a Baluwatar.
“The claim of Foreign Secretary Madan Bhattarai Joint Secretary Hari Kumar Shrestha of the India desk was present at the meeting is a direct lie,” an official at Baluwatar said. “No third person was present at the meeting.”
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BANK DEBITS $1m SANS NRB

Kathmandu, 23 March 23: In a surprising event, US-based Chase Bank has deducted one million dollars from a bank account held by Nepal´s central bank at the US bank without its approval after a New York court issued a verdict in favor of Asim Khatri Chhetri, whose swift-transferred payment had been frozen by Nepali authorities on the charge of money laundering, Milan Mani Sharma reports in Republica.

Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) had frozen the payment made by KC -- proprietor of Colorado-based Tarala International -- in July 2008, after the Department of Revenue Investigations (DRI) overseeing money-laundering cases traced a dubious transfer payments.

KC had made the payment to a Chinese national named Wu Lixian, a logistics supplier to the Nepal Army and Nepal Police, for supply of non-lethal logistics to Nepal Police peacekeepers in Sudan and also for construction of a prefab house in Kathmandu.

DRI froze the amount after Wu failed to produce customs clearance of the supply and official documents of transactions for which the payment was made. Wu later even refused to cooperate with the investigation, following which DRI on February 28 filed a case against him at the Special Court, Kathmandu, on money laundering charge.

The case sub judice in Nepal took a dramatic turn last week when Chase Bank deducted the frozen amount from NRB´s account at Chase. "It was pretty nasty development. Neither had the bank issued any prior notice of intended action, nor we knew anything about the court´s verdict," said an NRB official.

Why did the Chase Bank decide to debit the amount from NRB´s account is puzzling as well, for NRB was neither involved in the transaction nor overseeing the case. NRB had just frozen Wu´s account at NB Bank as per the instruction from the DRI.

According to information gathered by Republica, KC filed a case at a New York court in 2010 seeking retrieval of the money as the recipient bank in Nepal -- NB Bank -- did not pay the money to its client -- Wu. KC had made DRI and NRB defendants in the case.

The New York court approached both the DRI and NRB seeking clarification over the case, but NRB did not respond as the approach was informal, said an NRB official.

When the court approached the DRI in December 2010, we said the payment was frozen because the recipient was under investigated for a possible case of money laundering, said Mahesh Dahal, director general of DRI.

As an authority handling the case, Dahal said the department had forwarded the letter to MoFA before December 31, the deadline set by the New York court for response, for further proceeding.

However, what followed after that took everyone by surprise. "Apparently, DRI´s response did not reach the court and it issued the verdict in favor of KC ordering Chase Bank to repay the transferred money," said the source.

Chase Bank did approach NB Bank for backward transfer of the money. However, as the bank refused to transfer the money citing NRB´s instruction, Chase Bank went on to debit the money from the account of NRB.

Officials concerned, meanwhile, suspect that Wu´s payment could be related to an unscrupulous deal linked with the supply of logistics to Nepal Police peacekeepers in Sudan.

"The link exists because Wu, under the subcontract of Tarala International, was engaged in supplying logistics to Nepal Police in Sudan and also built a prefab house in Kathmandu," said a source.

Wu´s representative in Nepal -- Shambhu Bharati of Bhagabati Traders -- has given statement to DRI that some Rs 73 million (US$ 1million) was transferred to Nepal because Wu was required to pay about Rs 50 million to local agents who supplied goods to Nepal Police peacekeepers in Sudan.

"An additional some Rs 20 million is needed for paying one Shiva Mandal - a carpenter from Mahottari - who assembled the prefab house," the source quoted Bharati as saying in his statement.
The government on Tuesday decided to promptly take up the "one million dollar" case with the US government informing that the money is ´not clean´.

"We will mobilize diplomatic channel to inform the US government that the money transferred by KC to Wu is meant for serving ´unknown´ purpose and a money laundering case is presently sub judice in Nepal," said a senior official at the Ministry of Finance.

MoF is likely to forward a letter in this connection to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Wednesday.

Likewise, Anti-Money Laundering National Steering Committee that met on the day also instructed NRB to engage in dialogue with Chase Bank to reclaim the one million dollar.
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GOVT. GETS TROOP REQUEST FOR IRAQ

Kathmandu, 23 March: The Defence Ministry on Tuesday confirmed reports that the government has received requests for the deployment of Nepal Army personnel in war-torn Iraq, where US and NATO forces are struggling to contain insurgency. The demand for more than 200 soldiers to restore law and order in Iraq was forwarded early this year to the Nepal Government through the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI), Phanindra Daahal reports in The Kathmandu Post.

Nepali officials have put two conditions for NA deployment: that the soldiers will be under the United Nations chain of command and the Nepali troops will be on static duties. Static duties mean that the NA soldiers will be stationed in one place instead of moving around in mobile units which might expose them to greater threat.

The Ministry of Defence has communicated its concerns to the UN Headquarters and the countries lobbying for the presence of Nepali troops, on the behalf of NATO through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “There is no decision as we are yet to get a response from them,” said Defence Secretary Nabin Kumar Ghimire. Under the proposal, around 130 soldiers would be assigned static duties and 90 with mobile responsibilities. Senior defence and security agencies’ officials, who are still studying the proposal, have suggested that accepting mobile duties in “Iraq’s sophisticated combat zone” could be risky. Insurgents in Iraq used sophisticated Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) to ambush and target coalition forces. Even the protective armour used by US and NATO forces has not been able to mimimise casualties.

“We have received a request from the UN Department of Political Affairs and are studying the issue,” said Nepal Army Spokesperson Ramindra Chhetri. According to sources involved in the negotiation, the Australian government is playing a lead role in trying to convince the Nepal government to assent to the proposal. Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd in his telephonic conversation with Prime Minister Jhala Nath Khanal on March 10 urged him to take up the issue.

Australian Ambassador to Nepal Susan Grace held follow up meetings with Defence Minister Bishnu Poudel and Defence Secretary Ghimire last Tuesday. Both the minister and secretary reaffirmed that Nepali soldiers should be under the “conventional chain of command of the UN” and that the vehicles and armour to be used by Nepali troops should have either the UN flag or the UN logo. The Australian ambassador was not available for comment.

Under a security agreement between Washington and Baghdad that was hammered out in 2008, all American troops are to leave Iraq by the end of the year.

The request may be part of the discussion for continuing presence of multinational troops under the UN’s banner in Iraq after the US pulls out it military presence.
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GOVT. REOPENS AIRCRAFT PURCHASE DEAL WITH CHINA


Kathmandu, 23 March 23: The new government has reopened a five-year old aircraft purchase deal with China, in a fresh bid to end the deadlock over purchase of two Chinese-made MA 60 aircraft, Kiran Chapagain reports in Republica.

With a new defense minister in office, Nepal has sent an invitation to the northern neighbor to send an official team to Nepal to resolve the deadlock over the defunct multi-million dollar deal, officials at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) and the Ministry of Defense (MoD) said.

“We have asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to write to the Chinese embassy inviting Chinese officials for talks on the deal,” an official at MoD told Republica on condition of anonymity.

MoFA Spokesperson and Joint Secretary Rudra Prasad Nepal, who heads the China desk at the ministry, confirmed the fresh bid by the government to settle the deadlock over the aircraft purchase deal.

Nepal wanted talks a few months earlier and had even sent an invitation to the northern neighbor. But China had replied that they would visit Kathmandu after a new minister assumed charge at MoD, said the defense ministry official. MoD reopened the defunct deal last week after Bishnu Paudel became the new defense minister.

Nepal had ordered the MA-60 turboprop civilian aircraft from Chinese manufacturer Xi´an Aircraft Industry Group Co under the royal regime in 2005. But Nepal refused to buy them after the removal of the royal government in April 2006 though the twin-engine aircraft were already built as per the $27 million deal.

As the deadlock over the deal became protracted, the Nepal government, in a bid to resolve the stalemate, asked China in December 2009 to supply two helicopters in lieu of the two MA-60 turboprops. Chinese officials had replied positively to Nepal´s proposal then.

While Nepal expects the northern neighbor to resolve the deadlock in view of the friendly relations between the two countries, the manufacturer of the 56-seater aircraft has sought compensation from Nepal for not purchasing the aircraft ordered.

“We will try to resolve the issue through bilateral talks,” said the MoD official.

The aircraft, meant to be purchased initially for the Nepal Army under a ´buy two get one free scheme´ , is the original Soviet Antonov An-24 upgraded with Pratt & Whitney engines and Rockwell avionics. Although the MA-60 has been exported to Zimbabwe, Fiji, Eritrea and Congo, it does not have UK or US Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) certification yet and has been decommissioned by China´s own Wuhan Airlines and China Eastern Airlines.
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