STUDENTS CONTINUE PROTESTS IN MAHENDRANAGAR

STUDENTS CONTINUE PROTESTS IN MAHENDRANAGAR
Kathmandu, 27 July: Students continued Wednesday in Mahendra demanding budgetary provision for a proposed Far Western University.
Sixteen students and nine policemen were injured in violent clashes Tuesday.
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NC CENTRAL COMMITTEE MEET TO CONTINUE WEDNESDAY
Kathmandu, 27 July: Main opposition NC central committee will meet for the second continuous day Wednesday,
Tuesday’s meeting directed the parliamentary party to push maneuvers to push for the resignation of Prime Minister Jhalanatah Khanal who leads a communist majority government installed in February.
The original calls had been put the backburner as faction of three-time Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba charged the party had sidelined the issue.
Deuba is a contender for prime minister by ousting Ram Chandra Paudel as parliamentary party leader.
NC Tuesday obstructed parliamentary proceedings which was adjourned until Wednesday.
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SASHI RAJ PANDEY HEADS NICCI
Kathmandu, 27 July: Sashi Raj Pandey has been unanimously appointed co-chairman of Nepal India Commerce and Industries (NICCI).
The body’s executive committee took the decision.
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RPP –NEPAL DECIDED TO OPT FOR MASS STRUGGLE

Kathmandu, 27 July: RPP-Nepal central committee Tuesday decided to press for mass struggle with a demands for dissolution of the constituent assembly/parliament.
The party concluded a constitution won’t be completed in the remaining one moth to complete a draft of the basic law to institutionalize a declared republic.
A phased protest will be launched 18 August for a fresh mandate for the assembly and parliament.
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NA LOSES UN PEACEKEEPING POST TO BANGLADESH
Kathmandu, 27 July: To the dismay of Nepal Army, the United Nations has appointed Maj Gen Abdul Hafiz of Bangladesh the new force commander of the United Nations Mission for Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO). NA had expected the position for Major General Pawan Bahadur Pande, who was contesting for the post. NA has been complaining that despite its contribution, the UN has been reluctant to provide proportional representation of Nepal Army in the top positions of UN peacekeeping operations, Phanindra Dahal writes in The Kathmandu Post..
NA is the sixth largest troop contributing institution in the UN. “As one of the longest serving armies in the UN, Nepal Army was expecting the position. We had recommended Pande, one of our most competent generals, for the post,” said an Army official. “Nepal’s weakening diplomacy in the United Nations is to blame for this loss.”
Defence Ministry officials said the decision was not a surprise as they had been speculating that the position would ultimately go to Bangladesh because of its “growing influence in the UN”. A senior Defence Ministry official said, “The vacancy announcement and competition was just a formality.” Bangladesh, according to figures released on June 30, is the second largest troop contributing countries with 10,494 peacekeepers serving in different UN missions.
Maj Gen Pande, currently the commander of mid-division of the Nepal Army, is a graduate from National War College, Washington DC and was picked as the most competent candidate for the post. He served as Director of Military Intelligence before his promotion as major general last year.
Last year, the UN had rejected applications by Netra Bahadur Thapa and Nepal Bhusan Chand who vied for the post of force commander for the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon and in the Western Sahara, respectively. General Chand, who is currently third in command of the Nepal Army, was not selected citing his failure to take concrete steps to end impunity, claimed a general privy to the development. UN officials, according to sources, had claimed that Gen. Chand’s performance as Adjutant General (AG) was not satisfactory to address human rights concerns.
NA's engagement with the UN dates back to 1958 and it is the first troop contributing Saarc country. Currently Nepal ranks behind Pakistan, Bangladesh and India, who are top three troops contributors. As of June 30, 4187 men and 107 women soldiers were serving at around a dozen UN peacekeeping missions in different parts of the world. The UN, so far, has entrusted the responsibility of force commander to Maj Gen Krishna Narayan Singh Thapa, Maj Gen Victory Rana, Maj Gen Balananda Sharma and Maj Gen Paban Jung Thapa from the Nepal Army. Lt Gen C B Gurung served as deputy military advisor during the tenure of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.
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NEPALI TEAM VISITING COUNTRIES ATTRACTING WORKERS TO DISCUSS AND STUDY THEIR CONDITION

Kathmandu, The government is sending high-level teams to major labour destinations to discuss issues related to Nepali workers and promote labour exports there. The delegation to Japan and a number of other countries will be led by the labour minister while the labour secretary will head the rest of the teams, The Kathmandu Post reports.

The delegations will visit Malaysia, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Japan, said the Ministry of Labour and Transport Management. The ministry has asked Nepali embassies through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to fix appropriate dates.

“The high-level team to Malaysia, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates will study the difficulties being faced by Nepali workers and seek solutions to them,” said Labour Minister Mohammad Ishtiyak Rai.

Krishna Hari Pushkar Karna, assistant spokesperson of the ministry, said that the delegation to Japan will study why Nepali foreign employment agencies have not been able to send adequate numbers of trainee workers to Japan under the Japan International Training Cooperation Organization’s (JITCO) scheme.

“The squad will hold talks about the difficulties faced by the agencies,” said Karna. He added that other teams would concentrate on skilled labour promotion, increasing the salaries of workers and sorting out problems.

Meanwhile, the ministry has stated that South Korea has assured Nepal that it would increase the quota for Nepal by an additional 2,000 workers under the Employment Permit System (EPS). Korea has provided 7,100 job positions for Nepal in the manufacturing sector for next year.

According to the ministry, Kyung Sik Lim, director general of HRD Korea, has verbally pledged to increase the quota during his visit to Nepal for the Korean Language Test held last Friday and Saturday.

Meanwhile, the ministry last Saturday honoured Lim and Kim Byeong Cheon, director of EPS Centre Nepal Office, for their contribution in providing employment opportunities to Nepali youths under the EPS. Korea hires workers from 15 developing countries under this programme and Nepali workers have left a good track record in the EPS.
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INTERVIEW

MAOIST SECRETARY CP GAJUREL ADMITS A SERIOUS TWO-LINE DIVISION IN PARTY HAA REACHED A CLIMAX
Kathmandu, 27 July: Maoist Secretary CP Gajurel admitted there was ‘ very serious two-line approach’ in the party, Nepal’s largest which is also communist, and added ‘ it has reached a climax point.”
Gajurel was talking with The Rising Nepal.
Here is the text of the interview.
What is the main content of internal strife in your party at present?
Definitely, we are undergoing a very serious two-line struggle in our party. And, it has a long history. Right now, the struggle has reached to a point of climax. The struggle is according to the law of contradictions and it reflects the political struggle. We must arrive at some specific conclusions as the main concern of the struggle is whether we can build on the basic achievements of people’s war and move the revolution forward. Let me refer to the basic achievements of the tremendous people’s war - formation of the people’s liberation army (PLA), base or liberated areas, people’s commune and courts. The war liberated about 80 per cent of total area of Nepal.
In this context, the question arises, whether we are moving forward to accomplish the remaining task of the revolution or losing the basic achievements. We have a feeling that we are losing the achievements in course of the time since we entered the peace process. Mainly, we have dismantled the base areas, local people’s governments, commune and courts. Now only one remaining achievement is the PLA and it is going to be dismantled in the name of the integration.
So, these are the serious question before us and one or another way our two-line struggle is related to all these points. The main objective of the struggle is to lead the party to accomplish the remaining task of the revolution. Whether we will give up the revolution or continue it, whether we are satisfied with the achievements made so far or we should accomplish task of the revolution. These are fundamental questions.
So, does it mean that the ongoing peace process is not in line with the achievements your party gained during the war?
Of course, we entered the peace process in order to accomplish the remaining task of the revolution, not to give it up. We then thought that practically it was not possible to complete revolution without adopting a different form or course of our struggle. Then our people’s war had reached a stage of strategic offence and we had to seize the central power to accomplish the revolution. And then we concluded that it was impossible to do so by taking the straight way. Although we have not concluded that the initiation of the peace process was in itself a wrong process, we have realized that the way we are moving forward will not lead to revolution.
How should the peace process be moved forward for you to accomplish the remaining task of revolution?
Undoubtedly, peace and constitution building process is a main political task before us. As such, we have to include this issue whatever tactics or strategy we adopt with regard to accomplishment of revolution. By giving up this main task, it is very difficult to move forward. We should keep this fact in mind, contribute to it and play the leading role as the single largest party in the Constituent Assembly (CA). By playing the leading role, we can go forward. So our party has very deliberately and consciously tried to connect the peace and constitution building process with the people’s revolt. These are the three cardinal points of the revolutionary process at this point of time. And, when the party has a concrete strategy, tactics and working plan based on these cardinal points, we think that we can move forward and accomplish the remaining task of revolution.
That means, you feel the Maoist party is not given the leading role in peace and constitution building process and that’s why the whole process is moving against your expectation.
Definitely, we should have the leading role in this process because we are the largest party in the CA with historical background of leading the historic people’s war and people’s movement. Unfortunately, we have been denied of the role and we have also failed to insist in that. Consequently, we are not being able to make a new type of constitution that fits with the building of new Nepal – People’s Federal Republic. The stagnation has also affected the integration of the two armies. Because all the other political parties have ganged up against the Maoists and been obstructing the whole process, we are unable to make a breakthrough and conclude the peace and constitution building process.
What are those political forces or parties that are in your way for peace and constitution?
Mainly, it is Nepali Congress (NC) party which has a different agendas and different type of constitution in mind. NC is backed by parties like CPN-UML and others as well as India and some imperialist forces. Now they are insisting that we should accept the type of constitution they desire, that is a bourgeoise constitution. On peace process front, their aim is to dismantle the PLA as they want to carry out army integration process adopting a DDR model. We cannot accept the DDR model as it will be betrayal to the people’s war.
As I said above, our battle for peace and constitution is not limited to domestic political forces, in reality there is fight between our party and the big powers.
Instead of two-line struggle as such, your party is bogged down with conflict for organizational power. What do you actually mean by appropriate work division?
Some comrades including chairman Prachanda have been giving more stress on ideological and political questions whereas other leaders including vice-chairmen Kiran and Dr Bhattarai have been putting focus on work division. Work division is not interlinked with political line. Political line is not something abstract. And sometime it is reflected in terms of organization. Organizational line is also a political line. As you know, we started ideological political line from Kharipati meeting (three years ago) and it reached its climax at Palungtar extended meeting (some nine months ago). Some comrades are saying that the two-line struggle should be waged always around the same issues. Experiences in our party have proved that comrade chairman is revolving around the same line, from one meeting to another, from one decision to another instead of focusing on implementation of such decisions made with regard to revolutionary tactics and working plan. This wrong practice has been going on for a couple of years. This has led to our party toward liquidation. Against this situation, we are demanding for appropriate work division among leaders from top to bottom so that we can implement our working plan.
At present the Central Committee (CC) meeting is underway and we hope that it will make a concrete working plan and work division. Decisions will also be taken on issues related to peace and constitution and we are stressing that all these things should be resolved in a package.
You are blamed for going beyond Marxist way of intra-party struggle by initiating signature campaign in your party. What is your comment?
Signature campaign is a form of struggle and it is not anti-Marxist. The campaign denotes that the two-line struggle has reached a climax and that the struggle cannot be resolved adopting only the simplistic way. The signature campaign is one of the forms of the revolutionary for struggle during two-line struggle.
Do you accept factionalism has emerged in your party duo to the internal conflict?
Definitely, as a result of different lines, some factions have emerged. But, we have adopted certain criteria, the five-point method, to move forward the two-line struggle in a smooth way.
Will not such factionalism result in the split of your party?
Definitely, our party will not split because the people, the cadres don’t want that and it is not in favour of national interest. However, there is danger of liquidation, as analysed by many intellectuals, due to the way the chairman is leading the class struggle and the ongoing political struggle.
What will be the role of your faction with regard to conclusion of peace and constitution building suppose the CC meet rejects your proposals?
Given the homework and meetings among the top leaders, we are about to make unanimous decisions in the CC meeting and that will ensure the way for more constructive role of all from our party.
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