RNA HONG KONG FLIGHT RETURNS FLIES ONWARD TO MALAYSIA

CONTROVERSIAL RNA FLIGHT FROM HONG KONG RETURNS; FLIES ONWARD TO MALAYSIA

Kathmandu, 10 Sept: A Nepal Airlines Corporation (RNA) Boeing 757 flight from Hong Kong landed overnight at Kathmandu International Airport after a rat was trapped following a frantic four-day operation that started Tuesday
The rat was handed over to Hog Kong health authorities Friday after the embarrassing operation that could have negative consequences for the state carrier.
Hong Kong civil aviation authorities cleared the aircraft for takeoff only after clearance by health authorities in the island.
Nepal’s state carrier first attempted to minimize the serious lapse.
In a released statement, the airline such incidents happen and rats have bee discovered onboard flights operated in reputed carriers in East Asia, Europe and USA.
The plane left Hong Kong for Kathmandu at 5:15pm local time there and landed at TIA seven in the evening Nepal time.
The aircraft flew for Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from Kathmandu at 11:30 pm with 190 passengers, NAC said.
NAC Spokesperson Raju Bahadur KC said the national carrier incurred Rs 20 million loss because of the foul-up.
Only one aircraft was operating RNA’s operation to Far East Asia, West Asia, India and Southeast Asia.
Nnnn

PRACHANDA IN BIRATNAGAR

Kathmandu, 10 Sept. Maoist Chairman Prachanda arrived in Biratnagar Friday on a Yeti Airlines flight.
The flew in from Gorkha via the capital.
The Maoist chief is in town coinciding with the arrival of NC President Sushil Koirala.
Koirala is participating in the 98th birthday celebration of BP Koirala Saturday.
Nnnn

NINE TRADERS SENT TO JUDICIAL CUSTODY

Kathmandu, 10 Sept.: Nine traders were sent to judicial custody
Friday by Kathmandu district administration office after they were charged under black-marketing and social offence act 1975.
BL Sharma of Anamol Catering and Sweets and owners of two popular gudpak sweetshops in New Road were among those sent to custody.
They were arrested this week after raids of their premises
nnnn
UML TOP BRAS CENSURED

Kathmandu, 10 Sept.: The members of the Central Advisory Board of the CPN-UML came down heavily on the party leadership for promoting goon culture, monopoly, nepotism and vested interests in the party, The Kathmandu Post reports.
They said four top leaders--Jhala Nath Khanal, Madhav Nepal, KP Sharma Oli and Bam Dev Gautam--were responsible for weakening the party organisation. “You major leaders are responsible for weakening the party organisation for your own vested interests,” board member Kedar Neupane said in presence of Chairman Khanal.
Neupane criticized the leadership for protecting goons. “The party will not be strong by protecting the goon culture,” added Neupane. He said the leaders were engaged in abusing their authority instead of guiding the cadres towards right direction. UML is facing strong criticism for protecting Parshuram Basnet, who attacked Biratnagar-based journalist Khilanath Dhakal.
Gopal Thapaliya said two party leaders who got the opportunity to lead the government failed to complete the peace process. “People elected you to the post of prime ministers but what did you do in return?” he asked.
In Friday's meeting, advisors Devraj Ghimire, Suresh Karki, Ramjee Sharma, among others, asked the party leadership to bridge the growing intra-party feud in the days ahead. After hearing their statements, Khanal accepted his failure to maintain balance within the party. “Our party witnessed some internal problems and I will manage them,” a member quoted Khanal as saying.
nnnn
MORE NEPAL LEAKS INVOLVING US EMBASY COMMUNICATION WITH STATE DEPT
Kathmandu, 10 Sept.: American diplomats in Kathmandu lobbied with Washington for ending restrictions on US military assistance to the Nepal Army and removing the terrorist tag against the UCPN (Maoist) for the last two years, revealed a cable released by Wikileaks on August 30, Phanindra Dahal writes in The Kathmandu Post.
The request calling for resolution of the differences and expansion of the US engagement with two most important players in Nepal was signed by Charge d'Affairs Jeffrey A Moon in the confidential cable sent in December 2009. The US has put a ceiling on military assistance to Nepal Army since 2005 and included Maoists in two US terrorist lists (Specially Designated Terrorist List in 2003 and Terrorist Exclusion List in 2004).
“The ongoing peace process can only succeed if we engage all institutions across the political spectrum,” states the cable. “To do so, we must remove the two conflict era impediments to normalise US-Nepal relations.”
The cable says the leverage gained by the US government by imposing restriction and labeling the Maoists as terrorists was “outweighed” by the negative impact on ties with the two key Nepali actors. It had proposed comprehensive diplomatic engagement for pressing the two players aggressively for the end to violence, human rights accountability, democratic reform and completion of the peace process.
The US Embassy had sought Congressional support for the strategy, under which the US government will push Nepal Army to punish Army officers guilty of serious human rights violations and systematic reforms including vetting for peacekeepers.
The cable has noted that Nepal Army expressed willingness to cooperate with civilian officials on punishing Army officials guilty of grave human rights offices.
It is not clear whether the concerned department in Washington gave a go-ahead to the new strategy.
Defence Secretary Navin Kumar Ghimire said his ministry had not received any formal proposal from the US outlining conditions for ending the limitations on assistance to Army.
The cables also offer insights of discussions between senior Maoist leaders on party's delisting from the US terrorist list. In his cable, Moon states that the value of terrorist label against Maoists put during the conflict has largely eroded after the Maoists joined the peace process and emerged as the largest party in the Constituent Assembly elections.
The visa restrictions only irritate Maoists and are limiting our ability to include the Maoists in civil-military programmmes intended to foster consensus on key political and military issues, observes the cable. It also lists the benchmarks -- renouncing the use of terrorism and violence, reform the Maoist-affiliated Young Communist League, address US concerns about the killing of two embassy guards and the bombing of American Centre in Kathmandu and remain engaged in the peace process--passed by US diplomats in form of non-paper to the Maoist leaders in 2009.
The US embassy officials had pressed Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal and other senior leaders for “disclosure” of events surrounding the murder of two Nepali guards of the American Embassy in 2002. However, the embassy officials were “disappointed” that the Maoists did not divulge details.
Commenting on the new revelation, Maoist Spokesperson Dinanath Sharma said his party wants to develop good ties with the US, however expressed 'unawareness' of the benchmarks passed by the US government for the removal of the terrorist tag.
Nnnn




MAOIST TOP BRASS VOW TO MAINTAIN UNITY





Kathmandu, 10 Sept.: UCPN-Maoist senior leaders have vowed they would keep up the party unity at a time when the intra-party struggle has boiled over in the form of statements and demonstrations, Sangam Tiwari reports in The Rising Nepal from Gorkha.
Party chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ and vice-chairmen trio – Prime Minister Dr Baburam Bhattarai, Mohan Baidhya Kiran and Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Narayan Kaji Shrestha – made the pledge addressing the Bashu-Bhimsen Memorial mass meeting oraganised Friday here at the Gorkha district playground.
"Maoist party is a house of iron, not of glass. The internal struggle in our party at present is just an ideological and political discussion. The discussion is on how to cross the river, over the bridge, clutching the rope or stepping on the stone," Prime Minister Dr Bhattarai said.
Acknowledging that the people of Gorkha had the credit for his elevation to the nation’s executive post, Dr Bhattarai said, "If I ever forget you, engage in corruption or work against you, you have the right to smear black powder over my face and chase me away."
He pledged to be plain living, honest, transparent and pro-people.
Since he was elected as a member of the Constituent Assembly some 41 months before, Prime Minister Dr Bhattarai has visited the district for 44 times.
"I am to the people as an ox to the farmers, so you make the best use of me for your cause," the PM said, adding, "The communists do work for the people and they should."
The Prime Minister appealed to the opposition parties, Nepali Congress and CPN-UML, to join the government for accomplishing tasks of peace and constitution. "I have no magic wand and I need help from all to perform the historic tasks."
He said that the people had high expectations from the present government as it was formed in coalition of political forces for change – the Maoists and the Madheshis.
Prime Minister Dr Bhattarai underscored that peace and constitution were the main priority of the government and that the government had initiated works to achieve the goal. He said good governance, corruption control and end to black marketeering were the other priorities.
Saying that the youth self-employment scheme that he initiated when he was the Finance Minister would be resumed to encourage the youth for doing commercial jobs, the Prime Minister referred to the various issues of the relief package made public by the government on Friday.
Addressing the meeting, Maoist chairman Prachanda vowed to make all sacrifices to strengthen the party unity.
"It is not easy to split

our party. Those martyrs who sacrificed during the war are warning us from the graveyards against any form of split," Prachanda said, "It is not the first time that we are having the intra-party struggle, we have had such struggles even during the People’s War."
He recalled that Suresh Wagle ‘Bashu’ had helped him many times to settle those intra-party struggles before he was killed 12 years ago.
He urged all to evaluate his role as he had been chief of the party for the last 22 years.
The chief of the largest party said that formation of the government under the leadership of Dr Bhattarai had been possible due to his sacrifice.
"As the people want peace and new constitution, we will exercise maximum flexibility for concluding peace and constitution for the next three months. The three months will be a period of test. If things do not change, we will go together with the people," the chief of the main ruling party warned.
Senior vice-chairman Baidhya emphasized that the party needed to consolidate unity and move ahead as the present situation was very critical.
"Class struggle and intra-party struggle have reached their apex at present. We should and will get united by consolidating two-line struggle," Baidhya observed.
He said that both peace and constitution writing should move ahead simultaneously and termed it betrayal to stress on concluding peace way before the constitution. The basic point is there should be respectable integration of the PLA.
He urged the people not to bow before anyone and work for saving the country as it was heading for Sikkimisation.
DPM and Foreign Minister Shrestha promised that he would work honestly for safeguarding national sovereignty.
"NC and UML should also join the government if they really want the conclusion of peace and constitution in time," the DPM said.
Referring to the relief package of the government, DPM Shrestha said that the relief package announced for the families of the martyrs and the disappeared persons would be handed over within a couple of weeks.
On the sideline of the meeting, the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister instructed the district administration to carry out the relief package programme declared by the government.

Nnnn

OPINION

MUSTANG CLOUDBURSTS AND CLIMATIC CONCERNS





Kathmandu, 10 Sept.: When the rest of the nation was receiving normal rains, and slightly above normal in a few pockets, monsoon downpour was creating unprecedented devastation in Upper Mustang this July. A few lives were lost, houses collapsed, bridges were swept away, local water source was damaged and power supply from a local small hydro was interrupted. People of this trans-Himalayan region were more used to snowfall than rains. They were caught unprepared, Bhimsen Thapaliya writes in The Rising Nepal.
Monsoon rains falling in this region, listed as rain-shadow zone, in a calamitous proportion is naturally a matter of surprise. A question that naturally pops up in one’s mind is- How did a substantial amount of monsoon reached the area to deliver unusual amount of rains? The meteorological explanations we have been hearing about these rain-shadow pockets are that the moisture laden monsoon wind from the Bay of Bengal cannot cross the Himalayan barrier. The mountains help to cool and bounce off the wind so that it causes rains only in the south of the Himalayan range.
The violation of the long held rain-shadow truth in Mustang this summer brought a general shock. It came as an exception to the local climatic rule and weather pattern. The heavy rains without warning threw life out of gear. How could 30-year old Nima Chhejung Gurung, washing her laundry at a local stream, suspect that monsoon flood in the stream would cross the familiar snow-melt mark and wash her away to death?
However, this comes more as an expected phenomenon than out-of-blue incident for Ngamindra Dahal, a climate change analyst at the Ministry of Environment. "For experts who have been watching and studying the trend over the period of one and half decades, it is not surprising. Instead, such happenings were already expected," he said. Dahal has conducted climatic studies in the region and has been watching the trend over the past one and half decade.
The heavy rains in Mustang have not come all of a sudden if you look at the continuing trend from the past. Though the downpour of this scale was never seen in Mustang’s climatic history, it has come as a continuation of the developments observed in the last 10/15 years, said Dahal. Given the gradual climatic departure of Mustang from snow-dominated to rain-oriented due to warming, we can expect heavier rains in coming years, he said.
Responding to the question as to how monsoon managed to reach the area where it rarely did in the past, Dahal, an expert specializing in hydro-meteorology, says that the moisture-rich wind might have entered Mustang through the Kaligandaki gorge. It is only an available passage for the monsoon coming from South to reach the area. However, he said that substantial amount of monsoon traveling through the gorge was rare in the past. He assured that it was not the same wind that brings snowfall and summer rains in Mustang. Monsoon cannot cause snowfall because it inevitably falls as rain before it reaches the freezing point. Westerly that causes winter rains in Nepal’s hills and plains brings snowfall in high altitude zones like Mustang, he says.
However, Rajendra Shrestha, senior meteorologist at the Tribhuvan International Airport based weather forecasting division of the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology, says that the monsoon that caused Mustang rains in July might have come from the Tibetan side instead of penetrating via the Kaligandaki gorge. "As satellite images had shown considerable mass of cloud build-up in Tibet, that may be the reason of Mustang rains," he said.
Shrestha agreed with the fact that monsoon activity is very weak in the Tibetan plateau. Monsoon rains do occur there but only in the form of scattered drizzles. So, heavy rains in Upper Mustang this summer does not fit in the usual Tibetan pattern. Shrestha hesitates to state things with certainty unless there is scientific research and meteorological data. As we have no weather monitoring station in Mustang, it is difficult to speculate on causes of monsoon surge and identify the climatic trend over the years, he said. Nearest weather station in the area is at Jomsom which was established some seven years ago primarily for civil aviation purpose.
Another senior divisional meteorologist at the hydrology and meteorology department Saraju Kumar Baidya also agreed to the theory of Shrestha that the sizable cloud packs seen in Tibet might have caused rains in Upper Mustang though the intensity of rainfall was unprecedented.
Dahal, who has studied the changing climatic phenomenon in Mustang and Manang, says that the cloudbursts in Upper Mustang can be linked to long term effects of warming. Based on the findings of his studies, Dahal had predicted long ago, "Ecological changes noticed in the high Himalayas indicate that global warming will have a serious impact on the lives and livelihoods of local communities."
Communities in Mustang and Manang districts have already begun experiencing unusual changes in weather patterns, Dahal said in his study report. Some of the people are happy with these changes while others have started to feel the hardships. On the positive side, farmers have noticed improved apple sizes and better vegetable products. As a minus point, Dahal pointed out to emerging problems such as increasing water leakage in traditional flat-roofed houses with the changing precipitation patterns.
Dahal said that the affected communities need urgent support to cope with the changing climatic conditions. Referring to Manang and other areas along the Annapurna mountain range, Dahal said that the areas had observed less snowfall and heavier monsoon rains in recent years. This type of erratic monsoon precipitation is a new phenomenon, he said. His study found that heavy rainfall was affecting the traditionally-built flat-roofed houses with walls developing cracks, calling for design reforms. This is the example where communities are in need of adapting to the changing forces of climate. "The need is urgent, yet the decisions have to come from the political level," Dahal said.
To survive in the new climatic scene, changes have to be adopted accordingly. Houses should be able to tackle impacts of rains. Infrastructures such as bridges, power plants, school buildings and water supply lines have to be reinforced. Streams and rivulets may need embankments to protect settlements and farmlands. New water sources may have to be explored. As temperatures grow, agriculture needs rethinking. Contingency plans should be made to respond to the disaster situations. "The conventional planning is no longer working in the new scenario. It demands appropriate short and long-term measures," Dahal said.
Along with occurrence of heavy rains, snowfall has decreased in Mustang in recent years. This has had adverse impact on livestock rearing, agriculture and water supply. Winters are getting hotter as snowfall is declining. Rains are coming in extreme manner. The incidences of flashfloods, windstorms and avalanches are on the rise. Long droughts are followed by heavy rains, causing calamities. Declining snowfall and reduced moisture means less grass greenery, causing cattle fodder deficiency, Dahal’s study found.
According to Dahal, there was not only less snowfall in Mustang but some shift in its timing. In the past several years, snowfalls are occurring in February instead of in December and January. The late snowfall had negative impact on agriculture. As snow cover was missing for months, moisture preservation declined. Drying up traditional water sources was also reported. Dahal’s study found some Mustang settlements migrating for better water availability.
Prabin Man Singh, climate change consultant at Oxfam Nepal, says that Mustang area needs appropriate rain-induced disaster mitigation plan to cope with the new climatic scenario. One of the measures is establishment of early warning system that can save life and property. Community based organizations working in the area should rethink their old plans and formulate new ones to address these problems. The problems emerging from changing climatic features are quite different from the old problems of the local people and require different expertise to tackle the challenges. "If local agencies lack suitable expertise, the government should introduce climate adaptation programmes," Singh said.
nnnn