CHINA FUMES WITH PM BHATTARAI LEAL ON PROPOSED NEPAL VISIT OF CHINESE PM WEN

CHINA FUMES WITH PM LEAK ON CHINA PM PROPOSED NEPALVISIT
Kathmandu, 18 Nov.: A lack of diplomatic finesse or naivety on the part of the prime minister?, Lekhnath Pandey writes in The Himalayan Times.

‘A slip of the tongue’ by Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai has enraged Chinese officials. China has taken serious exception to early disclosure of its Premier Wen Jiabao’s visit to Nepal by ‘high-level authorities’.

The Chinese Embassy in Kathmandu ‘informally’ conveyed Beijing’s ‘displeasure’ to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs about the leak of Wen’s upcoming visit, a highly placed source said. Prime Minister Bhattarai on Tuesday told journalists that his Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao will be visiting Nepal from December 20-22.

Sources said Beijing ‘is still working on the prospective visit and has stopped short of making it public at home’ and that ‘it is yet to consult’ Nepali officials to this effect. “When DPM and Minister for Foreign Affairs Narayan Kaji Shrestha conveyed China’s displeasure over the episode and tried to learn from the prime minister why he announced the date of Wen’s visit, Bhattarai tried to gloss over the fiasco saying it was ‘a slip of the tongue’,” sources said. The embassy had even warned of registering a protest in writing but had later dropped the idea following MoFA’s request that such an act could be a ‘diplomatic disaster’ in time-tested cordial relations between two neighbours.

Analysts interpreted the incident as the prime minister’s premeditated strategy to switch the media attention from his rising unpopularity in the wake of sharp criticisms for his ballooned Cabinet and government decision to seek amnesty to murder convict lawmaker Balkrishna Dhungel.

The diplomatic decorum followed world over says a foreign ministry makes public high level visits and that is done only after consulting concerned parties. “China, which is traditionally known for its silent diplomacy, by and large, wants to stay away from the media. Beijing’s discontent in this context seems to be very much valid,” a senior MoFA official told The Himalayan Times.

Someone has said: “Diplomacy is thinking twice before saying nothing.” Or maybe, it’s more apt to quote Will Durrant, American author and historian, who once said: “To say nothing, especially when speaking, is half the art of diplomacy.” So, will it be a diplomatic lesson or two for the economist prime minister?

Narayan Kazi Shrestha leaving for China 22 Nov.

DPM and Minister for Foreign Affairs Narayan Kaji Shrestha is leaving for China on November 22 via Lhasa during. He will work out on possible issues for the visit. Shrestha will meet his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi on November 25 in Beijing. “Efforts to invite Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and President Hu Jintao were under way.
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NEPALI WORKERS IN SAUDI ARABIA HIT BY BAN ON
HAND-WRITTEN PASSPORTS
Kathmandu, 18 Nov.: The decision of Saudi Arabia authority to stop visa issuance to people possessing hand-written passports has hit Nepali migrant workers based in different Persian Gulf Arab states, Dinesh Regmi writes in The Kathmandu Post from Doha.
The move aimed to curb forged passports has especially affected the migrants employed as drivers, who travel frequently between the Gulf countries as part of their job.
“The Saudi embassy denied us visa as we had hand-written passports,” said Dhan Bahadur Shris, who works as a driver for a Bahrain-based cargo company.
He said the company has employed six Nepalis as drivers and that the new visa regulation has threatened their employment.
Sarbajit Buda, another Nepali employee with the company, said as part of their job they have to travel to countries like Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait and Jordan frequently. There are around 20,000 Nepali migrant workers employed as drivers in the Gulf countries.
The Nepali workers have appealed to the government back home to address their problem.
The Nepali Embassy in Saudi Arabia said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has requested the Saudi authority to recognise hand-written passports issued by the Nepali government until November 24, 2015.
“The Saudi authority could relax the period for up to eight months,” said Uday Raj Pandey, ambassador to Saudi Arabia. He said the new visa rule was implemented after the Saudi authority found that 300 people had entered the country on fake Iranian passports during the Hajj pilgrimage.
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86 OFFICIALS UNDER CIAA SCANNER
Kathmandu, 18 Nov.: Over seven dozen high-ranking government officials, politicians and police officials are under the scanner of the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) for amassing properties disproportionate to their sources of income, The Kathmandu Post reports.
The CIAA officials said they have started investigation into the property details of these officials following serious complaints about their possible involvement in irregularities during their tenure in different government offices. These officials, many of them have already retired, worked in the ministries of Home, Commerce, Education, and Nepal Police, Armed Police Force (APF) and other government offices such as the Inland Revenue Department (IRD).
Though there were over three hundred complaints lodged at the office by the end of August, the anti-graft body picked 86 “most compelling” cases. “These are the cases we are trying to investigate at the first stage. The remaining and the new complaints would be handled gradually based on their priority,” said CIAA Spokesman Ishwori Paudyal.
The number of complaints, he said, is growing by the day. “Since we started our probe into property details about two months ago, the rate of registering complaints about graft has dramatically shot up,” he said.
The small CIAA team seems to be grappling with complaints. “It's getting increasingly difficult to handle all the complaints, especially given the small number of staff at our disposal,” said an official. In a bid to bring efficiency to its work, the CIAA has assigned heads of 10 separate departments under it--each focusing on a particular area of investigation-- with the task of looking into the complaints.
Currently, the officials are busy collecting property details of the suspected officials through a 13-page questionnaire.
Sources said among the officials under scanner are former secretaries and joint secretaries in the ministries of Agriculture and Cooperatives, Commerce and Supplies, Education, and IRD officials.
Some APF AIGs and former chief district officers of Kathmandu are also under the CIAA investigation.
One former CDO of Kathmandu, for instance, has been charged with allowing some businessmen to construct buildings against the criteria set by the Kathmandu Metropolitan City for bribe.
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