embattled pm bhattarai goes into two-day retreat

EMBATTLED PM BHATTARAI ON TWO-DAY RETREAT

Kathmandu, 18 Jan.: Embattled Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai went on a two-day retreat to Dhulikhel Wednesday, an aide said.
Bhattarai is facing demands for his recall in the party from a hard-line faction led by First Vice-chairman Mohan Baidya who helped propel the premier to power more than four months ago.
Baidya aligned then with Bhattarai and against ambitious Prachanda to wrest the leadership of government.
But Baidya has now turned against Bhattarai charging the government chief for betrayal.
Bhattarai has been charged as an Indian lackey and betraying the communist revolution.
The government chief is responding by forging even closer ties in a front of Madeshbadi parties by giving into regional demands.
Baidya says Bhattarai has to make way for a national government.
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IMPROVEMENT IN WEATHER

Kathmandu, 18 Jan.: The weather has improved around the Valley after a two-day rain and cold spell.
The morning was sunny for the second consecutive day Wednesday with minimum temperature in the morning recoded at 8 degrees Celsius.
Mercury is expected to rise to 19 degrees Celsius in the afternoon.
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400 GURKHAS BEING RETRENCHED IN BRITISH ARNY
Kathmandu, 18 Jan.: Altogether 400 Gurkhas are being retrenched in a downsizing of the British Army facing a financial crunch.
The British embassy announced the cut the same day a British minister of state for international development arrived for a visit.
Earlier, the British Army Chief arrived on a low-key visit and left after consultations with Army Chief Gen.Chatraman Singh Gurung.
The cut was unilateral as in the past
India and Great Britian recruit Gurkhas to met their security recruitments.
Gurkhas are presently deployed by British Army in Afghanistan.

The British Army is offering a comprehensive program for resettlement into civilian life to all the laid-off Gurkha soldiers, the British Embassy said.
Last year, around 140 Gurkhas were laid off from the 3,500-strong Brigade of Gurkhas with plans to downsize the strength of the Brigade of Gurkhas to less than 3,000 personnel.
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PM BHATTARAI PLEASED WITH RETURN OF PEACE CORPS

Kathmandu, 18 Jan.: Two events in Kathmandu Tuesday marked the return of US Peace Corps to Nepal after seven years, US embassy said.
Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai told a gathering in Singha Durbar, "I am very pleased with the return of the Peace Corps to Nepal. From the early 60s, thousands of volunteers have served in districts all across this country. I remember in much of the 60s and 70s, the volunteers were a big source of teachers for subjects like math and science. I am very glad that with USAID's assistance, the volunteers are coming back one more time to help with agriculture and health. Those are areas that need help, and I welcome the decision to redeploy the Peace Corps."

Ambassador DeLisi then hosted a program for friends of the Peace Corps at his residence.

“The return of the Peace Corps to Nepal is symbolic of the deep, long-standing relationship between our two countries, which began in 1951 when the U.S. Government first entered into a development partnership with Nepal,” said U.S. Ambassador Scott H. DeLisi. "I remain an optimist about the nation's future and I think that Peace Corps' return sends a powerful message that the U.S. Government and the Peace Corp's leadership share the conviction that Nepal is on the right path."

The first group of approximately 20 Peace Corps volunteers is scheduled to arrive in Nepal later this year. The U.S. Agency for International Development’s collaboration with Peace Corps will build on the strengths and strategies of the U.S. Government’s Feed the Future and Global Health Initiatives partnership with Nepal to reach and impact many more vulnerable Nepalese across the country. The volunteers will be trained as Agriculture and Nutrition Extensionists and will work with rural communities to improve food security and health of the Nepalese people in the context of the two Presidential Initiatives in Nepal.
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NSP(G) CHIEF GUPTA PERSONALLY DRAGGED SANGHAI INTO CAPTIVITY
Kathmandu, 18 Jan :Arrested lawmaker Shyam Sundar Gupta not only masterminded the December 22 kidnapping of businessman Pawan Sanghai, but was also personally involved in transporting the captive, and did even more, police said, Bikash Sangraula writes in Republica. .

Gupta personally escorted Sanghai to captivity on the day of the kidnapping, visited Sanghai twice while he was held captive, and posed before Sanghai´s family members as a well-meaning mediator assisting his release from his captors, said Senior Superintendent of Police Devendra Subedi, chief of Metropolitan Police Crime Division (MPCD) that arrested Gupta from his residence in Bhairahawa on Monday.

“To persuade his accomplices to assist him in the crime, Gupta appears to have cooked up a story that he had built a petrol pump for Sanghai. In the eyes of his accomplices, the abduction was merely meant to get back money that was rightfully Gupta´s,” Subedi said.

Four of his partners-in-crime arrested so far have in unison pointed their fingers at Gupta as the mastermind and the main recipient of the ransom amount. Among those arrested are Gupta´s personal driver Amir Acharya, 22, apart from Akash Lama, 31, of Kavre, Jit Bahadur Gole, 38, of Makawanpur, and Kishor Pandey, 28, of Kavresthali-6, Kathmandu. Gole has served a 10-year jail term for human trafficking.

Kathmandu District Court on Tuesday gave police permission to remand Gupta and the other four for four days for further investigation.

How the kidnapping was executed

For a week before Sanghai´s abduction from Kamaladi Ganesthan temple, Gupta prepared Pandey, who works at Garud Security Service Recovery Unit, to identify Sanghai, police said.

Pandey was tasked with identifying Sanghai for four individuals who arrived at the temple in a microbus in the morning of December 22 to pick up Sanghai, who was a daily visitor of the temple.

After forcing him into the microbus, the four men took Sanghai to Kupondol where he was blindfolded and moved to a red Tata Sumo in which Lama and Gole were waiting.

Thereafter, Gupta himself escorted the vehicle to Dhulikhel, personally traveling in another vehicle that led the way, the arrested four told police.

From Dhulikhel, Sanghai was taken to the house of Maya Tamang at Sarsyunkhola, Lamagaun-3, Kavre.

Just hours after the abduction, an individual identifying himself as Bikrant Singh of Red Madhesi Army (RMA) made a phone call to Sanghai´s family members claiming that his outfit had abducted Sanghai to get money to purchase weapons.

On December 23, abductors made another phone call and let the family members hear a recorded message of Sanghai.

And on December 24, abductors demanded Rs 250 million from the family, threatening to kill Sanghai and make his body disappear if the ransom was not paid.

On December 27, another phone call was made claiming Sanghai was jointly abducted by RMA and Defense Army. Two callers, one speaking in Nepali and the other in Hindi, threatened the family again and demanded the ransom.

Investigations have revealed that the phone calls were made by Shyam Giri and Amar Thapa, who were hired by Gupta for the purpose. They made phone calls from Indian and Nepali numbers. Police are yet to nab the two.

On December 30, the duo made a phone call for the last time and lowered the ransom amount to Rs 200 million.

Details after this are sketchy. What is clear is that by then Gupta, who appears to be an old acquaintance of Sanghai, had won the confidence of the Sanghai family as a mediator. In the dual role of the kidnapping´s mastermind and Sanghai family´s mediator, he was making sure that everyone would dance to his tune.

“The final ransom settlement seems to have been for Rs 10 million,” SSP Subedi said. “Of that, it seems only Rs 8.5 million was paid,” he added.

On January 11, Sanghai´s family members reached Amrit Bhog in Dillibazaar with two bags containing the ransom amount.

“I picked up the bags and delivered them to sir´s (Gupta´s) residence,” said Gupta´s driver Acharya in a video-recorded statement to police.

Sanghai was freed the same day.

After receiving the ransom amount, Gupta invited five of his accomplices individually to his Kusunti residence and gave away each of them Rs 400,000.
Police investigation has also revealed that Gupta had kept accomplices Lama and Gole in a rented flat on the outskirts of Kathmandu for six months before the abduction.

Apart from Giri and Thapa, Milan Lama of Sarlahi, Prem Lama of Kavre, Hari KC of Sindhuli, one Indra Gurung, and two unidentified individuals involved in the kidnapping are absconding.

Sanghai´s family members, who had been lukewarm in cooperating with police investigation, are still very hesitant to open up with police.
“They probably still feel very insecure,” a police officer involved in the investigation said.
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PM WEN OFFERED RS 11.53B IN AID
Kathmandu, 18 Jan.: Amid diverse figures reported by media, top officials at the Ministry of Finance (MoF) on Monday clarified that total financial and technical assistance that Nepal received during Wen Jiabao´s visit is around Rs 11.53 billion. Milan Mani Sharma writes in Repblica..

If compared with the existing assistance level that Nepal is getting from China, net change in assistance that Wen´s visit brought about is Rs 5.68 billion, said a source at MoF. This includes 310.4 million yuan (Rs 4.03 billion) in grant and technical assistance and one-time special grant of US$ 20 million (Rs 1.65 billion).

The visit made two important contributions. First, the development partner in the north increased the annual grant assistance to Nepal to 200 million yuan, which is a raise of exactly one-third over what Nepal was receiving presently, that is 150 million yuan.

This effectively ensured Nepal will get additional grant assistance of 150 yuan for the next three years from what it was getting so far. Apart from that, the Economic and Technical Cooperation Agreement that Prime Minister Dr Baburam Bhattarai and Wen signed has also committed additional 150 yuan during the agreed period of next three years.

"Hence, the visit effectively earned us net raise in grant assistance by 300 million yuan," said the source, explaining the composition of 750 million yuan economic and technical cooperation package that the government repeatedly cited without clarity.

The source even disclosed that the raise in annual grant amount is neither new nor unexpected. China that initially provided development assistance in Indian currency more than 30 years ago has been gradually raising the assistance volume over the years and had committed to raise the annual grant assistance to 200 million yuan when the then Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal visited Beijing.

MoF records show China raised the annual grant assistance to 37 million yuan in 1988, 80 million yuan in 1995, 100 million yuan in 2005 and to 150 million yuan in 2009.

Second, Wen also pledged special grant assistance of US$ 20 million (over Rs 1.65 billion) to support the peace process. "This is one crucial and much-needed financing," said the source, adding that the support will be used particularly for financing rehabilitation of Maoist combatants.

Apart from that, China during Wen´s visit pledged financial and technical assistance of 10 million Yuan (about Rs 130 million) to bolster capacity of Nepal Police. Under this, China said it would provide equipment and other support to the Nepal Police.

Another technical assistance package of 400,000 Yuan (about Rs 5.2 million) too was signed for strengthening the Armed Police Force (APF). "This technical assistance will go for conducting study to establishment an APF college," said Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Narayan Kaji Shrestha.
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