NEPALI WOMEN TAKE ON BHUTAN IN KUWAIT THURSDAY FOR CRICKET TITLE

SALE, DISTRIBUTION OF BIRD MEAT BANNED 3 DAYS IN SUNSARI
Kathmandu, 9 Feb.: Sale and distribution of bird meat has been banned for
three days in Sunsari from Thursday to fight bird flu which has broken out in the
eastern terai district.
The outbreak was confirmed Sunday in the first reported cases in Nepal
in 2012.
The deadly contagious flu was last lreported in Kathmandu’ Manahara in 2011.
Besides Sunsari, the disease has been reported in neighbouring Ilam and Panchthar districts.
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NEPALI WOMEN TAKE ON BHUTAN THURSDAY IN KUWAIT
Kathmandu, 9 Feb.:: Nepal will play Bhutan in the first semi-final of the ACC-U19 Women´s
Championship Thursday in Kuwait
Bhutan played Bhutan in the final of 2010 edition.
Nepal reached the semifinal winning all four league
Matches against China, Malaysia UAE and Thailand
Nepal which lifted three previous titles.
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FORMER WOMEN PLA FIGHTERS SEEK MORE FUNDS
Kathmandu, 9 Feb.: After opting for voluntary retirement, female PLA fighters under the Jhyaltungdanda-based Fourth Division Cantonment are now gunning for additional relief package, The Himalayan Times reports from Parasi..

Lactating mothers and pregnant women shouted slogans on the Ramnagar Jargaha-based satellite camp of the fourth division today to press for their demands — livelihood provisions and a package for children’s upbringing and education — on top of what they are entitled to as retirees.

Retired section commander of the Kawasoti camp, Kalpana Giri, said, “We fought for the party and not for money, so the government should provide us more relief for the sake of our children.”

Reshma Shahi of Kalikot said nothing has come of commanders’ pledge to arrange Rs 1.25 lakh more for each of the retiree female fighter. Retired commander Babita Rokka of Rukum lamented, “Despite my mother’s prodding to stay in the house, I went to the war. Now, I neither seem to belong to the house nor to the party.” “We have no houses. Where do we go now and how do we raise our children?”

Rokka said she is worried about the education of her children as the five lakh rupees that the government has provided will not last long. “The government should raise our children and fund their education.”

Anjana Devi Chaudhary of Dang said the assurance to provide additional relief has proved false with the commanders keeping mum, while fourth division commander Tej Bahadur Oli said no commander had pledged additional Rs 1.25 lakh package.

The Jargaha camp in Ramnagar has around 150 lactating mothers and pregnant women. Coordinator of the Special Committee (for integration, supervision and rehabilitation of Maoist fighters) Sanandan Prasad Kurmi informed that altogether 905 PLAs under the fourth division cantonment have received their cheques as of Wednesday. He also informed that the committee will distribute cheques to PLA fighters of the fourth division’s Sainamaina camp tomorrow. Altogether 1,342 combatants of the fourth division have opted for voluntary retirement.
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FORMER PLA FIGHTERS SUSPECT RS.3B MISUSE BY PARTY
Kathmandu, 9 Feb.: The seven PLA cantonments continue to remain tense as combatants demand answers about the possible misuse of the ‘PLA fund’ and the return of their share of money
from it, Kiran Pun writes in Republica.

The leadership of the cantonments meanwhile has either kept mum over the issue or, at worst, resorted to beating up and threatening the combatants with consequences. But the combatants say they are determined to trace the money and will not give up until they get satisfactory answers.

“We are not going to leave the cantonment until the issue is settled. None of us above company commander level has left the cantonment even after receiving our voluntary retirement checks,” said Nep Bahadur Kuwar Magar, vice-commander at the PLA Sixth Division, Surkhet.

Some combatants in the PLA Third Division, Shaktikhor, are even contemplating legal remedies over the matter. “We have been given assurance that the party leadership will settle the issue amicably. If it doesn’t do so in the next few days, we will begin a legal process,” said Udaya Bahadur Chalaune, vice-commander at the Third Division who left the cantonment under threat from the commanders.

What is ‘PLA fund’?

The ‘PLA fund’ was created at each of the seven cantonments with money drawn from three sources – monthly deduction of Rs 1,000 from each combatant’s salary, the salaries that cantonment commanders drew in the name of absentee combatants, and commissions received while awarding contracts for supplying rations to the cantonments.

The combatants were told that the money would be put into the fund transparently and part of it would be used for “emergency” purposes and in the welfare of the combatants — the details of which were never fully explained to the combatants.



“There was vagueness and a lack of clarity since the beginning about the purpose of establishing the fund and its use, which has resulted in this mess,” said Vice-commander Magar.

Amount of money in ‘PLA fund’

It is not easy to ascertain exactly how much money the PLA fund has but it’s also not difficult to make calculations that would be close to the truth.

For instance, the first source of the fund was the monthly deduction of Rs 1,000 from each combatant. That means, Rs 19 million per month and 228 million per year from 19,525 combatants. In five years, the monthly deduction of Rs 1,000 would alone contribute over 1.14 billion rupees to the fund.

The second source of money for the PLA fund was the salaries that the cantonment commanders drew in the name of absentee combatants. The PLA was drawing salary and ration allowance for 19,525 combatants till November last year. The recounting of combatants concluded in the first week of December by surveyor teams sent to the cantonments by the Special Committee found that 2,432 combatants were absent.

The commanders were drawing salary and ration amounts for these absentee combatants as well. Since the government provided a monthly salary and ration allowance of Rs 9,230 per combatant, the PLA was drawing Rs 22.4 million per month, or Rs 242 million every year, in the name of the absentee combatants.

It’s difficult to establish since when the 2,432 combatants went missing from the cantonment as it is likely they left on different dates. But there is another side to the story: many combatants who had deserted the cantonments were recalled by the commanders to receive their voluntary retirement package with a tacit understanding that those combatants would surrender half the money to the PLA, and the number who turned up shows that the absentees from the cantonments were far more numerous than 2,432.

So if we allow these two discrepancies to cancel each other out and assume that 2,432 combatants were absent from the cantonments since the very beginning, the PLA drew Rs 1.34 billion from state coffers in the name of the absentees.

The government provided an average of Rs 2,730 per month to the 19,525 combatants as ration allowance. This means Rs 53 million per month and Rs 639 million per year and Rs 3.19 billion in five years. Contractors supplying the rations concede that the PLA used to take at last 20 percent in commission from them. So, the PLA may have earned at least Rs 600 million in commissions while awarding the ration contracts during the five years.

Misuse of ‘PLA fund’

In total, the PLA fund should therefore comprise at least Rs 3 billion (Rs 1.14 billion from deduction of monthly combatant salaries, Rs 1.34 billion drawn in the name of absentee combatants and Rs 600 million received in commissions for ration contracts).

When the combatants in the cantonments pressed the commanders to disclose the total amount of money in PLA fund, commanders at the PLA First Division at Chulachuli, Ilam said they have only Rs 60 million. The commanders in the second division said they have Rs 90 million in the fund and similarly the third division has Rs 140 million, the fourth division has Rs 80 million, the fifth division Rs 30 million, sixth division Rs 20 million and the seventh division Rs 40 million. This means the seven PLA Divisions have a total of Rs 460 million.

The commanders also told the agitating combatants that they were asked to send 60 percent of the money from the PLA fund to party headquarters, meaning party Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, and they did so accordingly. They have also said that the rest of money was spent on construction, fuel and miscellaneous expenses.

Since the PLA commanders have failed to make a transparent accounting of the PLA fund, the combatants are in no mood to accept what they have been told. Nor are they willing to forgo the money reportedly sent to party headquarters.
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63 CHEQUES SEIZED IN ILAM
Kathmandu, 9 Feb : A group of Maoist combatants going for retirement said on Wednesday that the paychecks of at least 63 combatants retiring from the cantonment in Ilam have been seized, Republica reports from Itahari.

Calling a press conference in Urlabari, Morang district to make public the seizure of their paychecks, they said their combatant colleagues who have opted for integration confiscated the paychecks, allegedly under the direction of the cantonment commanders.

"We demand that the bank concerned not make any payment without checking the citizenship of the account holders," said Durga Limbu, one of the retiring combatants whose paycheck was seized. "Our paychecks were confiscated under a deliberate plan."

The retired combatants said at the press conference that they have been made to sign a paper committing them to giving a portion of their retirement package to the Maoist party.

"We are able to make public the seizure of our paychecks only now, after leaving the cantonment," said Khagendra Gautam, another retired combatant. "We run the risk of being attacked."

Another retired combatant, Kshitiz Limbu, said they have been told that they would get to keep only the second allotment of their retirement package. The government will give out the second allotments only in the next fiscal year.

"We fought alongside the commanders [against the government] during the conflict but today they are trying to ruin our future out of their greed for money," said Limbu. He accused the commanders of riding flashy cars and demanded an investigation into their property holdings.

According to him, the commanders used to take money arbitrarily from combatant allowances. They have also demanded that the party investigate the injustices meted out to them at the cantonments by their commanders.

Meanwhile, our reporter Kalendra Sejuwal reports from Surkhet that of the 837 combatants of the Sixth Division who received their checks as a part of the voluntary retirement package, only a few have gone to the bank to deposit them into their personal accounts. The combatants say they are afraid to open bank accounts as the commanders have seized the checks of some of their fellow combatants.

According to the Agriculture Development Bank branch office at Chhinchu, only 78 combatants transferred the money to their personal accounts, a total of Rs 23 million. Of them, 21 have drawn Rs 4.5 in cash from the bank. All the 837 combatants had received account payee checks of the Agricultural Development Bank.

“Though the checks have already been distributed to many, very few have come here for payment,” said Ganga Prasad Chaulagain, the bank branch chief. “We are not sure of the reasons behind this,” he said.

A brigade commander said on condition of anonymity that the combatants are extremely afraid that their money will be seized by the top commanders. “No sooner is the money transferred to their accounts than they [commanders] demand a share of the payment,” said the commander. “That´s the reason why many friends have kept the checks with themselves to cash at a later date.”

The combatants in the Sixth Division cantonment became worried about their hard-earned money getting snatched away after the commanders tries to take 50 percent of the money from three women combatants who had reached the bank to cash their checks. On Tuesday there was an attempt to seize the money from the three combatants at the bank. The women combatants fled the scene and took refuge in a nearby police station. They are still under police protection.
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INTERVIEW
As the peace process and an end to Nepal’s protracted political instability inches toward a conclusion, the United States has begun renewing its engagement with Nepal. The Peace Corps volunteers are returning after an absence of seven years, the two countries have signed a Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) and American diplomats report that private investors in American are showing increasing interest in Nepal. Sanjay Neupane spoke to US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, Robert O Blake in Washington DC about continuing placement of Maoists in the terrorist list, the Tibetan refugee issue, and the recall of Ambassador Scott H DeLisi. Excerpts:
Do you think continued placement of the UCPN (Maoist) on the terrorist list has limited the effectiveness of US efforts in the peace process, especially in the early days?
The United States placed the Maoists on two different terrorist lists that we have, because of the actions that they took during the conflict from 1996 to 2006, including actions they took against some employees of the American embassy in Kathmandu. Since then I think we have been quite encouraged by some of the steps that the Maoists have taken, particularly those they have taken to support the peace process. We hope that they will continue to do that and we also hope that the Maoists will renounce for once and all violence and terrorism. And I think those will help great deal in the consideration of whether to take them off the lists. This is a process that is already under way to consider removing Maoists from the list. So the Maoists continued support for the peace process and again any public statements they can make about renouncing violence and terrorism would be extremely helpful in expediting that process.
Nepal is in a fix over the issue of Tibetan refugees—caught between China and Western countries.
We have always appreciated the efforts that the government of Nepal has made to facilitate the transit of Tibetan refugees through Nepal. And we don’t see any contradiction with a one china policy. United States has its own one-China policy and yet we continue to engage constructively with our friends in China. Going forward, we hope that Nepal will continue to facilitate the transit of Tibetan refugees. And also that Nepal will take a hard look at regularising the status of the longer term Tibetan refugees that has been there, in some cases for 50 years, to ensure that they too enjoy full rights that are accorded to Nepali citizens. I think that would also be an important priority to point to.
In light of signing of the US-Nepal Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA), have you seen any new interests emerging among US investors in Nepal, particularly in hydropower, IT and tourism?

I think there is a modest new interest, but I wouldn’t want exaggerate that. I think more needs to be done in Nepal to put in place the kind of attractive investment environment that American companies would like to see. Nepal still is relatively a small country and the peace process has not been completed. There is still a number of internal challenges like corruption and as you said access to power
and things like that. That still makes it very difficult to do business for Americans or other companies. We have already taken some steps by for example facilitating delegations to meet with the American Chamber of Commerce in India. Because we believe in many cases the US companies already based in South Asia who would be the first to take a look at the opportunities in Nepal.

Nepal’s Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai recently said that Nepal wants to be the bridge between the two neighbouring giant nations, India and China. How do you foresee the possibility of Nepal reaping benefits from the two economies?
I think that is a very apt analogy. United States is very focused now on the opportunities that are offered by regional integration across the entire region. We also see important emerging integrating opportunities to the east from India through Bangladesh, and through Burma and in South East Asia. As a result both of the important steps India and Bangladesh are taking to improve their relations, but because of the internal change taking place in Burma, Nepal I think is well situated to benefit from these important macroeconomic changes that are taking place. And as you said Nepal can benefit not only from the east west trade flow but from north south ones; between India and China.
The first ever Nepal caucus has been formed in the US Congress. And Peace Corps volunteers are returning to Nepal after seven years. Nepal has been nominated as an eligible country into Millennium Challenge Corporation. Do these facts signal renewed interest of the US in Nepal?

I would say there has always been an interest on part of the United States to help Nepal and the help the people of Nepal. As you say the Peace Corps, for example, has had long and proud history in Nepal. We are very pleased that they are returning to Nepal reflecting some of the more recent positive trends and the end of fighting. But the Peace Corps is a very good example of how those kind of people to people programmes have generated a very strong and enthusiastic group of friends for Nepal here in the United States. I am always struck that the group of former Peace Corps volunteers who have served in Nepal, are among the most enthusiastic of all the Peace Corps volunteers anywhere in the world. They still all have very fun memories of the time they spent in Nepal. I think that speaks a lot to the hospitality of your country and friendliness of your people. Some of the programmes you mentioned like the Millennium Challenge Corporations, our more recent programmes have been undertaken in response to the positive steps that the government of Bhattarai has taken with respect to the peace process.
Why has US President Barack Obama decided to nominate US ambassador to Nepal Scott H DeLisi to Uganda before his tenure has been completed?
First of all, let me say we are very proud of everything that Ambassador DeLisi has done in Nepal. He has been a superb ambassador and superb representative of the American people and American government in Nepal. But his departure and nomination for new job as ambassador to Uganda is nothing out of the ordinary. Our diplomats frequently change jobs like that. I am sure that we will nominate an equally capable person to replace him so that the people and the government of Nepal should have no concerns about that.
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