THREE MOTORCYCLISTS HILLED IN MORANG

THREE MOTORCYCLISTS KILLED
Kathmandu, 11 Feb,: Three motorcyclists in Itahara VDC were killed
Friday when their two-wheelers were hit by a truck in Morang.
Two motorcyclists were seriously injured.
The truck driver is absconding after the accident.
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MINIMUM TEMPERATURE IN CAPITAL 3 DEGREES CELSIUS
Kathmandu, 11 Feb.: Minimum temperature in capital Saturday morning was recorded at three degrees Celsius.
Mercury will rise to 21/ 23 degrees Celsius Saturday afternoon.
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RETIREMENT OF 7,200 PLUS FORMER MAOIST COMBATANTS
COMPLETED IN ALL BUT ONE CANTONMENT
Kathmandu, 11 Feb.: Retirement of 7,200 plus former Maoist combatants was completed at six cantonments Friday.
Their retirement at a cantonment in Kailali in the far-West should be completed Saturday.
Retirement of the former fighters from 28 cantonments and satellite camps that started last Friday amid widespread complaints by fighters their cheques with golden
handshake ranging from Rs.300,000 to Rs.800,000 were snatched from
them by Maoist commanders deployed at cantonments.
The fighters returned home for the first time in five years.
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LAXMI BANK RECORDS DECLINING Q2 PROFIT
Kathmandu, 11 Feb.: Laxmi Bank recorded a declining Rs. 176.83 million net profit in Q2 of the current fiscal year 2011/12 ending 14 Jan..
The profit fell from Rs. 191.782 million in the corresponding
previous year quarter ending.
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MASSIVE LAND SETTLEMENTS BY MAOISTS IN FAR-WEST DURING 10-YEAR INSURGENCY
Kathmandu, 11 Feb. Unified CPN-Maoist’s ‘people’s government’ had blessed land transactions involving more than 10,000 people in nine districts during 10-year Maoist insurgency. For each land transaction, the ‘people’s government’ took two percent tax.,
Aadarsha KC writes in The Himalayan Times from Rukum.
This was disclosed today by UCPN-M central member Hemanta Prakash Oli. He said the ‘people’s government’ had blessed land transaction involving more than 10,000 people from Palpa, Gulmi, Baglung, Parbat, Arghakhanchi, Pyuthan, Rolpa, Salyan and Rukum during the insurgency. Most of these land deals were carried out in Rukum, Rolpa and Salyan districts.

Record has it that more than 4,000 land deals overseen by Maoist ‘people’s government’ are in Rukum alone. Lawyer Yagya Bahadur Pandey of Rukum kangaroo court said ‘people’s government’ took two per cent tax on each transaction.

Landlords who had their land registered at the ‘people’s government’ in Rukum are in a dilemma. Deusarai BK of Syalpakha VDC in Rukum had passed his land to Til Bahadur Kami of the same VDC for Rs 2.40 lakhs through ‘people’s government’ some 10 years ago. Though Til Bahadur tilled the land during insurgency, Deusarai has filed the case at District Court against Til Bahadur accusing him of land grab. She is demanding either Rs 9 lakhs or her land. The case is sub judice.

Til Bahadur says Deusarai has lodged the case to make extra bucks as the transaction blessed by the ‘people’s government’ is not legal. “I paid Rs 2.40 lakhs to Deusara’s husband and registered it at the ‘people’s government’,” claims Til Bahadur.

Most of the landowners are demanding extra money from people who they had sold their lands. Some have registered the sold land in their names by paying tax at DRO, Rukum.

Chandra Bahadur Budha of Kholagaun in Rukum had sold his land and migrated to Dang 11 years ago. Budha, however, recently reached Rukum District Revenue Office and paid the tax and took land ownership certificate, an employee at DRO said.

Rukum District Revenue Office Chief Aarambikram Shah, however, said no contentious land cases of the war-era had come to his office. “The legal body to register and pass land is a government body. All the land registered at agencies other than lawful government body are illegal,” Shah added.

Meanwhile, UCPN-Maoist activists today padlocked Land Revenue Offices in Palpa, Gulmi, Baglung, Parbat, Arghakhanchi, Pyuthan, Rolpa and Rukum demanding that the land transactions carried out by the ‘people’s government’ be legalised.
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NC NOT EXCITED OVER CONSENSUS GOVT.
Kathmandu, 11 Feb.: The UCPN-Maoist Standing Committee’s today’s decision to make efforts to form a national unity government will fail to bring the main opposition Nepali Congress on board, it seems, Prakash Acharya writes in the Himalayan Times.

“There should be a unity government, but it is not our priority at a time when the peace and constitution-drafting process deadline is just three-and-a-half months away,” said NC Vice-president and parliamentary party leader Ram Chandra Paudel. “We will neither support the Maoist leadership nor will we make a haste to join the government until army integration is completed and the weapons in the Maoist cantonments are handed over to the government.”

Congress leadership, according to party sources, has assessed that if the party lays claim on the government leadership before the Maoist combatants’ integration process begins, it will weaken the party’s stance on the peace process.

Paudel said there has not been a concrete progress in the peace process till the date. “The Maoist combatants have just been distributed money under the voluntary retirement package,” he said. The concrete progress, according to him, is bringing the combatants opting for integration under the control and command of the Nepali Army and handing over Maoists’ weapons to the government.

We still do not know whether the UCPN-M wants the unity government under its leadership or wants to hand over the reins to the Congress, Paudel said.

“NC will claim the leadership if the UCPN-M really wants the unity government,” said Paudel. NC President Sushil Koirala has also been saying in public that his party is not willing to join the government until the major tasks of the peace process are completed.

Meanwhile, the three-party meeting is scheduled to be held at the Ministry of Peace and Reconstruction tomorrow. Issues pertaining to peace, constitution and unity government will figure in the meeting.

Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal phoned Congress leader Paudel and informed the agendas to be discussed at tomorrow’s meeting, sources said.
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CHINESE PM WEN ASSURES FREEDOM,
CULTURAL PROTECTION IN TIBET
Kathmandu, 11 Feb.: Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao on Friday pledged religious freedom and cultural protection in Tibet, just hours after security forces reportedly killed two Tibetans who protested China's rule, AFP reports from Beijing..

"We will place more importance on improving the lives of our Tibetan compatriots, on protecting the... traditions of Tibet... and in preserving the freedom of religious belief of Tibetans," Wen said.

Wen's comments come after US-based broadcaster Radio Free Asia (RFA) said security forces shot dead two Tibetan brothers who were on the run after protesting against Chinese rule.

The killings came a day after a monk reportedly set himself alight.

The incidents are said to have taken place in two provinces bordering the Tibet autonomous region, as tension in Tibetan-inhabited areas intensified over perceived religious, political and cultural repression.

China launched a clampdown after at least two other Tibetans were killed in a series of protests last month, in what Beijing says is a battle against forces trying to split Tibet from the rest of China.

Wen further urged the Panchen Lama, a top Tibetan Buddhist leader selected and educated by communist authorities, to use his influence to instil patriotism among Tibetans, the government said in a report on its website.

"We hope you can guide the monks and the (Tibetan) people to love the country, uphold the law and follow Buddhist practice... you should play an important and active role in safeguarding national and ethnic unity," he told the Panchen Lama.

According to RFA -- a US-funded group that broadcasts news in several languages including Tibetan -- Yeshe Rigsal, a monk, and his brother were shot dead Thursday in the southwestern province of Sichuan.

The duo had taken part in a protest in the predominantly Tibetan Luhuo county on January 23 that turned violent when police shot dead at least one person. Two other areas of western Sichuan were then also hit by unrest.

China has blamed much of the unrest on the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual leader. Chen Quanguo -- head of the Tibet autonomous region -- said Thursday the fight against the Nobel Peace Prize laureate would be tough.

"Our struggle against the Dalai clique is long, complicated and at times even acute," he was quoted as saying by the state-run Tibet Daily.

News of the latest shooting is very difficult to confirm after police locked down western Sichuan, barring foreign reporters from going and cutting most means of communication.

Calls made to Luhuo police and to a local monastery were met with a rapid beeping tone, suggesting phones had been disabled. A man at the government office said he was unaware of the incident.

RFA, citing a monk in India who has contacts in the region, said the two brothers had been on the run for more than two weeks and were hiding in the hills in a nomad region when they were found.

"Chinese security forces encircled the place where he (Yeshe Rigsal) was staying and shot him and his brother," a monk at Drepung monastery in India was quoted as saying, citing sources in the region.

The reported incident came a day after a monk in his thirties in Qinghai -- another province with large populations of ethnic Tibetans -- set himself alight, rights group Free Tibet and RFA said.

Calls to the government and police in Chenduo county, where the self-immolation reportedly took place, went unanswered.

This brings to at least 18 the number of people who have set themselves on fire in the past year in Tibetan-inhabited areas in protest at Chinese rule.

RFA and rights groups say another three Tibetans self-immolated a week ago in a remote village of Sichuan. However, local authorities quoted in the official Global Times newspaper have denied this.
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