EXTENSTION OF JUDICIAL REMAND OF FIVE MAOIST SUSPECTS FOR MURDER BEING SOUGHT Kathmandu, 17 Jan.: Police are seeking extension of a remand of custody of five Maoists who have confessed to the murder of lpurnlist Dekendra Thapa in Dailekh eight year’s ago. A week’s extension ended Wednesday. Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai and Attorney General Madan attempted to intervene in the case to influence the outome by stopping recording of statements of three of the suspects who have confessed. The supreme court overturned the intervention and ordered proceedings. No official reaction has been forthcoming after the court intervention. Nnnn PRESIDENT CAN’T BE QUIZZED ON WITHHELD ON ORDINANCES Kathmandu, 17 Jan.: While the President´s Office has shelved seven various draft ordinances forwarded by the government, constitutional and legal experts have said that the Supreme Court (SC) cannot compel the head of state to approve them, Republica reports/. Constitutional and legal experts have made such remarks at a time when the government is mulling a legal way to exert pressure on the president to approve the ordinances. Constitutional expert Bhimarjun Acharya said, "The court cannot compel the president to approve the ordinances." Acharya maintained that one can politically question the president´s discretion but this again cannot be challenged in court. Senior Advocate Harihar Dahal stated that the president approves ordinances forwarded by the government only if he is satisfied. "But, the president is not satisfied with the draft ordinances as the present caretaker government is not accountable to the people," he added. Even if the caretaker government led by Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai challenges the president in court, I don´t think the SC would order the president to approve the ordinances, said Dahal. Advocate and leader of CPN-UML Agni Kharel said if the government wants to challenge the president it should move the court. Kharel argued that the president does not have any alternative other than putting the ordinances on hold as political parties have not reached consensus on the issue. However, Advocate Ram Prasad Bidari said the president cannot be questioned for shelving the ordinances legally. "The government may lose the legal battle as our courts are not progressive," Bidari stated. The government in August had forwarded draft ordinances on Disappearance, Truth and Reconciliation, Education Service (Eight amendments) Ordinance 2012, Civil Service (third amendment) Ordinance, 2012 and Nepal Health Service (fourth amendment) Ordinance, 2012. The president in the same month had rejected two election-related draft ordinances forwarded by the government arguing that they were not relevant. The government in last December had forwarded an ordinance, which was aimed at skipping parliamentary hearing for appointment of Supreme Court justices. Similarly, the cabinet meeting held on Jan 8 had decided to forward an ordinance aimed at amending some existing acts, in order to make the government services including health, education, local bodies, among others inclusive. Nnnn HOW THE FIGHT FOR JUSTICE IN JOURNALISR MURDER CASE BEGAN 1 Kathmandu, 17 Jan In the early morning of June 2, 2008, two Dailekh-based reporters, Naman Shahi and Yam Raj Sharma, reached Dwari village, where journalist Dekendra Thapa was "buried alive" some four years ago. Even though the Maoists had joined open politics by then, speaking up against them would still court troubles in Dailekh, Khagendr Sejuwal writes in Republica from Surkhet.. Shahi and Sharma were on a mission to spot the place where Thapa´s dead body was laid. However, no one was ready to help them out. Even those villagers who saw Maoist cadres burying Thapa´s dead body were keeping mum. Luckily, Shahi and Sharma came across a villager who was leaving Dwari for India on that very day. That villager got ready to help Shahi and Sharma on condition of anonymity. “I would not have become ready to show his (Thapa´s) grave had I not done all preparations to go to India,” he said, adding, “But, please never disclose my name to any one. Else, I will not be able to return and live in my village ever in future.” Having returned from Dwari, Shahi and Sharma said to Bishnu Sharma, who was then president of the Dailekh chapter of Federation of Nepalese Journalist (FNJ), “We must now exhume Dekendra dai (elder brother)´s dead body at any cost.” Shahi, who was also Dailekh district representative of Informal Sector Service Centre (INSEC), sent a preliminary report on this issue to his regional office, too. Before Thapa´s grave was traced, the slain journalist´s wife Laxmi had wandered for months in Raniban, Baluwatar and Dwari villages of Dailekh, asking for the locals´s help in performing her husband´s final rites. However, no one had showed Laxmi where her husband was buried. “May be, we would have never traced Thapa´s grave if it was not for that anonymous villager´s help,” recalls Shahi. After the FNJ asked its Dailekh chapter to confirm Thapa´s grave, a team of nine journalists, led by Bishnu Sharma, went to Dwari. On the pretext of reporting about a school building constructed by the DFID of the UK, they confirmed Thapa´s grave. Later, Sharma´s team reached there twice for the same mission. “It was very risky to enquire about Thapa´s grave at that time,” recalls Sharma now. When Thapa´s grave was reconfirmed, the FNJ requested National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) for exhuming the slain journalist´s mortal remains. Until then, the process of exhuming Thapa´s body was kept very secret. Nine days before Thapa´s body was exhumed, the secret plan was leaked, which risked the lives of journalists and human rights activists. The FNJ urged the Ministry of Home Affairs (MoHA) to provide security for exhuming Thapa´s body. As per the instructions by the MoHA, the Dailekh police provided security for journalists and human rights activists who reached Dwari. “We were very frightened,” says Sharma. “The security provided by the Dailekh police boosted our confidence.” On June 25, 2008, forensic expert Harihar Wosti started digging Thapa´s grave with his bare hands and a small pick. “When the dead body was found, we easily knew that it was Dekendra dai (elder brother).” With the recovery of Thapa´s dead body, the FNJ launched another phase of struggle for justice for Thapa´s family. Backed by the FNJ, Thapa´s wife Laxmi filed a case against four Maoist cadres allegedly involved in thrashing her husband to death. At the outset, no lawyer was ready to support Laxmi. Three days later, a lawyer somehow mustered courage to support Laxmi. However, the Dailekh police did not accept Laxmi´s case. It was only after the FNJ pressed the government for registering Laxmi´s case that the Dailekh police relented. One month later, Pushkar Thapa, the present president of the Dailekh chapter of the FNJ, announced that they will observe every August 11 -- the day Thapa was slain -- as Dekendra Thapa memorial day. In Thapa´s leadership, local journalists started boycotting every program attended by top-level government authorities in Dailekh. They persistently exerted pressure on every government authority who turned up in Dailekh for arresting Thapa´s murderers. But, for around four years after Laxmi filed a case, the police arrested no one involved in Thapa´s murder. It was only after the Surkhet appellate court ordered the Dailekh police to arrest Thapa´s murderers within 15 days December last year that five Maoist cadres were arrested. Now, despite the hurdles created by Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai and Attorney General Mukti Pradhan, recording of statements of the accused is on. And, Laxmi´s fight for justice is yet not over. “We are yet to go a long way,” says Thapa. “Four of the accused are still roaming freely.” Nnnn