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Subject: To Ben, New Guy, Ranger, etc
Forester    6/25/2002 12:02:56 AM
If a person is locked in a room, should that person try to escape from the window? What do you think? The same is true for Nepal. The country has been India locked for the last 50 Years. India, under the guise of 'special relationships' is trying to block the soverignity of Nepal and make it de facto colony. India is the the root cause of our ills. The UK, USA and others have donated large funds for the development of Nepal, where as India doesnot spend a penny. West has raised the issue of poor governance in nepal as root cause, where as India is silent on this Crucial issue. It is because India has through all kind of economical and political leverage, and taking undue advantage of landlocked position of Nepal, worked to succumb Nepal to its knees. This is the reality the West need to understand. Hence Maoism is not the cause of the problems of Nepal, it is rather the only solution, as Nepalese people are locked in a room by India and the rest of the world valued their business linkages with India more than the Freedom of Nepalese People. For more info, read this message from Washington: --------------------------------- DELHI LEAVES NEPAL GATE AJAR FROM K.P. NAYAR Washington, June 23: WWhen Nepal’s King Gyanendra and Indian leaders get down on Monday to discussing the nitty-gritty of their bilateral relations, their talks will be unlike any other between India and Nepal in the last half a century. For the first time since India’s “special relationship” with Nepal was acknowledged by the rest of the world during Jawaharlal Nehru’s prime ministership, looming over these discussions will be the shadow of two major powers, the US and the UK. The terrorist attacks in New York and Washington on September 11 and the Maoist sub-plot to the terrorist threat to America from South Asia have brought about an undercurrent of change in the fundamentals of India’s ties with Nepal. Underscoring this change was a two-day international initiative on Nepal, which concluded in London almost on the eve of the King’s departure for New Delhi today. Hosted by the British government, it was attended by India, the US, Russia, China, Japan, France, Germany, Norway, Switzerland, Finland, Denmark, Australia and, of course, Nepal. Nepalese sources, who attended the meeting in London told The Telegraph that the basic structure of the conference was a rehash of the meetings held every year in Paris to discuss international aid to Kathmandu. But they said there were two crucial differences. Most important, India has consistently refused to attend the annual Paris dialogue except as an observer, arguing that India’s assistance to Nepal is a bilateral matter in view of its special ties with the kingdom. Second was the presence of China at the London meeting. China has all along made the mandatory noises about Nepal, but has, in effect, conceded that the kingdom comes under India’s sphere of influence. When the Communists were elected to power in Nepal in 1994, Beijing went out of its way to assure the P.V. Narasimha Rao government that it would not be party to any attempt in Kathmandu to play the China card against New Delhi. By its active participation in the London meeting and its endorsement of China’s presence at the conference, India has signalled that it is no longer averse to greater internationalisation of Nepal’s problems. Such a change, which has deep ramifications for the future of South Asia, actually started with US secretary of state Colin Powell’s visit to India in January. Nepal figured prominently in Powell’s talks with Indian leaders. From New Delhi, Powell travelled to Kathmandu, the first US secretary of state to visit Nepal in half a century. Committing the US unequivocally to a future role in Nepal, Powell prescribed solutions to Nepal’s terrorist threat, which were drastically different from US prescriptions in Afghanistan. He said in Kathmandu: “You have to fight the terrorist activity. You have to fight the terrorist, but at the same time you must commit your nation and your government to good governance and to ending corruption, to finding ways to move the economy forward, diversifying the economy, taking advantage of the natural resources you have, such as the potential that exists in this country with respect to hydroelectric opportunities.” In a promise which could have ramifications for the unique nature of trade and transit arrangements between India and Nepal, Powell also talked of Kathmandu’s membership of the World Trade Organisation as a “worthy goal”. He met military authorities in Kathmandu to discuss US armed assistance to help fight the Maoists. Back in Washington, Powell persuaded President George W. Bush to seek an additional $20 million in emergency assistance to Nepal. But more significantly, the secretary of state’s visit to Nepal has been followed by unprecedented and intense activity between Kathmandu and Washin
 
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Ferro    RE:To Ben, New Guy, Ranger, etc--- Gandhism vs. Maoism   6/25/2002 9:52:11 PM
In a country, where the The Head of the State (King) is a Well known Smuggler, where the Crown Prince is a serial Killer, What should the West and our neighbors expect from us? Gandhism or Maoism?
 
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Nepali dimag    News from Rolpa...Capital of the Peoples republic of Nepal   6/25/2002 10:23:12 PM
EVERYONE BEGINS TO LOOK LIKE A MAOIST FROM DEEPAK THAPA Kathmandu, June 25: Where the motor road ends at Sulichaur, a foot-trail strikes out northward along the Lungri Khola. This path is a lifeline for the upper parts of Rolpa and Rukum districts — names that have become synonymous with the Maoists’ People’s Liberation Army. But for all its significance as a major supply route, there is hardly anybody walking on the road. The only indication of life is a mule train tethered outside the town limits. The villages along the way seem equally deserted though the fields are well cultivated. The few people one sees working in the fields are well past their prime while the houses are tended by children. The absence of the young is very striking in Rolpa. The youths, people say, have all left to escape forced enrollment into the Maoist army and also because of regular harassment from security forces. Thus, one cannot help but suspect that the few able-bodied young men and women striding along could be Maoist fighters on their way home or their unit. One also begins to get an idea why there are reports of so many innocent people getting killed by the security forces. In the classic guerilla setting that Rolpa is, every villager begins to look like a Maoist. Walking throughout the day, there is only one cheerful-looking young man we come across. He has time to pause and ask where we are from. His handshake is firm — we’ve been told this is a trademark Maoist clasp. But his Bahun (hill Brahmin) features show he is an outsider in this region that is predominantly Magar, the largest Tibetan-Burman ethnic group in Nepal. The man is a teacher on his way to the district headquarters. It is a pleasant surprise to learn that despite the emergency and the fighting that flares up now and then, schools are still running. In fact, apart from a rather irregular postal service, these schools are the state’s only link to the villages nestled deep inside Maoist territory. We spend the night with schoolteachers in Pobang village. They point out the ridgeline, Gam, two valleys further to the west. Gam is the site where the army suffered a major setback in early May. Coming just days after a Maoist training camp in the same area was besieged by the army, the attack on Gam revealed how vulnerable the army was, stationed in the middle of nowhere. Support can only come from air. On foot, it takes at least three days to reach here from the army garrison in Libang. The teachers tell us how five soldiers had managed to escape the Maoist assault in Gam and having made their way for three days along the river bed, they ran into a Maoist patrol, a short distance away from Pobang. Fortunately, they succeeded in outrunning their pursuers. When one is running for his life, nothing can catch him, the teachers conclude. Soon a crowd has gathered around us and people begin to talk. There has been no government for the past three years, they rue. The Maoists carry out all administrative work such as collection of land revenue and land transfers. A local shopkeeper is back after a three-year stint in Malaysia as an electrician. Wrong timing to open a shop, he agrees — he has nothing much to sell. We are lucky to find a pensioner from the irrigation department of Himachal Pradesh who is willing to talk. Kumbha Singh Pun tells us how development was slowly reaching the remote parts of Rolpa, but everything has now come to a halt. Pun recalls how the distance he had to walk to go to India had gradually shortened over time as the roads penetrated deeper into the hills. He also tells us that the talks between the government and the Maoist leaders last year had raised a lot of hopes. The Maoists went around assuring people that the worst was over. But after the resumption of hostilities in November, the hopes died out. The people have no illusions about the elections scheduled for November. It might be held in Libang, but in villages, people will be too scared of the Maoists to vote. Unless, of course, the army comes out and forces people into the booths. However, the people choose to remain silent on the Maoists. Not much is said against them. Just a hint here and there, but it is clear they are holding back and we do not press them. The general consensus is that no matter who gains ascendancy in the fighting, the talks should bring peace. When the conversation is over, the people strain their ears to catch the sound of gunfire beyond the high mountain that towers over us. We can’t hear a thing, just as in Kathmandu we could not hear the cries of desperation ringing through these beautiful mountains of Rolpa.
 
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