Young Communist League members beat up a pregnant woman and her mother-in-law in Dang on Thursday because they had a dispute with her husband, Republica reports:

Maoist Young Communist League (YCL) workers mercilessly beat up a pregnant woman in Baghmare VDC of Dang district on Thursday evening over their enmity with her husband. Pushpa Nepali, 24, and her mother-in-law were beaten up by a group of about 12 YCL cadres in their own house.

Pushpa’s husband Man Bahadur Pariyar is the village unit secretary of Tarun Dal — youth wing of the Nepali Congress. A few days ago, Man Bahadur had appealed to the administration to stop timber smuggling taking place in the district. Thereafter, the Maoists had been harassing him and threatening him.

Nepali has suffered from bruising all over her body, and YCL has denied any involvement in the beating.

In Kathmandu, Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital doctors, who stopped providing non-emergency medical services few days ago, have threatened to halt emergency services as well. Also from Republica:

Resident doctors, who are on the warpath for the past one week in solidarity with medical students who boycotted entrance exams held on March 13 and 14 for post graduate studies in medicine, will stay off the hospital from Tuesday.

According to Manoj Kumar Poudel, the president of Free Students Union (FSU) at TUTH, resident doctors will work only till Monday. “No resident doctor will work from Tuesday so as to further press our demands,” Poudel told myrepublica.com.

They have demanded a fair probe into the alleged irregularities by Dr Sayami and the cancellation of the entrance exams as well. Nepal Medical Council (NMC) has already invalidated the controversial entrance exams and recommended to the Tribhuvan University (TU) to scrap it.

We don’t want to bring you down on Friday, so here is some good news. After two months of wrangling, the cabinet has finally agreed to appoint Yubaraj Khatiwada as the governer of Nepal Rastra Bank. The Himalayan Times writes:

The Cabinet meeting on Friday formally decided to appoint Yubaraj Khatiwada to the post of Nepal Rastra Bank governor ending an extended dispute on the contentious issue.

The Cabinet meet also appointed Bidhyadhar Mallik as the vice chairperson of the Poverty Alleviation Fund (PAF).

Similarly, the meeting also resolved the controversial issue of printing the Machine Readable Passports (MRPs). It decided to entrust the responsibility of printing the MRPs to India after holding bilateral talks between the two countries.

Is that still good news? International Civil Aviation Organisation wants all countries to use machine readable passports by 1 April. But, the Public Accounts Committee had rejected Deputy Prime Minister Sujata Koirala’s proposal to give the contract to Indian company saying it was the most expensive option. It had also asked the Foreign Ministry to reactive earlier bidding process which was halted unexpectedly.

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B Lynn Pascoe has come and gone, but the ruckus between the government and UNMIN continues. On Wednesday, UNMIN Chief Karen Landgren wrote a letter to the government asking it to retract a statement made by Defence Minister Bidya Bhandari accusing the international agency of favouring the Maoists. According to Republica:

Landgren sent a letter to the prime minister Wednesday to protest the remarks that accused UNMIN of being “the Maoist party´s tail and of keeping the government in the dark.” The defense minister had also accused UNMIN of provoking the Maoists to carry out violent activity.

“The statement is untrue and defames the United Nations and its founding principles,” the letter undersigned by Landgren reads, “Such allegations place UNMIN´s staff at increased risk in our efforts to support Nepal´s peace process.”

Minister Bhandari was complaining about what she said was UNMIN’s refusal to share the number of Maoists combatants stationed in various cantonments. On Thursday, UNMIN issued a letter saying the government has actually never asked UNMIN to provide the number of the combatants. From Nagarik:

UNMIN has said the government did not ask it to provide the number of Maoist combatants in the cantonments. The government is justified in asking the number of those combatants, it has said in a letter, adding that the number is neither a secret nor is it to be withheld from the public. But the government had not requested such data, says the letter issued by UNMIN spokesperson.

Expect the government to deal with this when it are done fighting within itself. The two leading parties of the coalition cancelled a cabinet meeting over disagreements on Nepal Rastra Bank’s governor appointment and the contract for machine readable passport. Nepalnews writes:

The UML and the NC have their own candidates for NRB governor. The UML has named Dr Yuba Raj Khatiwada, the current vice chairman of National Planning Commission, while NC wants deputy governor Bir Bikram Rayamajhi to be appointed to the top position of the central bank.

Similarly, the two main ruling allies also differ on the printing of MRPs. Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sujata Koirala was expected to table a proposal in the cabinet today, proposing to award the multi-million dollar MRP printing contract to an Indian government-owned firm.

And, 31 people died today as a bus travelling from Kalikot to Surkhet skidded off the road and plunged into the Karnali river. Twelve passengers have been rescued and are receiving treatment in Surkhet.

Read also:
A letter to Baburam Bhattarai, by Ameet Dhakal, Reoublica

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Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal’s government has set a record by being the biggest spender since the country adopted the multi-party democracy. According to Kantipur, Nepal’s 43-member cabinet has already blown off its annual budget.

Last year, the prime minister and cabinet members’ staff did not even spend Rs 20 million set aside for them. This year, the government is expected to spend twice the allocated amount of Rs 29 million.

Not only is the cabinet big, the teams of the cabinet members have expanded as well. Only the prime minister and information minister used to hire a press advisor before. Now, almost all ministers have such advisors.

The prime minister and his ministers have also set a new record in taking trips. The cabinet spent the allocated amount of Rs 60 million for overseas trips in just six months. It has also already spent the additional Rs 20 million released since.

The Finance Ministry has refused to foot a Rs 20 million bill for the use of helicopter by the Home Ministry saying it does not understand why the helicopters were hired in more than half of the reported instances.

All this will be good fodder for the opposition party leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal, who has asked for the special session in the parliament. Republica writes:

Amidst reports of Maoist preparations for a no-confidence motion against the government, Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal on Tuesday made it clear that his party wanted a special session of parliament to discuss corruption, killings and terrorism but not to change the government.

Dahal’s clarification-like remark came amidst the Maoist drive to collect the signatures of its lawmakers to demand the special session of parliament. The Maoist move has been interpreted as being aimed at toppling the incumbent coalition government to which the UCPN-M has not been reconciled ever since it came to power last May.

And, a new development in the bickering between the government and the Maoist Party over the integration of Maoist combatants. While the government remains adamant that the integration process will not start until it gets an exact count of the combatants, Maoist leader Dahal has said the combatants themselves need to be consulted in the matter. Nagarik reports:

Dahal has said the combatants need to be asked about how many of them should be integrated. “We need to ask them about where they want to go,” Dahal said at a press conference in Nepalgunj. He said some could be integrated into the army, some into the police force while others could go home and some could pursue studies.

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There is news that Nepali Congress President Girija Prasad Koirala’s health has improved since he was admitted to Sahid Gangalal Heart Centre on Sunday evening. Nepalnews reports:

Koirala has started speaking and the amount of haemoglobin in his blood has increased. He was administered some blood last night as the blood level in his body had gone way below normal.

The High Level Political Mechanism, of which Koirala is the coordinator, held its final meeting of the second round of talks on Monday, but ended without a consensus. The Himalayan Times reports:

UCPN-M, CPN-UML and NC leaders failed to garner consensus after they stuck to their own individual agenda regarding the finalisation of the CA committee draft.

According to the UCPN-M leader, Dev Gurung the meeting could not resolve the differences after the UML and NC leaders ruled out the Maoist proposal for finalising the draft of the nine committees of the CA through voting.

President Ram Baran Yadav is reported to be concerned about the hiccups in writing the constitution and summoned CA Chairman Subash Nembang to update him on the progress.

“President Yadav wanted to know what options were available if the constitution is not written on time,” Kantipur writes. “But Nembang didn’t want to get into that saying ‘the only uncontroversial alternative is to write it on time.’”

While the President inquires about the the progress on the constitution, Vice President Parmananda Jha has injected a new issue into the debate. The Himalayan Times reports:

Vice-president Parmananda Jha today said that Nepal could be restored as a Hindu state in the new statute if majority of Nepalese demanded and desired so.

Talking to media persons in Dhangadi after his arrival from Haridwar, India, Jha said that he too aspired for the revival of Hindu state as he was an ardent follower of Hinduism.

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Former prime minister and Nepali Congress president, Girija Prasad Koirala, has been admitted to Sahid Gangalal Heart Centre on Sunday evening after his health condition deteriorated. Doctors said the haemoglobin count on his blood had dropped and a blood transfusion was necessary. Koirala is suffering from chronic bronchitis.

Meanwhile, Nepali Congress leaders were gathered at the parliamentary party office to discuss a strategy if the Maoists propose a vote of no-confidence in the parliament. According The Kathmandu Post:

The UCPN (Maoist) has begun homework for the formation of a national unity government under its leadership. It has started discussions within the party to bring a no-confidence motion against the government by calling a special session of  Legislature-Parliament.

“The party will discuss the matter further on Sunday. We might have to go for a no-trust motion as the UML and NC have forwarded conditions for the change of guard,” said Shakti Basnet, politburo member.

The party has also asked all its legislators to return the capital within a couple of days.

And, UNMIN Chief Karen Landgren met with the leaders of the three big political parties today to discuss the Mission’s role in the peace process. Kantipur writes:

The United Nations Mission in Nepal (UNMIN), which has been drawing flaks from the ruling parties over its denial to divulge the details of Maoist combatants, on Sunday held discussions with the three major parties—UCPN (Maoist), Nepali Congress (NC) and CPN-UML.

NC leader Krishna Sitaula, who was also present in the meeting, said UNMIN Chief Karin Landgren wanted to know about the political parties’ stance on UNMIN’s role in the peace process.

Likewise, Maoist leader Krishna Bahadur Mahara said that the political parties did not express their dissatisfaction over UNMIN’s role in the meeting.

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The day 23 Tibetans exiles were handed over to the immigration authority for defying prohibitory orders and staging a protest against China, the United States released a damning report on China’s human rights record. Republica reports:

The United States criticized China´s “worsening” human rights record accusing the communist country of torturing Tibetan “repatriated from Nepal” as well as “repression” of Uighur activists in Xinjiang province.

“Tibetans repatriated from Nepal reportedly suffered torture, including electric shocks, exposure to cold and severe beatings, and were forced to perform heavy physical labor,” a US State Department´s annual human rights report said Thursday.

The report has also noted concern over Maoists’ engagement in violence in Nepal:

Maoist militias engaged in arbitrary and unlawful use of lethal force and abduction. Violence, extortion, and intimidation continued throughout the year. Numerous armed groups, largely in the Terai region in the lowland area near the Indian border, attacked civilians, government officials, members of particular ethnic groups, each other, or Maoist militias. Impunity for human rights violators, threats against the media, arbitrary arrest, and lengthy pretrial detention were serious problems.

At home, Chief of Army Staff, Chhatra Man Singh Gurung rejected bulk integration of Maoist combatants into the national army during a conversation with UN Under Secretary General B Lynn Pascoe. Nepalnews writes:

Gurung…told Pascoe that Maoists combatants are “politically indoctrinated” and it will be difficult to integrate them into the “disciplined, professional, competitive and apolitical” Nepal Army. He warned that not only will the group entry of those Maoist combatants break up the organizational unity of the national army, but it will cause “politicization” of the army that could possibly even lead to disintegration of the country.

In response to Gurung’s statement, Maoist spokersperson Dinanath Sharma said the army was trying to invite a civil war and impose a military dictatorship in the country.

While on the subject of Nepal Army: locals of Hariharpur in Surkhet have accused the army of raping three females, including a 12-year-old girl, and killing them. Kantipur reports:

Army personnel shot three civilians, including a 12-year-old girl, dead inside Bardia National Park in Bardia district on Wednesday night. Nepal Army has claimed that the three female victims were poachers and they were killed in self defence.

On Friday, the victims’ family members said the soldiers forced all the men to leave and killed the women after raping them while they were taking shelter in the forest. The men who survived the incident claim that the women were shot two hours after they were caught.

An eye-witness, who says was hiding near the spot of the incident, said the soldiers raped the women after threatening the men to leave. He showed his amputated hand and said, “A disabled man survives, but all the women die. What kind of confronation is that?”

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United National Under Secretary General for Political Affairs B Lynn Pascoe said UNMIN is being blamed for the failure of political parties and cannot take responsibility for their inability to adhere to the peace agreement. Nepalnews reports:

He claimed the remarks [made by government ministers and top politicians] over the performance of UNMIN in the ongoing peace process and that allegations that UNMIN was to blame for the complications seen in the peace process were “false” and that the political parties are putting all sorts of blame on the Maoists to cover their mistakes and failure to fulfill their responsibilities.

“UNMIN is here to help…but it can’t take the blame for those who can’t shoulder the responsibility of successfully concluding the process a success,” Pascoe said.

The government had accused UNMIN of being uncooperative for withholding information about Maoists combatants. About the controversy, Pascoe said:

Referring to Nepal government’s request to UNMIN to provide information on Maoist combatants in the cantonments, Pascoe bluntly said that the actual number of Maoist combatants can’t be shared and it will remain a secret.

He said the information on the combatants should be kept secret as per the understanding reached between the government and the Maoists and that UNMIN will honestly abide by it (the understanding).

Pascoe said UNMIN does not have the responsibility or capability to do any police work in Nepal. If it is constantly dragged into controversies, the Security Council would be forced to think about whether its mandate should be extended, he added.

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