Radio Free Nepal

The King started using media as a mean of propaganda. State-owned National News Agency distributed a news item in its March 14 bulletin that no newspaper wished to miss. It was about the rift in insurgents’ group saying that top leader had been expelled. All newspaper carried the news with a tag, ‘Says Royal Nepalese Army’. On March 15, the group denied the report but no newspaper could publish it because the authority has directed them ‘Not to publish any news about the group unless given by the Army’.

It is an example of using private media for propaganda and though international media covered the news with denial from the group, most of the Nepalese still believe that the news was true.

To increase the pressure on media and to threaten them, the authority summoned editor of the largest daily, Kantipur, on March 17. Narayan Wagle, the middle-age editor who started his career as the reporter in the same paper, went to Police Station – who have no legal right to question media, on the call and talked with superintendent of police for about an hour on the news about ‘anti-monarch protests.’ With due credit of United We Blog!, a blogsite run by journalists in Nepal, I quote Wagle as saying: “A group of politicians from five top political parties of the country assembled in Bangkok, though I know it though news sites, and decided that they should go for Constituent Assembly which will decide the future of monarchy in Nepal. It is in fact what the insurgents were demanding when they last sat on the table for talk, but the politicians of that time denied to talk on it saying ‘there can be no talk on democracy and constitutional monarchy.’ It is yet to see how the top politicians, most of them are under house arrest, will react, but it was an encouraging decision at the time when there is widespread feeling that the leadership should go to hands of youngsters from those who failed. Continue reading…

Two student leaders Rajendra Rai and Rup Narayan Shrestha were ordered to be released by the Supreme Court on May 16. The policemen were ready to re-arrest them inside the court premises – as soon as they came out along with their lawyers, police tried to arrest them despite protests from lawyers, journalists and followers. Rai was arrested while Shrestha was avoided it by the help of his supporters.

Similar incident happened two weeks ago to Gagan Kumar Thapa and Pradeep Paudel. Both were released by Supreme Court, they signed the papers and were re-arrested.

On May 18, a few communist leaders were released by court orders but the lawyers and others had to do a lot of exercise to keep him away from re-arrest. There were two police vans inside the court premises which were later removed after the registrar inquired about it. Continue reading…

Is peace equivalent to the King’s rule? Is Royal Nepal Army’s success against Maoists is the King’s success? Are political parties and rebel group similar? Are political parties supporting insurgency?

There are attempts to make people believe all the answers to these questions ‘Yes’. But the reality is that most of the answers to these questions is NO. And I strongly believe blurring the border between many things stated above will not have a good result in future.

Here I present my views on each question and the difference in two things compared. Continue reading…

To present itself as the non-violator of the human rights and prove the political leaders are arrested just for a time being in the 61st session of International Conference on Human Rights, the King-led government freed ex-Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and some other political leaders. Deuba quickly arranged a press conference and hit hard on the King’s motive while calling for the unity among political parties.

Newspapers, all dailies, received a phone call from an official of the communication secretary directing ‘not to cover the press conference.’ The newspaper asked for the written directives and when the ministry failed to fax one, the news was carried (although played down heavily). Only two – The Kathmandu Post and vernacular Kantipur placed the news as the main story of the front page while other ‘didn’t missed’ the story but had to be look through to find.

The King, while meeting with the editors of the dailies told the them that the press censorship will apply only for the news of the terrorists, but failed to live up with his words. The directing phone call from the ministry on Saturday is an attempt to use the media as a propaganda machine so that the people read no word against the King.

What did Deuba said? His press release reads (unofficial translation of important parts): Continue reading…

Appeal to the International Community by Gagan Kumar Thapa
on behalf of the Democratic Youth of Nepal

12 March 2005, Kathmandu

After the royal-military coup of 1 February 2005, dictator Gyanendra Shah and his unaccountable military machine in Nepal has been pursuing diplomatic efforts to woo the international community to finance his totalitarian regime. The youth of Nepal struggling for democracy would like to appeal to the international community to stop all military and developmental aid to this unrepresentative, undemocratic and unaccountable military regime.

It is clear that Gyanendra Shah and his military regime want to use the international financial assistance to (a) strengthen their military strength to destroy the democratic middle ground in Nepal, (b) pursue a militaristic approach to Nepal’s political crisis about which there is already a near-universal consensus that it can only be resolved politically, © gain symbolic legitimacy by publicizing the fact that international community recognizes his regime as they continue providing developmental assistance, (d) covertly channel the developmental assistance towards the military establishment, and (e) misuse the development assistance through corruption, which is easier now for him as he has systematically killed all the institutions needed for accountability and transparency of the state. Continue reading…

There has been a few rallies ‘in support of the Royal Proclamation’. Immediately after Feb 1, there were a few one participated by some Royalists welcoming the proclamation. And in last week, there has been a few participated by students, clubs, government employees and many others. If you have seen these rallies, and the protesting ones with only 25 – 50 people, you might have thought there has been more support for the King and that Nepali people are happily accepting King’s direct rule and death of democracy.

But I believe all of that is nothing but a Government Propoganda.

While the authority has banned people from gathering in a group in sensative areas due to State of Emergency, is has been directing others for the ‘compulsory participation’ in the rallies. Some friends had told me that District Administration Office directed all the institutions of the district ‘for compulsory participation’ in some of these rallies.

When I asked a few people in one of such rally in Kathmandu, he said no common people, be it businessmen, or teachers or whatsoever, can defy the ‘authoritive direction’ and if he did, he could face serious problems in his business. He was afraid of authority and the King played on that to show the international communities and Nepali people that he is welcome around.

Ditto to government officials, various other institution, they fear the adverse effect of defying. And, there was rally of the Buddhist monks – about 18 monastries participated with photos of King Gyanendra and Queen Komal. I was there. I asked one of the participants why she was there. She told me she didn’t know. The other girl on her side poked her and said ‘she should not speak of strangers because they can be anyone’.

Some analysts told me that since the government had closed down a few Tibet supporting offices in recent past, to make China happy, these monastries are also under threat and they had no choice when asked by authority to organise a rally. It was really sad to see that the authority is dragging the disciples of Lord Buddha, the peace advocaters, into the dirty politics.

And then the photo of the rallies makes main photos of government owned dailies which always says ‘a big rally’ although later adds ‘participated by hundreds of people’.

And why those protest rallies are too thin. The security are all ready not to let them walk 10 m in rallies, they will bring a few vans put them inside and take them to unknown places. Even there are hundreds to plain-clothed police who will engage themselves in arrest. Moreover, the goverment is doing everything it can to stop the communication channels between the leaders and people.

On the other day, authority cut off communication to Jhala Nath Khanal, who was given the responsibility of acting general secretary of Communist Party of Nepal (CPN-UML) by a party cadres since general secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal is under house-arrest, where they are given no communication other than state-owned newspapers (to read government propoganda) and religious books.

Special note on this entry:Radio Free Nepal was a blog that ran during ex-King Gyanendra’s direct rule of Nepal defying the tight censorship and was instrumental in getting out information out of Nepal. The blog was at freenepal.blogspot.com which has now been closed.

The banner reads: King Gyandendra of Nepal has issued a ban on independent news broadcasts and has threatened to punish newspapers for reports that run counter to the official monarchist line. Given that any person in Nepal publishing reports critical of “the spirit of the royal proclamation” is subject to punishment and/or imprisonment, contributors to this blog will publish their reports from Nepal anonymously.

Student leaders have accused authority of not following the law during and the arrest of their colleagues. Talking to RFN, Pradeep Poudel, the vice-president of Nepal Student Union and Madhukar Khanal, a student leader, said that the police mistreated with the family members of Suraj Kafle, the former central member, and Asta Kumar Shahi, the central member, during the raid in their homes to arrest them.

The leaders also told RFN that the two along with Pradeep Humagain, the free student union president of Kathmandu Education Campus and Yuvraj Singh of Nepal Commerce Campus been held in custody giving them the warrant staying they have been arrested for maintaining peace and order. Khanal said it’s illegal to keep them in custody after giving the warrant. “They should immediately be sent to jail and treated as the political figure,” he said.

The union also denonced the mistreat of family members by the security force.

Special note on this entry:Radio Free Nepal was a blog that ran during ex-King Gyanendra’s direct rule of Nepal defying the tight censorship and was instrumental in getting out information out of Nepal. The blog was at freenepal.blogspot.com which has now been closed.

The banner reads: King Gyandendra of Nepal has issued a ban on independent news broadcasts and has threatened to punish newspapers for reports that run counter to the official monarchist line. Given that any person in Nepal publishing reports critical of “the spirit of the royal proclamation” is subject to punishment and/or imprisonment, contributors to this blog will publish their reports from Nepal anonymously.

On March 3, about a dozen of protesters were forced into police van,then taken away, cracking down their attempt to peacefully protest against the King’s move. Dozens more students faced the same when they attempted to organize programs demanding restoration of democracy.

Same day, the King’s men extended for two months the house arrest of two former prime ministers and four other top political leaders. They are being kept under house arrest to weaken any protest program. They are being held under the Public Security Act.

Those detained included Girija Prasad Koirala, Nepal’s first prime minister elected in 1991 and head of the centrist Nepali Congress Party, and Sher Bahadur Deuba, whom Gyanendra sacked as prime minister, former finance minister Bharat Mohan Adhikari, sacked home minister Puna Bahadur Khadka, Madhav Kumar Nepal – general secretary of the Communist Party of Nepal United Marxist and Leninist (CPN-UML), and Amik Sherchan. Continue reading…

An hour ago, RFN interviewed a student leader, the vice-president of Nepal Student Union – the largest student union on telephone:

NSU Vice-president Pradeep Poudel, the vice-president of the Nepal Student Union (NSU) – the sister organization of one of the largest parties Nepali Congress, while giving an exclusive interview to the Radio Free Nepal claimed that the ‘new movement would overthrow the king’ and the country would ‘experience true democracy – that is democracy without king.’ Poudel believes it is impossible to bring kings under constitution and is now calling on the international community to support the democracy movement in Nepal and for donors to cut off the flow of aid to Nepal.

Excerpts of the telephone interview: Continue reading…

Gagan Thapa, the outspoken republic-advocate, and former General Secretary of Nepal Student Union, the sister-organization of the biggest political party Nepali Congress has issued an appeal urging the youth of the country to fight against the King’s move. Radio Free Nepal received the appeal in email and is being reproduced here.

APPEAL FROM GAGAN KUMAR THAPA

Democracy and individual freedoms are not only the hallmark of the 21st century but are the inalienable rights of a nation and its communities and individuals. Today these rights are not only restricted within documents but have become a way of life. King Gynendra’s assumption of absolute power in Nepal has not only caused a set-back to the national development but has also compelled all the freedom lovers to re-group to fight till the end using all peaceful means available. We the youth of Nepal represent the agents of change—more fit to invent, than to judge; more fit for execution, than for counsel; and more fit for new projects, than for existing business. No wonder our troubled nation has once again put her faith upon us.

Inefficiency in tackling Maoists and corruption by the political leaders in the past fourteen years has been the basis behind the king’s move towards the assumption of absolute power. But the past fourteen years of democratic practice has impacted the way people perceive their rights and freedom. Commoners have become more vocal in demanding their rights with the concerned authorities and that has been the greatest achievement of democracy in the last fourteen years. King Gyanendra claims that the democracy failed to represent the voice of people and is therefore, misleading and baseless. Nepal has remained poor and the justice has been curtailed since its unification. What about the corruption, inefficiency and injustices that have been perpetuated by the Monarch of Nepal for the past 237 years? Shouldn’t it be raised as a relevant question? And therefore we the young ones of Nepal have been advancing the cause of republic set-up in Nepal. Continue reading…