US embassy cable - 02KATHMANDU2456

UNCLAS KATHMANDU 002456 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
STATE FOR SA/INS 
LONDON FOR POL - RIEDEL 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PTER, PGOV, NP, Maoist Insurgency 
SUBJECT: NEPAL:  MAOIST STUDENT UNION SUSPENDS STRIKE 
 
REF: KATHMANDU 2346 
 
1.  (U) On December 22 the Maoist-affiliated All Nepal 
National Independent Students Union - Revolutionary 
(ANNISU-R) ended its strike against private schools in the 
Kathmandu Valley after the schools' directors agreed to cut 
tuition up to 25 percent.  The strike, which began on 
December 9, had forced the closure of 2,000 private and 
boarding schools across the Valley for two weeks, affecting 
500,000 students.  Lincoln International School, which is 
attended by most Mission dependent children, continued to 
hold classes at alternate locations, including private homes, 
from December 9-19, when the winter break began.  Other 
private schools in Kathmandu not already on winter break 
opened December 23 for the first time in two weeks. 
 
2.  (SBU)  The ANNISU-R announcement cautioned that the 
student union will reinstitute the strike the second week of 
February if the rest of its demands are not met.   Rajesh 
Khadka, President of the Private and Boarding School 
Organization of Nepal (PABSON), told the Embassy that his 
organization had done its part to avert continuation of the 
strike by lowering tuition, suspending the assessment of 
miscellaneous additional fees, and pledging to hire more 
Nepali teachers.  The rest of the demands made by ANNISU-R, 
including that the Government of Nepal (GON) lift its 
official designation of the student wing as a terrorist 
organization, is up to the GON, he observed.  Therefore no 
one should blame PABSON if the strike resumes in February, he 
declared.  Other demands include that the GON disclose the 
whereabouts of student leaders in detention, and provide free 
education up to secondary school. 
 
3.  (SBU)  Nepal's public education system is so bad that 
even very poor Nepalis try to enroll their children in 
private school.  The GON has not yet officially responded to 
the ANNISU-R's suspension of its strike, but recent comments 
from GON leaders make it appear unlikely that they will agree 
to lift the terrorist designation given the student group. 
The student union probably came under considerable pressure 
from members of "civil society"--including, quite possibly, 
some with links to the Maoists--for holding the educational 
system hostage to their demands.  The reduction in school 
fees allows the ANNISU-R to claim a moral victory that may 
resonate with the many low-income Nepalis struggling to keep 
their children in private school.  To counter this, the GON 
will have to make good-faith efforts--and make them fast--to 
improve the public school system. 
MALINOWSKI