US embassy cable - 03KATHMANDU1072

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 05 KATHMANDU 001072 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: OPRC, PGOV, PREL, KMDR, NP 
SUBJECT: WEEKLY NEPAL MEDIA REPORT: JUNE 3 - 9, 2003 
 
-  STATE FOR NP, AC, PM 
-  STATE FOR IN/R/MR 
-  STATE FOR SA/INS, PM/CBM, PM/PRO 
-  STATE FOR SA/PPD 
 
 1.  POLITICAL AFFAIRS 
 
 KING APPOINTS NEW PRIME MINISTER 
 
 -- King Gyanendra appointed (6/4) Surya Bahadur Thapa 
 as the new Prime Minister.  Thapa's appointment bri 
                                                    ngs 
 to an end the controversy over "transfer" of the 
 executive powers from the cabinet to the crown, 
 following a royal decree on October 4.  A press 
 communique issued by the Royal Palace Press Secretariat 
 said the cabinet will enjoy all executive powers as 
 provided by the Constitution.  CPN-UML and four other 
 political parties, which proposed Madhav Kumar Nepal's 
 candidature for the prime ministership, have expressed 
their dissatisfaction over Thapa's appointment. 
Seventy-five-year-old Thapa has been appointed to the 
top post for the fifth time in his political career 
that dates back to 1958.  He had served three times as 
Prime Minister during the Panchayat era and once headed 
a coalition government after the restoration of 
democracy.  Prime Minister Thapa said Wednesday the 
"King has cleared" the issues raised by the opposition 
with whom he "will seek a dialogue to end the current 
dangerous crisis in the country."  (Compiled from press 
and electronic media reports, 6/5) 
 
-- Prime Minister Thapa was sworn in today (6/5), but 
the formation of a new cabinet will take longer as the 
five main political parties have refused to join his 
government.  (Media reports, 6/6) 
 
-- "Thapa likely to expand cabinet today (6/9)". 3 
ministers from Ratryia Prajatantra Party (RPP), 2 from 
previous cabinet." (Headline in the centrist "Kathmandu 
Post, E/D, 6/9) 
 
-- Nepal, Deuba go against prime minister's hope for 
support: CPN-UML general secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal 
and president of Nepali Congress (Democratic) Sher 
Bahadur Deuba rejected Prime Minister Thapa's offer to 
them to join the government. (Media reports, 6/9) 
 
-- Koirala puts condition for support: Nepali Congress 
president Girija Prasad Koirala offered to support the 
Surya Bahadur Thapa Government provided it would 
recommend revival of the dissolved House of parliament. 
(centrist "Kantipur," V/D, 6/7) 
 
PM PLEDGES FOR PEACE AND ELECTIONS 
 
-- Prime Minister Thapa pledged (6/7) that his 
government would evolve a national consensus in order 
to solve the Maoist problem.  He appealed to all the 
political parties including the Maoists to come around 
to a national consensus and facilitate the people to 
exercise their right to elect a new government at the 
center as well as the local level. Major political 
parties have taken Thapa's address to the nation as not 
different from the traditional ones in its essence and 
meaning. (Media reports, 6/7) 
 
PARTIES' REACTIONS 
 
-- Prachanda sees foreign hand in PM change: The 
Maoists have accused the establishment of moving in the 
direction of unfortunate confrontation by staging the 
"drama of change of government" in the interest and 
direction of foreign forces.  Prachanda adds that the 
Maoists' stance towards the new government would be the 
same as towards the Chand government on the dialogue 
table, reiterating that constitutionally the Thapa 
government was not very different from the Chand 
government. (Media reports, 6/5)  Dr. Baburam Bhattarai 
said, "There is no elemental difference between his 
predecessor and him.  He would do better to continue 
the four-month-old peace process." ("The Kathmandu 
Post," 6/5) 
 
-- Regressive move, says UM 
L: The meeting of the 
standing committee of the UML on Thursday labeled 
Thapa's appointment as a "continuation of regression." 
("Kantipur," 6/5) 
-- Five parties flay appointment: The five major 
political parties have flayed the appointment of Thapa 
as the new Prime Minister.  They have claimed that the 
new move taken by the King was only eyewash and would 
merely strengthen regressive tendency. The parties 
collectively denounced the appointment and ruled out 
any possibility of joining the government. (Media 
reports, 6/5-6) 
 
-- Former Nepali Congress Minister skeptical: "Thapa's 
chance of his making an all-inclusive government is 
nowhere in sight.  A most probable scenario is that his 
cabinet would consist of old Panchayat politicians 
rejected in the electoral process.  Mr. Thapa will have 
to show all his skill and dynamism to prove that this 
will not be so, and what he means is nothing short of 
the immediate and full reactivation of the 
constitution, which is the fundamental law of the 
land." (Op-ed in the "Kathmandu Post, 6/7, by Dr. Ram 
Sharan Mahat, former Finance Minister and a Central 
Working Committee member of Nepali Congress Party) 
 
-- Constitutional experts find appointment faulty: 
Constitutional experts have termed the recent move of 
King Gyanendra to appoint Surya Bahadur Thapa as the 
new Prime Minister of being faulty and claimed that the 
repeated use of Article 127 of the Constitution would 
lead the country towards further confusion and chaos, 
published reports said. (Nepalnews.com, 6/5) 
 
-- Foreign hands: Security analysts claim that Chand's 
resignation was a result of the growing influence of 
the U.S. intelligence agency in Nepal's internal 
affairs.  India became suspicious over the U.S.'s 
increasing interest in Nepal and mobilized all its 
energy to resolve Nepal's problems.  When parliamentary 
parties proposed U.S.-trusted Madhav Nepal, even Sher 
Bahadur Deuba, the honest actor of the U.S. 
intelligence agency, supported the proposal.  It was 
almost sure then that Nepal would become the new Prime 
Minister.  But Indian heavy weights - former PM Chandra 
Shekhar, former Ambassador K.V. Rajan and Nepal expert 
S.D. Muni, came to Kathmandu and played crucial roles 
to get Thapa to the post of prime minister.  The Royal 
Palace remained merely a spectator, it was helpless. 
India beat America. (leftist "Janadharana," V/W, 6/5) 
 
-- Nepal has turned into a playground for foreign 
powers.  The biggest question facing Nepalis today is 
where this foreign interference will take the country 
and its people's sovereignty.  The recent visit of K.V. 
Rajan raises an interesting point of inquiry.  It was 
during his visit Thapa emerged as a candidate for 
premiership, despite the recommendation of the five 
political parties.  The nomination, however, did 
highlight one thing clearly: India intends to turn 
Nepal into another Sikkim.  Thapa is a puppet. (leftist 
"Dristhi," V/W, 6/3) 
-- "No foreign hand in my appointment, says Thapa." 
(centrist "Rajdhani," V/D, 6/7) 
 
-- Students demonstrate: Student bodies of the five 
agitating political parties demonstrated in the capital 
Wednesday immediately after the announcement of the 
appointment of Surya Bahadur Thapa to the post of Prime 
Minister. (Nepalnews.com, 6/5) 
 
-- Nepali Times editorial: "...the West has always been 
allergic to that pseudo-radical party name, and 
regional players had their own favorite who was not the 
UML general secretary. It is an indication of how weak 
we have become as a state that diplomats this time 
didn't even bother to conceal their meetings with 
political leaders and express their preference for 
leadership..." (Nepali Times, 6/6) 
 
2.  PEACE TALKS 
 
-- King must abdicate: Dr Bhattarai: Senior Maoist 
leader Dr. Baburam Bhattarai has disclosed that they 
had approached King Gyanendra to abdicate as a 
condition for resolution to the Maoist-led insurgency 
in the country.  The proposal was, however, not 
 
acceptable to the King, said Dr. Bhattarai, addressing 
a rally in Gorkha (6/8). "In response to our written 
set of demands, the King had let it be known through 
the ministers that he was not ready to give up the 
throne and the army.  He had however agreed to the rest 
of the demands," Dr. Bhattarai said.  Dr. Bhattarai 
demanded that the King must be ready to give up the 
throne and the army.  "We are ready to give him both 
the posts of the prime minister and the president," he 
said.  He also said that his party would accept the 
King's stand only if he succeeds in curbing foreign 
interference in the country. (Media reports, 6/9) 
 
-- Maoists to take to streets: Four months after the 
government-Maoist ceasefire, the Maoists today 
announced a nation-wide people's movement, which they 
said would be peaceful and exert pressure on the 
government for the success of talks. (Reports, 6/9) 
-- Foreigners told to keep off Nepal affairs: 
Intelligentsia specially targets British envoy for his 
remarks on Nepal: The intelligentsia in Kathmandu us 
unhappy with the excessive interest of foreign envoys 
and diplomats in Nepal's affairs and their prescription 
of solutions to the problems plaguing Nepal.  "The 
British ambassador cannot talk about Nepal as if it is 
Britain," said Neelamber Acharya, a leftist 
intellectual. (pro-India "Himalayan Times," E/D, 6/7) 
 
-- Maoists not to sit for talks until demands proposed 
at second round met: Maoists will not sit down at the 
negotiating table for the third phase of talks with the 
government until their political demands presented at 
the second round of talks last month are met, a rebel 
leader at the contact office in Kathmandu who did not 
want to be identified by name said. (Nepalnews.com, 
6/5) 
 
-- "Old regime" to be blamed if talks fail, warns 
Prachanda: Maoist President Prachanda warned (6/3) that 
the "old regime" would be responsible for any 
consequences likely to arise in case the peace talks 
failed despite their last-hour efforts to make it a 
success.  The statement said that attempts have been 
made to run the Royal Nepal Army in the American way. 
Prachanda said in the statement that foreign forces are 
active in engineering the conflict between the palace 
and the political parties. ("The Kathmandu Post," 6/4) 
 
-- Maoist shot dead in "encounter": A Maoist cadre was 
killed (6/3) when security forces stationed at the 
Khimti Hydroelectric Project and a group of armed 
Maoists clashed with each other in Ramechhap district. 
The security forces arrested a woman Maoist soon after. 
(Media reports, 6/4) 
 
-- Prachanda asks Americans to quit Nepal: A recent 
central committee meeting of the Communist Party of 
Nepal (Maoist) has decided to appeal to the people to 
launch campaign to force "American imperialists out of 
Nepal".  According to a press statement signed by 
Prachanda, the party has decided to hold consultations 
on how to wage a war against the imperialists. ("The 
Himalayan Times," 6/3) 
 
-- Maoist leader accuses King of preparing to impose 
military rule: Member of the Maoist talks team Ram 
Bahadur Thapa alias Badal suspects the King is working 
secretly to impose military rule by terminating the 
 
SIPDIS 
ongoing peace talks.  Badal pointed towards the 
incidents of U.S. interference, dissolution of the 
Chand government and the Information Minister's 
expression on the consensus on code of conduct of the 
Royal Nepal Army (RNA) as signs of incoming martial 
law.  Blaming the U.S., Palace and RNA, Badal accused 
them of plotting against peace talks when the consensus 
from the second round of talks did not favor their 
motive. ("The Himalayan Times," 6/3) 
 
3.  POLITICAL PARTIES' MOVEMENT 
 
-- Parties demand Royal assets be made public: Five 
major political parties at the mock Upper House session 
(6/8) demanded that the Royal assets including that of 
late King Birendra and his family be made public. 
(Reports, 6/8) 
-- Maoist-parties joint agitation likely: 
 Maoist leader 
Ram Bahadur Thapa "Badal" said (6/7) that efforts were 
underway to draw up a common strategy and program to 
give the ongoing five-party movement a new height. 
("The Kathmandu Post," 6/8) 
 
-- Upper House members stopped outside Parliament: A 
group of Upper House members, led by the vice-chairman, 
was today denied entry to the Singha Durbar premises 
where the parliament secretariat is also located.  Then 
it decided to sit at the main gate of the premises and 
conduct the meeting.  It was for the first time in 
Nepal's parliamentary history that the incumbent 
members of the parliament were barred from entering the 
central secretariat of the government.  The members of 
the Upper House -- the National Assembly -- were trying 
to enter the parliament building to hold a "special 
meeting", which was expected to adopt resolutions 
against the October 4 royal move. ("The Kathmandu Post" 
and others, 6/7) 
 
4.  TIBETAN REFUGEES 
 
-- Tibetans were 'illegal immigrants', claims China: 
The Chinese government today asserted that 18 Chinese 
nationals deported by Nepal were illegal immigrants and 
their handing over by the Nepali authorities was in 
conformity with the international norms and practices. 
Without mentioning the United States, Britain, United 
Nation High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) who have 
criticized the government of Nepal for their 
'repatriation', China said politicizing or adopting 
"double standard" would not be conducive for proper 
settlement of the issue of "illegal immigrants".  The 
Government of Britain and the Amnesty International 
criticized the "repatriation".  A British Embassy press 
statement said, "The United Kingdom deplores the 
government of Nepal's deportation of 18 Tibetan asylum 
seekers, including eight minors, to China." (Compiled 
from "The Kathmandu Post" and others, 6/4) 
 
-- No shift in policy: Nepal: Amid growing 
international outcry against deportation of 18 Tibetan 
refugees to China by Nepal, Nepal has reiterated that 
there is no shift in its policy towards the Tibetan 
refugees.  UNHCR, the U. S. and German Governments have 
expressed outrage over the deportation.  The statement 
issued by the U.S. embassy said deportations had 
violated existing international norms on human values. 
The U.S. also said it regretted Nepal's unfortunate 
change in policy. (Media reports, 6/4) 
 
-- China to punish 18 Tibetans: "The Kathmandu Post" 
(6/5) quoted AP and reported "China will punish a group 
of 18 Tibetans who illegally crossed into Nepal and 
were sent back to China last weekend, a Communist 
Party newspaper said on Monday." 
 
-- U.S. has no concern for Bhutanese refugees: The 
U.S., U.K, EU and UNHCR have criticized the 
government's act.  However, the U.S. that showed deep 
concern for the issue of a dozen Chinese refugees has 
remained silent on the trouble and pain that Nepal has 
faced due to Bhutanese refugees. (editorial in centrist 
"Bimarsha," V/W, 6/6) 
 
5.  BUSINESS/ECONOMY 
 
-- Garment export to U.S. on rise: Garment exports to 
the United States, which absorbs almost 85 per cent of 
the total garments exported abroad from Nepal, grew for 
the tenth month in a row. ("The Kathmandu Post," 6/5) 
 
-- Forex in good shape: Foreign exchange reserves stood 
at Rs.115 billion until mid-April, enough to finance 
imports for more than 11 months, the Nepal Rastra Bank 
said. (Nepalnews.com, 6/6/03) 
 
6.  OTHERS 
 
-- New York art museum to show Nepali music tools: 
Several traditional Nepalese musical instruments will 
be put on permanent display at the Metropolitan Museum 
of Art in New York.  The items consist of traditional 
Nepali wind, cymbal and percussion instruments.  They 
have been gifted by monk Krishna Man, former chief 
librarian of the American Center in Kathmandu, to the 
museum. (government-owned "Rising Nepal," E/D, 6/7) 
 
-- Staging of "Death of a Salesman": The play "Death of 
a Salesman" by Arthur Miller, the inaugural production 
of a theatre 
 program of the Central Department of 
English at Tribhuvan University, will be staged through 
June 6 to 8 at Lincoln School.  The program is a part 
of the effort to create a Nepal-America 
Interdisciplinary Studies Program (NAIS).  The play is 
being presented with the cooperation of Royal Nepal 
Academy, USEF/Nepal and the American Center.  The cast 
includes teachers and students at the university. 
(press and media reports, 6/6/03) 
 
-- U.S. triples HIV/AIDS funding: U.S. President George 
Bush approved a 15 billion US dollar funding for the 
United States Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, 
Tuberculosis, and Malaria Act of 2003, a statement 
issued by the U.S. Embassy here said today. (Media 
reports) 
 
-- NORAD expresses concern over fund misuse: Norwegian 
Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD) has shown 
serious concern over the misuse of funding for girl 
students in remote Himalayan district of Humla. ("The 
Kathmandu Post," 6/6/) 
 
-- American artist's Nepali songs: The American Center 
launched (6/3) Josh Brody's CD "Soaltee", which 
features Nepali songs by him and Nepali artists.  All 
the proceeds from the sales of the CD will go to the 
Nepal Bhotia Education Center in Sankhuwasava, which 
Brody established four years ago.  Brody came to Nepal 
in 1994 from the USA and returning home on 6/4. (Media 
reports, 6/3-5) 
 
-- Monkey business: Conservationists and officials 
concerned with wildlife are uptight over a recent 
health research-cum-treatment conducted on rhesus 
monkeys by the U.S. primate center and its local 
partner at Swayambhu.  For two reasons.  One: It was 
done illegally.  Two: Certain quarters feel the 
treatment of the monkeys was but an insidious beginning 
of a sinister design.  In a move that will not only 
enrage wildlife enthusiasts but will also draw protests 
from devout Hindus, the U.S. center is seeking 
permission to set up a subsidiary in Nepal and to use 
monkeys for bio-medical research. ("The Himalayan 
Times," 6/3) 
 
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