Nepal journalists in court on sedition charge

By Gopal Sharma

KATHMANDU, June 12: The editor and two executives of a leading Nepali newspaper arrested after the daily printed an article alleging the recent palace massacre was a conspiracy appeared in court today on sedition charges.

Yuvaraj Ghimire, editor of the Kantipur Daily, Managing Director Kailash Sirohiya and Director Binod Gwyanli were arrested last week after the appearance of the article by Maoist rebel leader Babyu Ram Bhattarai on the paper’s opinion page.

A police official said the Government would ask the court for more time to "formally prepare a case against the men".

More details were expected to be known later on Tuesday. If found guilty, the trio could face up to three years in prison.

"They were brought in a police van to the court house," Narayan Wagle, an editor at the Kantipur daily told Reuters.

The article urged the Army to stop protecting newly crowned King Gyanendra and side with the people and alleged the bloodbath in which 10 members of the royal family died had stemmed from a conspiracy by "imperialist and expansionist" forces.

The chiefs of the top-selling daily were arrested on June six but their court appearance was delayed until Tuesday after national mourning ended for slain King Birendra.

The arrests marked the first time employees of a leading mainstream newspaper had been held since the poverty-stricken Himalayan nation brought in multi-party parliamentary democracy 11 years ago. Before democracy, the sedition law was widely used to silence opponents of the Government.

Kantipur had printed articles by leaders of the Maoist rebellion in the past, as well as articles critical of the revolt, but it had not roused the wrath of authorities.

Nepali journalist groups have demanded the release of the newspaper executives, saying their arrest was aimed at curbing press freedom. The arrests have also brought condemnation from journalist groups around the world.

The Government has denied it is trying to muzzle the press but says it cannot tolerate articles urging insurrection.

Witnesses have blamed the killings on the king’s eldest son, crown Prince Dipendra, who shot himself at the end of the rampage and died in hospital last Monday.

Dipendra is widely believed to have been at odds with his family over his choice of a bride.

At least 1,670 people have been killed in the revolt by the Maoists, who want to transform the scenic kingdom into a one-party communist republic. (REUTERS)

Tabloids fill "information vacuum" in fact-starved Nepal

KATHMANDU, June 12: Tabloids and rags carrying juicy but unsubstantiated "inside stories" about the June one palace massacre are filling in the information vacuum in the Himalayan Kingdom as people here remain in dark about the culprit, even after eleven days of the crime.

Overnight, two-page unheard of publications with sensational headlines have hit the stands, forcing even the mainstream Nepalese and English papers such as "The Kathmandu Post" to do some ‘investigative stories’.

Priced at par with mainstream papers, these tabloids are selling like hot cakes in Kathmandu Valley, as people eagerly await the findings of the high-level panel probing into the massacre. Th panel’s extension by four days on Sunday has only added to the curiosity of the people.

Interestingly, most of the tabloids, some backed by under ground Maoists, outrightly defend late crown Prince Dipendra against charges that he had killed the royals on that fateful Friday night. Some of them also raise fingers at the new king, in blatant violation of the country’s press laws.

The infrequent weekly "Sanghu" in a bold headline says that "Dipendra died protecting his parents". The unsourced analytical piece questioned as to why the injured royals were not taken to the Bir Hospital, located near the Narayanhity Palace, instead of the Birendra Military Hospital, located far away.

The newspaper also wondered as to how Dipendra could get hold of the automatic weapons, allegedly used in the crime, "when as per rules even the royals have to seek their requisition."

The "Prabhatkalin" in its lead story claimed that several royal members including Dipendra were shot thrice from all three sides.

"This proves that Dipendra had not shot and killed the royals as alleged," the paper said.

The "Jan Ekta" had a ridiculous piece which wondered as to why the new monarch Gyanendra smiled while talking to Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala after his enthronement while the "Satyagraha" alleged a conspiracy to frame Dipendra "as was evident from the statements given by close relatives of the royal family, Neer Shah and Capt Rajiv Shahi."

According to Ramesh Toofan, senior editor with state-run official news agency RSS, "nobody takes these reports seriously, but it certainly gives enough gossip material. These tabloids are always on the lookout for an event to sensationalise. The palace killings are no exception."

However, Nepal administration is indeed taking a serious note of the publications, whose reports raise a finger at the new king, a punishable crime in the constitutional monarchy.

"We are discussing the matter and are contemplating action against such publications," Yuvraj Pandey, Director General (Information), told PTI.

The authorities had on June six arrested Yuvraj Ghimire, editor of the mass-circulated Nepalese daily "Kantipur" and two directors of the group following publication of an article by an underground Maoist leader which opposed the new king and alleged a nexus between India’s external intelligence agency raw, America’s CIA and the palace in the June one killings.

The Press and Publications Act prohibits publication of news items against the monarchy, or articles which could cause disrespect to royalty, and threatened the kingdom’s sovereignty, integrity, security and peace.

The provisions of Article 14 of the act empower the Chief District Officer to impose a penalty of Rs 10,000 besides rigorous imprisonment of one year or both for violating the act.

Spurred by the tabloids reports, even english language daily such as "The Kathmandu Post" came out with reports quoting highly placed sources suggesting that the state council, which appoints the king, had a heated debate between various constitutional, medical and media personalities while deciding on nominating injured crown prince Dipendra as the new monarch immediately after king Dipendra’s death.

"We do not give much credence to such reports published in papers, but then it does help in adding flavour to the great nepalese debate as to who committed the massacre," said Sunil Gurung, a student at Tribhuvan University. (PTI)

Govt offices open in Nepal 2 weeks after royal killing

KATHMANDU, June 12: Businesses and Government offices opened today after a long break to mourn the shooting deaths of the family of the king and queen, whose portraits still adorn the alls in many buildings.

King Birendra, Queen Aiswarya and their relatives were gunned down on June 1 at their palace and a witness and relatives of survivors said crown Prince Dipendra was responsible. The prince then fatally shot himself, according to those accounts.

Many Nepalese disapprove of new King Gyanendra, Birendra’s younger brother, because he lacks the charisma of the slain monarch and is even suspected by some of involvement in the crime. In 1990, Birendra won acclaim for ceding power and overseeing the introduction of a constitutional democracy.

"As long as I can remember, the pictures of King Birendra and Queen Aiswarya have remained not just on the walls of our offices, but also in our hearts," said Kishore Sapkota, a Government worker. "I don’t think we will ever be able to remove that".

Most Nepalese have the picture of the king, who some revere as the reincarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu, in their homes and at offices. Government offices will eventually replace pictures of Birendra with those of Gyanendra.

Since the royal massacre, people have swamped the stores to buy portraits of the slain royal family.

"More and more people are buying portraits of king birendra and are putting them up in their homes. I don’t even have a single picture of the new king and there have only been a handful people who have asked for one," said Mina Chetri, a vendor in a squar near the site where Gyanendra was declared king last week amid tight security.

Gyanendra granted palace-appointed investigators of the deaths of 10 royals a four-day extension on the report originally due on sunday.

Discussing royal affairs is taboo in this tiny Himalayan nation, and even Gyanendra found himself breaking protocol by ordering the probe into the palace killings.

Many Nepalese are unable to accept that Dipendra would kill his parents. The motive for the killings remains a mystery.

Palace officials and other sources have said Dipendra quarreled with his mother over his choice of a bride because the queen disapproved of the young woman.

Also today, the Kantipur daily, Nepal’s biggest newspaper, said the military has completed an inquiry against an Army doctor who was the first witness to go public with his account and called Dipendra a "murderer."

Army physician Rajiv Raj Shahi, the son-in-law of shooting victim Prince Dhirendra, had briefed the media inside a military hospital where royal survivors were being treated. (AP)

Best of times, the worst of times for children

UNITED NATIONS, June 12: Polio has been nearly eradicated fewer toddlers die before the age of 5 and more youngsters are in school than ever before since the United Nations’ first world summit for children in 1990.

But a children’s report card for the 21st century, timed for week-long sessions on children, opening yesterday, showed more than ten million children die each year from preventable causes, 150 million are malnourished and 100 million are out of school, 60 percent of them girls.

"The picture that emerges from the data is mixed. "There is good news and there is bad news," said Carol Bellamy, Executive Director of UNICEF, the UN Children’s Fund.

"In the past decade, the world has not met its own standards for children. In fact, it has fallen short on its goals," she said.

But Bellamy stressed that "there has been real progress for children over the last 10 years" in education and other areas, with children higher up on many nations’ political agenda.

A follow-up summit to the 1990 conference is scheduled in September and this week some 3,000 Government delegates and advocacy groups gathered at UN headquarters to prepare for it. Many worked on a grass-roots campaign, which has produced 2.5 million pledges from organizations and individuals demanding that world leaders do more for children.

The first summit was held at the end of the cold war in hopes that military expenditures might be available for social services. But the best of times turned into the worst of times when ethnic wars broke out in the Balkans, in africa and elsewhere with women and children becoming targets or "collateral victims," the report said.

And AIDS and HIV, the virus that causes it, have reached catastrophic proportions, particularly in Africa unraveling decades of gains in children’s survival and development.

But the biggest obstacle in achieving them is poverty and a lack of will to invest in children, the report said.

With few exceptions, developing countries devoted only about 12 per cent to 14 per cent of their budgets to basic social services. Rich countries allocated only 10 to 11 per cent of their shrinking foreign aid budgets to meet needs of children in health care, nutrition, basic education and clean water.

"Never before have we seen overall aid to the world’s neediest countries fall to levels as low as they have in recent years," the report said.

Sub-Sahara Africa, where economies have been devastated by debt, war and trade regulations, showed the least improvement, according to the survey, which was based on statistics from 150 nations gathered by UN agencies.

The 1990 world summit for children set a number of goals, including reducing child mortality, combating communicable diseases and improving access to education, health care, water and sanitation.

But Bellamy said the world had not realized that investment in children would bring incalculable dividends in a more productive population.

"Until we invest in children, we are not going to really deal with poverty and as long as poverty is out there it’s going to fall the hardest on children," she said.

"It isn’t just a matter of the rich giving more, it is a matter of everybody understanding that the primary investment should be in children. The return on that investment will be far better there than anywhere else," Bellamy said. (REUTERS)

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