They said it is lost and yes it is now: The picture says it all

Infamous Home Minister of the erstwhile royal government, Kamal Thapa, who has received bulk of the criticism and blame for the death of 21 people and injuring more than 6,000 people during the popular April uprising, meets his then chairman King Gyanendra, on the latter’s birthday at Narayanhity Royal Palace on Friday. The King’s birthday celebration was abandoned by the present government as the Council of Ministers decided that the ministers will not go to the palace to wish the king happy birthday. The Cabinet also decided to send an official letter wishing all the best to the king in his 60th birthday today.

Only staunch royalists, including Nepali Army Chief Pyarjung Thapa, and other members of the royal coterie attended the ceremony. In the past, all government officials, including ministers, civil servants and students were forced to visit the king on his birthday.

The ministers today remained out of contact and did not attend any public function.

-Azad Swetaketu

Bhumika Ghimire

Here is the press release by OHCHR which has made Mr Mahara mad. Poor guy..he thinks that all “black-deeds” of the Maoists will be buried like his murder victims once he has the power.

UNITED NATIONS

OFFICE OF THE HIGH COMMISSIONER

FOR HUMAN RIGHTS IN NEPAL

Press Release-27 June 2006

OHCHR URGES THE INVESTIGATION AND PREVENTION OF SERIOUS HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES BY CPN-M

At a meeting with the CPN-M leadership on 23 June 2006 and in a subsequent letter of 26 June, OHCHR raised its concerns regarding a series of abductions and killings attributed to CPN-M cadres in the Central Region, which have resulted in the deaths of nine individuals since 3 May 2006. It also raised the cases of two individuals who were reportedly abducted in Kathmandu and severely beaten in Kavre. In most of the cases, the victims were accused of “crimes” or “offences” and were apparently under investigation. In some of those cases, local CPN-M leaders had accepted responsibility and had apologized. OHCHR remains concerned, however, that civilians continue to be abducted and held by the CPN-M in spite of repeated expressions of concern by OHCHR.

During the meeting with OHCHR, the CPN-M leadership gave assurances that such killings are not CPN-M policy and that the CPN-M takes these cases very seriously. It also stated that investigations will be carried out and that any CPN-M cadres found responsible will be punished. Read the rest of this entry »

Some enterprising Austrian Über-geeks have created a Telnet stream with, believe it or not, live ASCII footage of the 2006 World Cup matches being played.

Simply fire up a command prompt and type “telnet ascii-wm.net 2006” and you’ll find a live “video” stream from 10 minutes before kick-off.

If you get “too many connections…” message, try the mirror “telnet diego.ascii-wm.net 2006″. For instructions on how to fire up a telnet session on different operating systems, go to http://ascii-wm.net/ and click on the “HOW-TO” link on the bottom left.

You might also wanna have a look at this ping pong game in GIF http://www.geocities.com/schmoe64/pong.gif

By Ebay

It’s been five years since that dark and treacherous night of June 1, 2001 when the entire family of late King Birendra was gunned down in cold blood under mysterious circumstances paving the way for his brother Gyanendra to ascend the throne. Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala happened to be at the helm of power then too, but it was the old GP - a lame duck, who chose to endorse the palace version of the tragic incident, presumably against his own conviction to the contrary. Barely five years on, the same GP led a successful popular uprising to effectively turn Gyanendra into a dummy figurehead. Read the rest of this entry »

Bhumika Ghimire

The seven party alliance with the Maoist sure to run the country after this whole drama is over, one question that needs to be addressed immediately is whether the seven parties will prosecute the Maoist accused of serious human rights violation? Also will they prosecute the present government members and the members of the royal family accused of corruption and rights violation? Read the rest of this entry »

You must have read or heard the King’s New Year speech by now. He has called upon the parties to join in a dialogue after ordering a brutal suppression of the will of the people.

In fact, that was his game plan right from the beginning: if he succeeded in quashing the popular uprising, the monarchy could go on reining with absolute power for generations to come. However, should the movement gain momentum and he should begin to lose his grip on power, he could always settle for constitutional monarchy.That’s why he let loose his hounds on unarmed protestors.

Now he is begging for a dialogue? After murdering, maiming and brutalizing so many of his countrymen? Doesn’t he know that Nepalis are one the most politically aware people in the South Asia region? Read the rest of this entry »

[This is an actual email sent by a palace supporter to a mailinglist comprising mostly US-based Nepali scholars. Please read the commnets to find out why it is important to know this guy.]

Dear Friends:

Happy new year to you all from [Nepali] family from [somewhere in USA].

I deplore the killing and torturing of innocent civilians no matter who is doing it. I just want my friends to know that I stopped supporting the Royal government since last summer. The King failed to deliver what he promised. What has transpired in Nepal has hurt the poor and innocent people more than anybody else.

I have not written anything about the political situation in Nepal since April, 2005.
I hope our motherland will see peace in the year 2063.

With best wishes.

[Some Nepali name]

[This was emailed to us by one of our readers in Chitawan]

आज लोकतान्त्रीक आन्दोलनको आठौ दिन चितवनमा वृहत जनप्रदशन भएको छ । चितवनका विभिन्न स्थानवाट (रत्ननगर नगरपालिका र आसपासक गाविसहरु, भरतपुर नगरपालिका र आसपासका गाविसहरु, गैडाकोट क्षेत्रका गाविसहरु )आएका जनताहरुले कर्फुको उल्लंघन गर्दै नारायणगढ लगायत भरपुरका विभिन्न स्थानहरुको परिक्रमा गरेका छन् । यदि तपाइ कहिल्यै चितवन आउनुभएको छ भने ख्याल गर्नुहोस नारायणगढको पुलचोक देखि भरतपुरको हाकिम चोकसम्म कतिसम्मका मानिसहरु अटाउन सक्छन् । लगभग १ लाख जनताहरु यसरी लोकतन्त्रको पक्षमा चितवन जिल्लाको सदरमुकाम भरतपुरमा जम्मा भएका थीए । Read the rest of this entry »

This started out as a response to a comment by one DirtyKantipur whose argument goes like this: Kantipur has a vested interested in toppling the “government”, therefore its news reports are not to be trusted. The implication being that the images chronicling the popular movement posted on that publication’s web site are fake. Link to comment

When the stakes are too high, every newspaper takes a stand - including the New York Times and the Washington Post. So did bloggersnepal.com, so did Kantipur. If doctors, lawyers, teachers, civil servants, businesses, and so many others can take a stand, why cannot a newspaper, especially when freedom itself is at stake? Read the rest of this entry »

[This comment from Khus deserves special treatment]

“By the way, as for dialogue with the King - I don’t care if the SPA sits with the king for any kind of dialogue or not, what I, as a citizen of Nepal, want is for the King to be brought down from his throne to the court. These people do not deserve a graceful exit. We are not looking for a compromise. King and his associates had a lifetime of fun, which even all the population added together couldn’t achieve in many lives. It’s time they are made to pay back. There is no other option than complete dismissal and punishment.”

[And, one more thing, please document the atrocities in whatever way you can - digital cameras, camcorders, interception of radio communications, emails, internal memos… And don’t forget the Mandale infiltrators who offer you bricks and bats at the protests but come back to your residence in the evening with full force to crush your limbs. These rotten eggs are the ones who should be fed to hungry lions. I hope and pray the actual victims of these mad dogs will be able to identify them.]

-The Mooter

Water we can afford not
With tears we are dousing the fire-
That’s engulfing our homes
That’s swallowing our dreams
Interested we are not, nor can we afford
The luxury of sipping the scenery of
Fishtail lazily wallowing in Fewa lake

Roads are reverberating
With the echoes of revolution
How can one afford to be asleep ?
Melted , and now merged
With the silent sea of people flooding every ally
I am wiping the nation clean
Of the disgracing stigma of civilization Read the rest of this entry »

If you have the bandwidth, please watch this special report on Nepal’s civil unrest on UK’s Channel4 station. It’s 391kbps high quality Windows Media stream. The video depicts in graphic details how the security forces have gone beserk in dealing with the unrest. You can see and hear women folks screaming in terror as armed police invade house after house hoping to nab Maoist insurgents. You won’t believe it’s Nepal. Nepal now looks more like Iraq.

Go to http://www.channel4.com/news/special-reports/special-reports-storypage.jsp?id=2158

and click on Watch the Report.

The report is followed by an interview with Nepal’s envoy to UK, Prabal SJB Rana, who claimed the unrest is largely confined to Kathmandu and the rest of the country supports the King. He even offered to back his assertion with documentary evidence showing the King being welcomed by equally large crowds during his recent visits to different parts of the country. It seems His Excellency is under strict orders to turn off the TV and read no newspapers and to get all his information through the official channels.