460개의 게시물을 찾았습니다.
1.24, clashes in downtown Kathmandu
NepalNews
Fighting stops in Dhangadhi, No reports of casualties
Eight killed in Nepalgunj attack (news update)
eKantipur.com
Maoists, security forces clash in Nepalgunj, Dhangadi
Maoists bomb Dang district traffic police office
Deuba, Nepal call for election boycott
KATHMANDU , Jan 25
President of Nepali Congress-Democratic Sher Bahadur Deuba and CPN-UML General Secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal Wednesday separately requested the people not to cast their vote in the upcoming municipal elections and to participate in the mass movement launched by the seven-party alliance.Issuing a statement from detention, former prime minister Deuba today said the election..
Read More»
Deuba calls for boycott of municipal polls
Over 100 protesters arrested across country
Sorry that I use only this(mainstream, bourgeois) stuff, but there is no independent news updating about the current situation/developments in Nepal, but...
...finally it seems that the situation
in Nepal is, day by day, escalating.
IRAN TO ISRAEL: "C'MON, WE'LL F.. YOU!!"
AP/Jerusalem Post(1.25)
Were Israel to attack Iran's nuclear facilities, Iran would respond so strongly that it would put the Jewish state into "an eternal coma" like Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's, the Iranian defense minister said Wednesday.
"Zionists should know that if they do anything evil against Iran, the response of Iran's armed forces will be so firm that it will send them into eternal coma, like Sharon," Gen. Mostafa Mohammad Najjar said.
read the full article here:
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1137605913647&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Haaretz
Poll: Fatah to take 43%, Hamas 32% in PA vote
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/674336.html
Ynet
Jerusalem Post
PA polls close: Initial results indicate Fatah victory
..Fatah won more than 42 percent of the vote and Hamas more than 34 percent, based on exit polling of 6,500 voters..
The German magazine Der Spiegel reported: Fatah 45% and Hamas 42%(according to Reuters, around 10:30pm CET)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Earlier the election day(1.25) Western and Near/Middle East media reported this:
..Al-Jazeera
Large turnout marks Palestinian polls
Washington Post
Yedioth Ahronot/Ynet
Jerusalem Post
Abbas vows to negotiate with Israel even with Hamas in PA
The Guardian
PALESTINE: THE NEXT STEPS ON
THE ROAD TO 'DEMOCRACY'
(No fun, not at all!)
PEACE, PEACE...^=^
Palestinian kids on a Hamas pre-election event
Just few hours before the beginning of the parliamentarian election in the Palestinian territories following articles were published yesterday(1.24):
Fatah leader in West Bank shot dead
Associated Press(The Guardian)
Candidates were banned from campaigning today for a cooling-off period before the election.
But the murder raised doubts about the latest pledges by armed groups in the West Bank and Gaza not to commit violence during the vote.
Opinion polls have shown Fatah and Hamas in a close race ahead of the election and both sides have said they might form a coalition government.
The run-up to the voting has been marred by violence, including militants taking over government offices and threatening election workers. Much of the unrest has been carried out by gunmen linked to Fatah, apparently fearing losses to Hamas. Fatah has also been afflicted by internal divisions.
Today Fatah gunmen shot to death Abu Ahmed Hassouna, 44, a party leader in Nablus after he told them to stop shooting at campaign posters on his house, relatives said. It was the second politically motivated killing of the campaign. After today's murder, around 1,000 people marched to the main police station in Nablus to protest, giving the police chief a letter demanding an end to lawlessness.
"Enough, enough. We want the police to protect us," the crowd shouted. Dozens of gunmen later blocked a main road and shopkeepers shut down their stores in protest. Mushir al-Masri, a Hamas candidate in northern Gaza, said the Islamist group expects to become the largest party in parliament. But it will not try to form a government alone, instead seeking a partnership with Fatah or other parties, he said.
Senior Hamas leaders recently spoke with the Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, of Fatah, to discuss the elections and their aftermath, Mr Masri said.
Meanwhile today, Mr Abbas called on all Palestinians to exercise their right to vote. "The election is a right and duty at the same time, and I hope that the results of this election will reflect honestly the Palestinian people's opinions," he said in the West Bank town of Ramallah.
Thousands of Palestinian security personnel, who voted early, fanned out across the West Bank and the Gaza Strip to protect the polling stations.
More than 1,700 Israeli border police are being deployed to ensure order and the free movement of voters in the Jerusalem area during election day, a Jerusalem police spokesman said.
In Tulkarem, in the north-west of the West Bank, about 40 militants from Islamic Jihad - which is boycotting the vote - marched along main road to demand the release of prisoners from Palestinian jails and to ask residents to boycott the election. Many of the militants wore fake explosive belts and carried wooden sticks.
Palestinian police, claiming one of the passing protesters shot at their station, opened fire on the group, scattering the masked men. No one was hurt.
The violence has cast doubts on the fragmented militant factions' promises to maintain calm on election day. About 25 masked gunmen from various factions held a joint press conference in Gaza City today to announce they would be unarmed during the balloting.
Abu Obeida, a Hamas spokesman, said: "Everyone agreed to keep the election process moving in a smooth, clean and honest way in order to create the fundamental basis for a political partnership."
Abu Adham, a spokesman for the Fatah-linked al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, said all groups want the elections to succeed, "and we have to contribute to protect it".
Hamas, known for its suicide bombings and calls for Israel's destruction, has emerged as a formidable political force, attracting voters with calls for clean government and an end to Fatah's corruption, while pointing to its own popular social and education programmes.
Hamas has said that if it wins a majority, it would form a coalition and take only low profile, service-related cabinet posts and let Mr Abbas deal with Israel.
Israeli officials have said they will not deal with Hamas until it disarms and renounces violence, a vow that could complicate hopes for restarting peace talks.
In a statement clearly aimed at Hamas, the US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, said yesterday that Palestinian voters should bear in mind that terrorism is not a "pathway to peace".
"The United States won't change its policies toward Hamas," she said, implying the Bush administration would not work with a Palestinian government dominated by Hamas.
But she did not rule out cooperating with a government that had some Hamas ministers.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,1693938,00.html
The Israeli('left-liberal') daily Haaretz wrote following article:
IDF: No policy yet toward PA government including Hamas
Ynet(Yedioth Ahronot) this:
Washington Post reported this:
Palestinians Condemn U.S. Program
Today I will try to give as soon as possible updatings about the news from the 'battle field'...
Red flag over the Himalaya...
|
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Daily royal army terror in the cities...
Unfortunately the speaker was not from Nepal, he was from the India-Nepal Solidarity forum and for me it was more that his "latest news" he had just from the media and the maoist propaganda (but even this, for us, who are not living in the near there, it is very hard to get...).
But anyway... according to the speaker the new "rulers" of the majority of the country, the CPN(M) and the People’s Committees(PC) in the last years were creating/establishing in the "75 liberated districts, which are complete independent from the central government in Kathmandu", 9 autonomous regions were mainly the national minorities are ruling. He also saig that the CPN(M) and the PC were establishing a "provisionally government" which could get the power in the "next few month, if there will be no intervention by the US-Imperialists, the British or India.."
Women..
What was very interesting: 30 per cent of the fighters in the PLA and the militia/guerilla are female(actually even in one contibution of National Geographic, I uploaded it several weeks ago, they said the same).
..liberation
According to the speaker the Royal Nepalese Army has about 100,000 troops and the PLA and the revolutionary militia/guerilla about 150,000..
PLA
"At any time, if CPN(M) want, they can take the power in the country", but right now they try to get an alliance with the(former) parliamentarian parties("but they are all discredited, including the CPN/UML", so the speaker, because "they are representing just the bourgoisie and the feudal land lords") to struggle for a constitutionally assambly to remove the monarchy. But "of course the party of the monarchy will be also a part in this process...". "And when they can convince the people that the monarchy is the best for them... the CPN(M) will accept this result", so the speaker...(???)
But the major part of the meeting was just low maoist propaganda, what you could hear even 30 years ago from any of this parties/groups.
What was very precariously: The speaker and the organizers said that "every movement which is weaken the US-Imperialists" are natural supporters of the "People’s War", including the "fighters in Kashmir, Checheniya, Iraq and Palestine – the fighters of the Jihad"... Actually I really can’t believe, because what has a maoist("communist", if it has the aim of communism...) to do with the Jihad???
But anyway, let’s see what will bring the near future! And..
..SUPPORT THE STRUGGLE OF
THE PEOPLE IN NEPAL FOR LIBERATION!
Latest news by GEFONT(http://www.gefont.org General Federation of Nepalese Trade Unions)
Big Clashes of Demonstrators and Police, about 300 arrested deliberate attack on human right observer and journalists (1.22)
The alliance of seven political parties in Nepal continued a protests and demonstration in New Road and Basantapur, inner core city of Kathmandu to defy the restriction of Government on political activities inside the Ring Road.
Because of Friday's protest program was foiled by the curfew, the alliance of seven political parties organized huge protest rallies in Kathmandu on Saturday. The police intervened the mass meeting at Basantapur as thousands converged at the venue for the gathering. Dozens of demonstrators were injured along with some policemen in the clash that took place after the police intervention on the demonstration. Dozens of leaders and activists were arrested during the demonstration.
Thousands of demonstrators participated in the demonstration led by the trade union and student leaders and went around the city, defying the prohibitory orders in the course of tight security deployed in the capital. Police charged the demonstrators with baton and fired many shells of tear gas to disperse the crowd in New road and Basantapur. Security was tightened within whole new road and Basantapur area. Armed Police Force also deployed to take situation under control and the Royal Nepalese Army was also deployed due to extensive participation of the demonstrators.
Meanwhile, Human Rights Observer, Bijay Kumar Son was kicked deliberately by police while he was trying to protect a passerby being beaten by police. Likewise, HR Observer, Bimal Raj Giri from INSEC and Sabin Nepal from Human Rights- Alliance were also beaten by police with the baton. Few journalists were also manhandled by security personnel, while collecting information. As a consequence, Human Rights Observers and Journalists, nearby, protested against misbehavior of police. However, police - in charge made an apology.
The demonstration area of the city remained tensed in a clash between police and political activists, trade union activists, students and leaders. Sloganeering against monarchy and urging for complete democracy continued despite police repression.
Similarly, 'Democratic Creators' (Loktantrik Shrastha) organized a program at Baneshwor yesterday to strengthen movements declared by political parties against municipal election announced the royal regime in the country.
The poets from 'Democratic Creators' were also arrested, as they started to recite the poems.
The Nepalese bourgeois Kathmandu Post is/was writing following about the current situation(AS YOU CAN SEE: THERE IS A WAR - the governement against every kind of resistance - GOING ON!!!):
|
Soldiers fire warning shots in Chitwan
CHITWAN, Jan 23 - Royal Nepalese Army soldiers Monday evening fired 11 rounds into the air during a blackout programme organized by the student wings affiliated to the seven-party alliance at Narayanghat, Chitwan to protest the government crackdown on political parties.
According to the students the soldiers began firing when the students requested vehicles plying in the Sahid Chowk and Lion Chowk areas to switch off the headlights at around 7:30 in the evening. Protesting the incident, the students issuing a press release, have called for a shut down of all educational institutions in the Bharatpur areas for Tuesday. |
Curfew in Kathmandu from 11 p.m. to 4 a.m.
This is stated in separate notices issued today by the CDOs of Kathmandu and Lalitpur.
Prior to this, the curfew in the areas was effective from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 a.m.
Meanwhile, Bhaktapur District Administration Office has continued the curfew order effective in various parts of the district since January 18.
The curfew from 9:00 p.m. to 4:00 a.m. applies to the area from Sanga Bhanjyang to Palanse, Nalinchowk, Jagati, Surya Binayak, Sallaghari, Shankadhar chowk Thimi, Gatthaghar, Kaushaltar and Lohakinthali in the east and the Araniko highway area up to the Manahara bridge in the East. It will remain effective until further notice, it is stated.
Li Onesto, "Reports from the People's War in Nepal"
http://www.rwor.org/s/dispatch-e.htm
Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nepal_Civil_War
And very strange stuff(definetely from the other side of the barricade) here:
http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/countries/nepal/terroristoutfits/index.html
...^=^...
Supplement(1.25)
Al-Jazeera reported following y'day:
NepalNews reported this:
Maoists attack Nepalgunj, Heavy fighing continues
An interesting analysis is published in today's Hong Kong based magazine Asia Times(well, it's just an analysis, not my opinion...):
Why the West will attack Iran
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HA24Ak01.html
Why did French President Jacques Chirac last week threaten to use non-conventional - that is, nuclear - weapons against terrorist states? And why did Iran announce that it would shift foreign-exchange reserves out of European banks (although it has since retracted this warning)? The answer lies in the nature of Tehran's nuclear ambitions. Iran needs nuclear weapons, I believe, not to attack Israel, but to support imperial expansion by conventional military means.
Iran's oil exports will shrink to zero in 20 years, just at the demographic inflection point when the costs of maintaining an aged population will crush its state finances, as I reported in Demographics and Iran's imperial design (September 13, 2005). Just outside Iran's present frontiers lie the oil resources of Iraq, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan, and not far away are the oil concentrations of eastern Saudi Arabia. Its neighbors are quite as alarmed as Washington about the prospect of a nuclear-armed Iran, and privately quite happy for Washington to wipe out this capability.
It is remarkable how quickly an international consensus has emerged for the eventual use of force against Iran. Chirac's indirect reference to the French nuclear capability was a warning to Tehran. Mohamed ElBaradei, whose Nobel Peace Prize last year was awarded to rap the knuckles of the United States, told Newsweek that in the extreme case, force might be required to stop Iran's acquiring a nuclear capability. German Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung told the newspaper Bild am Sonntag that the military option could not be abandoned, although diplomatic efforts should be tried first. Bild, Germany's largest-circulation daily, ran Iranian President Mahmud Ahmedinejad's picture next to Adolf Hitler's, with the headline, "Will Iran plunge the world into the abyss?"
The same Europeans who excoriated the United States for invading Iraq with insufficient proof of the presence of weapons of mass destruction already have signed on to a military campaign against Iran, in advance of Iran's gaining WMD. There are a number of reasons for this sudden lack of squeamishness, and all of them lead back to oil.
First, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have the most to lose from a nuclear-equipped Iran. No one can predict when the Saudi kingdom might become unstable, but whenever it does, Iran will stand ready to support its Shi'ite co-religionists, who make up a majority in the kingdom's oil-producing east.
At some point the United States will reduce or eliminate its presence in Iraq, and the result, I believe, will be civil war. Under conditions of chaos Iran will have a pretext to expand its already substantial presence on the ground in Iraq, perhaps even to intervene militarily on behalf of its Shi'ite co-religionists.
What now is Azerbaijan had been for centuries the northern provinces of the Persian Empire, and a nuclear-armed Iran could revive Persian claims on southern Azerbaijan. Iran continues to lay claim to a share of Caspian Sea energy resources under the Iranian-Soviet treaties of 1921 and 1940. [1] For the time being, Azerbaijani-Iranian relations are the most cordial in years, with Iran providing natural gas to pockets of Azerbaijani territory blockaded by Armenia, and Baku defending Iran's nuclear program. As Iran's oil production dwindles over the next two decades, though, its historic claims on the Caspian are likely to re-emerge.
Ahmedinejad's apocalyptic inclinations have inspired considerable comment from Western analysts, who note that he appears to believe in the early return of the Mahdi, the 12th Imam. I do not know whether Ahmedinejad is mad or sane, but even mad people may be sly and calculating. Iran's prospects are grim. Over a generation it faces demographic decay, economic collapse and cultural deracination. When reason fails to provide a solution to an inherently insoluble problem, irrationality well may take hold. Like Hitler, who also was mad but out-bluffed the West for years before overreaching, Ahmedinejad is pursuing a rational if loathsome imperial policy.
Given Israel's possession of a large arsenal of fission weapons as well as thermonuclear capability, it is extremely unlikely that Iran would attack the Jewish state unless pressed to the wall. Faced with encirclement and ruin, the Islamic Republic is fully capable of lashing out in a destructive and suicidal fashion, not only against Israel but against other antagonists. Whatever one may say about Chirac, he is not remotely stupid, and feels it prudent to warn Iran that pursuit of its imperial ambitions may lead to a French nuclear response. French intelligence evidently believes that Iran may express its frustrations through terrorist actions in the West.
By far the biggest loser in an Iranian confrontation with the West will be China, the fastest-growing among the world's large economies, but also the least efficient in energy use. Higher oil prices will harm China's economy more than any other, and Beijing's reluctance to back Western efforts to encircle Iran are understandable in this context. It is unclear how China will proceed if the rest of the international community confronts Iran; in the great scheme of things it really does not matter.
Washington will initiate military action against Iran only with extreme reluctance, but it will do so nonetheless, except in the extremely unlikely event that Ahmedinejad were to stand down. Rather than a legacy of prosperity and democracy in the Middle East, the administration of US President George W Bush will exit with an economy weakened by higher oil prices and chaos on the ground in Iraq and elsewhere. But it really has no other options, except to let a nuclear-armed spoiler loose in the oil corridor. We have begun the third act of the tragedy that started on September 11, 2001, and I see no way to prevent it from proceeding.
Note
1. For a recent summary of the issue, click here.
More about the issue you can read here:
http://www.antiwar.or.kr/maybbs/view.php?db=antipabyeong&code=board&n=7239&page=197
About the current situation in the P"A"(*) territories, just two days before the parliamentarian election, today's(1.23) UK daily The Guardian published following report:
Lawless in Gaza: leaders try to end chaos by taking guns off the street
· Shooting and kidnapping in Fatah, Hamas violence
· Jobless militias behind wave of bloody feuding
 |
The growing lawlessness, fuelled by the proliferation of weapons turned inward now there are no Israelis to fight, has resulted in a string of shootings, kidnappings of foreigners and inter-family feuds that have left a score of people dead. The situation has been exacerbated by the strong showing of Hamas against the established Fatah regime.
The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights has described the overall security situation in Gaza as deteriorating daily and warned that some of the violence is intended to "undermine" the first Palestinian parliamentary elections in 10 years on Wednesday.
The latest victim is Suleiman Ashabia, a campaign manager of the small Third Way party. On Friday evening, he responded to a phone call from a stranger asking for election posters and agreed to meet in the market of Maghazi refugee camp. About a hundred yards from Mr Ashabia's home, a masked man appeared, raised a Kalashnikov and fired.
"I am 90% certain it was political," said Mr Ashabia from his bed at Gaza's Shifa hospital. "The man who called asking me to bring election posters was asking: what are you wearing? As I walked home, someone asked if my name was Suleiman. He said I was dressed well and then he fired. I tried to jump on him, but there was a bullet in my knee. I fell down and he kept shooting me." One bullet shattered Mr Ashabia's left knee and five others lodged in his right leg and hand.
Mr Ashabia, 24 and training for the Palestinian navy's police force, had not expected to be a target. The Third Way party, which is led by two prominent Palestinian moderates - the peace negotiator, Hannan Ashrawi, and the finance minister, Salaam Fayed - is a bit player in the election. But it has been very active in Maghazi, where the ballot is close fought between Fatah and Hamas. Whoever was behind the shooting, it was taken in Gaza as further evidence of the collapsing control of the Palestinian Authority.
Tawfik Abu Khousa, a senior official at the Palestinian interior ministry responsible for national security, said part of the reason for the deterioration of security is that militias that until last summer had been fighting Israel "have more and better weapons" than the PA's forces.
"This violence has happened in the past four months after the Israeli withdrawal. If you think of the four years of the intifada, it wasn't like this at all," he said. "Everybody who was fighting against the Israelis now wants work. We have very high unemployment and these people have weapons they used to shoot at the Israelis. They want the PA to employ them and the authority is not capable of doing it, so they use the guns."
Fatah's primary elections were halted after members of its own al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, primarily known to the outside world for its suicide bombings, burned ballot boxes in protest at the failure of its members to be given greater representation. But the security situation has not been improved by the Fatah leader in Gaza, Muhammad Dahlan, whose own security detail has a reputation for thuggery.
The PA's failing control has allowed small disputes to escalate. Some of the violence begins with minor factional disputes and then flares into inter-family feuds after someone is killed. In Beit Hanoun, north of Gaza City, a feud between two families grew out of an accident between a car and a donkey cart. Two months later, nine people are dead.
Earlier this month, a member of Hamas's military wing in Gaza City, Rami al-Dalo, was shot dead in a dispute over the pasting of Fatah and Hamas election posters in each other's strongholds. The Dalos blamed a neighbouring Fatah-supporting family and the confrontation turned the area into an armed camp.
In Khan Yunis, at the southern end of the Gaza strip, a small war that has so far cost six lives, and led to barricaded streets, grew out of a row between two fishermen. In the same town, families embroiled in smuggling have recruited militiamen for protection and 11 policemen were wounded in a gun battle.
A series of kidnappings, which prompted the United Nations to withdraw its foreign workers from the Gaza strip, was carried out by members of the militias demanding jobs in the security forces.
Last month gunmen grabbed a pro-Palestinian British activist, Kate Burton, and her parents who were visiting Gaza.
The police arrested Alla al-Hams, the commander of a well-armed al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade unit of men who spent years attacking Israeli army posts and Jewish settlements. Mr Hams, who denies kidnapping the Burtons, claims to have lost 20 men fighting the Israelis. But since the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza strip last summer, he and his men have found themselves at a loss. They no longer receive regular payments from Fatah, and feel they are owed jobs. "We fought for the liberation of Gaza and our reward should be that it looks after those who have sacrificed," he said. "What has been done for us? We have no jobs, we have no money. Our families are hungry."
After Mr Hams was detained by the Palestinian security police, his men occupied municipal offices in Rafah, shut the frontier crossing and bulldozed through the wall along the border. Two Egyptian frontier guards were killed and 25 injured. The PA released Mr Hams.
Ballot points: a rare and crucial event
· Wednesday's election to the Palestinian parliament is the first in 10 years, and only the second ever.
· 728 candidates are contesting 132 seats in the Palestinian Legislative Council.
· Half the seats will be filled by direct election by constituency and the other half by proportional representation drawing on party lists.
· There are 485,000 registered voters in Gaza and 788,000 in the West Bank.
· The race is dominated by the contest between the ruling Fatah and Hamas. Hamas boycotted the 1996 ballot on the grounds that it implied recognition of the Oslo peace accords with Israel, but it has decided to take advantage of a strong political base built on widespread dissatisfaction with Fatah's corruption and incompetence.
· Hamas is campaigning as the Change and Reform movement because it remains a banned terrorist organisation in Israel. Latest polls put Hamas two or three percentage points behind Fatah, at about one-third of the vote.
· The founding charter of Hamas calls for the eradication of Israel, but that does not appear in its manifesto.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,1692796,00.html
The latest stuff from Jerusalem Post about the election campaign you can read here:
Fatah, Hamas try to nail down support
And from Al-Jazeera here:
Fatah attacked for taking US funds
And the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronot/Ynet published today following:
'Officers who voted for Hamas arrested'
Haaretz wrote this y'day:
Hamas says talks with Israel through a third party not taboo
...but a short while before they reported this:
U.S. to shun PA if Hamas in coalition
* P"A": Palestinian "Authority" ... (NEVER TRUST AUTHORITIES!!!)
The Guardian, 1.20
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1691217,00.html
Some 15,000 soldiers and police are patrolling Nepal's capital after a day-long curfew was imposed to derail plans for a protest against King Gyanendra.
An alliance of seven opposition parties has vowed to go on with pro-democracy protests, although it was unclear if today's planned demonstration in Kathmandu would go ahead.
Thousands of people had been expected at the rally to demand that democracy be reinstated and to protest at the king's seizure of absolute power last February after sacking an interim government.
But the king's regime imposed an indefinite ban on rallies, and imposed an 8am (0400 GMT) to 6pm curfew today, on top of a previously imposed night-time curfew, which starts at 9pm.
At least five prominent opposition politicians were put under house arrest yesterday and, according to human rights groups, at least 78 opposition supporters were arrested in a city-wide police sweep.
Early today the city and its suburbs were deserted after an initial burst of activity as residents rushed to buy groceries and drive to work before the curfew began. There were no reports of demonstrations.
Internet, mobile and landline phone communications were cut off between Kathmandu and the outside world yesterday, although landlines and internet communications were later reconnected.
Foreign governments, including the UK and US, condemned Nepal's efforts to stifle the protests and impose house arrests.
Regime officials claimed the crackdown was to maintain order and that the rally must be prevented because there was information that communist rebels planned to use the event to stage attacks.
The Himalayan state, sandwiched between India and China, is the scene of a decade-old conflict between Maoist guerrillas and the state, which has claimed more than 12,000 lives. Although there was a brief lull in the violence for four months under a Maoist ceasefire, the fighting has resumed.
A top government official at the command centre in Kathmandu - who refused to be identified - said troops were guarding strategic areas and would ensure there were no "disturbances". The home minister, Kamal Thapa, said: "We have to protect the people and maintain peace and tranquillity."
One opposition leader under house arrest, the general secretary of the Communist party, Madhav Kumar Nepal, said he was told he could not leave his home for 90 days and that he could receive no visitors.
Speaking to a reporter by telephone, he said: "We will continue our struggle against the regime despite all these attempt to quash peaceful protests."
Another detained politician, Khadga Prasad Oli, a deputy leader of the Communist party, said: "The government imposing a curfew and restrictions shows that it is panicking."
Also placed under house arrest were Girija Prasad Koirala, the Nepali Congress party president and a former prime minister; Bharat Mohan Adhikari, another Communist party deputy leader; and Narayan Man Bijuchche, of the Nepal Workers and Peasants' party.
The US state department in Washington called on the king to release the activists. "These arrests and harassment of peaceful democratic forces is a violation of their civil and political rights."
Last week, 150,000 people led by pro-democracy activists gathered in a south-west Nepal town in the largest political rally since last February. While seizing power last year, King Gyanendra accused the previous administration of failing to fight corruption or contain the communist insurgency.
GEFONT(General Federation of Trade Unions) published this 1.19:
New wave of Extreme Suppression in
GEFONT Chairman and Secretary General Arrested
Jan 19,
Issuing a collective press note the recognised trade union centres said- " In order to legalise the autocracy through municipality election ploy Royal Regime has created further anarchy in the name of law and order and started arrest and forceful intervention in public life."
The press note states- "Early in the morning today GEFONT chair Mukunda Neupane and Secretary General
"The regime unlawfully conducted search in the GEFONT HQ and continued surveillance. They cut-down the telephone line. Similar surveillance is continued in the office of NTUC with an ill-intention of arresting trade union leaders and activists."
"We on behalf of GEONT, NTUC and DECONT condemned autocratic acts of Royal regime and demand for immediate release of GEFONT Chair and Secretary General including all arrested leaders & activists."
The note concludes with a warning to the regime not to intervene on the trade union rights delegated by laws & constitution of the country.
It is to be noted that the trade union centres are holding a joint meet-the-press at
Related stuff:
http://blog.jinbo.net/CINA/?cid=4&pid=432
Following article today's(1.20) Israeli("left-liberal") daily Ha'aretz published:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/672747.html
In the Muqata, they're already thinking of Thursday, the day after the most crucial political campaign the Palestinians have known since the handshake between Yasser Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin in September 1993. The question that is on everyone's minds is what will happen if Hamas does not make do with the 45 or 50 percent of the vote it is predicted to receive in the elections for the Palestine Legislative Council. What will they do if the party that declared war on the Oslo accords will want to get a foot in the door of the Palestinian Authority government - a government that was established by virtue of these accords?
Some are saying that if you can't beat Hamas, then join 'em, by bringing them into the government. Others, led by Mohammed Dahlan, are not even willing to listen to any talk about dividing up the pie, or more correctly the cookie, with the Islamists. In Fatah, as in the Baath party, the oligarchy is connected to the government by a solid glue of interests.
Co-option of Hamas into the executive authority could perhaps domesticate the Rottweiler. Who knows, maybe life from the government offices will look different when it does from the mosques? The greater their electoral achievement, the greater the responsibility on their shoulders for the peace and well-being of a larger constituency. But the Americans didn't leave Abu Mazen any room for doubt; he now understands that bringing Hamas into the government would be the final nail in the coffin of the road map. Abu Mazen's advisors listened with great interest to Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's remarks about his willingness to renew permanent status negotiations. They fully realize that a coalition with Hamas would free him from this commitment.
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni knows by heart Article III of the Oslo Interim Agreement ("Oslo 2"), which states that political parties or individual candidates that "commit or advocate racism" or "pursue the implementation of their aims by unlawful or undemocratic means" must be banned. Last summer, when British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw visited Israel, Livni requested that Europe insist that Abu Mazen fulfill this section of the agreement. U.S. President George W. Bush forced Sharon to accept Hamas' participation in elections to the legislative council. But there is a very long way between that step and maintaining a relationship with a government that includes a party defined by American law as a "terror organization." Nor will the Europeans be standing in line to meet with minister Mahmoud al-Zahar. Basically, Hamas already has a representative in the government - the minister of national economy, Mazen Sinnukrot, a businessman from Ramallah, is absolutely identified with Hamas. Sinnukrot entered the Abu Mazen cabinet as an "independent," which enabled him to circumvent the Israeli and American boycott on Hamas. This sort of mislabeling will also help the Palestinian Authority get around the Israeli law, which bans Hamas from taking part in elections in Jerusalem. But when the party's candidates are elected and they begin an all-out charge at the cabinet, it might be difficult to repeat this wily stratagem.
Abu Mazen is relying on the honey trap scenario: he assumes that once Hamas tastes the morsels of government, he might exact from it a high price in exchange. The price would be its signature on a declaration of loyalty to the principles of the Palestinian Authority - one law, one government, one army. If they want to, they will enjoy the fruits of government; if they don't want to, no fruits and no enjoyment.
Unilateral engagement
The most widespread Hamas election campaign poster reminds the voting public that "Five years of resistance proved stronger than ten years of negotiations." Nevertheless, numerous poll s show that despite the rise in support for Hamas and the broad consensus in the Palestinian public that it was violence that eventually led to the disengagement plan, most Palestinians still prefer the diplomatic option.
Fatah's campaign posters offer a portrait of Yasser Arafat alongside a picture of Marwan Barghouti waving his handcuffed hands. Abu Mazen is scrupulous about upholding a law that requires the chairman to maintain neutrality throughout the election campaign. He has turned down numerous offers to be photographed in the company of well-known Western public figures. In any case, quite a few candidates on the Fatah list feel that a picture together with Abu Mazen would not help them, and might even hurt.
One aide to Abu Mazen wants to believe that everything will look different after the elections in the territories and before the elections in Israel. He assumes that the results of the elections will illustrate to Israel and the Americans the full implications of replacing the Rabin heritage with the Sharon heritage. It would throw the hot potato of Islamic fundamentalism at the doorstep of Jerusalem and Washington, and place two options before them. One - a letter of resignation, dismantling of the Palestinian Authority, a farewell to Oslo, declaration of an Islamic state in Gaza and a takeover of Nablus by street gangs. In short, "Let me die with the Palestinians!"
The second option, which is being seriously weighed in the chairman's inner circle, is a package deal: immediate resumption of the diplomatic process (according to one proposal, on the basis of either the Clinton outline or the Geneva Initiative), massive economic and security aid to the Palestinian Authority, wide-ranging governmental reform and disarming of armed non-governmental organizations. In other words, a resurrection of the Oslo process.
Abu Mazen also has the option of declaring a state of emergency the day after the election, invalidating the results of the election and declaring new elections within six months. During this interval, the new government in Israel, and its American ally, would be compelled to choose between the two options.
"We are not talking about a choice between two parties, or even between two approaches," explains this same aide. "Israel would have to decide soon if it prefers a secular government turned to the West and to enlightenment, or a neighbor that looks to the East, and whose reference group is the Islamic states."
Sharon's stubborn refusal to throw even a small bone to Abu Mazen in the form of coordination of the Israeli pullback from the Gaza Strip dispelled any illusions among the more pragmatic circles in the territories that the situation of the Palestinians was of any great concern to the prime minister. Fatah leaders had a hard time believing that a sly and experienced politician like Sharon could not understand that the unilateral policy was turning them into a bunch of irrelevant political operators. The tightening of the closures, the renewal of the targeted assassinations, and the decision to prohibit the participation of the East Jerusalem residents in the elections bolstered their suspicion that Sharon was in fact interested in strengthening Hamas, the ultimate non-partner in any realistic negotiations. With the Islamic zealots, there is really no reason to talk about settlement blocs and exchange of territory, or about special arrangements on the Temple Mount or a solution to the refugee problem that would not include the right of return.
Nevertheless, the execution of the pullback from the Gaza Strip proved to the Palestinians that if Sharon is determined to push a process ahead, nothing can stop him. Afterward, in the negotiations on the border crossings, they saw how he manhandled Shaul Mofaz, that big macho man, and arm-wrestled Amos Gilad, the man Palestinians love to hate, until Gilad signed the agreement. They fear that new recruit Olmert's strength will not measure up to that of the generals.
Record support for peace
"Palestinian willingness to compromise is greater than it has been at any time since the start of the peace process," states Dr. Khalil Shikaki in an extensive study based on dozens of polls held among residents of the territories over the past decade. Shikaki, from Ramallah, is considered the king of the Palestinian pollsters. This willingness to compromise is one of three main trends he enumerates in a 16-page document that was released on the eve of elections, in the form of a special position paper issued by the United States Institute of Peace. This positive trend, Shikaki notes, remained unchanged even in the worst days of the second intifada. The second trend is that "Palestinian opposition to violence increases when diplomacy proves effective. Public support for violence increases in an environment of greater pain and suffering and decreases when threat perception is reduced".
"For the first time since the start of the peace process, a majority of Palestinians support a compromise settlement that is acceptable to a majority of Israelis. Therefore, the time is ripe to deal with permanent-status issues," Shikaki writes. This shift in support for compromise gives policymakers greater diplomatic room to maneuver than ever before. Conversely, "Palestinian misperception of Israeli public attitudes is evident even when it comes to one of the core elements of the peace process: the two-state solution. Lack of normal personal interaction, because the only Israelis most Palestinians encounter are soldiers or armed settlers, encourages misperception and the desire to portray the other side negatively."
The third trend: There is a close and constant direct connection among Palestinians between the state-building process and peace-making. The study demonstrates that without consistent progress toward stability, the chances of Palestinians finding their way to democracy and good governance decrease. Under current conditions, the democratic game will play into the hands of Hamas, and will minimize chances of peace with Israel. In the past decade, it became clear that the absence of good governance caused a weakening of the political institutions, the spread of corruption, and removal from the diplomatic process of the Islamists and the young generation of the nationalist movement. The outcome was that the Palestinian Authority succeeded in providing neither progress toward a settlement with Israel nor critical public services. This led to an erosion of its legitimacy and to encouragement of an opposition that defiantly challenged its leadership, to the point of establishment of a state within a state.
Given the situation, Shikaki continues, the Palestinian Authority leadership lost the political will to enforce law and order. Moreover, the Islamists, who are seen as uncorrupted, attracted increasingly greater waves of support, to the point of a shift in the balance of political forces. In this manner, the status of the nationalist groups, who were the surviving backbone of the peace process, was further weakened. Shikaki believes that a struggle against corruption, including the dismissal of many of the heads of the security organizations, is the key for Fatah to the hearts of the public that has found shelter in the bosom of Hamas.
Fatah, Hamas might not win majority
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As Fatah and Hamas fight neck and neck for the most seats in the Palestinian Legislative Council elections, polls say that - much like the Israeli system - neither of the two juggernauts in Palestinian politics will be able to capture a majority due to the plethora of smaller parties also competing.
In all, there are 11 party lists formed of political parties, coalitions, and independents running for the 66 seats (out of the 132 in total) which are apportioned to the national party lists.
Though the remaining nine party lists are not well known, the leading figures on some of them were active in Palestinian politics for many years. The following is a profile of three.
The voting threshold for representation in the PLC is two percent.
A coalition of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, The People's Party, Fida, and independent candidates, The Alternative list stands for "a democratic alternative to the present state of corruption and chaos," said Qais Karim Khadir, the No. 1 on the list and a member of the PFLP.
"We call for a wide democratic alliance to form a third current strong enough to act as an equilibrium between Hamas and Fatah," Khadir told The Jerusalem Post in an interview.
It is the Alternative's goal, he said, to create a national consensus among all the Palestinian parties and to convince Hamas and Fatah to join a national coalition government which "fights corruption, brings down unemployment and relieves poverty."
Regarding Israel, this list calls for a two-state solution based on the 1967 borders with a recourse for Palestinian refugees according to United Nations Resolution 194. Negotiations for a peace agreement should take place in an international conference supervised by the UN, Khadir said.
The coalition does not support "operations that target civilians and acts against innocent people" west of the Green Line, Khadir said. But it "believes Palestinian resistance has the right to continue as long as the occupation continues."
While he said that resistance could include violent acts against Israelis in the West Bank, Khadir said that his list was more interested in "mass action and mass struggle."
Led by Gaza psychiatrist Dr. Eyad El-Sarraj, the Wa'ad party platform is based on the respect of human rights, the rule of law, and a reform of the Palestinian security forces.
"What we need is law and order," El-Sarraj said in an interview with the Post. "We want to see [the security forces] dismantled and restructured. We don't need multiple security forces that are useless."
If Wa'ad can surpass 2%, El-Sarraj, who also heads a group of Palestinian and Israeli academics working toward a peace agreement, said it will work with any party that agrees with its platform. Being a partner with Fatah, which he said has governed the PA "absolutely miserably in all aspects of life," would depend on which of its candidates were elected.
Though enthusiastic about working with Hamas, which El-Sarraj sees as a "clean organization," he said the Islamic party must first "clearly commit themselves to not using [terrorism] again" and to disarming its military wing.
"Once they become part of the political community, there will be no tolerance for private militias," he said.
Wa'ad's platform calls for the implementation of the road map outlined by President Bush and a negotiated peace agreement which leads to an independent Palestinian state. As a consultant to the Palestinian negotiating team at Camp David, El-Sarraj advised Yassir Arafat to take the deal offered by Ehud Barak, he said, describing the deceased Palestinian leader's choice as a "colossal mistake." However he blames Ehud Barak and Ariel Sharon, as well as Arafat, for the years of violence that ensued.
Headed by former PA Finance Minister Dr. Salam Fayyad, the Third Way believes the political and legal rights of the Palestinian people are inseparable from the socioeconomic progress and democratic improvements called for in its platform.
Building democratic institutions, enacting the rule of law, and bringing fundamental rights and freedom to Palestinians requires "people of integrity which will pursue reform to force these issues," party list No. 2 Dr. Hanan Ashrawi told the Post.
Unemployment, poor health care, and a feeling of alienation among "disempowered groups such as women, youth, and the disabled" are all problems The Third Way is seeking to rectify, she said.
But it all starts with reform, Ashrawi said, characterizing the current state of the PA as one where lawlessness, corruption, and abuse of power are common.
If it meets the 2% threshold, the Third Way would not necessarily join in a coalition with either Fatah or Hamas, Ashrawi said. "We don't believe in the politicization of Islam, and we don't want Fatah because we don't want to go backward," she said.
The Third Way calls for the PA security forces to be amalgamated into three groups: police and preventative security, intelligence, and national security.
It also calls for regulations imposed on those forces that require a change of leadership every four years, and bar serving members from political work and from appropriating money.
Where the peace process is concerned, the Third Way supports the Saudi initiative, which would see all the Arab countries normalize relations with Israel in exchange for a return to the 1967 borders.
It prefers a multilateral negotiation process led by the Quartet.
"Israel has ignored its obligations under the road map," Ashrawi said, and it is appropriate to "blame the stronger side when the moderate voices on the weaker side are being undermined."
Polling numbers are according to the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research poll conducted December 29-31.
PA election observers warned away (Jerusalem Post, 1.17)
Ten days ago a fax was received from the Al-Aqsa Brigades in Jenin recommending that international observers of the Palestinian elections stay away. Two weeks ago a Nablus hotel owner where the observers intended to stay was threatened if he hosted them. Less than three weeks ago an Italian aide to a European parliamentary delegation was kidnapped in the Gaza Strip and released hours later.
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