Price of conflict costing state in excess of Rs. 2.5 billion

The Himalayan Times - Price of conflict costing state in excess of Rs. 2.5 billion - Detail News

Added At: 2011-03-31 6:07 PM

Last Updated At: 2011-03-31 6:07 PM

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LEKHANATH PANDEY

KATHMANDU: As the saying goes, conflict comes at a cost. Nepal’s post-conflict approach to assuage the decade-long conflict-victims reflects it truly.

The state coffers have already been depleted by at least Rs. 2.5 billion just to give a nominal relief package to some of the thousands of victims of the Maoist insurgency, and the cost continues to rise.

Data prepared by the Ministry of Peace and Reconstruction (MoPR) showed that it has delivered an amount of Rs. 1.4 billion as relief to the kin and kith of 14,064 people who died during the rebellion. It is yet to allocate relief to the remaining 2655 people who suffered the same fate. It means that the state would have to pay at least another Rs. 265 million to the remaining victims’ families.

Relief and Rehabilitation Unit at the MoPR has set a criterion of allocating Rs. 100,000 to the family of every single person killed during the conflict. A total of 16,719 people have been reported dead in the conflict.

“We have already sent necessary relief fund of 14,064 deceased persons to District Administrative Offices concerned to provide relief to their families,” said RRB Division Chief at MoPR Ganesh Prasad Upadhaya. “The remaining will soon get the relief package.”

The relief package costs the state more than Rs. 1 billion for those affected by the conflict, including disabled, disappeared, abducted, dependents, including children and widows. Only 29,000 internally displaced persons out of 78,675 have received nominal relief and compensation from the government and have been resettled in their own place. It has already cost the state at least Rs. 340 million, and the remaining two thirds will certainly cost nearly twice the amount.

At least Rs. 100 million has been used as compensation for some 11,775 cases of physical infrastructure destroyed. Likewise, Rs. 130 million has been expended as relief to the kith and kin of 1302 people who disappeared. The amount has been mobilised through Nepal Peace Trust Fund, a donor-funded Trust to address the post-conflict relief and rehabilitation issues.

An account of the victims in different categories had been prepared by the RRU, based in MoPR, with the help of inter-governmental agencies and the relief fund has been distributed through the local channel. Upadhaya, however, said that RRU had faced the challenge of identifying the true victims of the conflict.

In addition to the relief package, a whopping 5,560 physical infrastructure had been destroyed during the conflict. Only 1,968 has been rebuilt at a cost of more than Rs. 3.7 billion from the coffers.

Nepal revises civil war death toll to 17,265+

Mar 29 07:55 AM US/Eastern

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KATHMANDU, March 29 (AP) - (Kyodo)—The Nepalese government said Tuesday the death toll from the country's 10-year civil war was almost 1,000 people more than the figure released two years ago.The government said the conflict has left 17,265 people dead, citing figures compiled by an official taskforce responsible for ascertaining the loss of life and property during the Communist insurgency.
In 2009, the government put the death toll at 16,278.
The conflict, which ended in 2006, has left an additional 1,302 people missing, 4,305 disabled and 78,675 displaced, according to Peace Ministry data.
Nepal's Maoists fought an armed insurgency demanding a new Constitution and an end to the monarchy.
The Constituent Assembly, elected in 2008, abolished the country's monarchy the same year, while the Maoists emerged as the country's biggest political force.
A new Constitution has yet to be written, largely because of a power struggle that led to the formation of three governments in as many years.
The Constituent Assembly is supposed to promulgate a new Constitution by May 28.

Progress in Constitution drafting work remains slow, and Prime Minister Jhala Nath Khanal, who was elected by parliament on Feb. 3, has yet to announce a full Cabinet.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9M8SH781&show_article=1

Govt calls armed outfits for talks

Added At:  2011-03-29 11:51 PM  

Last Updated At: 2011-03-30 11:51 PM

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HIMALAYAN NEWS SERVICE

KATHMANDU: Amid serial blasts that gripped the Tarai in the past few days, the government today formally invited armed outfits operating mostly in Tarai districts, for talks.

The government, however, made it clear it would sit at the table only with those groups that are political in nature.

Minister for Peace and Reconstruction Barsha Man Pun said some outfits operating in the Tarai and eastern hill districts had already approached it for talks.

“The government sits for talks only with groups having political nature,” Pun said at a press conference, insisting that groups involved in criminal activities would not be spared.

Criminal acts like murder, abduction, and extortion, are the biggest security challenges in the area bordering the Tarai and eastern hill districts. Government data shows as many as 100 armed groups active there, many of them criminal.

In the last four days, four blasts were reported in various districts — Rautahat, Banke Rupandehi and Kavre — which police claim were perpetrated by armed outfits.

At least one person died and dozens of others were injured in these incidents.

Asked who was responsible for the recent blasts, Minister Pun said investigations were under way in this regard. He, however, did not give details about progress in the investigation, saying it was out of his jurisdiction.

Pun did not disclose which groups had approached the government for talks, saying the “dialogue would be kept secret until it bore fruit”.

Earlier, the Madhav Kumar Nepal-led coalition government had held talks with 22 groups and had forged at least two dozen agreements with them, according to the Ministry of Peace and Reconstruction (MoPR)

During the press meet, he presented details of people who were killed, abducted, disappeared and displaced during the decade-long armed rebellion and the figures of those who did not get relief package from the state.

According to the MoPR report, family members of 1,444 out of 17,265 people who died during the conflict were yet to get relief from the state. The report says the state would provide relief to family members of 2,283 conflict victims in the running fiscal. Among the 78,675 displaced persons, almost two third, 50,675 are yet to be resettled in their own homes, according to the report.

Pun also presented a whopping figure of 5,560 physical infrastructure destroyed by the conflict. Only 1,968 have been reconstructed at a cost of more than 3.7 billion rupees from the state coffers. Around 981 police posts destroyed during the rebellion were constructed with the Nepal Peace Trust Fund. He informed that the stalled process of distributing allowance to Maoist PLA combatants had resumed.

http://www.thehimalayantimes.com/rssReference.php?headline=Govt+calls+armed+outfits+for+talks&NewsID=281892

द्वन्द्वको घाउ आलै | Demand for basic rights cost teenager his limb

भीमबहादुर सिंह

जाजरकोट, मंसिर १७ -
द्वन्द्वका बेला माओवादी कार्यकर्ताले खुट्टा भाँचिदिएका झाप्रा ८ स्थित नल्फुका तेजनाथ योगी अहिले अपांग जीवन बिताइरहेका छन् । पढ्नकै लागि उनी सदरमुकाम खलंगामा डेरा लिएर बसेका छन् । योगीको गाउँ सदरमुकामबाट दुई दल टाढा छ ।

बाबुलाई श्रमकैदमा राखेको विरोध गर्दा ६ वर्षअघि माओवादी कार्यकर्ता तप्तबहादुर शाहीले उनको खुट्टा भाँचिदिएका हुन् । त्यति बेला उनी ११ वर्षकामात्र थिए । उपचार नहुूदा दायाँ खुट्टा काट्नुपरेको उनले सुनाए । उनी बैसाखीको सहारामा दैनिक विद्यालय आउजाउ गर्छन् । खलंगास्थित त्रिभुवन उच्च माविमा कक्षा ९ मा पढ्दै गरेका योगीले भने, 'माओवादीको सशस्त्र द्वन्द्वले मलाई अपांग बनायो ।'

उनका बाबु शेरबहादुर नाथलाई माओवादीले श्रमजेल राखेर दुःख दिएको उनले विरोध गर्दा यातना दिने क्रममा दाहिने खुट्टा भाँचिएको हो ।

बुवा माओवादी श्रमजेलमा भएका कारण योगीको तत्काल उपचार गरिदिने कोही भएन । उनीहरूलाई गाउँ छाड्ने अनुमतिसमेत थिएन । स्थानीय वैद्यले काप्रो लगाए पनि ठीक नभएको उनले बताए । 'खुट्टा झन्झन् पाकेर थला परें । त्यसको २ वर्षपछि बुवाले अपांग बाल अस्पताल बनेपामा पुर्‍याउनुभयो,' उनले भने, 'तर क्यान्सर भइसकेको रहेछ । अन्ततः खुट्टा काटेर फ्याल्नपर्‍यो । तीन महिना अस्पताल बस्दा ५५ हजार ऋण लाग्यो ।' आर्थिक अवस्था कमजोर रहेका उनलाई सदरमुकाममा बसेर पढ्न मुस्किल छ । उनी आफंै खाना पकाउने, कोठा सफा गर्ने र भाँडा माज्ने गर्छन् । अहिले उनले ओमशिव भक्ति वृद्धाश्रम खलंगामा आश्रम लिएका छन् । तेजनाथ १५ मिनेट हिँडेर विद्यालय जाने गर्दछन् । विद्यालयका उनी एक्ला अपांग हुन् ।

'सरकारले द्वन्द्वपीडित मलाई अहिलेसम्म कुनै सहयोग गरेको छैन,' उनले गुनासो गरे । विद्यालयका हरेक क्षेत्रमा सपांगसँग प्रतिस्पर्धा गर्नुपर्छ । कक्षाकोठाको बसाइदेखि पढाइको छुट्टै व्यवस्था छैन ।

प्रकाशित मिति: २०६७ मंसिर १८ ०९:२०

Demand for basic rights cost teenager his limb

BHIM BAHADUR SINGH

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JAJARKOT, DEC 05 -

The decade-long armed insurgency is a thing of the past for many. But, the conflict frequently haunts this 16-year-old boy who is now living a life of disability.

Tejnath Yogi, then 11, was beaten up by UCPN (Maoist) activists on the charge of defaming the party. They brutally thrashed him, leaving him with a fractured right leg. He could not get timely treatment and the leg had to be cut off after two years.

The one-time rebels took action against the boy when he protested against the Maoists for driving his father, Sher Bahadur Nath, into their ‘labour camp’. The Maoist activists led by Tapta Bahadur Shahi broke his leg in the name of ‘people’s action”. The Maoists also ordered him not to leave the village even for medical treatment.

“My father was in the Maoists’ detention then. Nobody dared take me to hospital mainly due to the Maoists’ threat. A local baidya (healer) plastered my fractured leg, but it did not work,” Yogi narrated his ordeal.

He said that his father had taken him to a Banepa-based orthopedic hospital two years after the incident. “The doctors suggested cutting off the leg suspecting cancer,” the boy tearfully told the Post. The teenage amputee of Jhapra-8, has shifted to Khalanga to continue his studies. “I came here for my studies as I could not attend the school which was a two-hour walk from my house in the village,” said the ninth grader at Khalanga-based Tribhuwan Higher Secondary School.

He is taking refuge at Om Shiva-Shakti Elderly Home in Khalanga. “I am a single disabled student at the school. It is difficult to compete with the other students here,” said he, adding that the government has neither provided him relief not arrested the Maoist activists who maimed him. Yogi said that he asked the District Administration Office for relief but to no  avail.

Posted on: 2010-12-05 08:53

http://www.ekantipur.com/2010/12/05/editors-pick/demand-for-basic-rights--cost-teenager-his-limb/326028/