Kathmandu, Nepal
April 26, 2005
The attack on pro-democracy activists is stepped up in the Himalayan capital of Nepal.
Upon return from the cremation of Sadhana Adhikari, long time pro-democracy activist, a leader of the UML(Unified Marxist Leninist)( 2nd largest parliamentary party) and wife of the late PM and UML party chairman Man Mohan Adhikari, mourners at the UML headquarters in Kathmandu were attacked by police.
The masked, plainclothes police, reminiscent of storm-troopers in Nazi Germany and Central American Death Squads, ransacked the office, breaking doors and window panes, knocking in a bathroom door, roughing up cadres and threatening them at gunpoint. Keshav Singh, Nepal Students’ Union(NSU) President was arrested at the condolence and remains in jail.
All democratic parties, from left to right, have condemned the unprovoked attack on the UML headquarters during the condolence gathering. A UML spokesperson responding to the police attack, stated that the “attack and hooliganism”, showed that “so-called loyalty of the King [to multi-party democracy] is a farce”, adding further that “This incident has exposed the King’s lip-service to multi-party democracy in Indonesia and China recently.”
Police raids in the Kathmandu valley also netted former Nepali Congress (NP-D) Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba who was arrested from his house for not appearing before an extra-judicial commission declaring it “unconstitutional”.
On Tuesday at 3AM, the day before the attack on the UML headquarters, 22 plainclothes police arrested 29 year old Gagan Thapa and two of his colleagues. Thapa is the former leader of the
Nepal Students’ Union (NSU) , considered an up and coming member of the Nepali Congress (NC,) and one of the most dynamic speakers supporting the restoration of multi-party democracy.
Also on Tuesday Dwarika Upreti, publisher of ROADMAP, a Kathmandu weekly, was arrested by plainclothes police as he was walking to his office. A statement issued by chief Editor Kamal Korala
stated, “arresting a person involved in the paper publishing business without any reasons makes it clear that the government is becoming more regressive against the press. We strongly condemn this illegal arrest and attempts to intimidate the press, and demand Upreti’s immediate release”.
The Federation of Nepalese Journalist (FNJ) appealed to human rights organizations and journalists
to protest against Upreti’ arrest and to demand the immediate release of all detained journalists.
With the events of the past weeks, and more than 3000 arrest since the February-1 power grab by King Gyanendra, many Nepalis who have sat on the sidelines complaining about the corruption of top party officials and former government members are beginning to rejoin the struggle for multi-party democracy.
D. MICHAEL VAN DE VEER - Freelance Journalist
Contributor to Pacifica’s FREE SPEECH RADIO NEWS
UnitedWeBlog(Voice of Free Nepal
Co-Host OUT OF THE BOX KKCR-FM
www.kkcr.org
Reporting daily from Kathmandu, Nepal
PO Box: 21218 Thamel, Kathmandu, Nepal
Tel:0700800 Fax: 011-977-14-4700133
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