Dear All,

Thanks a lot for your concern. Don't mind if I am little blunter, realizing that English is not my mother tongue and also that I am directly involved in day to day and nearest monitoring of ongoing conflict in Nepal.
We Nepali also represent 21st century and equally capable to make right decisions. Decisions without King.
In every change there is inevitable vacuum. Formatting the theory of vacuum is always to support past regime. Not less or more than that.
This is peoples' movement. People's supremacy is most, non-negotiable. So every decision will be political.
People decided for Constituent Assembly. This is final and minimum bottom line condition. Current constitution is dead and funeral completed by the king on Feb-01, 2005. Some of octogenarian {physically and or psychologically} leaders are holding ashes in a mud-pot (Called ASHTU KALASH in Nepali). They have great care and affection because that represents cover up to their past idiocy.
People are so wise that they shook hand with brutal police men and Army yesterday, when they were in 1.5 + million strong rally. They could smash and kill those criminals, if you remember the heinous atrocities done in last 16 days of repression. People are completely peaceful. They are praying with Army and Police to restrain and refrain. They are asking people to be aware from government vigilante who provoke by throwing stone to the police. Family members of Police and Army are protected by civilians.
Maoist wants to join mainstream. They committed to Multi-Party democracy with all its principles. They expressed commitment to Human Rights principles and offered to put their Red-Army under UN or any other reliable international supervision. What else one should expect from a deadly insurgent group holding strong influence over 80% of the country? They have even accepted to examine their crimes. They have a clear road-map; Political conference to constitute all party, including Maoist, full power interim government; Holding of constituent assembly; Transformation of society to address all pertaining problems; i.e. social, political, cultural discrimination. Besides pro-king leaders only one person having belief on current constitution and Monarchy is Mr. K.P. Bhattarai, interim P.M. of 1990. He is totally sunk with OSHO meditation and GEETA prayer, so poor old and senile should not be blamed.
WHAT NEXT:

(01) Declare every thing INTERIM; the constitution (with necessary amendments), the government (new with leadership of seven party alliance), The King (with track record of generations to betray and deceive).

(02) Current constitution may be declared interim with amendments. Amendments are necessary to make provision for constituent assembly, cabinet from non-parliamentarians and many other necessary things.

(03) Under article (32) of the current constitution King can transfer his authority to any person and or council, in his absence or for any specified period. Now, the king should transfer his political and state authority to interim government invoking this article. This will make the king truly ceremonial.

(04) [A] Interim government should issue interim constitution which will enable them to carry on further towards twelve point understanding they had with CPN Maoist. [B] Maoist should declare cease-fire. [C] Government should revoke red-corner notice and terrorist tag against Maoist. [E] Maoist should be incorporated in the interim government. [F] Interim government should hold election for constituent assembly within specified and agreed period. [G] in the constituent assembly, there should be parallel constituencies for all discriminated and strong participants of current movement; i.e. Women, Dalit, Indigenous, Professionals, Youth, religious minorities, Physically challenged etc.

(05) There are many things to be managed by interim government through interim constitution e.g. putting whole state authority including Royal Nepal Army under government; Dismantling King’s council (as mentioned above {03}) etc.

After constituent assembly election the new constitution will through out this ugly, criminal, outdated, cruel, feudalistic and deceiving Monarchy for ever through peaceful and due process. This bloody Monarchy suppressed my Father, I and I cannot tolerate to the misery of my children. His grand father Tribhuwan and father Mahendra did conspiracy and crime against us. His elder brother Birendra and this Gyanendra is inflicting upon me. His son, the notorious criminal will conduct lot more misery against my children. To get rid of, this historical blunder must go and go for ever.

Subodh Raj Pyakurel.
Chair-Person, INSEC and South Asian People's Forum
www.inseconline.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEApril 22, 2006
AS-072-2006

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission
NEPAL: Coup leader Gyanendra must be ousted and brought to justice by popular demandDemonstrations totalling hundreds of thousands of Nepalese citizens have continued unabated since April 6th, 2006, defying curfews and shoot-to-kill orders given to the security forces. The movement to rid Nepal of its autocratic monarch has become more and more determined throughout this time. At least 14 persons have been killed, hundreds injured and thousands arrested as the result of the excessive use of force and repression by the security forces, including the firing with live ammunition on crowds of demonstrators. On April 21, 2006 the massive demonstrations protesting against the February 1, 2005 coup by King Gyanendra, forced the increasingly isolated King to make a last ditch televised bid to create the impression that he is willing to retreat to the position of constitutional monarch, based on the 1990 constitution. He called upon the seven party alliance opposition parties, who have been at the forefront of the demonstration movement, to put forward the name of a prime minister to whom he will hand over executive power. This is an obvious move to buy further time in an attempt to divide the opposition and to dilute the protests on the streets of Kathmandu and elsewhere around the country.

Once again, Gyanendra has misjudged the will of the people. The opposition protesters have pledged to continue holding rallies after dismissing King Gyanendra’s promises as being too little, too late. Opposition leaders have stated that these promises have not addressed the demands of the people and that they are nothing more than a ploy to fool the people and to secure the future of the monarchy. Demonstrations are scheduled to continue today and a new curfew has been called. The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) sincerely hopes that there will be no further loss of life as a result of further excessive force on the part of the authorities.

Central to the demands of the demonstrators, who come from all walks of life and a broad range of sectors in Nepal, is the creation of a constituent assembly that will re-write the constitution of Nepal through a democratic process and enable the abolition of the monarchy through popular consent.

King Gyanendra has no legitimacy to remain as a constitutional monarch, as he is a coup leader who overthrew the legitimate and elected government, dissolved parliament and took autocratic executive control, without any legal basis to do so. His ouster can only be seen as a just resolution of the coup. Further to this, King Gyanendra should be brought to justice under the principle of command responsibility for the plethora of human rights abuses and violations of humanitarian law that have occurred under his rule. Nepal has been the stage of one of the worst human rights calamities in the world – the UN Human Rights Commission had named it as being the country with the greatest number of forced disappearances in the world in recent years. Torture, extra-judicial executions, rapes, mass arrests and detentions, and wide-ranging curtailments of many other rights have been perpetrated against the people of Nepal during King Gyanendra’s rule. He must be held accountable for these acts. The future of the country, which has suffered too long, must be built on the foundations of justice, democracy and accountability.

The demands of the people need to be met. The demonstrations have been spontaneous and based on a groundswell of legitimate political resistance to abuse. This has given them the resilience needed to carry on against the repressive acts committed by the authorities. The demonstrators must continue to push until their legitimate demands are met, including the establishment of a democratic republic. In remaining steadfast in their resolve, the people of Nepal can bring about the changes required to put an end to the internal conflict that has caused over 13,000 casualties in the country, to the gross human rights violations and to the despotic regime that have crippled the country socially, economically and politically.

The AHRC calls upon the international community to urge the coup leader to abdicate from the throne and to support any moves by the people of Nepal to bring him to justice in line with international norms and standards.

Moments for decisive change appear very rarely. Such a moment is now upon Nepal. It is the responsibility of everyone in Nepal and outside to support all efforts to get rid of the systems and individuals that are responsible for the human rights disaster in the country. AHRC earnestly hopes that the dreams for democracy manifested by the people in the streets and those that have paid with their lives will not be betrayed.

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About AHRC The Asian Human Rights Commission is a regional non-governmental organisation monitoring and lobbying human rights issues in Asia. The Hong Kong-based group was founded in 1984

Asian Human Rights Commission
19/F, Go-Up Commercial Building,
998 Canton Road, Kowloon, Hongkong S.A.R.
Tel: +(852) - 2698-6339 Fax: +(852) - 2698-6367

SRI LANKA: President blatantly violates constitution by appointing members to 17th Amendment commissions

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 11, 2006
AS-063-2006
A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC)

SRI LANKA: President blatantly violates constitution by appointing members to 17th Amendment commissions

In blatant violation of Sri Lanka's constitution, President Mahindra Rajapakse took it upon himself to appoint members to the National Police Commission and the Public Service Commission. These appointments bypassed the constitutional process, which requires the appointments to be approved by the Constitutional Council. Before granting approval, the council is to examine the merits of the proposed persons, as well as take into account any public objections, thereby preventing arbitrary or political appointments. By making appointments to these commissions himself, the president is moving towards absolute power without safeguards.

In the days preceding these appointments, a drama was enacted to give the impression that the president was concerned with the delay of the appointments to the Constitutional Council. The delay comes with the lack of agreement on which minority party should appoint the third member to the council. The drama involved the president writing to the speaker of parliament to promptly resolve the problems deterring the functioning of the Constitutional Council. The very next day, the president announced appointments to the National Police Commission and Public Service Commission. These names could not have been gathered on that day; the appointments were clearly planned. It will never be known whether these appointments would have been approved by the Constitutional Council or whether any public interventions would have been made.

If the president genuinely wanted to resolve the delay in appointing the Constitutional Council and other commissions, he should have intervened with the minority parties, particularly the JVP, TNA and JHU, to get the third member appointed. As a European Union representative suggested, if these parties cannot agree on a single member, they could agree to share the time period of three years. It is clear however, that the president was not concerned with expediting the appointment to the Constitutional Council, which would then select commissioners for the various commissions under the 17th Amendment on merit. The president's action has in fact preempted the Constitutional Council.

The Asian Human Rights Commission calls upon President Rajapakse to withdraw these appointments forthwith, and urges the appointed members to desist from accepting these appointments. The damage caused by the appointments and their acceptance will be greater than any good the commissioners contemplate doing through the commissions. Neither the commissions nor the appointments are at present legitimate. By functioning illegitimately, the significance of the commissions--which are vital to the defence of basic freedoms--will be lost.

For this reason, the AHRC impresses the need for everyone, including the international community, to unequivocally condemn these appointments and work towards the reversal of these decisions. Within the past few months the AHRC has several times noted that the Sri Lankan government is on its way to becoming a dictatorship. The present manipulation of all public institutions is a move by the executive to gain absolute power and instill fear into all areas of life. Bypassing the constitutional process in this instance can only lead to further unconstitutional and illegal acts. The reversal of these appointments is therefore crucial.

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About AHRC The Asian Human Rights Commission is a regional non-governmental organisation monitoring and lobbying human rights issues in Asia. The Hong Kong-based group was founded in 1984



Asian Human Rights Commission
19/F, Go-Up Commercial Building,
998 Canton Road, Kowloon, Hongkong S.A.R.
Tel: +(852) - 2698-6339 Fax: +(852) - 2698-6367