Siddhi B. Ranjitkar: Secret Deal In Nepal

In the last week of August 2006 the Nepalese media were full of the stories about how the seven-party alliance (SPA) government attempted to smuggle in a plane load of weapons to Nepal. Home Minister, Finance Minister, and the top advisor to the Prime Minister consistently denied any knowledge of it for five days and then the Home Minister gave the full account of the plane load of the weapons obviously shipped to Nepal. Similarly, in the mid September 2006, the Maoists suddenly charged the SPA government for bringing arms and ammunition from India to Kathmandu but the government as usual denied the charges made by the Maoists.

Obviously, at the time of his direct rule, the king wanted to have sophisticated arms and ammunition to deal with the Maoists fighting with crude weapons against the then Royal Nepal Army once and for all. Then the king must have forgot that he could not bring in the arms and ammunition without consulting the Government of India pursuant to the Peace and Friendship Treaty done with India in 1951. However, his government headed by Sher Bahadur Deuba struck a deal with an Israeli company for purchasing rocket launchers and materials for making bullets.

Then in February 2005 the king dismissed the coalition government headed by Sher Bahadur Deuba, and became the absolute ruler doing whatever he thought were right disregarding fundamental human rights, demolishing free and independent media, influencing independent judiciary and certainly heading the most corrupt government in the history of Nepal.

The whole world except for a few governments went against the king. The governments of India, U.K. and U.S.A. suspended the supply of arms and ammunition to the then Royal Nepal Army commanded by the king because they correctly thought that those weapons would be used against the democratic political activists rather than the Maoist rebels. Hence, the king could not only procure arms and ammunition from the democracy friendly countries but also even from the king friendly governments such as Pakistan and Russia willing to supply him weapons without consulting the Government of India. Consequently, the shipment of weapons must have been frozen indefinitely.

Then in April 2006 the king gave the absolute power he had grabbed 14 months ago back to the people’s representatives reinstating the House of Representatives under the pressure of the people’s movement for democracy and republic. Girija Prasad Koirala became the Prime Minister of the SPA. Nepalis thought that he would lead the country without the king ending the two and a half centuries old feudalistic system of kingship.

On the one hand the House of Representatives took a number of progressive measures on the other hand Prime Minister Koirala paid a routinely weekly visit to the king. Nobody had suspected him to betray Nepalis until he openly came out for a ceremonial king against the aspiration of the people for a republic. Obviously, he meeting with the king every week must have been secretly planning to give a new life of strength to the hopelessly weakened monarchy. So, they must have secretly planned to bring in the weapons even without the knowledge of other members of the cabinet.

Obviously, Home Minister, Finance Minister and the top advisor to the Prime Minister did not know it because they were sure that all purchases of weapons were nullified by the declaration of the SPA government not to buy any weapons for the Nepal Army – the shortened name of the Royal Nepal Army. Hence, they must have sincerely denied the knowledge of the arms shipment to Nepal. However, Prime Minister Koirala keeping silent on the arms import clearly indicated that he knew it and must have been anxiously waiting for it.

After the weekly meeting of Prime Minister Koirala with the king, and the Cabinet meeting, Home Minister Krishna Prasad Sitaula disclosed that the king-appointed coalition government of the major political parties such as Nepali Congress–Democratic (NC-D) and the Communist Party of Nepal-United Marxist and Leninist (CPN-UML) headed by Sher Bahadur Deuba struck $1.4 million worth of an arms deal with an Israel company called Hornet Ltd for the purchase of rocket launchers and raw materials for making bullets in January 2005, and paid $180,000 advance to the company.

Home Minister told the members of the House during the session, "On August 25, the Ministry of Defense (MoD) received a letter seeking permission for the flight of a Ukrainian cargo plane via Ahmedabad to Kathmandu. It was written by the New Delhi-based Embassy of Ukraine to the Embassy of Nepal on August 16. It is also understood that the deadline of the L/C (Letter of Credit) was thrice extended because the company concerned could not deliver the consignment on time. Now the deadline has been set till October 30. Immediately after the MoD received the letter from the Ukrainian Embassy, it asked the Nepal Army about the details of the order and L/C. Defense Secretary had also requested the Indian embassy in Kathmandu to ensure the Ukrainian plane was not provided air space. The government has no policy to buy arms and ammunition for now, because we do not need them.”

On August 8, 2006 someone called Alexei Afanisiev wrote to Indian civil aviation authorities from an address in New Delhi seeking permission for a Russian AN-12 aircraft to land in Mumbai for refueling. The aircraft was carrying cargo that was classified as “dangerous goods”. Two western manufacturers had sold the cache to the Nepal Army. Sue Orsha of Belarus and Emco Ltd in Sofia, Bulgaria, were the consigners whereas the intended recipient was the Master General of Ordnance of Nepal Army. The eight-member crew was headed by chief pilot Varemeyevsky, a Russian national. The cargo was to have reached Kathmandu Thursday but the plan was thwarted after India refused permission to land at Mumbai. The arms cache incident occurred almost a year after King Gyanendra’s Foreign Minister Ramesh Nath Pandey visited Russia in October 2005. [Mosnews.com]

The attention of this Secretariat has been drawn to various reports in sections of the media that arms were purchased during the official visit of His Royal Highness Crown Prince Paras Bir Bikram Shah Dev to the Republic of Austria last March. While recalling that the objective of the visit, which took place at the invitation of H.E. Dr. Wolfgang Schuessel, Federal Chancellor of the Republic of Austria, was to hand over a pair of rhinoceros gifted by the people of Nepal to the people of Austria, this Secretariat condemns the media reports on the arms purchase as totally baseless, fabricated and motivated by malicious intent.[ Scoop.co.nz Nepal: Secretariat of His Majesty the King; Tuesday, 5 September 2006, 11:18 am, Press Release: Notice of the Press Secretariat of His Majesty the King]

Disregarding the opposition of the members of the House and human rights activists, Prime Minister Koirala appointed Lt Gen Rukmangad Katuwal to the Chief of Army Staff. Members of parliament and human rights activists have been charging Katuwal for his role in suppressing the people’s movement for democracy in April 2006, and for violating human rights. Mr. Katuwal openly told the reporters gathered on the premises of the secretariat of the High Level Probe Commission that he was loyal to the king when he was called by the commission to question him about his involvement in suppressing the people’s movement. Hence, his appointment to the Chief of Army Staff must be a secrete deal Prime Minister Koirala struck with the king.

On Tuesday night, September 13, 2006, the Maoists claimed that they found the convoy of army trucks carrying arms and ammunition from the India bordering Nepal to Kathmandu. The government of Nepal and the Indian embassy in Kathmandu denied any weapons supplied by India. However, various media gave conflicting reports on the controversial arms supply as follow:

Brig N.B. Chand told Dawn that this was nothing more than a routine logistic movement of army vehicles that were being sent as a convoy to be re-painted. These vehicles, he said, would accompany the peace keeping mission that is to be sent to Lebanon. [Pakistan Dawn, Sep 13, 2006]

The guerrilla claimed that four mine protected vehicles, 20 mini trucks, 2 trucks and five jeeps carrying arms and ammunitions entered Nepal via Birgunj, some 100 km south of Kathmandu, and arrived at the Nepal Army barracks at Gajuri in Dhading on Tuesday night. [People’s Daily Online, Sep 14, 2006]

The facts confirmed by the (Indian) Embassy's own investigations are: (1) Eight 'Comet' trucks of Ashoka Leyland were cleared from the Land Customs Station, Raxaul on September 5; (2) These are open trucks with no cargo of any kind, "and certainly no arms". They are also not mine-protected or armored trucks or vehicles, as has been alleged by some; (3) The consignee of these trucks is stated to be Nepal Army. [ekantipur.com, Sep 13, 2006]

Speaking at a party function in the capital Wednesday, he (General Secretary of CPN-UML, Madhav Kumar Nepal) also blamed the government for not being able to refute rumors about the import of arms, reports said. [Nepalnews.com pb Sep 13, 2006]

Over 20 truck-loads of the mystery weapons that were intercepted in India aboard Russian-planes were stopped outside of Kathmandu early this morning and have now entered the city. [Scoop.co.nz “Trouble & Anarchy In Kathmandu” By D. Michael Van De Veer Sep 14, 2006]

All these events unfolded that Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala had a secret deal with the king to retain the monarchy at any cost. To make his position strong, he wanted to unite the breakaway NC-D with his parent NC bringing in the political cadres who were for a ceremonial king. Recently, Minister for Housing and Physical Planning and the leader of the NC-D Gopal Man Shrestha disclosed that he was for a ceremonial king. Later on, Minister Shrestha proposed a better option of making Gyanendra a last king but a first president of Nepal.

Prime Minister Koirala had sidelined his party’s central working committee members such as Ram Chandra Poudel, Narahari Acharya and Arjun Narshing K.C. who had been advocating for republic and for democracy not only in the country but also in the political party.

Nepalis have been trying their best to make Nepal a democratic republic and prosperous country whereas Prime Minister Koirala in a secrete deal with the king has been for making Nepal a failed state. To this end, he has almost scrapped the power-sharing deal with the Maoists and has monopolized the power ignoring the SPA leaders’ concerns and has been preparing for a head-on confrontation with the Maoists and with the SPA leaders.

Siddhi B. Ranjitkar can be reached at srilaxmi@wlink.com.np. His website is siddhiranjitkar.com

Thursday, September 14, 2006

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