Kathmandu, September 14, 2007 The World Heritage Centre, an integral part of the United Nation’s Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), wrote to the Permanent Mission of Nepal for UNESCO in Paris yesterday, seeking the “status of the road being constructed in the middle of the sacred Shleshmantaka jungle near the Pashupatinath temple.” International conservation institutions are concerned about a one-kilometre long and 20 metre wide road, built recently by the Maoist-backed Bagmati Sewer Improvement Committee in the middle of the jungle. By writing to the state party Nepal through the permanent mission, the UN body has expressed concern about Nepal’s stand on conservation of the monument, which has been recognised as a World Heritage Site. Having ratified the Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage in 1978, Nepal is obliged to consider the international guidelines for conservation of the monuments recognised as world class monuments. Citing the letter, a source at the UNESCO Kathmandu Office today said that the WHC has asked the status of the newly-constructed road and its impact on the recently rescued image of the World Heritage Site, which was recognised as a “monument-in-danger” three years ago. The letter has asked a kind of justification of the road construction within one or two month from Nepal’s government. 1,000 PLA soldiers come out of camps, stage demo Nawalparasi, September 14, 2007 One thousand soldiers of the Maoists’ People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in Nawalparasi came out of their fourth division camps and demonstrated on the roads today, demanding that the government concede their six-point charter of demands. Division commander Yama Bahadur Adhikari, alias Pratikshya, said they had to take such a step to protest the government’s indifference towards their demands. They demanded that the government abide by the peace treaty it has signed with the Maoists and provide them with medical allowance. They also demanded that the PLA soldiers be allowed to campaign for the constituent assembly election, the government pay them on a par with the Nepali Army, make public the status of persons made to disappear by the army and compensate the families of martyrs. Pratikshya said 1,000 Maoist soldiers of Jhyaltungdanda and other camps at Hattikhor, Jargaha and Sainamaina came out of their camps. Those guarding weapons, however, stayed in the camps, he said. They were compelled to come out of the camps and protest.