Kathmandu, July 11, 2007

Maoist minister and government spokesperson Krishna Bahadur Mahara today blamed Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala for the government’s inability to hold constituent assembly election in June.

He also said he was unable to address issues of the general public in the government’s policies and programmes. “The government has been hatching conspiracies and working with an old mind-set,” the Minister for Information and Communications told a press conference at the Maoists’ parliamentary party office.

Most of the Maoist ministers, including Hishila Yami and Dev Gurung, were present at the conference where secretaries and senior officials of their portfolios made public their progressive reports. “We have spent three months in the cabinet and our expectations have not been met,” Mahara said.

“As Prime Minister Koirala has been leading the eight-party government he must take the responsibility for its failures,” he added. “The Prime Minister is solely responsible for not launching programmes directly related with the people’s right to live,” Mahara said. “We have been demanding a Joint Coordination Committee to guide the cabinet, but in vain and, moreover, the cabinet has been working as if it were a majority government of the Nepali Congress,” he added.

Mahara, however, said that they still hope to bring about a change in society. “Though we cannot support the policies and programmes, we will also not obstruct its approval in parliament,” he said.

Embassy denies Brown ordered review of Gurkha cases

Kathmandu, July 11, 2007

The British embassy here today refuted reports that the British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, ordered a review of cases related to British Gurkha veterans after his meeting with Victoria Cross holder Tul Bahadur Pun.

“At no point did the Prime Minister undertake to order a review of the benefits received by former Gurkhas,” a press release issued by the embassy said. It added that the British Ministry of Defence (MoD) had no plans for a further review of issues relating to the Gurkhas who retired before July 1997.

Citing the “comprehensive review of Gurkha Terms and Conditions of Service” by the British MoD — the results of which were announced in March this year — the embassy reteirated that the British government had no plans to review them further.

The review gave “serving and some recently-retired Gurkhas access to the same pension benefits as the rest of the army.” The review did not consider the pension or immigration status of those Gurkhas who retired before July 1997.

However, at the request of the Nepali government, UK MoD officials had visited Nepal in April this year to listen to the concerns of the ex-servicemen.