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Bhattarai asks king to shed ‘excess’ powers
KATHMANDU, DEC 11 - Senior Nepali Congress leader and former Prime Minister Krishna Prasad Bhattarai today said that the king should resolve the present political stalemate by "giving up authorities he is assuming now."
Talking to the reporters today Bhattarai said, "The king is assuming more powers than necessary, thus creating a political problem," he said, and added, "He should resolve the crisis by giving it up."
This is the first time that the ailing senior leader has urged the king to act immediately to resolve the crisis. Bhattarai also urged the agitating political parties to accept the decision that the king would take in future in the interest of the people.
He was talking to journalists after a programme organised by the Human Rights and Peace Foundation to felicitate him and communist leader Mohan Chandra Adhikari. The two were felicitated for their contributions to democracy and human rights on the occasion of the 55th International Human Rights Day today.
"Political parties should intensify their movement if the king refuses to relinquish powers," he remarked, adding, "The king would not give up easily."
He expressed his concern over the escalation of abuses of human rights in the country, urging the political parties and civil society to be alert and fight against it.
Speaking in similar vein, Madhav Kumar Nepal, general secretary of the CPN-UML, urged the king to take initiatives to end the present political deadlock, pleading the king to stay away from politics. He also urged the king to take initiatives to improve relations with the political parties.
"The King should stay away from political complications and leave it alone for the political parties," he said. "He should neither be creative nor active."
Nepal also expressed serious concerns over the growing abuses of human rights by the state and the Maoists.
Meanwhile, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), the United Nations and the US ambassador, in remarks issued on the occasion of the International Human Rights Day, have expressed worries over cases of human rights abuses in Nepal.
"The interests of the citizens, their liberty and life have suffered due to failure in the protection of basic humans rights," said Nayan Bahadur Khatri, Chairman of the NHRC.
Expressing frustration over NHRC’s failure to check the growing rights violations, the NHRC chairman further said, "Increase in the instances of human rights violations in this precarious situation has made the investigation of such abuses difficult."Similarly, Mathew Kahane, Resident Representative of the United Nations Development Programme, said that disappearance has emerged as serious human rights violation worldwide. He also underlined a need to punish the offenders of human rights.
"Human rights violations offend the personal integrity of the victims, and certain rights cannot be forgotten even in times of emergency," he said.
Similarly, in a letter sent to the Human Rights and Peace Foundation today, Michael E. Malinowski, American ambassador to Nepal, expressed the US government’s commitment to human rights. The letter reads in part: "We take allegations of human rights violations with the utmost seriousness."The ambassador also cautioned, "Failure to address the persistent human rights violations will prolong the ongoing Maoist conflict and deepen enmity between the security forces and the general population."Posted on: 2003-12-12 05:20
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