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Student leaders walk to freedom
- Govt withdraws sedition charge, student protests to continue
KATHMANDU, DEC 25 - In a major victory for students, the government today buckled down to violent protests and withdrew the sedition charges against the three student leaders and released them unconditionally.
A cabinet meeting held this morning decided to withdraw the charges against the student leaders.
The student protest however shows no sign of abetting. Following the release of the student leaders, jubilant student organisations today announced five-day long protest programme.
The new programme includes: chanting slogan against the ‘autocratic monarchy’ in all the campuses for five minutes on Thursday, burning effigy of regression on Friday, street protests on Saturday and torch rally on Sunday.
The student organisations have also vowed to continue their protest until the defeat of ‘regression.’"We will focus on pressuring the king to repeal his October 4 move," said Gururaj Ghimire, President of Nepal Students’ Union (NSU). " Our movement is not against monarchy but to discipline it within the bounds of the constitution," he said, adding, "The king should reconcile with the parties and contribute to resolving Maoist crisis through dialogue."
The government had filed a sedition charge against Ghimire, Gagan Kumar Thapa, General Secretary of NSU and Purushottam Acharya, member of All Nepal National Free Students’ Union (ANNFSU) for chanting anti-monarchy slogans last Tuesday.
If convicted, they were to be sentenced to three years of imprisonment and Rs 3,000 fine for slandering the king.
Immediately after their leaders’ release, alliance of seven student organisations took out a massive rally that went around the city before converging at Ratna Park.
Addressing the rally, Thapa said, "It’s a victory for students. Real strength lies with the students. We have proved this."
"It is a beginning of the defeat of regression," Ghimire told the mass meeting. "Our strength should not be underestimated."
Just before the protest rally, students stoned a military van, which was speeding through the meeting venue where demonstrators gathered in thousands at Ratna Park. Army personnel fired six rounds of bullets in the air to disperse the large crowd. Though the crowd pulled back it refused to disperse forcing the army van to retreat.
Earlier, the government lawyers submitted a plea to the court containing its decision and intention to take back the sedition charges. The government said it felt convinced of the student leaders’ commitments to the constitutional monarchy and the multiparty democracy in their deposition submitted to the police and government lawyers in the Special Court. The plea was read before the bench of the court’s chairman Top Bahadur Magar and its members Bhup Dhoj Adhikari and Govinda Parajuli.
The sitting judges approved the government’s plea to withdraw the sedition cases under clause 29 (1) of the Government Case Act 1992.
Meanwhile, reports from several districts said students organisations organised torch rallies demanding immediate release of the student leaders.Posted on: 2003-12-26 04:41
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