UN cuts food rations for Bhutanese refugees in Nepal

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UN cuts food rations for refugees in Nepal

(AFP) – Oct 15, 2009

KATHMANDU — The United Nations said Thursday it had been forced to cut food rations to 90,000 Bhutanese refugees living in camps in Nepal due to a severe funding shortage.

The UN's World Food Programme provides rice, lentils and other food to the refugees, who fled Bhutan when ethnic tensions flared nearly two decades ago and came to eastern Nepal, where they have lived ever since in camps.


Bhutanese refugees collecting food at a camp in Nepal


The move, which comes after the UN warned on Wednesday that the global economic crisis had led to declines in foreign aid and investment in poor countries, marks the first time rations have been cut in the camps.

Nepal country representative Richard Ragan said the WFP was "extremely concerned" about the consequences of reduced rations on the refugees' health, and that further ration cuts may be necessary in the coming months.

"The Bhutanese refugees have no legal right to own land or work, leaving them almost entirely dependent upon WFP food to meet their basic needs," the organisation said in a statement.

A representative of the refugees told AFP it would be hard to live on the reduced rations.

"I don't know how I'm going to survive for 14 days on 2.8 kilos (six pounds) of rice. I will have to eat very little so I don't run out of food," camp secretary Tek Bahadur Gurung said by telephone from the Beldangi camp.

Bhutan has refused to allow the refugees to return, but more than 20,000 have now left Nepal for Western countries under a resettlement programme launched in 2007.

The UN said the programme could take up to five years to complete, and called for urgent funding to allow it to continue feeding the refugees.

MR NEPAL LUCKS OUT

The Economist
May 28th 2009

See this article with graphics and related items at http://www.economist.com/world/asia/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13754069



But his country, of the same name, is struggling.

ON MAY 23rd Madhav Kumar Nepal, the communist son of a Hindu priest,
became Nepal's new prime minister. He succeeds Pushpa Kamal Dahal, the
country's former Maoist leader--the main protagonist in a decade-long
guerrilla war--who resigned on May 4th, leaving the government in
limbo. Mr Nepal has the support of 21 of the 24 political parties in
Nepal's assembly; but this is scarcely democratic progress. The
Maoists, who won 38% of the assembly's seats in the country's first
post-conflict election last year, do not support him. Nor did Mr Nepal
win either of the two seats he contested in the poll.

Among many threats to his new government, the Maoists loom large. Mr
Dahal, who resigned after he was foiled in an effort to sack an old
enemy, Nepal's army chief, General Rookmangud Katawal, has said they
remain committed to democracy. Yet the Maoists had until last week
stopped the assembly functioning since their chief's resignation. And
they still demand that the president, Ram Baran Yadav, should reverse
his decision to veto General Katawal's sacking. Backed by Mr Nepal and
his allies, who consider the army a last defence against the Maoists,
Mr Yadav will not do this. On May 24th the Maoists spurned an
invitation to join the new government.

With luck, it may survive for a while. It might even try easing the
country's severe power and fuel shortages. That would quell some of the
growing discontent at the failure of any party to deliver on its
election promises. But the early signs are not promising, with Mr
Nepal's coalition partners bitterly feuding over the division of
cabinet spoils.

More important, there seems little prospect of this government making
much progress on the assembly's two main tasks--shepherding a
complicated peace process and drafting a new constitution. Under Mr
Dahal's more solid government, including the Maoists, Mr Nepal's UML
(for Unified Marxist-Leninist) and other parties, these were daunting:
the thorniest issue of the peace process, the fate of 23,000-odd former
Maoist fighters, led indirectly to its demise. (Some of these fighters
are to be recruited into the army; but General Katawal, to the Maoists'
fury, has resisted this.) And if Mr Nepal's government cannot resolve
these issues, it had better make way for one that can.

Slippery peace process

TWO ARMIES INTO ONE WON'T GO


The Economist
May 7th 2009






With peace in its grasp, Nepal is let down by its politicians and its
army

TO MUCH of the outside world, Nepal has seemed blissfully quiet in
recent months. The peace process that ended a bloody ten-year civil war
in 2006 seemed on track, and outsiders could go back to seeing the
place as a small Himalayan holiday-spot of little concern.

But Nepal is neither insignificant nor irrelevant. It has nearly 30m
people and occupies a strategic position between Asia's emerging
giants, India and China. And the notion that its divisions were healed
was an illusion that has been shattered by a bust-up between the prime
minister and the army (see article[1]). The country now faces a crisis
for which the Maoists, the other parties and the army all share
responsibility. So do Nepal's foreign partners, especially the most
important one, India.

It was a jolt to most foreign observers and the Nepali elite when
Maoist insurgents won the most seats in an election a year ago. The
shock eased as the rebels swapped combat fatigues for lounge suits, put
on weight and started to resemble normal grasping politicians. Just as
in peace processes from Northern Ireland to Sri Lanka, however, Nepal's
politicians left the hardest parts to last.

The deferred, intractable issue is the future of Nepal's security
forces. What was once the "Royal" Nepal Army, which propped up the now
deposed king, Gyanendra, in a short-lived dictatorship, has been
refusing to follow the writ of the government of the new republic, led
by the Maoist leader, Pushpa Kamal Dahal, better known by his NOM DE
GUERRE, Prachanda. Under the peace agreement, the Maoists' ragtag bunch
of guerrillas was supposed to be integrated with the proper army.

The army will have nothing of it, so former Maoist fighters are still
holed up in United Nations-supervised cantonments. Mr Dahal sacked the
army chief. The president reinstated him, so the prime minister has now
resigned.

The Maoists have, in part, themselves to blame for making the army--and
everyone else--nervous about their commitment to pluralism. Although
they have confounded fears that they would be a Nepali, elected Khmer
Rouge, they still talk (amongst themselves, at least) about a
totalitarian-sounding "people's republic". Their youth wing is guilty
of thuggery. Yet, whatever their private ambitions, Mr Dahal has
offered to join a government of national unity if the president
rescinds his reinstatement of the army chief. That seems the least bad
outcome. But it relies on the acquiescence of the other political
parties and the army, who have seemed even more hostile than do the
Maoists to the peace deal they all struck.

In last year's election the Maoists won 38% of the seats in a
Constituent Assembly. The other, losing, parties came out in support of
the sacked army commander and seemed ready, with army backing, to form
a government without the Maoists. The former rebels thus captured the
democratic high ground. And to do its job--drafting a constitution--the
assembly needs the Maoists, who have a blocking vote.

DELHI DALLYING
Nepal's foreign donors should have pushed harder for the establishment
of proper civilian control over the army. India, which did much to
engineer the peace, has quietly backed the army commander's
unconstitutional disobedience. The Delhi government sees the army as
its truest friend in Nepal, where it has long had an overweening
influence. Facing a large, scattered Maoist rebellion of its own, India
has also been alarmed by the Nepali Maoists' rapprochement with China
(which had no time for them when they were mere leftist guerrillas).

In standing down, Mr Dahal has been able to present himself as both a
champion of the poor, and defender of Nepali pride against a meddling
neighbour. The Maoists' prestige may be further bolstered in coming
months by their having quit government at a time of mounting economic
hardship and disillusionment with the peace process. All this may
strengthen them. Eventually, India and other powers will have to accept
that the Maoists are in Nepali politics for the long haul.

Happy Lo Sar!

By the way Seth, let me explain you here about the LOSAR what ever I could and knew my self.

LOSAR ( in Tibetan language LO means Year SAR means New). In Tibet Tibetans have been celebrate the LOSAR since so many ago this year is Tibetan ERA 2136 EARTH OX year.
There are twelve symbolic in LOKHOR CHU NYI. There is a mandala showing all the symbolic of every year in circle with serialy. Also let me write down here all the names, symbolic of every year.

1. CHEWA LO means MOUSE YEAR.
2. LAANG LO means OX YEAR.
3. TAAGH LO means TIGER YEAR.
4. YOE LO means RABIT YEAR.
5. DUGH LO means DRAGON YEAR.
6. DUL LO means SNAKE YEAR.
7. TAAH LO means HORSE YEAR.
8. LOOK LO means SHEEP YEAR.
9. TEL LO means MONKEY YEAR.
10. JHAH LO means BIRD YEAR.
11. KHYI LO means DOG YEAR.
12. FAAG LO means PIG YEAR.

The LOSAR is the biggest festival in Tibet for Tibetans of course there some other festivals also to celebrates more or less related with religious. So during the LOSAR the main celebration goes till 3rd of the month officialy. But most people celebrates bit longer than untill 6th of the month or some even does till 15th (full moon) of the month too.

So let me tell you what we do in LOSAR in first day of LOSAR we go to monastery to get blessings from the great Lamas Rinpoche in monastery with neat and clean in new clothes which is made to worn only in LOSAR also having put on with precious ornaments. Also we should go and visit to the relatives the elder ones to get blessings from them and saying TASHI DELEK for the happy new year. Especially the childrens are very happy and excited to have new clothes put on.
In that way the elders drinks chang ( Tibetan beer home made for LOSAR) delicious meals all day long by singing and dancing.

In the second day of LOSAR we change the flag in the roof of the house and put on new flag early in the morning according to the astrology's timing schedule given to change the flag of the house. During the period of changing the flag all the family members shoud be gathered together and offering pray in hope of a successful in the year.
In the third day of LOSAR all the Tibetans go to Boudha Nath to attent in SANG SOL infront of Boudha nath with offering new flags and butter lamps there will be a big assembly of Tibetans and many others too even many western peoples can be seen in the assembly taking pictures of LOSAR activities.

Now a day the LOSAR festival is also celebrated by Tamang, Gurung in Nepal with their own traditional ways. Before they used to celebrate Dashain and Teehar only. Now they quit to celebrate Dashain and Teehar because during the Dashain festival celebration they sacrifices so many innocent animals in the name of God. Which they don't like to do any more they realized it is a big sin they have been doing in the past early years which now they hate to do so. Now the government also agreed to give one day holiday during the LOSAR and it is officialy respected to be as national holiday.

Seth, that's all I know about the LOSAR.