News update from Nepal, 1 July 2008 News Update from Nepal 1 July 2008 National Security Nepal is facing the condition of statelessness. On June 22, over 200 Armed Police Force (APF) of Banke revolted to protest against poor ration quality and senior official's ill­treatment. They also beat up APF battalion chief and other senior officers. On June 23, the rebelling armed forces reached an agreement with the government and formed a nine-member team to listen their grievances and corruption done by senior officials. A similar event that took place in Parvat district, however, went unnoticed. On June 20, civil servants urged the National Human Rights Commission(NHRC) to take strong action against the Minister for Forest and Soil Conservation Matrika Yadav for locking up the Lo­cal Development Officer of Lalitpur, Dandu R. Ghimire, in a toilet for allegedly allowing illegal stone quarries at a community forest in Lalitpur. Frequent robberies in the highways and the rise of extortion, kidnapping and killing by non-state armed actors have weakened the sense of public security. The public life in Bir­gunj has been paralyzed due to the killing of one government official by the cadres of Ta­rai Mukti Tigers. Similarly, in a confrontation between the police and Akhil Tarai Mukti Morcha(ATMM) in Bara four cadres of the latter were killed. A cloth trader was killed in Birgunj while two persons were killed in Butwal. On June 21, Bardibas bazaar remained closed due to the bombing of the petroleum pomp by the cadres of Janatantrik Tarai Mukti Morcha(JTMM). JTMM killed a worker of Surya Nepal factory, the former mayor of Gularia municipality and even exchanged fire with the police in Rajbiraj. Madhesi Virus Killers Party detonated an improvised explosive(IED) devise at Saptari while Tarai Army detonated a pipe bomb at Bara. The regime has thus failed to create public order. Political Deadlock The ruling Seven-Party Alliance(SPA) continues to face a deadlock over the distribution of key posts and has failed to form the new government following the Constituent Assem­bly(CA) elections of April 10. The CPN(Maoist) and Madhesi Jana Adhikar Forum (MJAF) opposed the Nepali Congress(NC) request to elect Premier G.P. Koirala as the first president of Nepal. The CPN-UML proposed the name of Madhav K. Nepal, the for­mer secretary-general while CPN(Maoist) proposed Ram Raja Prasad Singh of Janabadi Morcha. Singh is also being supported by Madhesi parties. Recently, CPN-UML and CPN (Maoist) have reached an understanding to support each other’s candidate for the posi­tion of president and prime minister respectively. On June 8, the top leaders of the three largest parties- CPN(Maoist), NC and CPN-UML- formed a six-member panel to pre­pare a draft for a constitutional amendment and suggest ways to implement past accords. 1