News update from Nepal, June 9, 2005 ate authority in society, the Maoists shot the government-appointed Coordinators of the District Monitoring Committee of Chitwan and Kapilvastu districts, continued their pro­gram of political indoctrination and abduction. On May 15 the RNA revealed that 1,270 members of 292 families of the RNA have been displaced from their homes. These events frighten the parliamentary parties’ search for an alliance with the CPN(M). This means triangular conflict among the regime, the seven-party alliance and the CPN(M) will continue to produce mutually hurting deadlock for some time to come. Military Assistance to Nepal On May 9 US Under Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs, Christina Rocca arrived in Nepal for her three-day visit to take stock of post-February 1 developments. Rocca said her government encouraged political party leaders and the king to jointly confront the CPN-Maoist and address the country’s serious development problems. She said, “The US military assistance is under review” adding that“There are specific provisions in US law that prohibit us from engaging with military units that have been involved in hu­man rights abuses.” She, however, confirmed the continuation of development assis­tance,“We want to help the people of Nepal.” Recently, the US, the UK and India have resumed their non-lethal military assistance to Nepal. Two instructors from the US army have begun a two-week-long course on International Law of Armed Conflict to officers of the RNA. In the Lok Sabha, the Indian Premier, Dr. Manmohan Singh, said that India has"vital stake" in the security and development of Nepal and that it sought cooperative interac­tion to promote peace, security and well-being of the people of the Himalayan Kingdom. "Our only concern is that Nepal should approach the new era of modernization with a strong commitment to the twin pillars of Nepal's nationhood, namely constitutional mon­archy and multi-party democracy." On May 10, India announced that it has decided to release some of the military supplies currently in the pipeline, which mainly includes ve­hicles. The Cabinet Committee on Security(CCS) also resolved to place the question of future arms shipments to Nepal“under constant review.” On May 30 responding to the worries expressed by ministers in Nepal, Dr. Singh said,“India has no intention to inter­fere in the internal affairs of Nepal. Our attempts to encourage democracy in our neighborhood should not be construed as unwanted interference. The monarchy and all the political parties must come together to ensure that the polity functions effectively.” International Cooperation The approach of the international community in Nepal is neither fully coordinated nor coherent. Principally, donors are adopting three positions: withdrawal of official aid due to what they call“shrinking development space”, wait-and-see and inventing strategies of engagements with the fragile state either through humanitarian support or through community development approaches. On May 13 two major donors supporting commu­nity forestry programmes in Nepal have stopped aid citing“monitoring problems at the field level.” The move is a major setback to community-based forest conservation in 53 districts. As per the commitment, DANIDA was supposed to release Rs 13.1 million, while DFID had pledged to release Rs 9.85 million for the third quarter.