Friday, July 1, 2011

Fwd: [** MAOIST_REVOLUTION **] SANSAD/PNEFA News Release: Forum on Nepal Crisis



---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Abi Sharma <abisharma@yahoo.com>
Date: Tue, Jun 28, 2011 at 10:35 AM
Subject: [** MAOIST_REVOLUTION **] SANSAD/PNEFA News Release: Forum on Nepal Crisis
To: abisharma@yahoo.com


 


Dear friends,

Appended below is the news release for your kind information, circulation to your contacts and publication. Thank you.

Abi

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SANSAD/PNEFA News Release: June 27, 2011




SANSAD/PNEFA Forum on Nepal Crisis


South Asian Network for Secularism and Democracy (SANSAD) and Progressive Nepali Forum in North Americas (PNEFA) organized a public forum on "The Crisis of the Nation and the Left in Nepal " at Langara College , Vancouver , on June 26. The forum was co-sponsored by the School for International Studies and the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Simon Fraser University and the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Langara College .

Dr. Chitra K. Tiwari, political commentator and free-lance journalist based in Washington, D C., addressing the meeting, explained the current crisis as a product of the history of political parties in Nepal . All the parties in Nepal belonged to the "left", with Nepal Congress at one end and the United Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) at the other end of the spectrum, with no perceptible ideological difference between them, he said. According to him all the parties were created and led by middle-class intellectuals who were engaged in ego-based power struggles. Consequently, it was improbable that they would be able to deliver a constitution by the already twice-extended deadline of August 28. With this inevitable failure the process of constitution-making would lose all legitimacy and Nepal would descend into civil war and become a "failed state" of the order of Afghanistan and Somalia .

Against this grim forecast the forum adopted the following resolution:

Whereas Nepal faces a crisis on many fronts, including poverty, extreme inequality, foreign intervention, political mistrust and resulting political stalemate,

Whereas Nepal, an agriculture-based economy, has continuously faced food shortages for more than two decades, is facing the grim prospect of having close to a million people on the brink of starvation as the United Nation's World Food Program cuts down its aid because of the lack of donations, and will have to face the devastating consequence of rising temperatures in the Himalayas,

And whereas in order to address these many problems the Nepal Communist Party (Maoist) and the alliance of seven parliamentarian parties had signed several agreements since 2005, particularly the 8-point agreement of June 16, 2006 and the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) of November 21, 2006, which commit the signatories to work for progressive restructuring of the state toward an inclusive, democratic system that addressed the concerns of and ended discrimination against women, Dalits, indigenous communities, Madhesis, and other oppressed, ignored and minority communities,

And whereas the CPA also committed the signatories to prepare and implement a detailed action plan of democratization of the Nepali Army, including the determination of the right number of the army and the creation of a  structure reflective of its national and inclusive character, and further of the integration Maoist Peoples' Liberation Army (PLA) to Nepal Army,


Therefore be it resolved that

1.    This meeting urges all political actors to honor their commitments expressed in 8 point agreement signed on June 16, 2006 and CPA signed on November 21, 2006 to create a new constitution that embodies the aspirations of Nepali people for a democratic, just and inclusive society, ending the traditional discrimination against and disempowerment of women, Dalits, indigenous communities, Madhesis, and other minority communities and backward regions;

2.    We urge all political actors in Nepal to honor all agreements on the democratization of Nepal Army and the Integration of PLA into it.

3.    We further urge all political actors, NGOs, INGOs and Civil Society in Nepal to work together to ensure that food sovereignty and right to food are guaranteed by the proposed constitution of Nepal.

__._,_.___



--
Palash Biswas
Pl Read:
http://nandigramunited-banga.blogspot.com/

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