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| Monday, 20 September 2004 |
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Nepal frees pro-rebel union leaders KATHMANDU, Sunday (Reuters) Nepal has freed two jailed trade union leaders linked to Maoist rebels after the union agreed to halt a campaign that had forced many leading businesses to shutdown, a mediator said. Nepal's top firms, including transport companies, a Coca Cola bottler and a power station, resumed operations on Thursday, some for the first time in more than a month, after the union withdrew demands that they close down. The union leaders were handed over late on Friday to mediators who brokered the deal, ending the impoverished nation's worst business shutdown. The union issued the threat to 12 firms in August and added another 35 to the list last week. Industry officials say the closure of the 47 businesses, which contribute more than $100 million in revenue to the cash-strapped government annually, had affected thousands of workers in the desperately poor Himalayan kingdom. Last month the rebels called for a road blockade of Kathmandu, disrupting food and other supplies to the hill-ringed capital, a tourist hub, for one week. |
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