UN chief urges return to democracy in Nepal day after king’s crackdown

NEW DELHI, Friday (AFP) - UN Secretary General Kofi Annan urged Thursday a return to constitutional rule as soon as possible in Nepal, a day after a fresh crackdown by King Gyanendra against political opponents.

Annan also said a UN human rights team would soon visit Nepal to try to stop abuses that rights groups say are committed by the army and Maoist rebels who are locked in an increasingly deadly conflict.

“The United Nations is very active on the ground providing humanitarian aid and it will soon send a human rights team to Nepal and we hope it will be able to dissuade those who are violating human rights,” he told a news conference.

Annan was wrapping up a four-day visit to New Delhi where he discussed sweeping plans for UN reforms with Indian leaders.

The UN chief said it was up to individual countries to decide whether to resume arms shipments to Nepal following the king’s power grab February 1.

Nepal’s ill-equipped army is seeking to crush the Maoist insurgency aimed at at toppling the monarchy and installing a communist republic.

“At the UN, we often discourage shipment of arms to any area of conflict but sometime legitimate reasons are there for such transfers,” he said.

“The UN and myself would want to see a return to constitutional rule as soon as possible,” Annan said. “I think it’s important that political parties are allowed to resume their activities.”

“I made it clear to the king,” said Annan, who noted he had spoken to Gyanendra again after they first met on the sidelines of an international summit last week in Jakarta.

“From my discussions with the king, I hope this will come,” he said.

Annan’s comments came after Nepal police arrested ousted premier Sher Bahadur Deuba before dawn Wednesday for refusing to appear before a commission to answer corruption charges.

Deuba was the most senior politician arrested by the commission since it was set up by King Gyanendra after he seized power in a move he said was necessary to end the nearly decade-long revolt that has claimed over 11,000 lives.

Police also arrested five mainstream party activists.

The wave of arrests came amid uncertainty over whether giant neighbour India would resume military shipments to poverty-stricken Nepal’s ill-equipped army that were suspended after Gyanendra’s power seizure. Annan said the United Nations discourages arms sales to conflict zones but “of course sometimes legitimate authorities need arms for law and order.”

“That judgement (over resuming arms shipments) will have to be made by the (concerned) governments,” he said.

Britain has also halted shipments of military supplies to Nepal while the United States has threatened to follow suit.

Meanwhile Nepal’s Maoist rebels called off Friday a two-week shutdown of private schools following pleas from parents, students, human rights organisations and other groups. Nepal’s private schools outside the capital, Kathmandu, closed their doors earlier this month after bombs planted by the guerrillas exploded in empty schools following rebel warnings that they must shut. There were no casualties.

“With the withdrawal of the shutdown order, the private and boarding schools can resume classes from Friday,” the chairman of All Nepal National Free Student Union-Revolutionary Lekhnath Neupane told AFP. The Maoists had ordered the shutdown in a bid to force the schools to cut fees, scrap the singing of the national anthem and remove photographs of King Gyanendra as part of their drive to install their own “people’s education” system.

Schools outside Kathmandu, where the Maoists have a major presence, heeded the rebel closure order that marked their latest challenge to the authority of King Gyanendra, who seized power February 1.