Kalpit Parajuli

The most famous Catholic building in Nepal is attacked. Hindu fundamentalists claim responsibility, the same group behind the assassination of a Catholic priest in 2007. This afternoon a parliamentary meeting to elect a new premier was scheduled to take place.

A Nepalese priest describes the “shock” of the Christian community. Two Christian faithful died in the attack. Over recent months the Christian community had received death threats from Hindu fundamentalists. Madhav Kumar Nepal, of the Marxist-Leninist party is elected prime minister of the Constitutional Assembly.

Three border posts are closed; one is kept open. Nepali authorities insist the country is free of the H1N1 virus but increases checks to prevent the virus from spreading to the country. A Dubai woman is quarantined as a precautionary measure.

Demonstrations take place in Kathmandu as violence breaks out in the villages. Supporters of former Prime Minister Prachanda are out to get the Nepali Congress and Nepal’s Marxist-Leninist Party which are now the government.

The government coalition is divided. Demonstrations in Kathmandu. The episode is linked to Maoist rebel integration in the regular army. The Nepalese Army chief is against the move.

President and prime minister get into an institutional tug-of-war. After the prime minister dismisses the army chief, the president reinstates him. United Nations calls for a consensus-based solution to the crisis.

For the past three years, 72 “urban refugees” from Somalia are stuck in Kathmandu, victims of international human traffickers, who lied to them about work in Italy. The Somalis cannot leave Nepal however because the local government wants them to pay 40,000 euros for overstaying in the country. Now the refugees are threatening a hunger strike and say they are “ready to die.”

The winter drought and the overflowing of the Koshi river last August have brought the agricultural industry to its knees. Unrest is exploding in the country. The government is violently repressing demonstrations, but has no practical plan for addressing the crisis.

In a three-day seminar held in Godavari, Mgr Menamparampil, archbishop of Guwahati in India, slams the growth of Brahmanism’s caste-centred culture. He tells Nepali Catholics to help minorities “preserve their egalitarian ethos.”

Former king’s heir, Crown Prince Paras Bikram Shah, makes the claim. Deposed in 2008 Gyanendra is said to have discussed such a goal in a recent trip to India. Prince makes new revelations about 2001 royal family massacre.

Maoist fighters who died during the civil war constitute most of the martyrs. Opposition parties as well as the ruling party’s junior coalition partners are against the move because it belittles those who “sacrificed their lives for the nation”. But the issue is also about money.

The UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific sounds the alarm bell. A broad action is needed to avoid an even greater crisis and promote regional macroeconomic cooperation.