| May012008 | »Hindu monarchy:Extremist Hindu organisations of Nepal and India havewarned to launch armed struggle to keep the last Hindu monarchy in Nepal.Pro-Hindu activists intend to start a movement from Terai.
»New constitution:The draft of a new constitution will take roughlytwo years, experts say. |  | May05
2008 | »US contact:The United States has made its first official diplomaticcontact with the leader of Nepal's former rebel Maoists. US ambassadorto Nepal Nancy Powell met Maoist leader Prachanda.
»Travel advisory:The United States is pulling out a negative traveladvisory. Preparation is on to remove the CPN (Maoist) from Washington'sterrorism list.
»Terrorism list:The United States to remove the CPN (Maoist) from theUS terrorism list. |
May10
2008 | »Violence in south Nepal:Incidents of murder, kidnapping, looting andother criminal activity have seen a resurgence in the eastern and centralTerai plains districts in south Nepal after the Constituent Assembly (CA)elections.
»Election:Nepal's Election Commission announced the final list of candidatesnominated to the Constituent Assembly through the proportional representation(PR) race. These candidates will occupy 335 of 601 seats in the assembly.Of the remaining seats, 240 will be filled by candidates elected directlythrough the first-past-the-post (FPTP) system and 26 will be filled bymembers appointed by the Council of Ministers.
Atotal of 25 political parties shared the PR seats, with the Communist Partyof Nepal (Maoist) securing the largest number, 100, followed by the NepaliCongress with 73 and the Communist Party of Nepal (United Marxist-Leninist)with 70. The Madhesi People's Rights Forum and the Terai Madhes DemocraticParty secured 22 and 11 seats respectively. | | May16
2008 | »Terrorist exclusion list:US government had never placed the Maoistsin "foreign terrorist organization list". The Maoists are in "terroristexclusion list", an US official said. There's no change yet in Nepali Maoists'status.
»Constituent Assembly:Constituent Assembly election virtually completed,first session expected on 28 May
»Terai:Armed Terai groups maintain and expand level of violence andcrime.
Civiliansare becoming more vulnerable to attack by militant groups and criminalgangs in the Terai region of southern Nepal as a result of the apparentproliferation of small arms and improvised explosive devices, local analystssay. Easy access to guns has led to an increasing number of killings, abductions,attacks and cases of looting and extortion, they said.
Expertsand analysts lobbying for tighter controls on small arms are frustratedthat no party has yet spoken out on the issue. |
May20
2008 | »Killing:Ram Hari Shrestha, a Maoist supporter and business man fromKoteshwor (Kathmandu) was kidnapped from his house by PLA men two weeksago. PLA men had tortured and killed him near the PLA's Chitwan cantonment.
TheUnited Nations Mission in Nepal (UNMIN) condemns the killing of Ram HariShrestha which commanders of the Maoist army have acknowledged to UNMINwas committed by members of the Maoist army.
UNMINarms monitors have conducted a preliminary inquiry, the results of whichwill be presented at the next meeting of the Joint Monitoring CoordinationCommittee (JMCC).
»Shutdown:Life in Kathmandu has been brought to a halt by a generalshutdown, called in protest at the killing by former Maoist rebels in Chitwan.
»Democratic experiment:Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturdaysaid he is confident that
Nepalesepolitical parties would make a success of the "democratic experiment" theyare involved in through electoral process. | | May24
2008 | »New government:Nepal's Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala askedformer rebel leader Prachanda, chairman of the Communist Party of Nepal(Maoists), to form the Nepal's next government. |
May28
2008 | »Monarchy:A newly-elected assembly is set to meet in Nepal with thetasks of abolishing the monarchy and preparing a new national constitution.
»Republic: Nepal has become the world's newest federal democratic republic,ending 240 years of monarchy. 560 outof 564 CA members voted for a republic and against the monarchy.
TheCA also approved a proposal stating that the King should vacate the Narayanhityroyal palace within 15 days.
Thegovernment has declared a public holiday from May 28-30 to celebrateNepal becoming a republic. | | May29
2008 | »Child soldiers: The UN Children's Agency (UNICEF) and local children'srights groups are concerned about the slow reintegration of child soldiersassociated with former Maoist rebels, also known as the Communist Partyof Nepal-Maoist (CPNM).
Duringthe registration of Maoist soldiers under the UN-supervised cantonmentof the Maoist Army in January 2007, the UN team found 2,973 minors, accordingto the Report of the Secretary-General on Children and Armed conflict inNepal, released in April. |
May28
2008 | »Royal Palace: The national flag is fluttering inside the palace. Theflag of the abolished Shah dynasty was removed. The CA decided that theKing should vacate the Narayanhity royal palace within 15 days. | | | |
|  | | | |
