Nepal’s Maoist fighters on Saturday began the process of leaving the camps they have called home since the end of their insurgency in 2006, to join the regular army or start new lives.

The historic transition follows a breakthrough peace deal signed on November 1 by the Maoists and the three other major political parties which paved the way for life beyond the cantonments for the battle-hardened ex-rebels.

“It’s a critical time in their lives. It’s also challenging and demanding for us,” said Balananda Sharma, a retired lieutenant general who is overseeing the integration of the 19,000 ex-rebels into the army and Nepalese society.

The fighters formed a queue snaking around a hill at the Shaktikhor cantonment in Chitwan, about 220 kilometres (150 miles) southwest of Kathmandu, to ask army monitors in blue jackets about their options for the future.

Under the deal, 6,500 fighters will be integrated into the Nepalese Army while the remainder choose between retirement payoffs of 500,000 to 800,000 rupees ($6,300-$10,200) and a rehabilitation package that includes vocational training.

“I’ve wanted to join the army since my childhood. Seven years ago I attended a few programmes organised by the Maoists and joined them because their policies attracted me,” said former combatant Bikash Shahi, 28.

“I was in two battles after joining the party and saw the deaths of my comrades. I wanted to serve the nation so I have decided to go for integration into the Nepalese Army.”

Sharma said those opting for the payoff would get their cash in two instalments, one year apart, while those who went for the training packages would be counselled by career experts.

“We will offer them alternatives based on their qualifications,” said Sharma, adding that the reintegration process would take more than 10 days and the combatants would remain in the camp until their leaders had worked out the logistics of the retirement and rehabilitation packages.

The rest of the thousands of former fighters will leave the camps over the coming days.

“We will give them enough time to decide their future because, after joining the war, this is the most crucial decision they are going to make in their career,” Sharma added.

“The issue of Maoist fighters is the most important aspect of the peace process and the regrouping is the first major step towards it.”

There are more than 19,000 former fighters confined to seven cantonments across Nepal.

The camps were set up and monitored by the United Nations until January when the UN mission in Nepal handed over the keys of Maoist weapons containers to a cross-party special committee.

The Maoists fought a decade-long war against the state in which at least 16,000 people died.

The former rebels left their jungle redoubts and joined mainstream politics in 2006, going on to win landmark elections two years later and abolishing the country’s 240-year-old monarchy. — AFP

KATMANDU, Nepal (AP) — Government monitors reached seven camps spread across Nepal by Friday to begin asking 19,000 former rebels whether they will join the army or leave with cash to start new lives, five years after ending their insurgency to join a peace process.

The process was long stalled over the future of the rebels. Maoists wanted all their former fighters integrated into the army, which military leaders and other political parties resisted. Nepal’s main political parties finally reached agreement this month.

Since ending their bloody revolt in 2006, the former Maoist fighters have lived in huts in the camps surrounded by barbed wire. The United Nations supervised the fighters, whose weapons stayed locked in metal containers inside the camps. Some fighters married and have children living with them, though child soldiers left the camps last year.

Monitors reached the seven camps Thursday and Friday and will start questioning the former fighters Saturday, chief monitor Balananda Sharma said. Decisions on who will enter the army and who will leave the camps are expected to be finished within 10 days.

The agreement allows for 6,500 former rebels to be taken in the national army in non-combat roles. The rest will get a rehabilitation package with up to 900,000 rupees ($11,500) cash.

After the U.N. peace mission left Nepal in January, the fighters were closely monitored by a special government committee.

The agreement on the rebels’ future now puts pressure on the coalition government to overcome political paralysis and finish a constitution that will determine how Nepal develops after years of civil war and upheaval. The document was due originally in 2008. — AP

Nepal’s ruling Maoist party announced on Sunday it was removing a minister accused of involvement in the murder of a Hindu activist.

Party leaders said parliamentary protests against land reforms minister Prabhu Sah were distracting from the peace process and had made his position untenable.

“Despite a legal clean chit, we have decided to recall Prabhu Sah from the government due to the controversy that is ongoing at the parliament,” Maoist chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal said in a statement.

“We have taken this decision because the issue was deviating our focus from the fundamental issues of the peace process and constitution making and was unnecessarily wasting our time.”

Kashi Nath Tiwari, the president of Nepal’s Hindu Youth Association, was shot dead by three masked gunmen near his house in the southern town of Birgunj in June last year.

Sah has been identified as a suspect in the killing but state prosecutors have refused to lodge a case against him, citing a lack of evidence.

He has denied the allegations but opposition lawmakers have been obstructing parliament since Thursday, demanding his removal.

“Now the party has taken its decision, so Sah will immediately give up working as a minister in the government,” said Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai’s press adviser Ram Rijhan Yadav.

Opposition parties continued their protest at parliament despite the announcement, demanding the sacking of a second government minister accused of fomenting separatism in the south of the country.

Defence Minister Sarat Singh Bhandari told a public function in Kathmandu last month that 22 districts in the Terai, near the Indian border, had the right to declare independence and become a separate state.

“The constitution allows the government to declare emergency and mobilise the army to foil the threats on the national sovereignty and doesn?t allow a minister to make statement asserting that the districts of the Terai can split from Nepal.

“The defence minister who turned a blind eye towards the constitution has no moral ground to continue in the cabinet even for a minute,” said opposition lawmaker Bhim Rawal, adding that protesters would continue to obstruct parliament until Bhandari was sacked. — AFP

While the eyes of the style world were on London’s autumn fashion week, another couture event was taking place on the other side of the world — in the Himalayas.

At Nepal Fashion Week the models sashayed down the catwalk in a mix of Western and ethnic apparel, contrasting classic with kitsch in a cornucopia of sassy cocktail dresses, flowing silk gowns, kaftans, kurti blouses, shalwars, sequins and ruffles.

Dozens of young designers displayed their collections as the Nepali fashion industry bid to bring itself to global prominence, and attract the attention of international buyers.

The show, which wrapped up on Saturday night, mixed high concept with ready-to-wear, with established Nepali designers, and stars of the future, hoping to introduce themselves to the world.

“There is a lot of potential in Nepal,” said US designer Bethany Meuleners, fashion consultant for the event.

“There’s a lot more interest than ever before so that gives a big push for where the fashion industry could go.”

Organisers of Kathmandu’s four-day event, launched in 2004, hope it will prove there is more to Nepal than politics, and efforts to sell the local fashion industry to the West were apparent throughout.

The announcer spoke only in English and themes such as “Cinderella Dreams” and the Harry Potter-inspired “Deathly Hallows” struck more of a chord than the more eastern-flavoured “Thamel Night” and “Tribes of Bangladesh.”

The last couple of years have been a busy time for the Nepalese clothing industry, with a proliferation of high street fashion outlets and the launch of two online clothing stores, Fashion Mirror and Harilo.

The unique selling point of Nepalese fashion is the natural fabrics, such as hemp and bamboo, as well as richly textured hand-woven cotton, which are not often seen on the catwalks of Paris or Milan.

But there remains a dearth of prominent Nepalese fashion designers promoting the industry in the West.

New York-based designer Prabal Gurung, courted by the world’s top style magazines and worn by Michelle Obama, Demi Moore and Rachel Weisz, can claim to be the first and — as yet — only big Nepalese name to make it on the global fashion circuit.

Nepal suffers electricity shortages which can mean power cuts for up to 14 hours a day in the winter. Experts believe the poor infrastructure and unstable political situation are the main obstacles to the fashion industry’s attempts to break into Western markets.

“When you have strikes and power outages and everything, it’s hard for them to set up contracts where they can promise the work can get done when it’s supposed to get done,” said US designer Meuleners.

After years of damaging instability, the green shoots of recovery appear to be showing, with clothing worth 3.64 billion rupees ($46 million) in exports to Europe during the first 11 months of the last fiscal year, according to official figures — a rise of 11.5 percent on the previous year.

Nepal’s market is also expanding. A decade ago 90 percent of exports were to the United States whereas now exporters are selling half their stock to Europe and 25 percent to India.

Whether Kathmandu can break into the stronghold of the four main fashion cities — London, Paris, Milan and New York — when other destinations such as Brazil and Hong Kong have failed, is another matter.

Nepalese beauty queen Anupama Aura Gurung, current holder of the Miss Nepal Earth crown, believes the country’s industry could match international standards within five years.

“Nepal fashion is really very raw — it’s still in the baby phase,” she told AFP. “But we are learning to crawl and slowly we will get up and walk.” — AFP

KATMANDU, Nepal (AP) — A plane carrying tourists to view Mount Everest crashed while attempting to land in Nepal on Sunday, killing all 19 people on board, including 13 foreigners, officials said.

Ten Indians, two Americans and one Japanese were among the victims, Tourism Secretary Ganeshraj Joshi said.

The turboprop plane belonging to Buddha Air was also carrying three Nepalese passengers and three crew members when it crashed in Bisankunarayan village, just a few miles (kilometers) south of the capital, Katmandu.

A witness, Haribol Poudel, told Avenues Television that the plane hit the roof of a house in the village and broke into several pieces. No casualties were reported on the ground.

Poudel said it was foggy and visibility was very low in the mountainous area.

Rewant Kuwar, an official at Katmandu’s international airport rescue office, said 18 bodies were pulled out of the plane’s wreckage, and another victim died after being rushed to a hospital.

The two Americans were identified as Andrew Wade and Natalie Neilan, while the Japanese citizen was Toshinori Uejima. Their hometowns and other details were not immediately known.

The Beechcraft 1900D plane — manufactured by Raytheon Aircraft, now known as Hawker Beechcraft — had taken the passengers to view Mount Everest and other peaks on a one-hour “mountain flight” and was returning to Katmandu.

The government ordered an investigation into the crash.

The weather on Sunday morning was foggy and the visibility was poor around Katmandu, according to meteorologist Rajendra Shrestha. The surrounding mountains were enveloped in fog and it was raining at the time of the crash.

The bodies were flown by army helicopter to Katmandu airport and transported to the Tribhuwan University Teaching Hospital for post-mortems.

Relatives of the Nepalese victims waited outside the hospital to claim the bodies, but were told by police that they would only be able to do so on Monday. Most Nepalese believe that people have to be cremated within a day of their deaths.

Officials from the Indian and U.S. embassies visited the hospital but did not speak to media. — AP

KATMANDU, Nepal (AP) — Nepalese authorities prevented exiled Tibetans from celebrating their spiritual leader the Dalai Lama’s birthday on Wednesday over concerns that gatherings would turn anti-Chinese.

Hundreds of riot police blocked the Tibetans from entering a school on the northern edge of Katmandu where the celebrations were planned.

Only students wearing school uniforms were allowed inside the compound, while other Tibetans including many monks and nuns were stopped.

Police detained three Tibetans who tried to hold a prayer meeting on the street. A brief scuffle broke out but no one was hurt.

Tibetan gatherings in Nepal generally turn into protests against China, with participants shouting slogans demanding an end to Chinese rule in their homeland.

Laxmi Prasad Dhakal, chief government administrator of Katmandu district, issued a warning that all public celebrations were banned and police would not tolerate anti-Chinese protests.

The Dalai Lama has lived in Dharmsala, India, since he fled Tibet after a failed 1959 uprising against Chinese rule.

He is currently in Washington for an 11-day Buddhist ritual, known as a kalachakra, that organizers expect will draw upward of 10,000 followers a day from America, Asia and Europe.

His visit begins with celebrations Wednesday marking his 76th birthday.

Thousands of Tibetan exiles have been living in Nepal for the past few decades after fleeing Tibet and many more pass through Nepal on their way to India.

Nepal says it cannot allow protests on its soil against any friendly nations, including China.

Police guarded the Chinese Embassy and its visa office in Katmandu against any protests, and areas populated by Tibetans were put under heavy security.

Authorities earlier said they would allow celebrations inside monasteries provided there are no banners or slogans against China. — AP