04-28-2006, 12:22 AM
<!--emo&:argue--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/argue.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='argue.gif' /><!--endemo--> Chinese rush to Nepal to save image
Source: IANS.
Kathmandu, April 27 : Alarmed at the end of King Gyanendra's rule in Nepal and future consequences of having supported the royal regime, China has rushed here a team for damage control and to woo the major parties that will form the new democratic government.
Luo Chao Hui, deputy director of Asian affairs, flew in here from Beijing with a delegation Tuesday, hours after King Gyanendra was forced to reinstate parliament Monday night and relinquish power to the opposition parties.
In a bid to salvage Beijing's image, badly tarnished in Nepal and abroad after China threw its weight behind Gyanendra during his 16-month rule, the delegation is meeting political leaders and key foreign envoys to gloss over the support offered to the royal regime.
On Thursday, when the parties celebrated the victory of their 19-day peaceful mass movement by holding a mass meeting here, Luo met Nepali Congress leader and prime minister-designate Girija Prasad Koirala. More meetings with opposition leaders were scheduled.
After Gyanendra seized absolute power through a bloodless coup last year, Nepal's major arms donors India, the US and Britain suspended military assistance to show their concern.
Other members of the international community showed their displeasure by reducing development aid, cancelling visits to Nepal and not issuing any invites to the king and royalist ministers.
The king's plan to attend the UN General Assembly meet in New York last year had to be cancelled after it was learnt that US President George W. Bush had excluded him from a dinner hosted for visiting dignitaries. When the king went to South Africa, former South African President and Nobel laureate Nelson Mandela declined to meet him.
However, China kept up its diplomatic ties with the king, first sending its foreign minister and then state councillor to the kingdom.
It also stepped up annual assistance to Nepal from 80 million yuan to 100 million yuan and continued to sell arms and ammunition that were later used by security personnel to repress unarmed protesters, human rights activists, media personnel and political party activists.
Though China claimed Gyanendra's coup was an internal matter of Nepal, its support was actually prompted by the king promising to shut down the Tibetan Welfare Centre here that was helping Tibetans who had fled China-controlled Tibet to proceed to their desired destinations.
Since this year, Gyanendra's government stopped issuing exit permits to Tibetan refugees. Tibetans already residing in Nepal are not allowed to register their marriages or the birth of children.
The Tibet policy has tarnished both Nepal and China's image in the UN with the International Campaign for Tibet, an NGO, formally complaining to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Now China is alarmed that the seven opposition political parties, which will form the new government this month, will reverse the earlier stand on Tibet.
With the US supporting the Tibetan cause, China's stranglehold on refugees might not be continued by the new democratic government of Nepal.
Source: IANS.
Kathmandu, April 27 : Alarmed at the end of King Gyanendra's rule in Nepal and future consequences of having supported the royal regime, China has rushed here a team for damage control and to woo the major parties that will form the new democratic government.
Luo Chao Hui, deputy director of Asian affairs, flew in here from Beijing with a delegation Tuesday, hours after King Gyanendra was forced to reinstate parliament Monday night and relinquish power to the opposition parties.
In a bid to salvage Beijing's image, badly tarnished in Nepal and abroad after China threw its weight behind Gyanendra during his 16-month rule, the delegation is meeting political leaders and key foreign envoys to gloss over the support offered to the royal regime.
On Thursday, when the parties celebrated the victory of their 19-day peaceful mass movement by holding a mass meeting here, Luo met Nepali Congress leader and prime minister-designate Girija Prasad Koirala. More meetings with opposition leaders were scheduled.
After Gyanendra seized absolute power through a bloodless coup last year, Nepal's major arms donors India, the US and Britain suspended military assistance to show their concern.
Other members of the international community showed their displeasure by reducing development aid, cancelling visits to Nepal and not issuing any invites to the king and royalist ministers.
The king's plan to attend the UN General Assembly meet in New York last year had to be cancelled after it was learnt that US President George W. Bush had excluded him from a dinner hosted for visiting dignitaries. When the king went to South Africa, former South African President and Nobel laureate Nelson Mandela declined to meet him.
However, China kept up its diplomatic ties with the king, first sending its foreign minister and then state councillor to the kingdom.
It also stepped up annual assistance to Nepal from 80 million yuan to 100 million yuan and continued to sell arms and ammunition that were later used by security personnel to repress unarmed protesters, human rights activists, media personnel and political party activists.
Though China claimed Gyanendra's coup was an internal matter of Nepal, its support was actually prompted by the king promising to shut down the Tibetan Welfare Centre here that was helping Tibetans who had fled China-controlled Tibet to proceed to their desired destinations.
Since this year, Gyanendra's government stopped issuing exit permits to Tibetan refugees. Tibetans already residing in Nepal are not allowed to register their marriages or the birth of children.
The Tibet policy has tarnished both Nepal and China's image in the UN with the International Campaign for Tibet, an NGO, formally complaining to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Now China is alarmed that the seven opposition political parties, which will form the new government this month, will reverse the earlier stand on Tibet.
With the US supporting the Tibetan cause, China's stranglehold on refugees might not be continued by the new democratic government of Nepal.