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Nepal schools obey Maoist shutdown order after rebels bomb schools
 KATHMANDU - Nepal's private schools outside the capital, Kathmandu, obeyed on Friday a Maoist rebel order to shut after guerrilla bombs,planted as a warning, exploded in three empty schools, officials said. Two of the blasts occurred Thursday while the other took place last week, Nepal's private schools' association said. All of the bombs exploded in rebel-dominated west Nepal, damaging the buildings but causing no injuries.Schools outside Kathmandu, where the Maoists hold sway, heeded the rebel closure order that marked the latest challenge to the authority of King Gyanendra who seized power February 1. But educational institutions in the tightly guarded capital, Kathmandu, functioned normally after re-opening for the new academic year in the country of 27 million people. The Private and Boarding School Organization-Nepal said the Maoist student wing had been bombarding schools with threatening e-mails and telephone callstelling them to close unless they met a series of demands. "No students or teachers were injured in the bombings but the school buildings were damaged," said Bhim Pant, a senior member of Nepal's private schools' association. "Maoist student leaders have been constantly threatening the schools by telephone and e-mails to close down all private boarding schools or face dire consequences." The Maoists want the institutions to cut fees, scrap singing the national anthem and remove photographs of Gyanendra as part of their drive to install their own "people's education" system. But the schools have refused to obey the Maoists. Posted by: Steve White 2005-04-16 |
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