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| India-Pakistan |
| Sacked Nepal army chief refuses to step down |
| 2009-05-03 |
| KATHMANDU: NepalÂ’s army chief Gen Rukmanga Katawal, who was sacked by the ruling Maoist Party on Sunday, has refused to accept the decision, according to TV reports. Times Now says that an emergency meeting is being held by the top brass of NepalÂ’s army at the residence of Katawal over the issue. Earlier, ending days of speculation, Nepal's Maoists-led government on Sunday fired Gen Rukmanga Katawal, replacing him with loyalist Gen Kul Bahadur Khadka. The announcement was made by prime minister Prachanda's press adviser Om Sharma despite domestic and international calls against such a move, including from India. The 61-year-old Katawal, who received his marching orders just three months before he is due to retire, is expected to knock at Nepal's Supreme Court to stay the Maoists' hand, IANS reported. "It is a routine procedure," said a Nepal Army brigadier-general who had served for 33 years. "The general's challenge to the government over the eight brigadier-generals the government tried to retire last month is a pointer that Gen Katawal will go to court," said a former lieutenant-colonel, who too declined to be named, IANS said. Recently, when the Maoist-led government sought to retire eight brigadier-generals, the army went to court under Katawal's orders to block the move. The dispute is still being heard with the Supreme Court scheduled to deliver its verdict next week. The general's task could be made easier by the four other parties in the Maoist-led coalition government who said the former guerrillas had taken the decision to retire Katawal Sunday unilaterally, ignoring their advice to seek the opinion of the interim parliament. Soon after Maoist Information and Communications Minister Krishna Bahadur Mahara announced that Katawal had been replaced with Lt. Gen. Kul Bahadur Khadka, the opposition Nepali Congress called a meeting of the other parliamentary parties to discuss a united reaction. Meanwhile, rallies began to erupt in Kathmandu over the ouster of the army chief. While Maoist cadres expressed triumph, saying that the general deserved his dismissal for defying the orders of the government, the opposition rally flayed the Maoists for taking unilateral decisions and jeopardising the peace process. The Maoists' move came a fortnight after they served an ultimatum to Gen Katawal, seeking his clarification on recruitments by military, its "hastiness" in reinstating eight generals retired by the government and its decision not to participate in the national games. He had furnished his reply contending that he had not disobeyed the government's directives on removing eight generals and halting recruitment in the military. |
| Posted by:john frum |
| #4 Besoeker, I liken the hatchet men "The Bobs" from Office Space to our Veep and President. Here is the analogy: all the while they're cuttin 22nd amendment's position with bumbling grins on their faces, many people will be thinkin' it don't apply to them. That is, till the day they come to take away our The question is, will we be like Milton and mumble and move to the basement before setting fire to the building, or will we be like Peter, who gets right in management's face? Few are too worried for now because they'll let us have our weapons with an lower case w if we behave. When the Obama's administration asks for our 22nd Amendment back with a big sugar coated rhetorical cluster phuck bomb, will we Americans say "but, but, but, my stapler?" |
| Posted by: GirlThursday 2009-05-03 19:46 |
| #3 Barry and his cadre don't give a damn about the constitution to include the 22nd Amendment. If he gets a second term, I wouldn't put anything past him. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2009-05-03 16:18 |
| #2 Take a good, long look. You may see something similar tried here, if Barry manages to get his way on a few things. I doubt he'd be able to carry it off, but he'll obviously try. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2009-05-03 15:46 |
| #1 maoist scum, go back to your Commie homeland and die |
| Posted by: go Tibet 2009-05-03 13:25 |