KATHMANDU: A government-appointed panel urged that no amnesty be offered to former Maoist rebels who committed serious abuses during Nepal’s civil war, one of its members said yesterday.
More than 16,000 people died in the decade-long conflict between Maoist guerrillas and the state, which ended in 2006. At least 1,300 went missing, according to UN figures.
The government established the panel to work on legislation to set up a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, aimed at healing the wounds from the long civil war.
Singapore eyes crisis centre
HONOLULU: Singapore has proposed hosting a regional crisis command centre that would help coordinate governments’ efforts after major natural disasters, the city-state’s defence minister said.
“We were obviously struck over the last decade by how many disasters there were” in the region, said Ng Eng Hen. The idea is to “make a coherent picture for everyone to see,” said Ng. “We evolved a concept, we call it ‘plug and play’. We set up terminals, you bring in your systems, with information you feel comfortable with....We take all that information, fuse it and then pump it out. It’s worked quite well.”
Clampdown on China protests
BEIJING: Police in China are briskly dispersing a wave of protests against a chemical plant in the south, activists said yesterday, as demonstrators prepared to hold more rallies over the weekend.
Protests began last Sunday in the city of Maoming, where officials plan to build a chemical plant to make paraxylene, a petrochemical used to make plastic bottles and fabrics, but which can be toxic if ingested.
Protests against such plants are not uncommon in China, but this one is unusual because images of police brutality on Sunday incensed many who saw them online before they were deleted by censors.
Yesterday, police halted a march by about 20 demonstrators who had gathered in front of a theatre in the manufacturing city of Shenzhen, one protest organiser said.
Agencies
