South Asians Urge Nepal Political Parties to abide by 12 Point Agenda;
Demands South Asian Governments to stop dictating terms

We, the people of South Asia, salute the courageous, freedom and peace loving people of Nepal, in their struggle and the historic victory over the autocratic regime. We express unequivocal support and solidarity to the achievement of the people’s movement for democracy in Nepal, which found its interim success through the decision of the King to handover sovereignty to the people by restoring the dissolved Parliament. We believe the people of Nepal have set a precedent of non-violent struggle for democracy. The unprecedented resistance to tyranny also demand that the political forces in Nepal must now honour the aspirations of the people and adhere to the 12-point agenda.

The recent developments in Nepal are momentous. They also exhibit the tensions of an embryonic legal regime yet to be born and the difficulties of resolving them with attention to the issues of legitimacy and the ideals of the rule of law. The midnight proclamation of the king, made on 24 April 2006, clearly shows that the democratic uprising in the country has eclipsed the monarchical order. However, the process of political transition it proposes does not appear to square with the democratic imperatives in so far as it seems to be tainted by elements of arbitrariness that draw from the authoritarian politics of the past.

We urge the Seven Party Alliance to recognise the fact that this is not the Parliament of the past. It is an opportunity provided by the heroic struggle of the people of Nepal, to regain their lost political and democratic space. It should be understood as an interim arrangement to hold fresh elections to establish a new constituent assembly - the main demand of the people’s struggle.

We urge the SPA to work together as a coalition. The interim authority has its mandate from the people and it is to the people that they must remain accountable. We demand the SPA to abide by the historic 12-point agreement that they made with the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoists). We also aspire that this agreement and the collective future course of action of these forces, will set a new era of democracy and peace in Nepal.

We demand the South Asian governments and the international community, to acknowledge and endorse the historic struggle of the people of Nepal. We strongly condemn the attempts, by some of the governments, to sabotage the political consensus built through a democratic process by the people of Nepal.

Shahid Fiaz (Pakistan) & Vijayan MJ (India) on behalf of South Asians for Democracy - Nepal Campaign
Phone: 41682841/842 OR 41652451/452
Mobile: 9871549907/9811065471