[mobglob-discuss] Now that's a student movement...

[Macdonald Stainsby]

AFP. 1 October 2002. Schools closed around Nepal by Maoist strike; Nepal army
blows up Maoist rebel memorial.

KATHMANDU -- Schools were closed around Nepal Tuesday as a student union
affiliated with Maoist rebels called a two-day strike to push for free education
and other demands.

Administrators said they closed down all schools, including universities, to
prevent any potential attacks by Maoists on institutions that remained open.

A private school in the capital Kathmandu was bombed on Sunday, causing damage
but no injuries. Officials said they considered the attack an apparent warning
to schools to close down Tuesday and Wednesday.

Suspected Maoists last week also bombed a private school in Bansbari on
Kathmandu's outskirts, damaging six school buses and the administrative office.

The All Nepal National Free Students Union (Revolutionary) called the strike to
press the government on 13 demands, including free education at all schools
across the kingdom and an end to a crackdown on teachers who do not have
government accreditation.

The student group is also demanding a ban on Indian teachers and instruction in
Hinduism's holy language Sanskrit, which is generally associated with higher
castes.

The students are also demanding an end to the "commercialization" of Nepal's
schools, claiming that administrators are reaping huge profits on education.

Meanwhile, Nepal's army said it Tuesday blew up a memorial set up by Maoist
rebels marking the launch of their insurgency six and a half years ago.

The monument was in the Rolpa district, some 390 kilometers (244 miles) west of
the capital Kathmandu, where the guerrillas on February 13, 1996 declared a
"people's war" to topple the constitutional monarchy and establish a communist
state.

Army spokesman Colonel Dipak Gurung did not give details about the marker or any
casualties, but called it "the most important monument" of the Maoists.

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Macdonald Stainsby
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/rad-green
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/leninist-international
--
In the contradiction lies the hope.
                                     --Bertholt Brecht