Strike by Ethnic Minorities Shuts Down Nepals Capital

[Harold F. Schiffman]

Strike by Ethnic Minorities Shuts Down Nepals Capital

February 19, 2008
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

KATMANDU, Nepal (AP)  Schools closed, garbage piled up on streets and many
buses stopped running here in the capital on Monday because of a fuel
shortage caused by a general strike called by ethnic minorities demanding
more rights.

Almost all schools in Katmandu and its suburbs closed because school buses
had no fuel to transport students, said Lakchya Bahadur K. C. of the
Private and Boarding School Association of Nepal.

These schools will remain closed as long as the fuel shortage continues,
he said on Monday. Trash piled up on street corners after the citys
garbage trucks stopped running on Sunday. At gas stations, thousands of
vehicles lined up in hopes of filling their tanks. I slept in my taxi so
that I would get some gasoline when the station opened in the morning,
said Laxman Tamang, a driver waiting in line.

Several ethnic rights groups in southern Nepal called the strike last week
to demand greater autonomy, more seats in the national legislature and a
guaranteed number of representatives in the administration. Fearing that
they would be attacked for defying the strike, drivers for the state-owned
Nepal Oil Corporation have been refusing to work on highways in southern
Nepal.

Nepal Oil controls the importation and distribution of all petroleum
products in the country. But all oil and gasoline is imported from India
and enters Nepal by road at border crossings in the south. The situation
is critical, and we have almost nothing left, said Ichcha Bikram Thapa, a
Nepal Oil official, adding that the company had no hope of getting any new
shipments in the next few days.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/19/world/asia/19nepal.html?_r=1&ref=world&oref=slogin

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