ACTIVITIES OF SECRETARY-GENERAL IN NEPAL, 12 - 13 MARCH

Secretary-General Kofi Annan arrived in Kathmandu in the evening of Monday, 12 March.

On Tuesday morning, he was the guest of the Government on an aerial tour of the Himalaya mountains, including Mount Everest.

At noon, he and Mrs. Annan had an audience with King Birendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev and Queen Aishwya Rajya Laxmi Devi Shah.  The King explained that as a small, landlocked country sandwiched between two giants -- India and China -- Nepal had a special appreciation for the United Nations.  "It helps us maintain our identity", he said, "and gives us a voice".  He added, "we want to see the UN stronger and more effective".

The Secretary-General then met with the Minister of Defence, Mahesh Acharya, with whom he discussed Nepal's participation in United Nations peacekeeping missions in Sierra Leone and Lebanon.  He congratulated Nepal on the effective Peacekeeping Training Centre set up about 45 kilometres outside of Kathmandu.  He also raised the issue of the United Nations Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Asia, which the United Nations would like to relocate from New York to Kathmandu.  Once Nepal had identified premises, it would contribute to establishing the Centre there.

The Secretary-General then met with the Foreign Minister of Nepal, Chakra Prasad Bastola, who confirmed that premises for the Peace and Disarmament Centre had been identified.  They discussed economic and social problems in Nepal, including refugees and trafficking in women and girls.  They also reviewed regional security questions.  They touched on the Taliban's destruction of the giant Buddha statues at Bamiyan and Nepal's plans to develop Lumbini, the Buddha's birthplace, as a religious and cultural centre.

The Prime Minister of Nepal, Girija Prasad Koirala, then greeted the Secretary-General in his offices.  They discussed globalization and meeting the goals of the Millennium Summit, which the Prime Minister had attended.  Their talks also addressed the Third United Nations Conference on Least Developed Countries planned for Brussels in May 2001, and trade relations between the European Union and the least developed countries.  They also touched on the threat of religious extremism to stability in the region. 

The Prime Minister then hosted a luncheon in honour of the Secretary-General.

After lunch, the Secretary-General visited UN House, where he was briefed by the representatives of United Nations agencies in Nepal, most of which are based at those premises.  He also greeted the United Nations staff working in the country and thanked them for working so closely together.

During that day, Nane Annan, wife of the Secretary-General, visited Maiti Nepal, a non-governmental organization working to protect women and children from exploitation, abuse and trafficking.  Mrs. Annan met with teenage Nepali girls who had been sold into prostitution, sometimes by their husbands or families.

It is estimated that between 5,000 and 7,000 young girls are trafficked each year in Nepal.  Many of the girls at Maiti Nepal were released from forced sex services once they became HIV positive, others escaped.  The organization, which is supported by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), also helps women who develop AIDS from their husbands and are then shunned from their villages.

On leaving Nepal, the Secretary-General met with journalists at the airport.  Asked about the Taliban's destruction of the Buddha statues and how incidents like this could be avoided in the future, he said, "I think this is an issue that should be the responsibility of all of us."  The answer, he added, has to be education.  "Education about tolerance, education about respect for diversity, education that allows people to understand that you do not have to hate what belongs to others ... to respect your own religion."

He encouraged Nepal to develop its peacekeeping training centre, which he pledged the United Nations to support.  And he assured Nepal that now that the Government had found premises, the Asia Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament would soon move from New York to Kathmandu.

The Secretary-General and his party then flew from Kathmandu to Dhaka, to begin a two-day visit in Bangladesh.