By Ameet Dhakal and Damakant Jayshi

KATHMANDU, March 20 - For reasons inadequately explained, the government has been denying long-term visas to some delegates of the International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC), the renowned rights and humanitarian group.

This has left about 15 delegates of ICRC with no options but to fly back to New Delhi, India, and renew their 30-day entry visas every month. 

According to a highly placed government official, the ICRC has repeatedly approached the Home and Foreign Ministries for extension of visas for at least another six months. Their requests have been turned down each time by these two ministries. 

Gyan Chandra Acharya, Spokesman at the Foreign Ministry said that the visas were denied to the ICRC from Nepali soil on "technical grounds." Since they do not have the resident office here Nepal cannot grant long term visas to them, he said.

However, the ICRC has housed its resident office in Kathmandu since last two years but the government is yet to recognize it, despite repeated attempts by the ICRC to reach an agreement with the government. When asked why the government has taken such a long time to recognize ICRC resident office, Acharya said, "they have applied and it is in the process." 

A highly placed government official, requesting anonymity, however, said that government’s reluctance to deny visas to ICRC delegates could be a strategic one. The government fears that once the ICRC gets a foothold in the human rights domain in the country, the government may not find it too palatable a proposition, especially when reports of human rights violations by security forces in the Maoist insurgency are in the upswing, the official said. 

For one, the international organization may eventually come into mediating between the government and the Maoists rebels. And once that happens, the utter secrecy, surrounding the talks with the rebels or the lack of such dialogue ,would be difficult for the government to maintain. 

Moreover, the ICRC delegates, as they are known here, can visit any insurgency-hit area and prisons. Their questions about the "missing" Maoists rebels could be too hot for the government to handle. Under the Geneva Convention, the two sides in a conflict will have to recognize its presence and abide by many rules and restrictions.

When contacted, Jean Jacques Bovay, Head of the Mission, ICRC, Nepal told The Kathmandu Post, "I am not going to comment on this issue...at least not immediately."

Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister, Ram Chandra Poudel, while speaking to The Kathmandu Post, denied any knowledge over the delay of visas to ICRC delegates. "I have not received any application for visas, so where is the question of granting them or rejecting them," he said.

When asked whether the government was unwilling to give the visas to ICRC officials fearing their mediation regarding the talks with the Maoists, DPM Poudel replied, "Where is such an agency that can mediate between the government and the Maoists?" 

Replying to a question whether the government’s hesitation stemmed out from the fact that the ICRC convention allowed it to visit prisons and demand any information on "missing" rebels, Poudel said, "We too have our own Constitution as a sovereign nation; we will have to work according to our convention."

ICRC, the institution that champions international peace and human rights, had decided to set a resident delegate office in Kathmandu two years back foreseeing an increased role in the wake of evaporating peace and increasing violations of human rights in this Himalayan Kingdom. Prior to that it was Regional Delegate Office in Delhi that used to oversee ICRC operations in Nepal.