SECRETARY:
The Society urgently needs a new secretary
to take it forward following the retirement of Mrs Pat Mellor.
The task has been considerably reduced by
the introduction of an electronic membership list which is
not maintained by the secretary but is out-sourced.
Our mailings too are now outsourced, either
by thr journal’s printers or a London agency.
This has taken a good deal of what potential
volunteers might consider the less exciting work of the secretary.
Anyone interested in taking on this important
role for the Society should contact either Mrs Pat Mellor
or the chairman, Lt Col Gerry Birch.
Email contacts: gerry.birch3@btinternet.com
or
Mrs Mellor at itncnature@aol.com
...................................................................................................................
News & Feeds Related to Nepal
BBC
News - Country profile of Nepal: a link on the BBC site,
or just Search
BBC.com for Nepal to find more information
Link to current
information from the UK
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
The Digital Himalaya
site http://www.digitalhimalaya.com/
produced jointly by YALE and Cambridge universities.
The latest BNS
Journa (No 34)l, is one of the many entries on digital himalaya
site: Go
directly to their PDF .
Honours and
Awards
2 RGR Battle Group
received one MC, two QCVSs and nine mentions in despatches
as a result of their six month tour of duty in Afghanistan.
The Society congratulates
Mrs Pratima Pande, President of the Nepal – Britain
Society on her appointment as an MBE for services to Anglo-Nepali
relations.
Professor Surya
Subedi OBE
The Society congratulates
Professor Subedi on his appointment by the United Nations
as Human Rights Envoy for Cambodia. The press release announcing
this is shown below:
The UN Human Rights
Council has appointed a Nepali Professor as the next UN Special
Rapporteur for human rights in Cambodia. The Council voted
unanimously to endorse the nomination made by the President
of the Human Rights Council to appoint Professor Surya P.
Subedi at its meeting in Geneva yesterday (March 25). The
Council consists of 47 member States elected by the UN General
Assembly.
Speaking at the
meeting of the Council in Geneva after the Council decision
to appoint Professor Subedi, the Cambodian ambassador to the
UN welcomed the appointment of Professor Subedi and expressed
the willingness of his government to cooperate with him in
discharging his responsibilities as an independent human rights
law expert
Dr Subedi is Professor
of International and Human Rights Law at the University of
Leeds in England. He also is a Barrister in England, an Advocate
in Nepal, and holds a doctoral degree in international law
from the University of Oxford, a Master of Laws degree with
Distinction from the University of Hull in England and an
LLB from Tribhuvan University, Nepal.
Commenting on
his appointment, Professor Subedi said: “I am delighted
and honoured by the trust and confidence placed in me by such
a high level UN body in recognition of my work in the field
of international and human rights law.” He added that
“It is a huge privilege and an opportunity to make my
contribution as an independent expert to enhance the human
rights situation in Cambodia. I very much look forward to
working with the government and the people of Cambodia.”
He went on to
say that: “Such a high level UN appointment is a matter
of honour and pride not only for me personally but also for
the people and the country of Nepal. As the UN mandate holder
in Cambodia, I will do my utmost to discharge my responsibilities
as effectively as possible.”
Since this is
a non-residential appointment Professor Subedi would be working
for the UN from his university in England and visit Cambodia
to monitor the human rights situation there and report to
the UN Human Rights Council.
Lieutenant
Colonel Andrew Mercer
The article in
the last edition of the journal concerning the late Lt Col
Andrew Mercer provoked some comment. Nicholas Rhodes writes
of Andrew Mercer: ‘He had a walk-on part in Satyajit
Ray’s film Kanchenjunga, and many people remember
him ‘walking erect’ in that film like the archetypal
British gentlemen that he was. It made him quite a star. A
photograph of Andrew Mercer appears in the book my wife and
I authored, Man of the Frontier S W Laden La (1876-1936):
His Life and Times in Darjeeling and Tibet - the biography
of her grandfather. The picture is with a group of Sherpas
at a reunion on the occasion of a visit to Darjeeling by General
Bruce.’ (This book was reviewed in ‘Asian Affairs’
and reproduced in the last edition of the journal. Ed.)
Lt Col J P Cross
writes: ‘I was interested in reading about Andrew Mercer
whom I met in 1951. I learnt that he was offered to be an
OBE (civil) for his services in Darjeeling, but he declined
as he feared that the Indian authorities might think it an
award for being a spy.
The Tom Hughes
Family Trust
The trust is still
continuing its work in Dharan. An annual newsletter is published
and can be obtained by email from: vennbannister@onetel.net
. Older members from Dharan days will remember the BMH Wardmaster
later the Admin Officer, Ranjitsing Rai and his wife Doma.
They are now in their eighties but remain well and active.
Major David Bannister’s last newsletter mentioned a
‘clock tower’ in the centre of Dharan Bazaar.
Apparently it is a copy of the old clock tower on the Kowloon
waterfront, erected by former Gurkha soldiers as a monument
to their fallen comrades.
The Vulture
Crisis
Readers of the
BNSjournal will already be aware of the crash. in the numbers
of vultures across the Sub-continent as a result of feeding
on cattle treated with diclofenac. In India the captive vulture
programme has bred two slender-billed vultures, a first captive
breeding success. In Nepal 44 Oriental white-backed vultures
have been collected for a future captive breeding programme.
The leading conservation organisations involved are RSPB,
ZSL, Bird Conservation Nepal (BCN) and the Nepal Trust for
Nature Conservation (the former King Mahendra Trust). BCN
have established a vulture restaurants’ near Lumbini,
Dang and Nawalparasi. All these sites are situated near the
East West Highway and are open for tourists and birdwatchers
to visit. The restaurants provide a source of diclofenac free
meat which is fed to the vultures in the area. Aged cattle
that are known to be free of diclofenac are purchased from
their owners and looked after till they die naturally. A recent
survey carried out by BCN at Nawalparasi indicates that at
least 42 nests have been identified and more are expected.
On a recent extensive visit to Nepal, the only vultures noted,
apart from those in the breeding aviary at Kasara , were those
in the area of the Nawalparasi restaurant.
The Gurkha
Museum in 2010
The Museum's summer
exhibition will run from 7th August to 5th
September 2010, entitled Faith, Food and Fashion in Nepal.
A series of lectures are scheduled:
18 Mar 10 - The
Devil’s Wind. With Dr Richard Holmes. Theme is the
Indian Mutiny.
16 Apr 10 - The Assault on Kanchenjunga 1955. Major
Tony Streather.
11 Jun 10 - Pakistan’s Regional Role with Afghanistan
and India.
08 Oct 10 - Slaughter with a Smile. A review of military
operations from Crecy to Op Herrick. Major Gordon Corrigan.
Details of lectures
and of the ‘The Friends of the Gurkha Museum can be
found at the Gurkha Museum website www.thegurkhamuseum.co.uk
Back to page top
Dr Suresh Chandra Chalise Attends the
Annual Nepali Supper
The Britain Nepal Society welcomed the new
Nepalese Ambassador Dr Suresh Chandra Chalise to the Annual
Nepali Supper held at St Columba's Hall, Pont Street,London
on Thursday 18 February 2010
.The Chairman, Lieut.Col. Gerry Birch introduced
the ambassador who gave an interesting speech on the current
political situation in Nepal and the need to endorse close
ties between Britain and Nepal.
The other principal guests included Sylvia,
Countess of Limerick, Sir John and Lady Chapple and Mr George
Band.
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