Nepal’s population in 1999 was estimated at 23 million people, with a growth rate of 2.3%. The economy of Nepal was largely dependent on its agricultural sector, which accounted for around 41% of the country’s GDP. This was supplemented by the manufacturing and tourism industries. Foreign relations in 1999 were largely positive with the country enjoying strong ties with many Asian nations and the wider international community. Politically, Nepal had been a multi-party state since 1990 when it formally adopted a democratic system. The ruling party at this time was Nepali Congress, which had been in power since 1991. In 1999, Krishna Prasad Bhattarai was Prime Minister and had been since 1998. See ethnicityology for Nepal in the year of 2018.
Yearbook 1999
Nepal. Visit Countryaah official website to get information about the capital city of Nepal. New elections to Parliament in May ended a long period of weak governments. The Nepali Congress Party (NCP) received about 60% of the votes (111 out of Parliament’s 205 seats) and was thus able to form its own government. Krishna Prasad Bhattarai, who had the same post in 1990-91, was appointed Prime Minister. Despite the ongoing Maoist uprising, the elections were conducted in orderly form.
- Also see Abbreviationfinder.org to see the acronym of NPL which stands for Nepal and other definitions of this 3-letter abbreviation.
In its first budget, the new government offered loans at low interest rates and other economic lures to the poor, hoping to get the Maoists to lay down their weapons. However, the clashes continued and are believed to have claimed at least 900 people’s lives since 1996. Among those reported to have been killed was Suresh Wagle, a member of the Maoist Party Politburo.
A government proposal for a new anti-terrorist law was criticized by the opposition and human rights organizations. The law would give the police great powers to, inter alia, conduct home investigations and give local administrators the right to prosecute suspected terrorists. In August, the Supreme Court ordered the government to appoint a human rights commission. However, a decision on this was made by Parliament as early as 1997.
Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli of CPN-UML was also elected Prime Minister of Parliament in October with 338 votes out of 597. However, he was only allowed to sit until July 2016 when the CPN-MC withdrew their support to the government, which then was in the minority. In August, a new government was formed with Pushpa Kamal Dahal from CPN-MC as new Prime Minister. The first priority of the new government was to improve relations with India, and a few days after his accession, he was invited by Indian Prime Minister Modi.
In May 2016, the government decided to grant amnesty for all human rights violations committed during the civil war.
In accordance with the agreement between the two major parties of the government, in June 2017, Dahal handed the prime minister post to Sher Bahadur Deuba of the Indian Congress party.
Physical characteristics
The territory looks like a succession of terraces that are arranged at increasing altitude, from South to North. The first consists of an alluvial lowland, the Terai, where tropical forest and savannahs are, with the crops, the dominant notes of the landscape. Parallel to the Terai rise the wooded Siwalik Mountains, which are almost 2000 m high; then a series of pre-Himalayan chains, more extended and up to 3000 m high, which act as the lower limit of the central plateau, in which the fertile basins of Katmandu and Pokhara open. Beyond stands the imposing Himalayan bastion, which culminates in some of the highest peaks in the world (Everest, 8850m; Kanchenjunga, 8585m; Dhaulagiri, 8222m).
The rivers, not long but impetuous, cross the country mostly from North to South, in often narrow and sunken valleys, and flow into the Ganges. There are three main basins, which are divided into numerous branches: that of Karnali, which drains the western part of the territory, that of Gandak, which bathes the central section, and that of Kosi, to the East. There are few lakes of a certain size, next to the numerous small glacial lakes scattered at altitude.
The climate of the Nepal can be divided into three longitudinal bands: the subtropical one, in the S, hot-humid throughout the year; the temperate one, in the center, where the temperature is mitigated by the altitude; the ‘alpine’ one, to the North, characterized by harsh winters, with temperatures that decrease with height, remaining almost constantly below 0 ° C. The rains, of the monsoon type, are distributed for 80% from the end of May to the middle in October, with quantities that go from 2500 mm in the eastern section of the country to 1200 mm in the western one.
November
The war crimes remain unsolved
November 21st
Nepalese authorities are preventing police and prosecutors from investigating allegations of war crimes committed during the 1996-2006 civil war between the state and the Maoist guerrillas, Human Rights Watch writes in a new report. In this way, the authorities contribute to a widespread culture of impunity, reports the human rights organization. Only two charges for human rights violations during the war have led to convictions in civil courts: one for the murder of a teenage girl and one for the murder of a journalist. The two commissions set up in 2015 to investigate war crimes allegations have not convicted a single person of war crimes, despite the fact that more than 65,000 reports have been received. By the end of the ten-year war in 2006, more than 16,000 people had been killed and more than 1,000 had disappeared.
