REGIONAL SECURITY INFORMATION (Updated December 2006)
Tensions throughout the world remain with the
Israeli-Palestinian/Lebanon dispute, the US & UK presence in Iraq and Afghanistan,
and terrorist incidents worldwide.
People still have various, often understandable, concerns about
travelling at the moment, and to the Middle East in particular. Please
find further information given below to cover our response to the
situation, and how it is likely to affect our holidays.
We keep in constant contact with our representatives, agents, and
staff in all the countries in which we operate our tours, as well as
with the Foreign Office here in the UK. All of this information is
used daily to help us decide how and whether to run or change a
particular tour.
When regional tensions are high, our guides and tour leaders are
instructed to contact their base office as often as possible. This
helps us to maintain a direct line of communication to our clients and
groups, so that we can act to change itineraries or cancel tours
immediately if necessary.
Current
Following some 10 years or so of insurgency by Maoist rebels, and uncertainty
about the role of parliament and the royal family, the situation in Nepal has
recently shown very encouraging signs of a new stable future.
In what seems to be a major breakthrough in the country's peace process, Nepal's
ruling Seven Party Alliance (SPA) and the CPN (Maoist) reached an understanding
and settled almost all the contentious issues announcing the formation of an interim
legislature and interim government.
The eight parties finally signed the agreement at midnight of November 7 2006. As
per this historic peace accord, the first meeting of the constituent assembly
will decide the fate of the monarchy and the elections to the Constituent Assembly
will be held by mid-June 2007.
The seven parties and the Maoists have agreed to keep their armies and weapons
under the supervision of the United Nations, and have set up an interim legislature.
Retired Gurkha soldiers will initiate the weapons supervision until a full arrangement
with UN monitors is reached.
Nepal's ruling alliance and the Maoists approved the draft of an
interim constitution on 15th December 2006, a key step in the implementation of the
peace deal.
There are bound to be problems along the way, and there have already been disagreements
about the nomination of ambassadors without full consulation with the Maoists.
However, this is to be expected in the start of a peace process, and we have great
hopes for the future of the country.
Background (Since the insurgency erupted in 1996)
Over the past 10 years, tourists have still been enjoying visiting Nepal, and
we have been running most of our tours there as normal. However, this was always
against an ongoing background of an increasing number of armed clashes between
the Maoists and government forces, especially against Army and Police installations,
albeit usually in the outlying regions in the East and West of Nepal.
Tourists were not targeted directly by force, though it became increasingly
more common for trekkers to be ‘taxed’ on several of the trekking routes.
There were irregular anti-government demonstrations in Kathmandu, intermittent
curfews, and general strikes or ‘bandhs’ imposed by the Maoists, during which
nearly all travel throughout the country stopped and shops closed down.
There are still security check-points on many roads, and we expect more political
demonstrations over the coming months as the various parties work on the practicalities
of the peace deal.
As such we still strongly recommend you update yourself with the latest:
Over the last few years, due to reduced numbers, some of our group departures
have not run, and some itineraries have been changed
slightly. (for example, some camping treks have been changed to lodge treks, and
some areas such as from Jiri to Lukla at the start of our Classic Everest trek
have been missed out altogether).
We have been running a lot more tailor-made treks and tours for private groups,
individuals and families.
We have now revised several of our tour itineraries to reflect the new political
situation, and look forward to our small-group numbers getting back to normal.
We will also continue to specialise in private and tailor-made itineraries as
well however.
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