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A10 WORLD NEWS
Tuesday 16 OcTOber 2018

Climbers who died in Nepal storm included famed South Korean

By BINAJ GURUBACHARYA of them all. Kim achieved
Associated Press his feat in 2013.
KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — South Korean President
The nine climbers who died Moon Jae-in, an ama-
during the worst disaster teur hiking enthusiast who
on a Nepal mountain in re- visited Nepal in 2016, ex-
cent years included the first pressed his condolences,
South Korean to summit all saying the victims dis-
14 Himalayan peaks over played a “great spirit that’s
8,000 meters without using about respecting nature
supplemental oxygen. while simultaneously trying
An official from the South to overcome it.”
Korea’s Corean Alpine “A snow storm has taken
Club said the bodies of Kim the nine climbers into the
Chang-ho and four other mountains forever, but
South Koreans who were their bravery and fighting
killed will arrive in South Ko- spirit to break out a new
rea on Wednesday. Four route can never be bur-
Nepalese guides also were ied,” Moon wrote on Face-
killed when a storm swept book on Sunday while on a
the climbers’ base camp visit to France.
on Gurja Himal mountain Santa Lama of the Nepal
Friday. Rescuers had re- Mountaineering Associa-
trieved the climbers’ bodies Officials unload the bodies after a helicopter carrying bodies of those killed in Gurja Himal tion, who helped with co-
on Sunday after weather mountain arrives at the Teaching hospital in Kathmandu, Nepal, Sunday, Oct. 14, 2018. ordinating the rescue, said
cleared. The body of one Associated Press since all nine people at the
of the guides was taken to but from what rescuers de- Yeong-jik, Im Il-jin, Jeong 2015 when 19 people were camp were killed and no
his village, while the eight scribed, the climbers were Jun-mo and Lee Jae-hoon. killed at Mount Everest base surviving witnesses it was
others were flown to Kath- blown over by the blast of Yu was reportedly in camp by an avalanche difficult to say what exactly
mandu. the blizzard-like wind condi- charge of equipment for triggered by an earth- happened or when.
“It was the worst mountain- tions. One Korean member Kim’s climbing team. Im quake that devastated the The climbers were also
eering disaster in Nepal in of the climbing team had was a filmmaker who spe- country. The previous year, attempting to scale a
recent years and an un- become ill and was in a cialized in documentaries an avalanche above Ever- 7,193-meter (23,590-foot)
imaginable one,” said Ra- village far below the base of mountain climbers. Yon- est’s base camp killed 16 peak which is not among
meshwor Niraula of Nepal’s camp during the storm. hap news agency said se- Nepalese Sherpa guides. the highest, the most dif-
Mountaineering Depart- The CAC official, who nior CAC member Jeong The Himalayan range in- ficult or popular mountain
ment, which issues climbing didn’t want to be named wasn’t part of Kim’s team cludes all 14 of the world’s to climb in Nepal.
permits and monitors expe- because she wasn’t au- but was visiting them when peaks that rise above 8,000 Grieving family members
ditions. Niraula said officials thorized to speak to report- the accident happened. meters, and only a few gathered at the Tribhu-
were still gathering details ers, identified the other It was the deadliest climb- dozen climbers have made van University Teaching
of what exactly happened South Korean victims as Yu ing disaster in Nepal since verified, successful ascents Hospital in Nepal’s capital
where the bodies were to
‘Dark days’ over: Gambia launches truth, reconciliation body be autopsied before being
handed to their families.
South Korea’s Foreign Min-
after years of extrajudicial government’s commitment istry told reporters strong
killings, torture and abuses to put victims at the center winds during the storm
in phony “HIV treatment” of the process: “It is for this blew the victims from their
centers. reason that we included base camp off a steep cliff.
It also is expected to lay reparations.” Word of the destruction
the groundwork for pos- The Gambian-born pros- got out Saturday morn-
sible prosecution of Jam- ecutor of the International ing, and helicopters were
meh, who flew into exile in Criminal Court, Fatou Ben- sent. They were not able to
Equatorial Guinea in early souda, said the commission land due to the continuing
2017, and others. The new will help the country write bad weather but spotted
government under Barrow, a new chapter and that in the bodies, which were re-
who handed Jammeh a order to move forward “it trieved Sunday.
surprise election defeat at must reckon with its past.” They were issued permit to
the head of an opposition It is not an exercise in set- climb the peak during the
In this Thursday, Dec. 1, 2016 file photo, Gambia’s President coalition, has vowed to de- tling political scores, she autumn climbing season.
Yahya Jammeh shows his inked finger before voting in Banjul, liver justice to victims. said. The 11-member com- Spring and autumn are the
Gambia. Speaking to a crowd that mission will investigate hu- optimal climbing seasons
Associated Press came to witness what man rights abuses com- in Nepal in between the
By ABDOULIE JOHN year rule of former leader many have called a histor- mitted between July 1994 harsh winter and summer
Associated Press Yahya Jammeh, with Presi- ic moment, Barrow called and January 2017. It has monsoon.
BANJUL, Gambia (AP) dent Adama Barrow de- on Gambians to stand the power to subpoena al- The CAC official said a
— Gambia on Monday claring the country’s “dark together and say never leged perpetrators. Korean Air flight carrying
launched a truth, reconcili- days” are over. again would a few people Already, the new freedoms the bodies of the climbers
ation and reparations com- The long-awaited commis- subject the country to op- in Gambia have inspired will arrive at South Korea’s
mission to lay bare abuses sion is meant to help heal pression. growing demands for Incheon International Air-
committed under the 22- the tiny West African nation The president stressed the justice.q port early Wednesday.q