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Nepal
in Crisis 2006: Facts
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Rebels
not ready to disarm until peace process completed - Maoist leaders
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KATHMANDU,
25 Jul 2006 (IRIN)
Despite
spending the last three months engaged in peace talks with the Nepalese
government, Maoist rebels are still not prepared to demobilise, disarm
or integrate, their leaders said in the Nepalese capital, Kathmandu.
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Maoists are not ready to disarm if the government does not decommission
its Nepalese Army first
"The
government should stop raising their voices for demobilising or decommissioning
only our military. Let there a be political solution first," Dinnanath
Sharma, a senior Maoist leader and negotiator, said.
The
People's
Liberation Army (PLA) would not engage in the demilitarisation, demobilisation
and reintegration (DDR) process until full peace settlements were made,
Sharma said.
The
Maoists have waged an armed rebellion against the Nepalese government since
1996, demanding an interim government, a constituent assembly, a new constitution
and a republic. They have walked out of previous talks in 2001 and 2003. |
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The
new interim government, formed in April by the country's seven main parties
after King Gyanendra gave up direct rule following mass protests, had agreed
to meet the PLA's key demands.
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Young female Maoists seeking refuge in a poor farmer's house. The family
feels uncomfortable about their presence - they fear the reaction of the
security forces if they find out that the family has sheltered rebels.
However,
now the government wants the PLA to disarm before the peace process is
completed and prior to the elections for the Constituent Assembly (CA),
which are scheduled to be held by 26 February 2007.
The
CA is considered a provisional governing body that would include the PLA
and enable the forming of a new constitution and a democratic state.
The
PLA was infuriated when earlier this month the Nepalese government sought
support from the United Nations to decommission them. |
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"Any
talk of decommissioning of arms of only the PLA before the election to
the constituent assembly is just unthinkable," Prachanda, the Maoist chief
said in a letter to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
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A decade of conflict means small arms are everywhere in Nepal
International
peace-building experts have also expressed concerns that disarming only
the PLA would not be enough.
"There
is also a need to resize the Nepalese Army (NA), which has over 80,000
army personnel and is already an economic burden on the country," Druba
Kumar, a defence analyst said.
Activists
also believed the government had to pay attention to the thousands of landmines
that were planted near army barracks in civilian areas around the country. |
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"The
landmines are still a great risk to many innocent civilians who are unaware
of where the landmines are planted," said Purna Shova Chitrakar, from the
Nepal branch of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines.
Other
experts said that the government and the PLA should not delay the DDR process.
"DDR
is not just about collecting weapons and counting them and putting them
- as they say - beyond use and making them unusable. It is also an important
part of the peace process," said Dan Smith, secretary-general of International
Alert, a British peace-building NGO.
Deo
Bahadur Ghale, a former UN peacekeeping mission expert, said an "immediate
agreement" was essential for the DDR process.
Meanwhile,
child rights activists have also added their concerns about the need to
immediately start the DDR process for former child combatants.
"Early
intervention is critical for the normal development of children even without
a peace process. If you don't act now it could be too late," said Rosana
Vega, a child protection officer for the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) in
Nepal, said.
Credit
IRIN 2006
Copyright
© UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2006
[
This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]
Integrated
Regional Information Networks (IRIN), part of the UN Office for the Coordination
of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
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