Accordingly, both sides are sending a consensus request to the United Nations to renew the term of the United Nations Mission in Nepal (UNMIN) for the “last time” for four months, with continuity for the existing mandate, the government and the UCPN-M said Monday evening. [break]
“We have agreed primarily to complete the remaining tasks of the peace process between September 17 and January 14 [2011],” Maoist Vice-chairman Narayan Kaji Shrestha told myrepublica.com after Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal and Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal signed the four-point agreement late Monday evening.
The integration and rehabilitation of 19,602 Maoist combatants currently living in 28 UN-supervised camps is at the center of the stagnant peace process. Political differences between the ruling major parties and the opposition UCPN-M had delayed the management of ex-Maoist army personnel which should have been completed much earlier.
According to the prime minister´s Foreign Affairs Advisor, Rajan Bhattarai, the UCPN-M has agreed to let its army come under the command and control of the Special Committee “as soon as” possible besides sharing all details about its combatants with the committee headed by the prime minister.
As per the agreement, the Maoists are to sign three key documents related to the integration and rehabilitation of their combatants. These include a code of conduct for Maoist combatants, a plan of action for management of former Maoist army personnel and directives related to the monitoring mechanism.
Prepared in consultations with the UCPN-M, the documents are ready to be signed. The UCPN-M has been declining for a long time to sign the documents due to differences with the government.
Both sides, after holding a series of meetings since last Thursday, have agreed to end a week-long controversy over UNMIN´s future mandate. Shrestha said that both the government and the UCPN-M are sending separate letters but with the same content to the UN concerning UNMIN´s new term and mandate, on Tuesday.
Earlier, last week, both sides had sent separate and conflicting letters to the UN on UNMIN´s future, and this had triggered a political controversy besides prompting concern at UN Headquarters in New York and within the international community in Kathmandu.
The controversy had begun because the government´s letter to the UN was silent about monitoring of the Nepal Army by UNMIN under its new mandate after September 15, the deadline for the UN political mission´s current mandate.
But in the four-point agreement, the government has compromised with the UCPN-M on letting UNMIN monitor the national army under a new mandate. In return, the UCPN-M has reached a gentlemen´s agreement with the government to address problems faced by the army due to restrictions on movement, arms procurements and recruitment, said Shrestha.
UNMIN chief Karin Landgren said she hoped the agreement would forward the peace process significantly.
“I am looking forward to reading the agreement, and I hope that it offers a clear roadmap for moving the peace process forward significantly in the coming four months,” Landgren, who is currently in New York to brief the Security Council on Nepal´s peace process, told myrepublica.com in an email conversation shortly after the signing of the agreement.
Agreement
We, embracing past agreements and creating an environment of trust, have agreed to the following points, in order to take the peace process to a logical conclusion:
1. To give final shape to all documents prepared by the Special Committee for forwarding the peace process by reaching agreement on them as soon as possible and implementing them.
2. To bring the Maoist combatants under the Special Committee without delay and share all details about the Maoist combatants with the Committee.
3. To take up the remaining tasks of the peace process from September 17 and complete them basically by January 14, 2011.
4. To extend the term of UNMIN for the last time for a period of four months, under the current mandate.
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