Nepal seeks UN peace monitoring assistance – spokesman

Secretary-General Kofi Annan has urged the Security Council to support Nepal’s request for United Nations assistance in its peace process, a spokesman for the world body said today.

In a letter to the President of the Security Council, the Secretary-General notes that the UN “has been requested to monitor the arrangements of arms and armed personnel by providing qualified monitors supported by appropriate technical capacity,” spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters in New York.

Assistance is also being sought in a variety of areas in the peace process with a view to creating an atmosphere conducive to free and fair elections for the Constituent Assembly, the spokesman quoted the letter as saying.

Mr. Annan voiced his “strong belief that the UN should respond positively, and outlines three immediate steps with which he intends to proceed,” Mr. Dujarric said.