Despite progress, Nepal's peace process faces challenges, senior UN official warns

Despite “great achievements” in Nepal's peace process, controversies between the two former combatant forces, the Nepalese and Maoist armies, and other problems may be indicative of the difficulties that lie ahead, the top United Nations official in the country warned the Security Council today.

“I fear that there is now a danger that these fundamentals are being challenged and eroded,” Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's Special Representative Ian Martin said of the commitments under the 2006 agreement ending a decade-long civil war that claimed an estimated 13,000 lives.

Under the Comprehensive Peace Agreement of 2006, the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) “committed itself to democratic norms and values, including the competitive multi-party system of government, fundamental human rights, civil liberties, press freedom and rule of law. The parties elected to the 1999 Parliament committed themselves to the election of a constituent assembly, the restructuring of the state and progressive socio-economic change.”

Both sides also agreed that the Maoist army personnel were to be “integrated and rehabilitated” and the Nepal Army was to be “democratized.”

However, there is recent controversy over recruitment by the Nepal Army and its recognition of authority of the elected Maoist-led Government, with the army arguing that it should be allowed to fill vacancies.

Mr. Martin, giving his last presentation to the Council in his current position, said the original agreements regarding the armies must be maintained “if a critical post-conflict challenge is to be successfully overcome and a stable peace is to be achieved and sustained.”

He stressed that one need for change to which no political party and neither army was yet truly committed was the need to end impunity, noting that in the three-and-a-half years he has been in the South Asian country, not a single perpetrator of a major human rights violation, whether committed during the armed conflict or after, had been properly brought to justice.

Although the parties committed in 2006 to investigate disappearances, only now is Parliament about to consider legislation to set up a commission to do so.

“The weakness of the peace process has been the failure to implement commitments made,” Mr. Martin said. “The need now is therefore not only for a renewed basis of understanding and cooperation, but also for a continuous mechanism for ensuring such implementation.”

In his most recent report to the Council, Mr. Ban proposed a six-month extension for the UN Mission in Nepal (UNMIN) at a reduced level, maintaining 73 arms monitors as at present, but abolishing most of the 18 civilian posts as of 23 January.