Nepal: UN calls for rapid accord on Maoist combatants as mission draws to close

The top United Nations official in Nepal has called on the Government and political parties to reach rapid agreement on the reintegration of Maoist army personnel, in addition to other monitoring-related issues, as the UN wraps up its mission to help the country recover from a decade-long civil war.

The UN Mission in Nepal (UNMIN) – set up a in 2007, a year after the Government and Maoists reached a peace agreement ending a war that claimed 13,000 lives – is due to leave the country on 15 January, as its Security Council mandate expires then. UNMIN’s activities have included monitoring the management of arms and armed personnel of the Nepal Army and the Maoist army as well as helping the parties implement their agreement on the management of arms and armed personnel.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s Representative in Nepal and the head of UNMIN, Karin Landgren, stressed that it was in the interest of all parties to have a common understanding of follow-on arrangements by the time the mission leaves.

“We encourage the parties to expedite an agreement on all aspects of monitoring and supervision, how cantonments will be supervised, including a clear legal framework and a formal dispute resolution mechanism that will be applied following the withdrawal of UNMIN,” she wrote in a letter to Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal and the Chairman of the Unified Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (UCPN-M), Pushpa Kamal Dahal, released today.

“It is in the interest of all parties to have a common understanding about supervisory arrangements that are to be in place following UNMIN’s departure,” the letter added. “To date, only notional elements of the arrangement have been shared with the United Nations.”

Earlier this month, the Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, B. Lynn Pascoe, visited Nepal and reported to the Security Council that he had found a greater sense of urgency and willingness to compromise, but that no concrete results had emerged from the readiness to engage.

The future of the Nepalese and Maoist armies and the drafting of a new constitution are among the major remaining issues. In September, the political groups reached the so-called Four-Point Agreement on completing these tasks by 14 January, calling for Maoist combatants to be brought under a so-called Special Committee set up to address the supervision, integration and rehabilitation of former fighters.

In her letter, Ms. Landgren sought clarification on several monitoring-related issues ahead of the withdrawal of UNMIN arms monitors, including planned supervisory arrangements and the disposition of the UN monitoring-related equipment.

She noted that the UN had always recommended that rather than establish a new monitoring regime, the parties should concentrate on reaching rapid agreement on the integration and rehabilitation of Maoist army personnel, but as long as there was little progress on this, follow-on supervisory arrangements would need to be considered.