UNMIN term extended by four months

KATHMANDU, Sept 16: The United Nations Security Council on Wednesday unanimously renewed the existing mandate of the United Nations Mission in Nepal (UNMIN) for yet another four months and said the political mission will leave Nepal after expiry of the mandate.

This is the seventh term extension of UNMIN, a UN political mission that has been here to monitor the peace process since January 2007. The new mandate decided by the council in New York will be effective from Thursday, 2010 till January 15, 2011.

"(The Security Council) decides further, in line with the request from the Government of Nepal that UNMIN´s mandate will terminate on 15 January 2011 after which date UNMIN will leave Nepal,” said the resolution of the 15-member UN body obtained by myrepublica.com.

The government, in its request letter sent to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, had mentioned that this would be the last extension of the UN political mission. But similar request from the UCPN-M was silent in this regard though it had agreed with the government on Tuesday to make this renewal of UNMIN mandate the last one.

Similarly, the 15-member body has also asked the government and the Maoists to implement an action plan with clear benchmarks for integration and rehabilitation of Maoist combatants.

In the three-page resolution, the council has urged the government and the UCPN-M to implement the four-point agreement reached on Tuesday and to work together to expedite the peace process.

Taking note of the four-point agreement that has pledged to complete the peace process in the next four months starting Friday, the council has also urged the political parties to resolve differences through peaceful negotiations.

P3 talked to Maoist leaders on extension

Earlier on Wednesday afternoon, the American, British and French ambassadors in Kathmandu had talked to Maoist leaders to know their party´s views on extending UNMIN´s term for the last time.

The envoys took the initiatives after as the UCPN-M in the letter sent to the UN Secretary-General on Tuesday had remained silent whether this would be the last extension.

“We told them that our party would not object if this will be last term extension because our party has already reached an agreement with the government in this regard,” said Maoist Vice Chairman Narayankaji Shrestha.

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