Maoists reject vote of thanks for UNMIN

KATHMANDU, Jan 14: UCPN (Maoist) has rejected a proposal of Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal to thank UNMIN for supporting the peace process for four years, saying that UNMIN should be retained beyond January 15 when the latest term of the UN political mission expires.

The prime minister, who is also chairman of the Special Committee for Supervision, Integration and Rehabilitation of Maoist Combatants, tabled the proposal at the outset of a meeting of the Special Committee on Thursday evening.

But Maoist representative on the Committee Barsha Man Pun rejected the proposal outright.

Pun argued that UNMIN should stay in Nepal until a mechanism for monitoring arms and armies comes into place and a new prime minister is elected.

“I told the meeting that UNMIN´s term should be extended in the first instance, and if not, the government should agree to a technical rollover of UNMIN until the parties agree on future [monitoring] mechanisms and a new prime minister is elected,” Pun told journalists while emerging from the meeting at the prime minister´s office at Singha Durbar.

But Nepali Congress representative on the Committee Dr Ram Sharan Mahat rule out any extension of UNMIN´s mandate or technical rollover. “They still hope for an extension, which we do not see possible now,” he told journalists, emerging from the same meeting.

Pun said discussions were underway to decide the future of the UN political mission and the issue should be settled at the political level.

The meeting was supposed to decide on recruiting human resources for the secretariat of the Special Committee, a constitutionally formed all-party mechanism for carrying out integration and rehabilitation of Maoist combatants. The Special Committee is meeting on Friday to take up the agenda. Prime Minister Nepal and Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal are discussing the issue before the meeting.

“We have agreed to take some decisions before the formal farewell for UNMIN on Friday,” said Mahat.

UNMIN is organizing a flag-lowering ceremony at its headquarters at New Baneshwor at 5 pm on Friday, to mark its closure.

Put mechanisms in place before UNMIN exit: Committee

The Foreign Relations and Human Rights Committee of parliament on Thursday directed the government to have a mechanism to monitor arms and armies in place before UNMIN´s departure on Saturday.

The committee passed the directive unanimously after heated debate during a meeting at which Maoist lawmakers demanded the committee issue a directive to the government to write to the UN for UNMIN´s retention or a technical rollover.

It was hard for the committee to reach an unanimous decision as committee members were divided over UNMIN´s future. Maoist representatives led by Vice-chairman Narayan Kaji Shrestha and some CPN-UML lawmakers were of the view that UNMIN´s departure will be against not only the Interim Constitution but also the Comprehensive Peace Agreement. But Nepali Congress lawmakers and some CPN-UML leaders argued that UNMIN´s term should not be extended as this was decided in September following an agreement between the government and the UCPN (Maoist).

Prime Minister Nepal and Maoist Chairman Dahal had agreed then that UNMIN´s mandate would be renewed for the last time for four months. Accordingly, the Security Council had extended the UNMIN term till January 15.

At the meeting, Peace and Reconstruction Minister Rakam Chemjong, who was invited to the meeting to state the government´s stance on UNMIN, said the Special Committee would take charge of UNMIN´s monitoring role as per Clause 5 of the terms and reference of the Special Committee signed by Dahal two years ago. Dahal was then prime minister and head of the Special Committee.

As the issue was tabled for voting, CPN-UML lawmaker Dal Bahadur Rana Magar drew the attention of Chairman of the Committee Padam Lal Biswokarma, a Maoist lawmaker, and warned him not to endorse any directive to the government to extend UNMIN´s term.

Some lawmakers expressed concern over the government not even organizing a function to bid farewell to UNMIN. They said the government should ensure a graceful closure for the UN political mission for the sake of its own international image.

“Tamrat for technical rollover”

Speaking at the committee, Maoist lawmaker CP Gajurel said Samuel Tamrat, head of the UN´s Asia Pacific Department of Political Affairs, has come to Kathmandu to hold talks with political parties for a technical rollover for UNMIN.

“He told us that a technical rollover is possible if the parties agree. He has told us that he is here to talk to parties for the technical rollover,” Gajurel told the committee.

UNMIN has said that Tamrat arrived in Kathmandu on Tuesday to take part in the closing ceremony for UNMIN scheduled for Friday. But he is going to be in Kathmandu for six more days after UNMIN´s official closure.

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