UNMIN to withdraw field staff from Thursday

KATHMANDU, Jan 6: As its exit deadline nears, UNMIN is starting withdrawal of its arms monitors and other supporting staff from cantonments from Thursday, leaving behind only minimum field staff to monitor Maoist combatants.

“As per our liquidation plan, we are withdrawing our arms monitors and other staff from Thursday,” said a knowledgeable UNMIN source, “Only a small number of field staff will stay till mid-night of January 15.”

The source said that there will be withdrawal of staff from all the seven main cantonments by Saturday.

“Some arms monitors are leaving ahead of time [January 15] but UNMIN will continue to have its presence till the end of its mandate,” said Kosmos Biswokarma, UNMIN spokesperson, when asked for an official comment.

Currently, a team of 71 arms monitors from 18 troops contributing countries have been stationed at each Maoist cantonment and at the weapon storage site of the Nepal Army at Chhauni. In addition to these international arms monitors there are also national staff working as support force and language assistants in the cantonments.

In the meantime, UNMIN officials on Wednesday met Balananda Sharma, coordinator of the Special Committee Secretariat, on Thursday to discuss possible handover of monitoring equipment and logistics, and arms containers after January 15.

Three-party meet to discuss post-UNMIN arrangement
(KOSH RAJ KOIRALA)

Following a meeting with UCPN-M Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal at his office in Singha Durbar, Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal has called a meeting of the three major parties -- UCPN (Maoist), NC and UML -- to discuss necessary arrangements after UNMIN leaves on January 15.

During the meeting between the two leaders, Dahal requested the prime minister to agree to extend UNMIN´s term once again, which was flatly rejected by the prime minister.

Prime Minister Nepal instead chided Maoist Chairman Dahal for writing a letter to the UN unilaterally requesting extension of UNMIN´s term.

“Why have you forgotten that two of us signed an agreement on September 13 to extend the UNMIN´s term for the last time and the government sent a letter to the UN accordingly?” Prime Minister Nepal asked Dahal, according to a Baluwatar source. Furious, Prime Minister further said, “Why are you working to disparage Nepal in the eyes of international community by being so inconsistent.”

According to a source, Dahal was on the defensive after prime minister´s outburst and urged him to call a three-party meeting to decide about UNMIN´s future.

But the prime minister said there was no point discussing the issue of UNMIN´s term extension and told Dahal that he would convene a three-party meet to discuss post-UNMIN arrangements necessary to bring the PLA combatants under the Special Committee.

Accordingly, the prime minister has called a meeting of the three major parties at 3 pm, Thursday at Singha Durbar. The meeting is expected to discuss giving full shape to the Secretariat and bringing PLA combatants under the command of the Special Committee, according to the prime minister´s press advisor Bishnu Rijal.

The Maoists have been demanding extension of UNMIN´s term till May 28 -- the deadline to promulgate the new constitution -- and have actively lobbied for the same. The Maoist even sent a unilateral request to the UN Security Council to this effect as the government flatly rejected the Maoist demand arguing that they had already written to the UNSC in September last year stating that the current extension would the “last” one.

On Tuesday evening, the prime minister had held a separate meeting with Maoist Vice-chairman Dr Baburam Bhattarai to discuss ways to expedite the management of cantoned combatants.

Meanwhile, a meeting of the Special Committee on Supervision, Integration and Rehabilitation of Maoist combatants scheduled for Wednesday afternoon was put off after a Maoist member in the committee Barshaman Pun expressed his inability to attend the meeting. Pun left for New Delhi Wednesday afternoon to take part in the two-day Nepal Seminar beginning Thursday.

The prime minister was scheduled to hold discussions among Special Committee members on giving full shape to the Secretariat in order to take up the roles being taken by UNMIN so far.

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