According to a highly-placed government source, a group of ministers led by Acting Prime Minister Bijaya Kumar Gachhadar briefed visiting UN Under Secretary-General for Political Affairs B. Lynn Pascoe about the plan during a nearly hour-long meeting at the Office of Prime Minister and Council of Ministers at Singha Durbar. [break]
Similarly, the non-Maoist members of the Special Committee, a government-formed all-party body responsible for integration and rehabilitation of Maoist combatants, also shared with Pascoe the same plan floated by non-Maoist members of the PLA management secretariat during a separate meeting with the UN official, according to Dr Ram Sharan Mahat, who represents the Nepali Congress on the Special Committee.
According to the government proposal, around 154 ex-army men will supervise the ex-Maoist fighters who are currently being monitored by UNMIN monitors.
But Maoist representatives on the Special Committee Barsha Man Pun and Janardan Sharma told Pascoe that they had reservations over the plan.
“They told Pascoe the plan was prepared unilaterally and they were not consulted,” Dr Mahat told Republica about Maoist reservations over the proposal.
The Maoist representatives, however, did not offer any alternative to the proposed plan despite expectations that they would give Pascoe their own proposal.
Neither Pun nor Sharma was available to comment on their stance over the plan. But the Maoists have been criticizing the plan ever since PLA management secretariat coordinator Bala Nanda Sharma floated it on Tuesday.
Pascoe earlier held a flurry of meetings. Shortly after landing in Kathmandu Friday morning, the top UN official called on President Dr Ram Baran Yadav. He then remained busy in meetings with political leaders, including Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal and government ministers.
In all his meetings with party leaders and ministers, Pascoe urged the parties to come up with a roadmap to complete the peace process and a mechanism that will take up the role of UNMIN after the UN political mission departs in 43 days. The top UN official was particularly concerned what would happen to the peace process after UNMIN´s exit, leaders said.
“We are here to hold discussions on how far the government and the political leaders have come on their promise to make the decisions that need to be made to move to the conclusion of the peace process in this period,” Pascoe told journalists upon arrival at Tribhuvan International Airport.
He further said “The time is really short but it is certainly sufficient to make those decisions. It requires some serious movement on the part of the parties to make compromises and agreements. This can be done. It is up to the leaders to do it, and the UN will do everything it can to help them in that process.”
Pascoe also told leaders that the UN Security Council will continue to follow the peace process for the next three years from New York after UNMIN´s exit, according to Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Sujata Koirala.
During his meeting with Dahal at the latter´s residence at Nayabazar Friday evening, Pascoe asked the former rebel leader what would happen in the next six months after the departure of UNMIN, according to Dahal´s aide Sameer Dahal.
In response, Chairman Dahal assured Pascoe that some concrete steps would be taken to complete integration and rehabilitation of the Maoist combatants.
“Chairman Dahal told Pascoe that though the process has not move forward now as the prime minister is currently away from the country, we will forward the process as per the past agreement,” the aide quoted Dahal as saying to Pascoe.
Pascoe had met Indian officials in New Delhi Thursday on his way to Kathmandu. He had discussed Nepal´s peace process, among other things, with the Indians.
Pascoe is meeting Nepali Congress President Sushil Koirala, Kathmandu-based ambassadors of permanent members of the UN Security Council and the Indian and Japanese ambassadors on Saturday before wrapping up his two-day visit. This is his second visit to Nepal this year.
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