A meeting of NC office bearers held at the residence of the party´s Acting President, Sushil Koirala, rejected the Maoist proposal to form a separate security agency comprising Maoist combatants and personnel from the Nepal Police, Armed Police Force and the Nepal Army. [break]
Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, during a meeting held with the NC leadership on Tuesday, had said that formation of new security agency along those lines could be an option for facilitating integration of the Maoist combatants.
The NC leadership had then said they would give their reaction to the idea only after holding necessary discussions within the party.
Talking to media persons after the NC meeting, NC Spokesperson Arjun Narsingh KC said the Maoists have floated a new proposal for integrating their combatants in line with the concept of a unified force. “They have proposed integrating the Maoist combatants on the basis of platoons and brigades,” he said. “We have rejected the proposal.”
The Maoists maintain that formation of a new security agency comprising equal numbers from the army, police and the Maoists would not leave any ground to harbor suspicions that they would engage in a rebellion.
They argued that it would also help allay the concern of the non-Maoist parties that integration of Maoist combatants would affect the sanctity of the national army.
The Maoist proposal comes in the wake of the government unveiling a plan to integrate the Maoist combatants either on the basis of the number of Maoist arms put into UN-monitored containers or in the strength of some 3,000-plus reportedly agreed between the late NC President Girija Prasad Koirala and Maoist Chairman Dahal.
The United Nations Mission in Nepal (UNMIN) has verified a total 19,602 Maoist combatants and registered 3,475 of their weapons.
According to NC leader Krishna Prasad Sitaula, the meeting decided to stick to agreements reached in the past. “The meeting decided to go ahead in accordance with agreements reached in the past over the issue,” he said. “Such [Maoist] modality for the combatants is not acceptable to us.”
Sitaula, who was present at the meeting, added that the Maoist combatants will be integrated into various security agencies on the basis of the established standards of the security agency concerned and in numbers agreed at a political level.
The meeting reviewed the progress made in dialogue with the Maoists and discussed in detail the conditions, including formation of a national consensus government that the Maoists put forth recently, for extending the term of the Constituent Assembly which expires on May 28.
“There cannot be consensus in a constitutional vacuum,” said Spokesperson KC.
KC said the formation of a national consensus government will be possible only after the parties including the Maoists agree on drafting the constitution and concluding the peace process. The agreement would include management of the combatants within a concrete timeframe.
He said the Maoists must fulfill the various commitments they made earlier including on issues related to disbanding the paramilitary structure of the YCL and returning properties seized during the conflict period.
The meeting also ruled out amending the constitution to bring in a provision on a consensus system for government formation.
KC argued that there is no provision on amending the constitution for this purpose as Article 38 (1) and (2) has provisions on both consensus and majority systems for forming the government. “The government is formed through a majority system only after consensus among the political parties fails,” he said.
koshraj@myrepublica.com
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