Request for monitoring equipment based on consensus: Mahat

KATHMANDU, Jan 10: Amidst UNMIN´s demand for a consensus among the parties to hand over monitoring equipments and logistics to the Special Committee, a member of the committee has said that the request for transfer of the equipment was made after the committee, that also has members from UCPN (Maoist), reached a unanimous decision on the issue.



Nepali Congress representative in the committee Dr Ram Sharan Mahat told Republica that the government made the request to UNMIN following the unanimous decision. [break]



But Maoists claim no such decision was reached. A source at the Special Committee said that the committee´s December 20 meeting had decided to request the transfer to the government and the Ministry of Peace and Reconstruction and sent a letter to UNMIN accordingly.



However, Maoist representative in the committee Barsha Man Pun refuted the claim. "No, there was no such decision," he said.



Though the government has already requested UNMIN twice to transfer the monitoring equipments and logistics to the Special Committee, it has put condition that such a request should come only after a consensus between the government and the UCPN (Maoist).



In addition, UNMIN has also sought the government to specify who will use the equipments and logistics after the hand over.



Meanwhile, three major parties - UCPN (Maoist), NC and UML - are likely to announce a six-member taskforce on Monday. Such a taskforce will have the mandate to review the Comprehensive Peace Agreement and propose a mechanism that will take over UNMIN´s role.

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