The government felt an urgent need to take the move after it found that the objection made by Nepal´s ambassador to the UN Gyan Chandra Acharya against Landgren´s statement during the council meeting was ´general´ and ´insufficient´, said a reliable source close to the prime minister. [break]
Confirming the move, the prime minister´s Foreign Affairs Advisor Rajan Bhattarai said, "The government is sending a rebuttal as some sections of the reports were unacceptable." He declined to comment further.
The source, requesting anonymity, told myrepublica.com that former Lt. General of the Nepal Army Balananda Sharma and Technical Committee member Dipak Bhatta has been assigned to prepare a draft of the ´rebuttal´.
A meeting convened by the prime minister on Thursday had discussed in detail Landgren´s statement and Acharya´s defense of the government at the UN Security Council. The meeting had concluded that Landgren´s statement was ´objectionable´ and Acharya´s objection was "neither specific and nor sufficient" though it was very strong.
Sources said that the government in its objection letter is going to draw attention of the global body to some sections of Landgren´s statement, arguing that some parts of the statement do not reflect "ground reality".
In the second paragraph of her statement to the Council, Landgren had mentioned that the term of the Constituent Assembly was extended for a year due to, among other things, "an 11th-hour threat of revolt within the third-largest party, the Unified Marxist-Leninist Party (UML)".
Similarly, the government has noted that Landgren´s accusing CPN-UML for the deadlock over the prime minister´s election was not only ´objectionable´ but also was an "outright falsehood", said the source. In the statement, Landgren has blamed CPN-UML´s decision to stay neutral in the prime ministerial election as "primary reason for the deadlock".
The government is also planning to table its objection to Landgren´s treatment of the national army on par with the Maoist army in her statement.
"There are also other objectionable issues in the statement. We will include all the points that do not reflect ground reality in the objection letter," said a member of the drafting team.
Though the government had objected to similar statements in public speeches in the past, such a rebuttal was not officially registered at the UN. In 2009, Nepali Congress had lodged an official objection to the report of the UN secretary general. Last week, four foreign ministers filed an objection to the new report of the Secretary General.
Govt OK needed for technical rollover
The UN Security Council needs the consent of both the government and the UCPN (Maoist) to authorize a technical rollover of the existing mandate of the UNMIN, said a highly-placed source in New York privy to the matter.
´The Security Council has already conveyed to the government and UCPN-M that it needs consensus request,´ said the source in an email conversation with myrepublica.com.
´If there is no such request, the Security Council can authorize a technical rollover of the existing mandate while matters are worked out, if the government doesn"t object,´ the source added.
The source further said if there is neither a workable and consensual request, nor a technical rollover, the mandate expires on September 15.
The council is meeting on September 15 to adopt a resolution on UNMIN.
Though the government and UCPN-Maoist were supposed to meet on Saturday to hold further talks on the fate of UNMIN, the meeting could not take place after Ministers Dr Minendra Rijal and Bhim Rawal, who have been authorized to hold talks with the Maoists on the issue, could not manage time.
´We have asked time for a meeting on Sunday but they have not yet replied to us,´ Maoist Vice Chairman Narayankaji Shrestha told myrepublica.com on Saturday evening.
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