Their training will start by Sunday at eight different locations, which have already been selected. The training will last for nine months for officer-level personnel and seven months for rank and file. [break]
In total 1,462 former PLA have been selected for integration, including 71 at officer level. They had taken a 45-day home leave starting October 7.
The six-year national debate among political parties on the integration of the former Maoist combatants has finally been taken to a logical conclusion. Though the political parties committed themselves in the Comprehensive Peace Accord of 2006 to complete the integration process in six months, it has taken six years.
"The training will start from Sunday," said Suresh Sharma, Nepal Army spokesperson.
The 71 officer-level personnel will train at Kharipati and the non-officer level former PLA will train at seven different sites, including Dhangadhi, Saljhandi, Trishuli and Morang.
Following the comprehensive peace accord on Nov 21, 2006, the former PLA were settled in seven main and 21 satellite cantonments.
The UCPN (Maoist) had cantoned over 32,000 combatants in total. Later, 19,602 of them were verified by UNMIN, the United Nations mission in Nepal. Of those verified, 9,000 plus opted for integration and the rest chose voluntary retirement.
The number of those opting for integration was whittled down by cream PLA personnel and those in the Mohan Baidya faction of the Maoists who chose voluntary retirement over integration, arguing that the integration amounted to surrender as it was tantamount to recruitment into the Nepal Army.
Just before the constituent assembly elections, the Maoists had taken the cream of PLA commanders -who were politically reliable and capable of leadership - to form the Young Communist League (YCL) under the leadership of Ganesh Man Pun.
The Maoists had taken them out of the cantonments under a concept of ´PLA within and without cantonments´. The Maoists had left some cream PLA commanders in the cantonments only for command and control purposes.
The party had assured them all that they would be treated equally. Taking up the party´s assurance, the YCL had claimed equal facilities as the PLA.
According to the Maoists, the highest ranks in the Nepal Army to be given the former PLA personnel will be one colonel and two lieutenant colonels.
Former PLA First Division Commander Yam Bahadur Adhikari has been recommended for colonel and Second Division Vice-Commander Padam Bahadur Tamang and Third Division Vice-Commander Basudev Ghimire for lieutenant colonels.
Among the 71 officers, Ram Bahadur Tamang and Bimala Pant are man and wife and Basudev Ghimire and Madhav Ghimire are siblings.
Interestingly, there is no officer-level integration from Rolpa, which was not only the cradle of the Maoist insurgency but also the home district of PLA deputy commanders Barsha Man Pun and Nanda Kishor Pun, who largely led the insurgency.
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