Landgren sent a letter to the prime minister Wednesday to protest the remarks that accused UNMIN of being "the Maoist party´s tail and of keeping the government in the dark." The defense minister had also accused UNMIN of provoking the Maoists to carry out violent activity. [break]
"The statement is untrue and defames the United Nations and its founding principles," the letter undersigned by Landgren reads, "Such allegations place UNMIN´s staff at increased risk in our efforts to support Nepal´s peace process."
Bhandari had made the statement in the context of UNMIN refusing to sharing details about Maoist combatants with the government. The government has argued that UNMIN should share the information to ensure that money allocated for ex-Maoist fighters reaches the right, eligible combatants. But UNMIN has maintained that the information is confidential and requires to be treated confidentially under the Agreement on Monitoring of the Management of Arms and Armies.
"I would be grateful for a formal retraction (of Bhandari´s remarks) by your government," said Landgren in her letter to the prime minister.
In her letter, Landgren has attached a printout of a news portal that reported Bhandari´s public remarks, as proof of Bhandari´s allegation against UNMIN.
Government sources said that this is the first time that UNMIN has written to the prime minister objecting to a public remark against it by a minister. They said that they have taken the letter as yet another sign of deteriorating relations between the government and the UN political mission in support of the peace process.
Government-UNMIN relations cooled recently after the UN mission refused to give details about the combatants despite two formal requests by the government. The relations further deteriorated when the government accused UN Under Secretary General for Political Affairs Lynn B Pascoe of breaching diplomatic norms in making a controversial public statement during his visit to Nepal last week.
Pascoe, while addressing a program in Kathmandu last Thursday, termed the criticism against UNMIN as "cheap shots", "boring" and "absurd". He had also accused the political parties of criticizing UNMIN to cover up their own failures, while requesting a stop to airing of grievances against the UN political mission in Nepal.
kiran@myrepublica.com
*Corrected
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