UNMIN's integration blueprint

United Nations Mission in Nepal (UNMIN) has done it again: The UN body has sparked unnecessary controversy regarding its mandate, something it could have safely avoided. At the time UNMIN commenced its work in January 2007, it would have been sheer naivety not to have foreseen it attracting some controversy in the days ahead, considering the extremely sensitive nature of the work it had undertaken. But the regularity with which it has invited controversy about its mandate bespeaks its callousness more than anything else.



This time the UN body is under fire, including from caretaker Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal, for coming up with a 60-week proposal on integration and rehabilitation of Maoist combatants, something that it should have steered clear of as it is clearly outside its purview. UNMIN set up shop here with two clear mandates: To assist the Election Commission to plan, prepare and conduct the Constituent Assembly elections, and monitor the management of arms and armed personnel of both the Nepal Army and the Maoist army. It has no say at all in the integration and rehabilitation of Maoist combatants.



It is therefore quite puzzling why the UN body has come up with such an exhaustive integration and rehabilitation plan, especially since it has repeatedly maintained in the past – such as when Ram Hari Shrestha was abducted, tortured and murdered in an UNMIN-guarded cantonment at Shaktikhor, or when 19 Maoist combatants of the Krishna Sen Memorial Brigade were apprehended in possession of nine UNMIN-registered weapons in Kapilvastu – that its mandate is limited to just monitoring, monitoring the management of arms and armies. In coming up with a 14-month plan, is UNMIN trying (as it has often been accused of doing in the past) to favor the Maoists, who want to draw out the integration and rehabilitation process as long as possible? Or is it trying once again to extend its own term, which expires in mid-September?



The government cannot accept this for the simple reason that the constitution has to get written by the next 10 months and integration and rehabilitation of Maoist combatants should precede that. The constitution cannot and should not be written with one political party still maintaining its own army. That is simply not fair. It would not make for a level playing field.



The government must lodge a complaint, as it is planning to do on Sunday, and seek a proper explanation from UNMIN, while at the same time reminding it that the responsibility for integration and rehabilitation lies solely with the Special Committee set up for that purpose. Meanwhile, we hope that as long as UNMIN is Nepal, it will keep to the agreed scope of its work and stop interpreting its mandate as it wishes.

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