The United Nations Mission in Nepal (UNMIN), which has been monitoring the Maoist cantonments, officially informed the government about the casualties recently, the sources said on condition of anonymity. [break]
"We were not informed immediately after these incidents happened," Peace Minister Rakam Chemjong told myrepublica.com on Monday, "We received the information only recently."
The sources said they are in dark over the causes of the deaths of the 16 combatants and whether the due legal process was followed to deal with the suicide cases. A source close to prime minister told myrepublica.com that a combatant had committed suicide in last April but the government knew about it only recently.
One of the sources said, "Existing law requires police to prepare the statement at the place of suicide before moving the body and there must be postmortem of the dead."
The government knew these incidents only recently when it asked the UNMIN for details of the People´s Liberation Army (PLA) personnel living in seven main cantonments and 21 satellite camps.
"We sought the details amidst speculation that a large number of verified combatants might have left the cantonments," Chemjong said.
UNMIN has informed the government that there are only 19,550 PLA personnel in the cantonments at present. UNMIN has further told that the Maoists had also dismissed 21 combatants from the cantonments on "disciplinary" grounds. The status of eight more combatants is unknown. Earlier, the number of Maoist combatants living in the camps was put at 19,602.
At a press conference on November 22, 2009, UNMIN Chief Karin Landgren had told journalists that her officer did not have a modified number of PLA personnel and asked journalists to seek the information about the number from the Maoist leadership.
The sources further said the government has been paying monthly allowances (Rs 5,000 per month plus Rs 72 to Rs 110 on ration per day) even to the dead combatants.
In the meantime, the Peace Ministry on Monday wrote a second letter to the UNMIN requesting it for the details of the number, names and addresses of the combatants after the mission delayed in replying to the government´s first letter sent a month ago on Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal´s instruction.
"I suppose the government should not have to write a second letter to the UNMIN," Chemjong said.
But UNMIN Spokesperson Kosmos Biswokarma said the UNMIN had written to the Maoist leadership seeking its permission to release the information sought by the government but the Maoists were yet to reply.
"I do not think that UNMIN should ask the Maoists for permission to share the information," Chemjong countered.
kiran@myrepublica.com
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