The team, following five rounds of meetings that were off limits to the media, has finalized the work procedures for the integration, besides the code of conduct for the team.
Among other issues, the team is planning to ask the government for an economic package besides other alternatives for the UNMIN-verified 19,602 combatants of the Maoist’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA).
“We will soon hold a discussion regarding this issue with the Special Committee for Integration of Maoist Combatants, before proceeding further,” said a member of the team, preferring to remain unnamed.
Although the team hasn’t yet fixed the amount that will be included in the economic package for the PLA combatants, it has almost finalized other alternatives, such as the providing of vocational training, education, employment abroad and so on, for those PLA combatants who don’t choose to join the national army.
The member said that various international bodies, including the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID) and others have expressed interest to provide a financial package and other opportunities for PLA combatants.
“We will provide a list of at least 10 choices to the PLA combatants. They can choose to either join politics or go back home with the economic package or receive vocational training or take up employment abroad or join the national army,” said the member. “The financial package may be fixed at at least one million rupees for those who want to go back home.”
The team is scheduled to hold separate dialogues with representatives of the United Nations Mission in Nepal (UNMIN) and the Joint Monitoring Coordination Committee (JMCC) to get updates about the developments in the integration of PLA combatants.
After its dialogues with the UNMIN and the JMCC, the team is scheduled to visit all 28 PLA camps, with the list of choices for the combatants.
Clause 2 of the agreement reached among political parties, including the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), on June 25, 2008, states that the verified combatants of the Maoist army will be offered a choice between an economic package and various other alternatives for rehabilitation.
Article 2.2.3 of the Integration, Rehabilitation and Arms Management agreement further states, “With regards to those verified Maoist combatants who choose integration, provision will be made whereby only those duly registered at the temporary cantonments will be deemed eligible for possible integration with the security bodies, after fulfilling the standard requirements.”
As per the agreement, the team will divide the PLA combatants into different groups according to the choices the combatants make. “They (PLA) will be put into different groups once they choose from our offers,” the member said. “The remaining combatants will be integrated into one of the security bodies — the Nepal Army, the Nepal Police and the Armed Police Force.”
The member said that the team may recommend the setting up of yet another security body like the industrial force for the integration of eligible PLA combatants. He also made it clear that the PLA combatants won’t be integrated only into national army, an assertion that differs from the claims made by various Maoist leaders and PLA commanders.
As for how long the integration process may take, the team feels that it may require the next two years to complete the entire process.
“But we will complete the first phase of the integration process in the next four months,” the member said, adding, “In the next four months, we will at least finalize the choices and other alternatives available to PLA combatants.”
Prime Minister and Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, who is also the chief of the Special Committee for Integration of Maoist Combatants, in a meeting with United States Ambassador to Nepal Nancy J Powell on March 23, too had said that the government would complete the integration and rehabilitation process of the PLA combatants by the end of July.
The Special Committee had formed the eight-member technical team in the last week of March to carry out the integration process. Members of the team include Constituent Assembly member and security expert Indrajit Rai, Barsha Man Pun; Lt. Gen. (retd.) Balananda Sharma, Shambhu Ram Simkhada, Gopal Singh Bohara and Dipak Prakash Bhatta, Sadananda Kurmi and Ramananda Mishra. Rai and Pun are Maoist nominees; Sharma and Simkhada have been sent by the Nepali Congress; Bohara and Bhatta are CPN-UML nominees; and Kurmi and Mishra are Madhesi People´s Rights Forum nominees.
ghanashyam@myrepublica.com
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