A meeting of the party standing committee on Thursday took a decision to this effect.
“Being sensitive toward the current specific situation of the country and the aspirations of the people, we agree on the formation of a separate directorate under the Nepali Army (NA) and setting up of a mixed security force with the mandate of fulfilling certain responsibilities,” said Maoist Vice-chairman Narayankaji Shrestha.[break]
With the Constituent Assembly (CA) term expiring in nine days, Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal was hard-pressed to bring out a model for integration to justify the extension of CA term. The main opposition Nepali Congress (NC) had also put forward the condition that the Maoists should forward a concrete proposal on the peace process for CA term extension.
Dahal´s proposal met stiff resistance from the party hard-line faction led by Senior Vice-chairman Mohan Baidya.
“The chairman´s proposal amounts to surrender,” a standing committee member quoted Baidya as saying.
On Thursday, the party also decided to be flexible on the number of combatants to be integrated. “We will fix the number through talks with other parties,” said Shrestha.
The Maoist meeting concluded that the issues of the PLA integration and constitution-drafting are interlinked and should be taken ahead accordingly.
The party has also decided to propose at the Special Committee to immediately deploy manpower for the monitoring of the cantonments.
In the 16-member standing committee, the party´s radical faction is in a minority. There are only four hard-line members including Baidya, CP Gajurel, Dev Gurung and Netra Bikram Chand in the committee.
The party would hold another standing committee meeting at 4 pm on Friday to discuss power-sharing and other issues.
Meanwhile, other parties have welcomed the Maoist decision. “It is a welcome decision if the party is accepting the NA´s proposal in its entirety,” said NC leader Dr Ram Sharan Mahat when asked to comment on the Maoist decision.
“But it seems the Maoists have only accepted the part of the NA´s proposal that the party finds appropriate and discard the other parts,” he said.
Party has not taken formal decision: Chand
Maoist leader Netra Bikram Chand stated that the party has not yet taken any formal decision on the party chairman´s integration proposal.
“In the meeting, there were sharp differences over the chairman´s proposal. We insisted that the party follow the central committee (CC)´s decision,” said Chand.
He said that the country should first formulate the national security policy and an integration model through debates and then take the process forward.
“It is not a question of whether we accept the army´s modality for integration, but whether we follow due process,” Chand said.
He argued that the party would hold further discussions on the issue on Friday.
“The chairman said the party must take a step forward on the issue, but we declined. The issue needs further discussions,” he said.
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