According to People´s Liberation Army (PLA) Spokesperson Chandra Prakash Khanal aka Baldev, the PLA integration bureau is launching a program to make PLA members aware of the integration and rehabilitation and their recently-finalized code of conduct, and to prepare them accordingly. [break]
The UCPN(Maoist) move follows a similar move by the government. On Sunday, the prime minister had directed all heads of security agencies to be prepared for integration of the combatants in their respective forces and plan accordingly.
"I am visiting the cantonments in the western region for this purpose," Maoist leader Janardan Sharma told Republica on Tuesday. "We want to prepared them [for integration and rehabilitation] so that they will not become confused [when management of the combatants finally takes place]."
Sharma, who left Kathmandu for the western region Tuesday afternoon, further said that they will instruct the PLA members why they are going to be integrated and rehabilitated.
Maoist leader Kul Bahadur KC, a member on the technical committee under the Special Committee - a government body formed to oversee combatants´ management - said Deputy Commanders Sharma, Barshaman Pun, Nanda Kishor Pun and Khanal are visiting all 28 cantonments in the coming days.
"They will also collect suggestions [from PLA members on integration and rehabilitation]," said KC.
This development follows a recent agreement between the government and the UCPN(Maoist) to accomplish the outstanding tasks of the peace process ´basically´ before January 14, 2011. The UCPN(Maoist) drive is an important development against the backdrop of the Special Committee´s decision in principle to dissociate the Maoist combatants from the UCPN(Maoist) starting last Thursday.
Integration and rehabilitation of the 19,602 Maoist combatants is the key issue in the ongoing peace process that the parties plan to complete ´basically´ before January 14, 2011. Though management of combatants should have been completed much earlier, the parties have put this issue in motion now, installing hope in the stalled peace process.
The UCPN(Maoist) has already agreed with the government to start the process of integrating and rehabilitating their combatants as soon as a proposed secretariat - which will oversee management of the combatants - gets full shape. The 12-member secretariat will be formed once the UCPN(Maoist) nominates its representative. Though the party is sending Deputy Commander Nanda Kishor Pun to the secretariat, it is yet to inform the Special Committee officially.
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