In a meeting of the Special Committee held under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal at the latter´s office in Singha Durbar, the Maoists agreed to make available to the Special Committee details including names, permanent addresses, age and photographs of individual combatants, according to Chief Secretary Madhav Prasad Ghimire, who is also spokesperson of the Committee. [break]
The Maoists agreed to provide the details in order to forward the integration process.
There are 19,000-plus Maoist combatants currently living in the 28 main and satellite cantonments across the country.
The government and the non-Maoist parties in the Special Committee had long been asking the Maoists to provide details including photos of each combatant living in the cantonments, amidst apprehensions that a large number of combatants had actually left the cantonments -- something the Maoists have long been denying.
Special Committee members Ram Sharan Mahat and Minendra Rijal from Nepali Congress, Barsha Man Pun and Janardan Sharma from the Maoists and Ishwar Pokharel and Peace Minister Rakam Chemjong from the UML participated in Saturday´s Special Committee meeting.
- Parties yet to agree on coordinator for 12-member Secretariat
- Three-member Sub-Committee formed to finalize work plan for integration, rehabilitation
- Sub-committee to finalize work plan in four days
- Secretariat to start functioning from Sunday
The Special Committee meeting also formed a three-member sub-committee to finalize the work plan for integration and rehabilitation of the Maoist combatants.
The sub-committee comprising Barsha Man Pun from the Maoists, Dr Ram Sharan Mahat from NC and Ishwar Pokharel from UML is entrusted with finalizing the work plan within four days and submitting it to the Special Committee for endorsement.
According to Dr Mahat, the Sub-Committee will finalize the rehabilitation package for the Maoist combatants and the standards or parameters for Maoist combatants choosing to become part of the security agencies including the army and police.
Earlier, Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal had proposed a four-month work plan for completing the integration and rehabilitation of Maoist combatants. The work plan also proposed a rehabilitation package and certain standards for the possible integration of Maoist combatants.
“The work plan proposed by the prime minister will be updated,” said Dr Mahat.
The Sub-Committee will prepare the work plan, keeping in view the term of the United Nations Mission in Nepal (UNMIN) that expires on January 14, 2011.
Chief Secretary Ghimire said the Special Committee meeting also directed the Secretariat formed on the basis of the Code of Conduct prepared earlier to start functioning in full-fledge fashion from Sunday. The Maoists, NC and the UML are yet to agree on a coordinator for the proposed 12-member Secretariat.
The Secretariat, which will include representatives from the Nepal Army, Armed Police Force, Nepal Police and the People´s Liberation Army, is an extended form of the existing eight-member Special Committee.
Though the NA, APF and Nepal Police have named Brigadier General Mahesh Bikram Karki and Deputy Inspectors General Kesh Bahadur Shahi and Singh Bahadur Shrestha as their respective representatives in the Secretariat, the Maoists, according to Ghimire, are yet to name a representatives from the PLA.
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