NC lawmaker Ram Sharan Mahat said Maoist leaders were betraying other parties by not implementing past agreements and obstructing the constitution-writing process.[break]
"The Maoist leaders have lately said that Maoist combatants would not exit their camps until and unless the NC was ready to adopt a presidential system in the new constitution," Mahat said at a parliament meeting on Tuesday. "This is pure blackmail and I urge the Maoist leaders not to use Maoist combatants as a bargaining chip."
He also countered the Maoist leaders´ argument that the former rebel combatants and Maoist weapons had already come under the purview of the government´s special committee. Mahat said they have come under the government body only on paper and not in practice.
"The military leadership of the Maoist party has submitted a demand letter to the political leadership of the same party. That clearly shows that the Maoist combatants are still under party command in practice," he added.
Mahat, who is also a special committee member from the main opposition NC, further accused the former rebel party of stalling the tasks of army integration and voluntary exit of combatants by putting forth new conditions in contravention of past agreements.
"They have lately said that they need higher positions in advance such as major generals, brigadier generals and colonels. Such claims are in contravention of the seven-point agreement [reached on November 1] and the January 1 agreement," he said.
Pradeep Gyawali of CPN-UML also accused the Maoist leaders of using the combatants as a bargaining chip in not advancing the voluntary exit of combatants.
He said that the prime minister and the Maoist party were not sincere about advancing the peace process as per past accords.
Gyawali said had the Maoist leadership and the prime minister been sincere toward advancing the peace process as per the seven-point agreement, the cantonments should have been vacated by now, properties seized during the insurgency should have been returned to their rightful owners and the process of forming the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the Commission on Disappearances advanced and the first draft of the new constitution prepared.
"Who has stopped Prime Minister Dr Baburam Bhattarai from advancing the peace process as per the agreement since the prime minister himself heads the special committee [for supervision, integration and rehabilitation of Maoist combatants]?" asked Gyawali in parliament. "It is not only the prime minister who heads the special committee, but Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal of the same party also heads the dispute resolution subcommittee in constitution making. So the Maoist party is entirely responsible for stalling both the peace process as well as constitution writing."
He said the government´s recent activities indicated that the prime minister was not sincere toward the peace process.
Jitendra Sonal of Tarai-Madhes Democratic Party held both the UCPN (Maoist) and the NC responsible for nil progress in the constitution-making process. "The Maoist and NC parties have held the constitution-making process hostage to their rigid stances over system of governance," he said.
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