"We strongly disagree with the government letter over the new mandate the government has proposed. [break]So we are sending a separate latter to the UN on Thursday, objecting to curtailment of the UN mandate," said Maoist Vice-chairman Narayankaji Shrestha. [break]
In its letter sent to the UN Secretary-General, the caretaker government has conspicuously removed the provision on monitoring of a limited number of NA personnel and their weapons by UNMIN as mentioned in the current mandate.
"We just want an extension of the current mandate without any curtailment," Shrestha said.
The number of NA personnel and their weapons being monitored by UNMIN is equal to the number of Maoist combatants cantoned in the seven cantonments and 21 satellite camps.
"…we would like to see that the mandate of UNMIN focuses itself on the monitoring of management of the Maoist combatants and their arms until the Special Committee takes responsibility of this task. We wish, therefore, to seek the extension of the term of UNMIN to do the above mentioned task for the next four months from 15 September, 2010," reads the government letter to the UN, a copy of which was obtained by Republica.
The Maoists are also asking the UN to extend UNMIN´s term by six months as against the four months requested by the government. The Maoists have also appreciated the "successful role" being played by UNMIN in Nepal´s peace process.
UNMIN was established in Nepal in January, 2007 at the requests of both the government and the then CPN (Maoist) party.
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