No time to waste

There are just 107 days left to accomplish the outstanding tasks of the peace process if we are to go by the agreement that the political parties inked earlier this month. Given the volume of work the parties have to accomplish before the deadline, time is running short. But the parties still do not seem to be ready to acknowledge this and move accordingly on any front, particularly that of integration and rehabilitation of the Maoist combatants. Much to our dismay, the much-awaited process of integration and rehabilitation of over 19,000 Maoist combatants is yet to start despite encouraging developments two weeks earlier. The signing of the four-point agreement on Sept 13 and the Special Committee meeting decision to bring the combatants under it in principle had given life to the peace process that had been stalled for a long time. But, since then, the momentum has waned. The Special Committee (SC), the government-formed body to supervise, integrate and rehabilitate the Maoist combatants, has not convened since Sept 16 though it has to take a number of decisions and make quite a lot of preparations before the process of the combatants’ management formally kicks off.



It has been 13 days since the UCPN (Maoist) agreed in principle in the SC meeting to dissociate its combatants from it effectively from Sept 16, a move in line with the spirit of the Sept 13 four-point agreement between the government and the main opposition party. But, so far, there has been no tangible progress on this front. The parties should understand that the delay in formally bringing the Maoist combatants under the command and control of the SC may leave the peace process unfinished by the agreed deadline. The secretariat, which is supposed to supervise, integrate and rehabilitate the combatants under the oversight of the SC, is yet to get full shape due to the Maoists’ delay in naming a People’s Liberation Army (PLA) representative in the secretariat. As agreed on Sept 16 in the SC meeting, the secretariat should have already been formed. The Maoists must designate its PLA representative immediately because the formation of such an office will pave the way for starting the much-awaited process of integration and rehabilitation.



In a commendable move, Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal on Monday asked Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal to expedite the peace process by creating a conducive environment. As the parties have set themselves on the challenging road of completing the peace process logically by “basically” Jan 14, they now need to focus on the process and put all their efforts on it. They should quickly settle the contentious issues such as the number of combatants to be integrated, harmonization of the PLA ranks in the state security forces, finalization of rehabilitation packages for combatants and the standard norms to be met by the combatants to join the national security forces of their choice. The parties must understand that they now do not have the luxury to waste even a single minute.

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