The prime minister-headed committee on Sunday discussed these issues but failed to reach any conclusion, said Chief Secretary Madhav Prasad Ghimire, committee spokesperson, after the meeting.[break]
A Special Committee source told Republica that the top leaders of major political parties are meeting on Monday to discuss integration modality and number of the Maoist army personnel to be considered for integration. These issues are the most contentious ones with regard to the management of over 19,000 Maoist combatants.
“It is positive that the Special Committee has begun discussion on the crux of the peace process,” said JP Gupta, a member of the Special Committee. He said that the prime minister told the meeting that he would hold consultations with the leadership of other parties on the issues.
The Special Committee has decided to finalize the integration modality, number of the ex-combatants to be integrated, rehabilitation package, standard norms for integration and rank harmonization by June 19.
Though the parties are yet to reach consensus on the integration modality, the UCPN (M) has already decided to partially accept a Nepal Army-proposed integration modality.
The army-floated modality has proposed integration of Maoist combatants by creating a separate directorate that will have personnel from the army, Nepal Police, Armed Police Force and the Maoist army. But the Maoists are yet to accept individual integration of the combatants and the mandate of the directorate, among others, as proposed by the NA.
Even the ruling CPN-UML has accepted the army´s modality. But the main opposition Nepali Congress (NC) has not made its stance on the army´s modality clear. However, NC leaders have publicly said that they might accept the army-proposed modality if the Maoists accept it in entirety.
Similarly, the major parties also differ on the number of the ex-combatants to be integrated. The ruling UCPN (M) has said that some 8,000 to 10,000 ex-combatants should be integrated while another ruling party, CPN (UML) has said that the number should be 5,000. But the NC has said that only 4,000 combatants should be considered for integration.
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