Second largest party in the Constituent Assembly (CA), Nepali Congress, has asked head of United Nations Mission in Nepal (UNMIN) Landgren to correct contents of her briefing to the UNSC over the controversy surrounding dismissal of Nepal Army chief Rookmangud Katawal.
During a briefing on May 5, Landgren had told the Security Council that NC had initially agreed to sack chief of army staff of the Nepal Army but later it changed its decision.
"The Prime Minister had said that he intended to resolve the issue through consensus and had reportedly secured the agreement of the leaders of the largest governing coalition partner, the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist-Leninist (CPN-UML) as well as the major opposition party, the Nepali Congress, to remove the Army Chief. But in the days after 19 April, the party political dynamics shifted rapidly, and such agreements as there may have been, fell apart. On 3 May, the UML pulled out of the government, leaving the UCPN-M in a minority," she said in her briefing to the UNSC.
Interestingly, even Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal so far has not said the NC had initially supported his move to sack the army chief. Dahal, however has blamed CPN-UML of first giving consent to sack the army chief and later backtracking from its commitment.
On Thursday, NC wrote to Landgren asking her to correct the "mistake". "The report (briefing) is not balanced," said Dr Ram Sharan Mahat, NC leader.
Though UNMIN Spokesperson Kosmos Biswakarma said the UN mission will issue a statement later Monday on Landgren´s briefing to the Security Council, the mission did not do so.
Also, Landgren gave another misleading fact about the provision on sacking the army chief.
"On 20 April, the Cabinet requested General Katawal to provide clarification of three recent situations. Under the Army Act, the Chief can be dismissed by the Government "if it thinks necessary", after being given the opportunity to provide ´clarification´, and this request was widely thought to herald the Chief’s imminent dismissal," she said.
But, she did not mention another clause (clause 4) under the same Article (Article 11) of the Military Act that states that the army chief who is in office at the time of introduction of this Act will remain in the post for three years, the full term.
The Military Act came into effect on 28 September 2006 while Katawal was appointed army chief on 10 September 2006, much earlier than the Act was introduced.
Landgren’s statement on the issue of Nepal’s interim constitution and the role of the President seems much politically-motivated as she said, "The challenges from the Army Chief to the control and oversight of an elected government, and the countermanding of a cabinet order by the President, have exposed ambiguities in the Interim Constitution, deepened mistrust amongst the parties and also empowered actors who are expected to remain above politics. The development of multiple power centres represents a real risk to the peace process."
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