A cabinet meeting held at the Prime Minister’s Office in Singha Durbar on Sunday also asked Pascoe, who wrapped up his three-day visit to Nepal on Friday, to make remarks on the issue within diplomatic norms and limitation.[break]
Addressing a function in the capital on Thursday, Pascoe had said the criticism against UNMIN was “unfair” and “absurd”. He had also said the political parties criticized the UN special mission to cover up their own failures.
Talking to media persons after the cabinet meeting, Minister for Information and Communications Shankar Pokharel said the cabinet discussed Pascoe’s remarks and concluded that his remarks violated diplomatic norms.
“The government has taken seriously Pascoe’s remarks on the government’s demand for details about the combatants to move the peace process forward,” said Pokharel, who is also the government spokesperson. “The government draws his [Pascoe] attention to make remarks within the diplomatic norms and limitation.”
Pokharel argued that the government did not seek any secret details with the UNMIN, but demanded details of individual combatants verified by UNMIN with their identity cards to help ensure proper management of the cantoned combatants.
“The factual details of the combatants are with UNMIN in accordance with the Comprehensive Peace Accord,” he said. “The government believes that only with availability of those data can the government ensure proper management of the combatants.”
UNMIN seeks broader mandate
Meanwhile, UNMIN has sought broader mandate as a condition to stay further in Nepal. During a meeting with the representatives of Nepali Congress, CPN-UML and the UCPN (Maoist) Sunday, UNMIN representatives told the leaders that UNMIN will not stay further in Nepal with the limited mandate to facilitate the peace process, according to a leader present in the meeting. The current UNMIN tenure expires on May 15.
The meeting discussed UNMIN’s exit strategy and the issue as to whom should it hand over the role it is currently playing.
Republica’s repeated attempt to contact UNMIN spokesperson for his comments did not materialize.
NC leaders Krishna Sitaula and Dr Ram Sharan Mahat, Maoist leaders Janardan Sharma and Krishna Bahadur Mahara and UML leaders Bhim Rawal and Ishwor Pokharel attended the meeting with Tamrat Samuel, Deputy Director, Asia and the Pacific Division, Department of Political Affairs of the UN, and UNMIN Chief Karin Landgren.
The UN Security Council member states are learnt to have made up their mind that UNMIN’s tenure should not be extended if it fails to ‘add value to the peace process’.
According to Sitaula, political party representatives reviewed UNMIN’s role and pointed out the need of UNMIN’s role to take the peace process to a logical end.
In the meeting, NC leaders complained that UNMIN had failed to demonstrate its neutrality and to ensure effective monitoring of cantoned Maoist combatants.
According to Dr Mahat, the party representatives also held discussion on accomplishing the task of army integration and management before UNMIN’s tenure ends. “This was a preliminary discussion. We have decided to hold further discussions on the issue in the days ahead,” Dr Mahat added.
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