UNSC member-envoys visiting cantonments

KATHMANDU, Oct 23: Kathmandu-based ambassadors of member states of the UN Security Council and the chief of the United Nations Mission in Nepal (UNMIN) are visiting two cantonments of the Nepal Army and Maoist combatants on Friday. UNMIN is coordinating the visits.[break]



According to Kosmos Biswakarma, UNMIN spokesperson, the ambassadors and UNMIN chief Karin Landgren are visiting the cantonment of the Nepal Army at Chhauni in Kathmandu and a cantonment of Maoist combatants at Chulachuli, Ilam. A select group of editors are accompanying the ambassadors and UNMIN chief.



The visits by the ambassadors come ahead of the UN Security Council (UNSC) meeting on Nepal´s peace process scheduled for November 3. The meeting is to review the peace process.



Meanwhile, UNMIN chief Landgren called on Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal on Thursday to express concern over slow progress in the work of the Special Committee for supervision, rehabilitation and integration of Maoist combatants. The prime minister is head of the committee.



The committee has not met since September 17. The prime minister´s press advisor, Bishnu Rijal, said that the prime minister tried to call meetings of the committee twice after September 17 but could not do so as not all members of the committee were available. On one occasion Janardan Sharma, a member from the Maoist party, was not in Kathmandu while Jaya Prakash Prasad Gupta was not available at another time when also the prime minister tried to call a meeting, Rijal said.



During her meeting with the prime minister, Landgren also expressed her concern over remarks made by some ministers against the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA). "Both the government and the Maoists are responsible for full implementation of the CPA. No one should comment to make this difficult," she told journalists after the meeting.



Recently, Defense Minister Bidhya Bhandari said that the Nepal Army would shortly begin fresh recruitment. Earlier in September, she had told a parliamentary committee that the CPA should be reviewed to allow the army to take fresh recruits as the CPA and the Agreement on Monitoring the Management of Arms and Armies do not allow the army or the Maoists to take new recruits.



In response, the prime minister assured Landgren that the government would fully adhere to the CPA, according to Rijal.

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