UN signs disarmament pact that will see it monitor Nepal peace

Dec 8, 2006, 12:47 GMT

Kathmandu - The United Nations signed a disarmament pact that will see it act as a peace monitor between the Nepalese army and Maoist rebels, who are seeking to end a decade-long civil war.

Home Minister Krishna Prasad Sitaula said after the signing of the agreement, which had been inked earlier by the government and Maoists, that a arms-monitoring committee would be set up soon, 'maybe even by this evening.' He said the committee would be headed by the United Nations and include representatives from the government and the Maoists.

'The two main tasks before the government are establishing lasting peace in the country and holding elections to a constituent assembly by mid-June,' Sitaula said. 'The government will not deviate from these responsibilities.'

The head of the UN peace mission to Nepal, Ian Martin, signed the agreement on behalf of the world body.

He had been at the UN's New York headquarters for consultations when the government and Maoist People's Liberation Army signed November 28, one week after concluding a peace deal that would see the Maoists join a transitional government following a conflict in which 13,000 people were killed.

Upon his return Wednesday to Kathmandu, Martin requested 'minor' changes to the disarmament agreement before the United Nations would sign.

'In essence, the agreement is the same, but some minor changes were made to satisfy the United Nations,' Maoist leader Krishna Bahadur Mahara said.

Under the agreement, all Maoist weapons except those allowed for guarding their camps are to be locked up under a single key. The Maoists will retain the key, but the United Nations will monitor all sites where the rebel army is camped and where the arms are locked up.

The Nepalese army will also have to lock up the same number of weapons as those of the Maoists.

The Maoists would be allowed to keep 30 weapons for the security of their seven main camps and 15 weapons for 21 sub-camps where their fighter are to be housed.

The Maoists are to be confined to those camps under UN supervision until elections next year.

The disarmament agreement also has provisions for the registration and verification of arms and armies of both sides.

The UN peace mission in Nepal said it expected peace monitors to begin arriving in Nepal within the next two weeks. About eight to 10 people from New York would be arriving soon to carry out technical assessment before the UN monitors begin arriving.

Meanwhile, hundreds of Maoist combatants camped across Nepal were falling ill because of a lack of food, housing and clean water, local media reports said.

More than 100 Maoist fighters have fallen sick at a camp in Udyapur in eastern Nepal, the English-language daily Kathmandu Post reported Friday.

More than a dozen pregnant women fighters who are in the camps were in pathetic condition because of a shortage of medicines, the report said.

Another English-language newspaper, the Himalayan Times, reported Friday that 250 Maoist fighters in a camp in Surket in far-western Nepal have been taken ill. A Maoist commander told the daily that they were suffering from diarrhoea, flu and body swelling.

About 6,000 Maoist soldiers in the main and sub-camps are living in the open because of a lack of infrastructure, the report said.