Nepalese premier denies corruption allegation against his party

Dec 11, 2011, 17:17 GMT

Kathmandu - Nepalese Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai on Sunday denied embezzlement allegations against his party, but stopped short of saying what had happened to allegedly missing funds from government stipends to former rebels.

Bhattarai denied the allegations during an interview with the BBC World Trust Sajha Sawal programme, aired on local Kantipur Television, and said there were more important issues at hand.

Last week, parliament demanded the government provide information on the money, after an inquiry by the opposition Nepali Congress and the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist-Leninist groups accused the leaders of Bhattarai's ruling Maoist party of embezzling the payments.

The government payouts provide some monthly income to former rebels. The agreement was part of the 2006 peace deal that ended Nepal's decade-long civil war.

Lawmakers accused Maoist leaders of retaining 'deposits' of 1,000 rupees (12 dollars) from the payments, every month. The deposits have been taken each month from each of the 19,535 combatants housed at camps across the country since November 2006, according to local media reports.