Maoist serious about resolving PLA issues

Integration of Maoist Army personnel KATHMANDU, SEP 22 - In what appears to be a sign of serious engagement on integration and rehabilitation of the Maoist combatants, the main opposition UCPN (Maoist) has decided to mobilise all five members of the party’s Integration Bureau. This is the first such occasion when the Maoist party has demonstrated its willingness to engage with the government to resolve the four-year stalemate on the future of its 19,000-plus combatants.

“We want to support the Special Committee to speed up the process of integration and rehabilitation,” PLA Chief Nanda Kishore Pun told the Post. "The involvement of all the members of the bureau will provide energy to the inter-party discussion on the issue.”

The bureau was formed last year to draw an outline on the party’s position on cross-party negotiations and address concerns of combatants living under the UN monitoring.

On Monday, the party had suggested that the chief of the People’s Liberation of Army Nanda Kishore Pun should be in the Special Committee Secretariat, the proposed mechanism that will oversee the combatants and cantonments once they are out of the purview of the Maoist party.

Pun has been officially recommended to the secretariat by Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, confirmed Maoist Standing Committee member and former PLA deputy commander Barsha Man Pun.Of the remaining four members in the Integration Bureau, Barsha Man Pun and Janardan Sharma are the members of the Special Committee. Chandra Prakash Khanal and Kul Prasad KC are already in the Technical Committee.

A non-Maoist member of the Technical Committee agreed that the involvement of all “major players” of the Maoist party in the government mechanism would contribute positively to the process.

 “The mobilization of the whole internal bureau formed by the Maoist party to take decisions on integration and rehabilitation shows that they are serious this time to resolve the vexed issues,” said Deepak Prakash Bhatta, the Technical Committee member from CPN-UML. “This engagement will certainly expedite decision-making.” The political parleys leading up to the four-point agreement and extension of UNMIN’s term for the last time have created strong international pressure on both sides to provide impetus to the integration and rehabilitation.

UNMIN’s extension last week came with a clear message to Nepali actors that it is ultimately them - and not the international players - who are responsible to take the peace process forward. Subsequently, the Maoists have again lent  their presence at the Special Committee, defunct for the last four months. On Friday, the Committee endorsed a directive related to the new chain of command and code of conduct that brought the combatants under the government in principle.

The Maoists also agreed to constitute a 12-member secretariat to bring the combatants under the Special Committee. The secretariat will include eight members of the Technical Committee and one representative each from the Nepal Army, Nepal Police and the Armed Police Force. The Nepal Army, the APF and the Nepal Police have already recommended Brig. Gen. Mahesh Bikram Karki, Deputy Inspector General Kesh Bahadur Shahi and DIG Simha Bahadur Shrestha respectively for the mechanism.

“Within the next few weeks the combatants will come under the government purview. We will strive to the utmost to reach an agreement on the modality of integration and rehabilitation before the termination of UNMIN,” said a Maoist leader involved in cross-party negotiations. He said senior Maoist leaders will visit the seven main cantonments within a week to brief the combatants on the new arrangements.
Still, serious differences persist between the Maoist and non-Maoist parties on the leadership of the new mechanism for the supervision, control and monitoring of the cantonments.

The Maoists want PLA Chief Pun to head to the mechanism while the Nepali Congress and UML are pushing for retired Gen. Balananda Sharma, also a member of the Technical Committee.  “We should get the leadership because we are trying to decide the future of our army personnel,” said Pun. “That is non-negotiable.”

Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal on Tuesday discussed with Maoist Chairman Dahal how to forge consensus on who should lead the proposed mechanism but there has not been any agreement so far. 
A source close to PM said he has hinted that Nanda Kishore Pun could be given the position of the deputy-coordinator of the secretariat if the Maoists accept Balananda Sharma’s leadership.