India Against UN in Nepal

[Guest guest]

New Delhi sceptical of UN role in Nepal peace process

 

Seema Guha

Wednesday, June 07, 2006 21:46 IST

 

NEW DELHI: India does not want the United Nations to sit in as

neutral umpire in talks between Prime Minister GP Koirala's

government and Nepal's Maoists. This is a major snag now, as no other

mechanism is in place to oversee the discussions. The challenge in

Nepal, after the victory of the pro-democracy forces, is how to

disarm the Maoists and bring them to the political mainstream.

 

India is willing to let the UN be involved in de-mobilisation of the

Maoist cadres. However, New Delhi has put its foot down on the UN

monitoring the ceasefire between the Maoists and the army. India

wants civil society to be involved in this, but this is not a

realistic proposition. There have been talks of Scandinavians as in

the monitoring mission in Sri Lanka, or Norway getting involved, but

so far New Delhi is not comfortable with either of these. Also, South

Block wants the elections to the Constituent Assembly to be overseen

by Nepal's election commission and not the UN.

 

Officially, India has not commented on its position about UN

involvement.

 

While the top Maoist leaders are willing to have a go at democratic

politics, reports of armed cadres continuing to extract money from

hapless citizens in the provinces are still coming in. Senior Maoist

leader Badal is reported to have some differences with Prachanda and

Baburam Battarai over the switch to mainstream politics.

 

Political parties are angry with the Maoists for not allowing their

cadres to carry on legitimate political activities outside the

Kathmandu valley. So far the differences between the Maoists and the

political parties are under wraps but would come to the surface

unless the differences are quickly resolved. The political class in

Nepal are wary of a force which still wield arms.

 

http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1034044