Nepal’s government has asked the United Nations to grant a four-month extension to the term of its mission in Nepal, which is overseeing the Himalayan country’s peace process, local media reported on Wednesday.
Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal sent a letter to the UN Security Council late on Tuesday, requesting that the term be extended with its mandate focusing on “monitoring Maoist combatants, cantonments and their arms.” While the letter singled out the former rebels, it was silent on the mission’s monitoring of the Nepalese Army, the Republica newspaper said.
Nepal’s government wants the Security Council to renew the mission’s mandate but lift its monitoring of the national army and only focus on the Maoists, but Maoist leaders objected to the idea.
The mandate expires on Sept. 15.
“Since we received a positive response from the Maoists to address the national army’s problems regarding recruitment, training and UN peacekeeping participation through political discussion, the government decided to seek a middle path,” the prime minister’s foreign affairs adviser Rajan Bhattarai said.
The government’s request came after UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said he would prefer to draw down the mission because it has been made a “scapegoat” for the failure by the government and Maoist forces to settle their political disputes.
On Tuesday, the Security Council was briefed on the progress of the peace process by mission chief Karin Landgren, who said the country was “on the brink of an uncertain and dangerous constitutional dilemma.” She spoke of “real” risks to the peace process from the continuing conflict between the government and Maoists.” Nepal is under a caretaker government after Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal resigned in June under Maoist pressure. A deadlock in the legislature has caused seven votes on his successor to fail.
More than 19,000 former Maoist combatants live under UN supervision in seven camps across Nepal after the government and Maoist rebels signed a peace pact in 2006.
