“Personal integrity plays a key role in the reintegration of ex-Maoist cadres into the Nepalese security forces. People with a clean chit will be considered for recruitment within the framework of the law of the land, that too, as per the stipulated rules and regulations,” said Lieutenant-General Paban Jung Thapa, Chief of General Staff of the Nepal Army.
As the special committee, formed to go into the whys and hows of the reintegration process is busy collating vital details, the Army will have an advisory role in the process by providing vital counsel to policy-makers.
The Lieutenant-General, who has just returned to serve the Army after a two-year stint as Force Commander with the United Nations Mission in Sudan, is excited about the ‘challenging role' in store for him in Nepal, which is witnessing an ‘unstable political environment.'
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Lieutenant-General Thapa, who came to Tirupati recently on a two-day pilgrimage after 23 years, offered prayers at the Venkateswara temple.
Speaking to The Hindu later, he said convicts, Army deserters and persons with cases of human rights violation and sedition against them would not be considered for induction into the security forces. Ex-cadres could be part of the nation's border security, industrial security, forest security or the armed police, if not the mainstream Army.
“Before the [reintegration] process begins, we need to have a well-formulated ‘Terms of Reference' in place as a benchmark for identifying the candidates,” he added.
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While the United Nations Mission in Nepal has not objected to the surrender of 19,000 Maoists, who laid down 3,500 weapons, Lieutenant-General Thapa expressed surprise and felt the numbers “don't really match.” Expressing concern over the escalation of Maoist-related violence in India, he said his country too had suffered for quite some time and that such mindless violence against innocent people served no purpose.