Integration in 3 months would truly 'amaze'

MANESH SHRESTHA

KATHMANDU, Oct 17 - Special Representative of the Secretary General of the United Nations Ian Martin said Thursday that if the integration of Maoist combatants were completed in the next three months, it would be "extraordinarily fast".Martin, who also heads the United Nations Mission in Nepal (UNMIN), ...

"It would, of course, be extraordinarily fast for everything to be completed within a period of three months, but again, it's also up to the government, up to the parties, to decide what kind of international role they feel is necessary and for how long," he said.

He urged the political parties to reach an understanding at the earliest on integration of the Maoist combatants.

"...it is most urgent that the special committee responsible for the integration and rehabilitation of Maoist combatants should be established and begin its work as soon as possible," he said.

The seven political parties including the Nepali Congress, CPN (Maoist) and the CPN-UML reached an agreement on June 25 to request the United Nations to continue its work of monitoring the management of arms and armies for six more months. This was the second six-month extension of UNMIN sought by Nepal's main political parties after the original one-year term ended on January 23, 2007.

While the Maoists have called for bulk integration of Maoist combatants into the Nepal Army and the subsequent formation of a new national army, the Nepali Congress and the Madhesi Janadhikar Forum as well as the Nepal Army itself is against a politically indoctrinated force being integrated into the state army.

The Nepal Army has said that only those who meet set standards will be integrated into the national army, a point that agreements between the Maoists and other governing parties have.

Neither the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) signed between the then government and the CPN (Maoist) in November 2006 nor the Agreement on Monitoring of the Management of Arms and Armies (AMMAA) signed between the two sides in December 2006, with Martin as witness, specifically says that all the Maoist combatants will be integrated in the Nepal Army.

The CPA says "The Interim Cabinet will constitute a special committee to carry out monitoring, adjustment and rehabilitation of Maoist combatants.

Clearly, different parties have different interpretations of past agreements, with only the CPN-UML maintaining that the special committee should decide the matter.

"Of course, the special committee is not going to have an easy task, finding a way forward with the sufficient degree of consensus. But the only way, as in other aspects of the peace process, is to begin that dialogue," said Martin.

The June 2008 agreement however has gone a step further on the issue of integration. It says that the Maoist army "will be offered a choice between an economic package and various other alternatives for rehabilitation".

However, even in this agreement, there is no specific mention of Maoist combatants being integrated into the Nepal Army.

Those combatants who choose integration will be integrated in "security bodies" but only after "fulfilling the standard requirements". Even the AMMAA had a clause on the need to fulfill "standard norms" for integration.

There are at present 19,602 Maoist combatants living in seven main and 21 satellite camps monitored by UNMIN. Of these 3,846 are women.

The political questions that the Maoists and the other parties need to decide include what kind of economic package will be offered to the combatants who opt for this.

There is also the question of conditions for discharge of the 4,008 persons that were deemed not to be actual Maoist combatants but are living in the cantonments. Of these 2,973 are minors -- those born after 25 May 1988.

In the first stage of registration there were 31,318 persons registered in the Maoist camps but in the second stage verification this came down to 19,602 persons who were deemed to be proper Maoist combatants by UNMIN.

About 8,000 left the cantonments voluntarily, according to Martin. It is worth noting that the Maoists had gone on a massive recruitment drive immediately after the end of the people's movement of April 2006, luring innocent villagers with a place in its army and then the national army.

The third question that needs to be decided is how the Maoist combatants will be ranked if and when they are integrated in the security forces. And probably the most important consensus among political parties is on the definition of the term 'security bodies'.

Only if there is an immediate consensus on these and other questions and a large number of the Maoist combatants opt for an economic package rather than integration, will the process be complete in three months and meet the deadline set by the parties themselves. That will truly "amaze", as Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal is so fond of saying about the success so far of Nepal's peace process. But surely, the prime minister too must be aware that meeting this January 23, 2008 deadline is a long, long shot.