KATHMANDU, July 18: The United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon recommended to the UN Security Council on Friday to extend the term of UNMIN by six months until January 2010.
According to a report presented by the secretary-general to the UNSC in New York on Friday, Ban said this was in response to the request to extend the current mandate and related work of UNMIN by another six months. [break]
"Political leaders in Nepal have expressed the view that the presence of UNMIN is needed until the integration and rehabilitation of the Maoist army personnel is resolved," said Ban in his report made available to the media here on Saturday. "I therefore recommend that the Security Council extend the mandate for a further six months until 23 January 2010."
The secretary-general also suggested broadening the mandate of the mission whose presence has attracted a lot of controversy in recent times, especially its chief Karin Landgren´s questionable briefing to the UNSC on May 5.
"…the growing complexity of the political situation reveals a discrepancy between the needs of the peace process, the limited mandate of UNMIN and the support that can be sought to reinforce the implementation of peace process commitments," the secretary general said. "I encourage the government to take full advantage of the UNMIN presence, and the Security Council to support this, in order to help ensure the timely completion of the peace process and the mandate of UNMIN."
The report also presents a dismal picture of the Nepal´s peace process. "The modest progress witnessed in some aspects of the peace process during the first quarter of 2009 has stalled against a backdrop of mistrust and a further deterioration of relations among key stakeholders, notably between the UCPN-M and the other major parties and between the UCPN-M and the Nepal Army," the report states. The report also notes that the Special Committee to supervise, integrate and rehabilitate Maoist army personnel remains ineffective and its Technical Committee made only limited progress.
On the discharge of the disqualified Maoist combatants, the report says the support packages, developed by UN agencies, could be made available at fairly short notices. "The UN and its partners remain prepared to work closely and more intensively with the government in implementing a suitable program that would effectively meet the needs of the disqualified personnel," the report says.
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