To begin with, the parties are yet to prepare the groundwork for expediting the peace process. Despite the Special Committee´s decision to appoint and send out experts to the cantonments immediately to survey the preferences of the combatants and facilitate their categorization, dispatching of the experts is itself likely to take at least 10 days. [break]
But then, dispatching these surveyors to the field will yield no result until the parties take decisions on five key issues of integration-- numbers, standard norms, rank harmonization, rehabilitation package and the responsibilities of the proposed directorate under the Nepal Army.
During the field survey, the combatants are supposed to express their preferences for one of three options-- go for integration into the security forces, take voluntary retirement, or opt for a long-term rehabilitation process.
But how can the combatants express their preferences until they know in detail what each of the options entails (such as, for instance, what the retirement package is).
Moreover, integration of the combatants into the security forces will not depend entirely on their preferences alone. The parties are first supposed to decide the exact number of combatants (the Maoists want 8,000 while NC and UML are still sticking to 6,000) to be integrated into security forces.
And the top leaders continue to differ on almost all of these contentious issues. Given the experience of past talks and the scale of differences, negotiations on these issues are likely to be protracted. “Against this background, the 45-day deadline for completing the peace process sounds too ambitious if not entirely impossible,” said a Special Committee member.
To avoid possible delay--potentially a stalemate--the Maoist party wants to rush into the categorization process, leaving aside differences on other issues. But the NC and CPN-UML, the two major parties in opposition, have maintained that categorization can begin only after there is agreement on all contentious issues.
Nepali Congress Vice-president Ram Chandra Poudel, during a press conference Wednesday, reiterated the party´s position that a package agreement on the peace process should precede other events in that process.
"To start categorization without reaching a package deal is like putting the cart before the horse,” said Dr Minendra Rijal, a Nepali Congress leader and member of the Special Committee, commenting on the Maoists´ emphasis on beginning the categorization process immediately.
"The surveyors are supposed to go to the cantonments for categorization armed with a package agreement among the political parties," says Ishwor Pokharel, general secretary of CPN-UML and Special Committee member.
Convener of the Secretariat Balananda Sharma also says that the parties and the Special Committee should take adequate time to reach the necessary agreements instead of announcing in haste that they are to do something, without the needed preparations.
It may be recalled that the Special Committee had announced in June a plan to complete the peace process by August 28. But the plan took a back seat as the parties failed to agree on the modality of integration and rehabilitation, something they had planned to complete by June 19.
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