We encourage the party establishment, especially party Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, to stand firm in favor of concluding the peace process even if it means major compromises with the other parties. There is no reason why he should get distracted by the rhetoric of the hardliners that has harmed the party and the country so much already.
The second challenge lies in reaching a deal with other stakeholders on the nitty-gritty of the peace process, especially the integration and rehabilitation of Maoist combatants. Though there seems to be acceptance of the NA proposal across the parties, the proposal itself is sorely lacking in detail and specificity. The army must have felt flattered that its proposal has been acceptable by all, and at the same time worried that it doesn’t have details on the modality. We wonder how far the Maoist party itself has understood the basic concept of the NA proposal, which is far from constituting a complete modality.
There is also genuine skepticism that the Maoists want to resolve the combatants issue once and for all. If they were sincere about it, they could have accepted the NA proposal long ago and initiated negotiations with other parties. But they have waited far too long and there are now legitimate questions whether we have enough time for negotiations just a week before the expiry of the extended CA term.
These legitimate questions and suspicions notwithstanding, we urge the parties to return to the negotiating table immediately and discuss numbers and standard norms for integration and a financial and technical package for rehabilitation. Since all parties now seem to be in agreement with the NA proposal the question of integration modality is more or less addressed: There will be a separate directorate within the NA comprising personnel from NA itself, the PLA, the Armed Police Force (APF) and Nepal Police.
The main opposition party, Nepali Congress, has demanded that the Maoist combatants be categorized and segregated on the basis of those for joining the security forces and those opting for the rehabilitation package. We doubt if this is possible in the next one week, given that the parties are yet to agree on standard norms; therefore, we think if the parties agree on integration numbers the categorization and segregation process can be deferred till after May 28. Once the parties know the integration numbers, it will also help them decide the standard norms.
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