During the marathon negotiations on May 28— the day the parties struck the five-point deal— they had discussed in detail about the future roadmap for the peace process; they had even reached an informal understanding on key issues and were expected to finalize the detailed plan within a few days. [break]
But the negotiations have now been put off “at least for some time” as the Maoist leaders on the Special Committee (SC) refused to sign the minutes detailing the peace process roadmap. “Though all the other members of the SC have signed the minutes of the agreements the Maoist leaders backed down at the last minute,” said a SC source.
It was after extensive discussions that the SC had agreed on the details of the peace process roadmap that said categorization of the combatants (based on those seeking integration in the Nepal Army and those opting for rehabilitation in society) and handover of weapons will be completed by August 27. The roadmap also said that by June 19 —that’s just four days from now— the SC will finalize the number of combatants to be integrated into the Nepal Army and the modality and standard norms for integration.
On June 7, the SC finalized the roadmap in the presence of Maoist leader and SC member Barsa Man Pun—another Maoist leader and SC member Janardan Sharma was absent from the meeting—and the leaders agreed to sign the minutes at the June 9 meeting.
“However, things changed after Sharma protested against the agreement and Pun backtracked, saying that he misunderstood the details of the earlier understanding,” said the source.
The Maoist leaders argued that they have no problem with the roadmap and are committed to abiding by it but said they can’t sign the minutes.
Since that disagreement over the minutes the SC has failed to make any progress and it even failed to hold a scheduled meeting on Tuesday.
Now there is no chance— barring a miracle— that they will agree on the thorny issues of combatant numbers for integration, standard norms, rank harmonization and terms of reference of the proposed Directorate under the Nepal Army, by June 19 as agreed before, even if the negotiations resume right away.
According to a Baluwatar source, when Prime Minister Jhalanath Kahanal reached out to the Maoist SC members in an attempt to get the SC meeting to resume they told him that “it was pointless holding the meeting until the top leaders sort out key issues.”
Talking to Republica, Maoist leader Pun, however, expressed confidence that they will be able resolve the current differences and move ahead. “We have agreed that the top leaders should now meet first and agree on major issues, after which we will work out the details as per the agreement,” said Pun.
Minendra Rijal, Nepali Congress leader and SC member, said he sees a “difficult road ahead” in the peace process but refused to divulge details and did not want to discuss the current differences in the Special Committee.
But he asserted that the NC will not agree to issuing the first draft of the constitution unless the peace process reaches an “irreversible phase”.
He described “irreversible phase” as a stage in the peace process where the combatants are no longer in the cantonments or under Maoist control and have no recourse to arms.
If, on the one hand, the parties have failed to conclude new agreements, implementation of what has already been agreed has been very slow on the other.
For instance, the Maoists have not completely ended the dual security used by their leaders. According to a SC Secretariat source, the Maoists have so far submitted only 64 out of the 94 weapons used by their combatants and only 42 combatants have returned to the cantonments.
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