The relations suffered a further blow when the Ministry of Peace and Reconstruction on Wednesday issued a public statement, as directed by the prime minister, to show its strong objection to UNMIN´s refusal to share the information about the Maoist combatants. [break]
"…the government has seriously taken the issuance of the statement [by UNMIN] saying such information cannot be shared on ground of confidentiality; and has taken it as objectionable," the ministry said in the statement. The ministry has already written twice to UNMIN to share the details about the combatants.
The government and UNMIN share a fundamental difference over the issue of sharing the information related to names, addresses, age and pictures of the combatants who are waiting for their integration and rehabilitation.
UNMIN, in a statement on February 25, said the information requested by the government is confidential and the Article 2 of the Agreement on Monitoring the Management of Arms and Armies (AMMAA) requires it to "treat such information with appropriate confidentiality". UNMIN issued the statement amidst media reports that it refused to give the details of the combatants to the government.
But the government has maintained that the information that it has requested from the UNMIN is not confidential. It further said that it "reserves the right to get such information" from the UNMIN as it has to provide allowances to the combatants from the tax payer´s money.
Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal, Peace Minister Rakam Chemjong, Minister for Culture Minendra Rijal, Defense Minister Bidya Bhandari and Home Minister Bhim Rawal discussed the UNMIN´s statement in details early this week and concluded that the UNMIN did not cooperate with the government by refusing to share the information.
Representatives from security agencies, Coordinator of the Technical Committee of the Special Committee on Supervision, Integration and Rehabilitation Balananda Sharma and retired army officer Amar Pant were also present in the meeting.
"The meeting concluded that UNMIN is not cooperating with the government by not sharing the information that is not confidential and directed the ministry to issue this statement," said a minister who attended the meeting.
Besides the February 25 statement, UNMIN Chief Karin Landgren personally met Peace Minister Chemjong and Chief Secretary Madhav Ghimire to make them understand the AMMAA provisions and to justify her office´s inability to share the information requested by the government.
Furthermore, the UN political mission has maintained that it has been requesting the Nepal Army and the Maoist army to make public the number of their personnel under their obligation as per the Article 4.1.1 (Maoists army) and Article 4.2.2 (Nepal Army) of the AMMAA. It also renewed its request to both the armies for the information on February 25 in the meeting of the Joint Monitoring Coordination Committee (JMCC).
JMCC is the body responsible for resolving any questions relating to implementation of the AMMAA. The UN body has been requesting the information from both the armies for the last five months.
"We have not been able to understand the reason why the government has been requesting for the information from the UNMIN though the latter has already said that the AMMAA does not allow it to share such information?" asked a source at the Office of the Prime Minister, "It is a clear indication that the relations between the government and the UNMIN are souring day by day."
kiran@myrepublica.com
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