“I believe the Maoists will agree to start the process tomorrow (Tuesday),” said Ram Sharan Mahat, Nepali Congress representative on the Special Committee. [break]
Reiterating NC’s consistent position that the Special Committee should agree to begin the integration process without delay, Mahat said the committee should be asked to set the standard norms and decide a timeline to take the integration process forward.
Mahat added that the Special Committee should also ask the army to set out the standard norms and decide about the other details of integration as such a move would facilitate taking the integration process ahead.
“The actual number of combatants opting for integration will be much less and the problem will be manageable once the army sets the standard norms and other details are finalized,” said Mahat on the eve of the Special Committee meeting.
Other members of the Special Committee said that they are hoping for some progress at Tuesday’s meeting as Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal told top leaders of the major parties on Monday to leave the integration issue to the Special Committee.
At a meeting on Monday of the subcommittee formed to resolve disputes in constitution-writing, Dahal said Tuesday’s Special Committee meeting will come up with a calendar of events and will elaborate on a plan of action to take the peace process ahead.
He said the calendar of events and the plan of action that the Special Committee brings on Monday will create the ground for expediting the constitution writing process as well. The prime minister-headed Special Committee, which is mandated with overseeing the task of integrating Maoist combatants into the government security agencies, has representation from the major political parties.
The meeting of the subcommittee, headed by Dahal and on which the major political parties are represented by key leaders, didn’t discuss the contentious issues in constitution writing. Main opposition parties Nepali Congress (NC) and CPN-UML, among others, have said they would be ready to expedite the statute drafting process only after the government and the ruling UCPN (Maoist) make tangible progress over combatants integration, the trickiest task in the peace process.
“Maoist Chairman Dahal has said at the meeting that the Special Committee meeting tomorrow (Tuesday) will come up with a calendar of events and a plan of action with regard to advancing the integration process and he is optimistic that such an initiative will create the ground for expediting the statute drafting process as well,” said a leader present at the meeting. “Let’s see if the Special Committee yields any result.”
Bimalendra Nidhi of the NC said the meeting didn’t delve into any specific agenda in the hope that the next meeting of the Special Committee would settle some integration issues.
After the subcommittee meeting, Agni Kharel of CPN-UML said, “Leaders at the meeting decided to see what the special committee brings out tomorrow because both the tasks of statute drafting and peace process depend entirely on what initiatives the government takes to advance the integration process.
Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai, however, did not air his views at the meeting.
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