'Mahat more clear-eyed about Maoists'

KATHMANDU, Sept 15: Dr Ram Sharan Mahat, who is one of the key negotiators of the peace process from the Nepali Congress (NC), wanted the United States to use its influence on the United Nations to ensure strict conditions for the entry of Maoist combatants into the cantonments in 2006, said a US cable released on Thursday by Weakileaks.



Mahat, then finance minister, made the request to US Ambassador James F Moriarty in November 2006 when the Agreement on Monitoring of the Management of Arms and Armies (AMMA), a key peace process-related document, was being negotiated among then government, the Maoists and the United Nations. [break]



Expressing his concern over the provisions in the draft of the AMMA, Mahat had told the US ambassador that the Maoist would send people without military training, skills and weapons into cantonments while urging Moriarty to wield influence on the UN to include stricter conditions in the AMMA.



“If the agreement did not set strict conditions, nearly anyone would be able to enter the cantonments and the government would be responsible for taking care of them. The UN has an obligation to verify the identities of those who claimed to be combatants,” the cable reported Mahat as saying.



Mahat emphasized that the AMMA should be explicit in stating that only those combatants who met the standards for recruitment into the Nepal Army, the Armed Police Force or the Nepal Police would be allowed to enter into cantonments.



In response, the US Ambassador told Mahat that the United States would “use its influence with Martin´s team (Ian Martin was the chief of UN mission in Nepal then) in Kathmandu and that the US Mission to the United Nations in New York would no doubt do the same at UN Headquarters”.



The cable further reported that Mahat told the US ambassador that then Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala was frustrated that the UN kept refusing to step beyond its role as a facilitator.



The cable also reflects the US embassy´s observation of the review of AMMA drafted by Mahat. It said then Prime Minister Koirala “acted wisely by letting the hard-line finance minister” to review the AMMA draft.



“The government´s chief peace negotiator, Home Minister [Krishna] Sitaula, has a record of caving in to the Maoist demands. Mahat is much more clear-eyed about the Maoists,” the cable said.

Related story

Vehicle in Mahat's poll campaign ambushed, five injured