Maoists can return to jungle if unwilling for peace: Koirala

KATHMANDU, Jan 21: Nepali Congress (NC) President Sushil Koirala on Saturday said that the UCPN (Maoist) had better go back to the jungle if they are not willing to conclude the peace and constitution-drafting process.



Inaugurating an office of the Nepali Congress Kathmandu-Solukhumbu Liaison Committee in the capital, NC President Koirala said that the environment of trust with the Maoists was fast deteriorating as the former rebel party had failed to implement various agreements reached in the past. [break]



“If they want to legalize the decisions of their ´people´s government´ it would not make any difference if they choose to go back to the jungle,” he said.



Koirala also said that it would only be a day-dream for the Maoists to legalize property transactions carried out under the ´people´s government´ during the decade-long insurgency. “We will not under any circumstance allow the government to implement such a decision. It will only be a day-dream for them,” he added.



Koirala maintained that there cannot be any new agreement if the Maoists look only to receive from other parties and not give something to them.



“The various agreements reached in the past have not been seen implementation. Why are they stalling the peace process instead of moving it forward as per past agreement?" Koirala questioned.



Arguing that the seven-point deal reached among the political parties on November 1 had charted out a meaningful course for the peace process, Koirala ruled out the possibility of any new peace-process agreement with the Maoists. “The tendency of the Maoists to only ink agreements but shy away when it comes to implementing them should not get continuity,” he further said.



Meanwhile, the inauguration of the liaison committee office on Saturday has only worsened the dispute that has lingered in the NC Solulkhumbu District Committee ever since the unification of the NC (Democratic) with the NC in 2008.



The NC Kathmandu-Solukhumbu Liaison Committee still has two separate bodies in Kathmandu. A large number of NC cadres including NC Solukhumbu District Committee President Angelu Sherpa protested the party president´s inaugurating the new liasion committee office Saturday.

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