As Dahal sought the envoys´ support to ask UNMIN to stay in Nepal till May 28, 2011on Tuesday morning, the ambassadors of China, France, Russia, the US and the UK -- also known as P5 ambassadors -- suggested to Dahal to work with political parties to devise an alternative mechanism to replace UNMIN, sources said. Dahal had invited the ambassadors to his residence at Nayabazaar for a meeting. [break]
“They told us that yet another renewal of UNMIN´s mandate would not be possible as the government had requested the Security Council for a final extension in last September,” Maoist Vice Chairman Narayankaji Shrestha told Republica about Dahal´s meeting with the ambassadors.
On September 15, the UNSC had renewed the UNMIN´s mandate till January 15 after it received a request from the government for final term extension of the UN political mission tasked with advancing Nepal´s peace process since January 2007.
Dahal, whose party wants UNMIN to stay in Nepal for another six months, met the envoys in his bid to persuade them for extension of UNMIN´s term for one more time. While vice chairmen Shrestha and Mohan Vaidya were also present at the meeting, another Vice Chairman Dr Baburam Bhattarai was not invited.
In the meantime, the US and the UK separately ruled out any possibility of UNMIN´s term extension for yet another time in the light of the last UNSC decision in September. “We [the US] do not see UNMIN extension happening,” said Heather Steil, the spokesperson for the US Embassy.
A spokesperson for the British Embassy said in a statement to Republica, “The Security Council has already decided that UNMIN will leave on January 15, we encourage parties to work toward a [UNMIN´s] smooth transition.”
A source said that the Chinese Embassy in Kathmandu is writing to Beijing in a couple days, saying yet another term extension of UNMIN is not necessary. As its effort to woo the ambassadors for UNMIN´s term extension failed on Wednesday, the UCPN (Maoist) is discussing alternatives for replacement of UNMIN´s role with Nepali Congress and CPN-UML from Thursday.
“We are proposing possible alternatives to other parties tomorrow [Wednesday],” said Maoist Vice Chairman Shrestha.
The parties were supposed to hold discussion on UNMIN´s fate on Wednesday but the UCPN (Maoist) did not show up at the meeting, citing busy work schedules. But the NC and UML held a meeting and agreed on providing necessary human resources to the secretariat under the Special Committee for Supervision, Integration and Rehabilitation of Maoist combatants.
NC leader Ram Sharan Mahat said the two parties also decided to discuss possible extension of the UNMIN´s term only after giving a full shape to the Secretariat.
kiran@myrepublica.com
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