UN urges Nepal's leaders to agree on ex-fighters

Karin Landgren, UN Special Representative and chief of the United Nations Mission in Nepal (UNMIN), speaks during her last press conference at the UNMIN headquarters in Kathmandu yesterday

The head of a departing UN peace mission in Nepal yesterday urged political leaders to agree on new arrangements for monitoring thousands of former Maoist fighters in camps across the country.
The UN mission in Nepal (UNMIN) was set up in 2007 with a one-year mandate to oversee the country’s transition to peace after a decade-long war between Maoist rebels and government forces in which at least 16,000
people died.
Its term had to be repeatedly extended amid disagreements between political leaders on how pledges made in the 2006 peace deal should be fulfilled, but in September the United Nations announced the mission would close on January 15.
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon admitted the timing of UNMIN’s closure was not optimal, but said it made little sense to keep it open "without any meaningful progress by the parties on political issues”.
These include the integration of the 19,000 former Maoist fighters still living in UN-monitored camps into the state security forces.
The decision means the UN monitors who have patrolled the camps since they were set up in 2007 will leave on Saturday. Ban’s representative in Nepal urged the government and the Maoists to agree on new
arrangements.
"We have always said that we want to see an orderly departure for UNMIN, and we can have that orderly departure when the parties have agreed on follow-on arrangements for monitoring,” Karin Landgren told journalists in Kathmandu.
"So from UNMIN’s perspective that would be the single most important thing. Obviously if they can come to a longer agreement on other outstanding peace process issues, that’s a plus as well.”
The government and the Maoists, now the main political opposition, have held a series of talks to try to agree on new monitoring arrangements, but have so far been unable to do so.
Nepal has been without a fully functioning government for six months after the prime minister resigned in June under pressure from the Maoists. AFP