No agreement with UN while sending soldiers: Foreign Ministry

The Foreign Ministry has said that the government did not make any agreement with the United Nations (UN) while sending Nepali soldiers to the UN peacekeeping mission for the first time, reports said.

In a letter to the Supreme Court, the Foreign Ministry made it clear that there was no agreement between the government and UN while sending Nepali soldiers in 1974 for the first time.

Acting upon a writ petition that sought to publicize the agreement between the government and the UN while sending Nepali soldiers to the UN peacekeeping mission in 1974, the Court has ordered the foreign ministry to furnish details of agreement, Nepal Samacharpatra daily reported.

A writ petition was filed at the Supreme Court four years ago demanding the government to publicize the agreement between Government of Nepal and the UN while deploying Nepali soldiers in UN peacekeeping mission saying the government is cheating soldiers by not giving information about the pay and perks they receive from UN.

The Ministry sent the letter after the SC’s order to take action in the case of defamation of the Court if the ministry refuses to do so.

The foreign Ministry also submitted a copy of letter of Nepal’s permanent representative to United Nations (UN) Madhu Raman Acharya as saying that he could not find the copy of agreement in the UN as well.

The letter further states that the first agreement was signed between Nepal and the UN in 2001 regarding deployment of Nepali soldiers in UN peacekeeping missions. nepalnews.com pb Nov 22 05