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Maoists not to decommission arms before CA elections

CPN (Maoist) spokesperson Krishna Bahadur Mahara has said the Maoist army will stay within its camps, under the monitoring of United Nations, until the constituent assembly elections but there won’t be any decommissioning of their arms alone before that.

“Until the constituent assembly elections our army will stay in specific places, with arms, under certain disciplines. Let the UN come here and do the monitoring. Let the UN also assess the number of our army and arms. We have no objection to that,” Mahara, who heads the Maoist talks team, told Kantipur Television, a private sector TV channel, on Monday.

According to Mahara, Maoists will make sure that their People’s Liberation Army (PLA) poses no obstacles in the constituent assembly elections and the settlement of the PLA and its arms would be as per the model of the constitution drafted by the constituent assembly.

“Our commitment is that we are ready accept whatever concept the new constitution brings forward regarding our army and arms,” he said, accusing the government of lacking in clarity on the issue of arms management. “There cannot be any other option,” the Maoist leader concluded.

The Maoists have been saying that both the Nepali Army and the PLA could be kept in a neutral position under the command of the Prime Minister of the would-be interim government.

Prime Minister GP Koirala and Deputy Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli have gone on record several times that the rebels could not be brought to the government before the management of their arms. PM Koirala also reiterated this stance during a meeting with the visiting assessment team of the United Nations headed by Staffan de Mistura today.

Recently, Maoist supremo Prachanda in a letter to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan protested the government’s letter to the UN which urged the world body to help in managing the Maoist arms and the army during the constituent assembly polls while the Nepali Army would be kept in its barracks. nepalnews.com mk July 31 06