Defense Minister Thapa talks about developing NA as a 'social army'
In his first public remark on the army after assuming his post, the usually reclusive Minister of Defense Ram Bahadur Thapa has hinted that the Nepal Army (NA) should be involved in development works like building physical infrastructures for the good of the country.
Thapa, a senior Maoist leader, who was recently back from his visit to China where he attended a military exercise of the Chinese People's Liberation Army and met top defense officials of China, claimed that the NA was only used to for battle in the past. But in the coming days, he said, it would also be involved in economic and development works.
In a meeting with a business delegation Wednesday, Thapa also pointed out the need to establish the army as a "social army".
He, however, didn't elaborate as to what he meant by 'social army', but it was clear that it meant much of what he had said earlier.
Even as Thapa was saying this, the Army Officers' Wives Association distributed relief materials to over 600 families in Kanchanpur and Kailali district rendered homeless by the recent landslides and floods in mid-west Nepal.
Nepal Army has been involved in rescue and relief efforts in the flood and landslides wracked parts of far-west, and, before this, during the Saptakoshi deluge that created havoc in eastern Nepal.
NA has also been involved in building roads and temporary bridges in rural parts of Nepal (a strategy disliked by the Maoists during the insurgency period), apart from running mobile health clinics and other welfare programmes.
Thapa also remained conspicuously silent on the integration of two armies - Nepal Army and Maoist People's Liberation Army.
But it was clear that Thapa's first remarks came in response to suggestions by Nepali Congress, Unified Marxist Leninist (UML) and other party leaders that if not integrated into the NA, the Maoist PLA could very well be used as border guards or industrial security force.
The Federation of Nepalese Chamber of Commerce and Industries is already mulling at creating its own "security force" to safeguard industries, factories and companies from intimidations by Maoist trade unions and armed outfits. And, the YCL cadres have a bad experience as a self-styled border guards, falling into small skirmishes with Indian border security force over the alleged encroachment by the Indian side. nepalnews.com ag Oct 01 08
