PLA decides to bulldoze through SC interim order against new recruitment

Flouting Supreme Court's interim order to stop its recruitment process, People's Liberation Army (PLA), the military wing of the ruling Unified CPN (Maoist), has decided to go ahead with its earlier decision to fill up the position that had, according to it, become vacant after the verification team of United Nations Mission in Nepal (UNMIN) disqualified many of its combatants mostly because they were underage.

A "General Staff" meeting of the PLA held in Kathmandu Saturday decided to go about the decision on the basis of the applications for "vacant positions" it received before the SC issued an interim order against PLA recruitment saying it goes against the Comprehensive Peace Accord.

Likewise, both the government led by the Maoists and the Army Integration Special Committee (AISC) under whose jurisdiction the PLA comes have already ordered immediate halt to the PLA recruitment process.

Although the SC has already ordered the NA not to conduct new recruitment, it however, upheld the recruitment of some 3000 personnel in NA, stating that the recruitment procedure, which completed before the writ was registered, could not be invalidated.

Observers say that the PLA is also trying to provide the same logic if its decision to conduct new recruitment were challenged.

Meanwhile, the General Staff meeting of the PLA is expected to be held today to finalise the recruitment of fresh combatants.

Nepal FM quoted PLA deputy commander Chandra Dev Khanal as saying that the General Staff meeting is being held to "properly manage" the new recruits in the Maoist PLA.

He told the radio station that they have requested Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, who is also the chairman of the Unified CPN (Maoist), to attend the meeting, but as they are still waiting for a word from his office, the timing of the meeting hasn't been fixed.

Reports say that the seven division of PLA has received around 7,000 applications for for the vacant positions so far.

The 31,000 men-strong PLA was reduced to less than 20,000 after UNMIN disqualified 12,000 of its personnel mostly because they were found to be under aged.

The commanders of all seven divisions have gathered in Kathmandu for the General Staff meeting. nepalnews.com ag Mar 15 09

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