International News
Nepal peace process at serious point
Posted on: Fri March 12, 2010
International Highlights
SHAKTIKHOR, Nepal: Nepal s peace process is at a very serious point , the United Nations top political official said Thursday, urging party leaders to act on pledges made at the end of the war.
B Lynn Pascoe said he was concerned that the peace process had stalled, three and a half years after the decade-long conflict between Maoist guerrillas and the state came to a close.
We do see things at a very serious point here, the process is just not moving the way it should be, he told journalists after meeting Maoist army commanders at a cantonment, 175 kilometres south of Kathmandu.
I m here to see what we can do to push the process along by emphasising that it is very important to move and it s time to take action, said Pascoe, the UN under-secretary-general for political affairs.
More than 16,000 people were killed in Nepal s conflict, and Pascoe warned there was a danger of moving backwards , pointing out that 50 percent of countries return to war within 10 years of a peace agreement being signed.
He called for action on the integration of more than 19,000 Maoist soldiers currently living in UN-monitored cantonments across the country into the regular army.
The integration is a key tenet of the peace agreement, but military leaders have repeatedly resisted the move.
Pascoe also stressed the importance of completing the country s new constitution, although he conceded that doing so by a May 28 deadline would be a tall order .
Courtesy : The News