Security Council backs UN aid for Nepal

United Nations, Dec 2 (UNI) The Security Council has extended its support for speedy UN assistance to Nepal, following a peace deal signed last week between the government and the Maoists ending a decade-old civil war that killed 15,000 people and displaced 100,000.

The powerful 15-member body said in the statement yesterday that it fully backed Secretary-General Kofi Annan's intention to send an initial assessment team and also an advance group of up to 60 members to monitor arms and armed personnel, as well as to advise on next year's planned elections.

It said, ''The Security Council notes the request of the parties for United Nations assistance in implementing key aspects of the agreement, in particular monitoring of arrangements relating to the management of arms and armed personnel of both sides and election monitoring. The Security Council agrees that the United Nations should respond positively and expeditiously to this request for assistance.'' The statement, read out by Council President Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser of Qatar, expressed support for the Secretary-General's intention to send a technical assessment mission ''with a view to proposing, following close consultations with the parties, a fully developed concept of UN operations, including a United Nations political mission to deliver the assistance requested, and to despatch an advance deployment of essential personnel of up to 35 monitors and 25 electoral personnel.'' On Wednesday, briefing the Council, the Secretary-General's personal representative in the Himalayan kingdom Ian Martin said that last week's agreement represented ''the most promising opportunity for the establishment of lasting peace and far-reaching reform.'' Mr Martin called on the council to support Mr Annan's recommendations, adding that recent developments in Nepal represented ''an opportunity''to be grasped.

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