Nepal cabinet soon once rebel arms sealed

Kathmandu, Dec 11: Nepal's Maoists will only be included in an interim government after their arms are locked in stores under UN supervision, Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala said today.

Last month, the government and Maoist guerrillas signed a landmark peace deal declaring an end to a decade-old conflict in which more than 13,000 people died.

The deal envisaged the Maoists joining an interim cabinet and confining their fighters to camps, as well as locking arms in containers monitored by the United Nations.

But uncertainty over the storage of weapons and jockeying between the rebels and the political parties meant a December 1 deadline for the Maoists to join the interim government was missed.

''The interim government will be formed after the arms management. There will also be an interim parliament then,'' the 85-year-old Koirala said on Nepal Television.

The United Nations has said that up to 35 monitors are likely to begin work this month but that the full monitoring mission would take more time. It has not given a specific timeframe.

Koirala said elections for a special assembly to map the impoverished Himalayan nation's political future, draft a constitution and decide the fate of the monarchy would be held in June 2007.

But the Maoists said linking the interim cabinet to the completion of the UN monitoring mission -- especially when the global body had not set a specific timeframe -- could delay not only the formation of the new government, but also the elections.

''This is against the agreement and understanding between us and the government,'' Maoist leader Dev Gurung, a rebel negotiator, said.

''The delay will only help those forces that want to sabotage the planned elections for the constituent assembly by mid-June. If the election is not held on time the situation will be very serious,'' he added, without elaborating.

Narayan Wagle, editor of the widely read daily, Kantipur, said the wrangling was unlikely to derail the peace process, which began in May.

''The Maoists are basically pressing the government to speed up the election process,'' he said. ''There is an anti-king wave now and the Maoists want to cash in on this. They don't want elections to be delayed.'' King Gyanendra was forced to cede absolute power in April after mass protests, organised by the political parties but supported by the rebels.

Under the peace deal, the state's army will also be confined to barracks and an equal number of its arms stored.

''The exact number of our arms to be stored will be known only after the UN verifies the Maoist weapons,'' army spokesman Ananta Bahadur Thebe told reporters.

Reuters

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