Nepal's Maoists set to start arms handover: UN

Kathmandu, Jan 17: The United Nations will begin today the delicate task of monitoring arms held by Nepal's Maoists and registering their fighters, two days after the former rebels joined an interim parliament, a UN official said.

UN monitors and a task force of Nepali Gurkha soldiers, retired from the British and Indian armies, had arrived at a camp in Chitwan, 80 km south of Kathmandu, where the first Maoist guns were to be placed in a metal container, UN spokesman Kieran Dwyer told Reuters.

''The registration and arms storage will begin today (Wednesday) in the PLA (Maoist People's Liberation Army) third division cantonment in Chitwan,'' Dwyer said.

''Final preparations are taking place in the fourth division in Nawalparasi,'' he said referring to another Maoist camp.

In November, the government and Maoists signed a landmark peace pact declaring an end to a decade-old conflict against the monarchy in which more than 13,000 people died.

Under the deal, 83 Maoist nominees have taken their seats in an interim legislature along with mainstream politicians.

They are also due to join an interim government which will organise elections for a special assembly set up to map the country's political future and decide the fate of the monarchy, which the Maoists want abolished.

But before that, Maoist fighters, their leaders estimate their number at about 35,000, are to be confined to 28 camps and their arms locked up in seven main areas under UN watch. The former rebels will keep the keys to the containers as part of the deal.

The army must store a similar number of weapons.

Analysts and human rights workers say the number of Maoist fighters may be far lower than claimed, and that thousands of people, many of them children, were recruited to boost their credibility as the peace process developed.

The UN plans to send up to 186 monitors to help enforce the peace pact, and to deploy officials to help with the assembly elections, expected to be held in June.

REUTERS

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