Nepal: Ban hails new round of monitoring Maoists

United Nations, June 20: UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon haswelcomed the beginning of the second stage of monitoring by the UnitedNations Mission in Nepal (UNMIN) of Maoist personnel to ensure that nominors are serving.

"This is a crucial stage of the implementation of the Agreement onMonitoring of the Management of Arms and Armies," he said in astatement issued by his spokesperson in New York yesterday.

The UNMIN will individually verify the details of each registeredMaoist member to ensure that they were over the age of 18 before May25, 2006 and that they joined the Maoists before this cut-off date.

Child protection officers from the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) andregistration personnel from the UN Development Programme (UNDP) willalso participate in the effort.

UNMIN teams completed the first phase of registering weapons andpersonnel in mid-February, when more than 30,850 Maoists wereregistered and 2,855 weapons were stored under 24-hour UN monitoring.

An equivalent number of weapons of the Nepal Army was also stored under UN-monitoring as part of this process.

The verification process will be undertaken through individualinterviews of each person registered as a Maoist combatant, and will bedone in each of the seven main cantonment sites one after the other,according to UNMIN.

Additionally, Mr Ban "reiterates to all parties the need tocooperate in the creation of a conducive environment to holding theConstituent Assembly election later this year."

UNI

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