Sep 22, 2006

Even as the key actors agree to resolve political issues by Dashain, the sudden outbursts of incidents like ‘arms import’ point to the fragile nature of the process

By A CORRESPONDENT

PM Koirala : Declicate phase

After weeks of growing restlessness, the meeting between Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala and Maoist chairman Prachanda on Sunday (September 17) has helped to end the uncertainties surrounding the peace process.

The two agreed to resolve political issues before Dashain festival. Prachanda and his second-in-command Dr. Baburam Bhattarai visited PM Koirala at the latter’s official residence in Baluwatar on Sunday afternoon to discuss about the growing uncertainty.

After the two-hours-long talks, the two leaders agreed to send a positive message to the Nepalese people before Dashain. “There is an understanding to have summit talks before Dashain, which means within 8 to 10 days,” said Dr. Bhattarai. Both the sides said that the level of trust has increased after the meeting.

The talks discussed issues such as preparations for summit talks, finalization of interim constitution, interim government, interim legislature, status of the King and arms management. The summit talks is expected to come up with package solution.

The meeting was a crucial one as it came in the wake of increasing frustrations among the general public regarding the outcome of the peace process.

Since the government and the Maoists wrote identical letters to the United Nations, the country witnessed contradictory remarks and activities from the two sides. While the government kept on insisting that the Maoists first agree on arms management, the latter stuck to their stance saying that all issues should be dealt in a package form.

Amid the impasse, activities like force donations, unionization campaign, abductions and even killings occurred in several parts of the country. Furthermore, there were two bizarre arms import episode. No sooner had the first episode about the rumor of Ukrainian aircraft carrying weapons to Nepal dismissed, the Maoists accused the government of bringing arms from India .

Last week on Wednesday (September 13), the capital city and many other parts of the country encountered flash strikes and protests by the Maoists. After the Maoists charged the government of importing arms laden in new trucks from India , there were sporadic tensions all across the country for the whole day on Wednesday. Maoist cadres came down to streets burning tyres and announcing strike. For several hours normal traffic was thrown out of gear in Kathmandu .

Later the Home Minister made a statement in the parliament rejecting reports of arms import. “This government has no policy of importing arms. The trucks arriving from India were being brought for the purpose of Nepalese Army peacekeepers who will soon leave for Lebanon ,” said Minister Krishna Prasad Sitaula. Likewise, Indian Embassy in Kathmandu issued a statement refuting the report of arms import. Stating that the news of import of arms from India had drawn its attention, the Embassy said, “These allegations are completely baseless and untrue.” The Embassy added that no arms have been supplied by India to Nepal since February 1, 2005 . Even the ceasefire code of conduct monitoring committee members who visited the barracks of Nepalese Army in Gajuri on the same day told media that no arms were found in the trucks there.

Earlier Prachanda had termed the response by the government as ‘dramatic and concocted.’ He accused the government was being guided by foreign forces and was bent on spoiling the atmosphere of peace process.

Adding to the woes of the government, the general secretary of the Unified Marxist Leninist (UML) Madhav Kumar Nepal threatened that his party could walk out from the government if the Prime Minister continued the current trend of governance without transparency. Saying that PM Koirala refused to talk with him despite repeated attempts on Wednesday, Nepal termed the government as ‘incompetent.’ Nepal said he had tried to talk with PM regarding the arms import issue. “After I came to know about the news at Tuesday night, I immediately contacted with many leaders including Ian Martin, the emissary of UN Secretary General. But when I tried to contact PM Koirala repeatedly, efforts were made to sideline a responsible party,” Nepal said.

Fortunately, after Sunday’s meeting between the PM and Maoists leaders, the country has reverted back to the peace process for the time being. However, the utterly fragile nature of the process demands that all key actors tread responsibly and carefully in order to avert disaster.