PLA VERIFICATION
Serious Snag
The second stage verification of the Maoist army has hit a serious snag, which if not resolved soon, could affect the CA elections
By SANJAYA DHAKAL
One of the most vital components of the current peace process leading up to the Constituent Assembly (CA) elections is the mainstreaming of the Maoists through the encampment of their verified combatants and 'weapons-separation.'
As per the comprehensive peace agreement and the arms management accord between the seven party government and the Maoists, the United Nations had been invited to manage the actual procedure of arms management.
However, in recent weeks, this procedure has hit a serious snag after the Maoists refused to proceed with the second stage verification – which primarily deals with verification of the combatants to filter out minors and those who joined the Maoist army after 25 May, 2006 – citing the nature of questions asked by the UNMIN and their intention.
Maoist deputy commander and MP Janardan Sharma has accused that UNMIN personnel had asked questions "which are obscene in our cultural context and which are totally irrelevant."
"Even our division commanders like Parwana have been subjected to marathon interviews when there is no need to verify their eligibility," Sharma said.
Another deputy commander Barsha Man Pun aka Ananta has blamed that the UNMIN was transgressing its authority. "The UNMIN only has the authority of verifying the army and determining if there are minors or not. We will not obey the UNMIN if it starts to transgress its authority and asks anarchic, irrelevant and obscene questions," Ananta said.
Earlier, Maoist chairman Prachanda had accused the UNMIN of trying to impose DDR (Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration) model instead of SSR (Security Sector Reform). He has clarified that verification process can be resumed only after these issues are sorted out.
The UNMIN, on the other hand, has rejected these accusations and has said that it is only following what has been agreed upon by the parties in the arms management accord.
"They (Maoists) do see verification as linked to a broader agenda, certainly on security sector reform and perhaps on other political issues. However, so far as UNMIN is concerned, however important those other issues may be - and we certainly regard the security sector reform discussion as very important – they are not linked under the Agreement to proceeding with verification. Verification should have followed rapidly on the first stage of registration, and it ought to proceed rapidly now while other issues are under discussion," said Ian Martin at a press meet on Monday.
Martin considers the current obstruction as serious snag. "I think it is serious, but as I have said what chairman Prachanda has told me is he expects that we will soon resume verification after some of these issues have been addressed."
Martin who is shortly traveling to New York to brief the Security Council, said he earnestly hopes that he would be able to report to the Security Council that "verification continues to be underway, not that it remains stalled."
Martin also refutes allegations that humiliating questions were asked during verification process. "I have no reason to believe that any humiliating questions were asked. If that had been the case, I think we would have had complaints immediately at the time that verification was being carried out. The framework of the questioning, the general nature of the questions, was agreed in advance at the JMCC," he said.
If the verification process continues to remain stalled for a long time, it is sure to generate serious misgivings about the peace process and could also undermine the elections of Constituent Assembly because the latter hinges on successful peace process.
In a reflection of how the western countries are looking at the situation, at the farewell press meet he addressed last week, US ambassador James Moriarty had said that it constituted "huge violation of commitment by the Maoists."
The UNMIN has completed the second stage verification of PLA in one camp in Ilam, whose report has been submitted to the Maoist leadership. It has not been made public how many PLA combatants have been disqualified. Subsequently, the Maoists requested to stop the process in other camps. Some reports have said that the Maoists are not satisfied with disqualification of combatants during the process.
In the first phase, the UNMIN had registered 30,852 combatants and 3428 arms in seven PLA cantonment sites and 21 satellite camps. In the second stage, it is conducting detailed verification to disqualify those who were over the age of 18 on 25 May 2006, and who had joined the Maoist army before that date.
