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Kathmandu Friday November 09, 2001 Kartik 24, 2058.
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Third round of govt-Maoist talks likely
soon
Post Report
KATHMANDU, Nov 8 - In its latest attempt to make environment
for the third round of dialogue with the Maoists, the government is contemplating
releasing imprisoned Maoist activists and remove few clauses or completely annul the
Public Security Act-2001, a highly placed reliable government source said.
According to the source, the government reached this
conclusion after Sudeep Pathak, chairman of the Nepal Human Rights Organisation met with
Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and Chiranjiwi Wagle, coordinator of the government
dialogue committee Chiranjivi Wagle. Pathak has been crusading for the peace talks meeting
people from both the government and the Maoists.
After the second round of talks in Thakurdwara of Bardia
district both the government and the Maoist team had arrived in Kathmandu for the next
rounds of talks. However, the process got disrupted after the government failed to meet
the demands put forth by the Maoists. The Maoists had demanded that the Public Security
Act enforced by the government be annulled, names of Maoists in government custody be made
public and be released.
Pathak was told about the government mindset on Wednesday and
accordingly met with two Maoist sources on Thursday. Immediately after that Pathak met
Prime Minister Deuba and Wagle at 7 and 9 pm, respectively, the source said.
The source added that the government has already made
preparations and will announce its decision to release around 70 rebels in custody in a
day or two. Similarly the government will make its decision regarding the Public Security
Act but since the government has already made public its opinion about the
"disappeared rebels" it is not going to touch the issue.
"The situation till now was against the continuation of
the peace talks but now it will take its pace," Pathak told The Kathmandu
Post.According to a member of the government talks team the coordinator of the Maoist talk
team is likely to arrive in Kathmandu on Friday and third rounds of talks will be held on
Saturday.
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