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| Kathmandu, Saturday December 28, 2002 Paush 13, 2059. |
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‘India wants to inspect our arms’
Post Report
KATHMANDU, Dec 27 : The
airline and arms agents responsible for the delivery of a consignment of machine guns from
Belgium to Nepal are still working to get an overflying permission from India, highly
reliable sources in the Royal Nepal Army said.
"The agents and
the airline are currently working to get a formal permission to use the Indian airspace to
fly the aircraft into Nepal (from Kazakhstan, where it has remained grounded for last two
weeks)," one highly placed RNA officer told The Kathmandu Post on customary condition
of anonymity today.
South Belgium based FN
Herstal announced the delivery of the first shipment of about 500 Minimi machine guns to
the RNA on December 14. Two weeks on, the aircraft is nowhere in sight. Knowledgeable
officials say that it diverted to Kazakhstan after India denied overflying permission to
it in "strategic grounds".
Soon after this
newspaper broke the news last Friday, Indian Embassy here clarified that neither Belgium
government nor the airline carrying the arms had sought the permission with the government
of India. Nepali officials, too, have heaped the blame on the airline carrying the
shipment of arms.
As the FN Herstal is to
deliver 5,500 Minimis to the RNA as per a Euro 25 million deal hammered out by former
Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba earlier this year.
The arms delivery was
made after two groups of Belgian observers that visited Nepal recently submitted their
reports about the overall situation in Nepal. The report also said that the shipment was
made, just when the Belgian parliament prepared to pass a new and stricter arms sale law.
The deal has remained
controversial all along. In August, the Belgian government was rocked when one of its
allies in the ruling ‘rainbow’ coalition protested against the arms delivery to
a country, where democracy and human rights were not very positive. The row also saw the
resignation of senior cabinet minister Magda Aelvoet.
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