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| Kathmandu, Monday January 06, 2003 Paush 22, 2059. |
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US arms arrive, wait on for Belgian Minimis
By Surendra Phuyal
KATHMANDU, Jan 5:After days of wait, a special cargo plane
from the United States carrying a consignment of modern M-16 rifles finally landed at the
Tribhuvan International Airport today.
The consignment consists of 3,000 M-16 A2
rifles manufactured in the United States. The delivery was made as part of a bilateral
deal hammered out between the Sher Bahadur Deuba government and the US government last
year. As part of the deal, the US is to supply 5,000 M-16 rifles. The
plane arrived in Kathmandu via Hong Kong.
The Royal Nepal Army (RNA), which is
currently engaged in combating Maoists who have been declared terrorists by the
government, is in the process of being equipped with modern and sophisticated weapons.
Arrival of the latest cache of arms is beginning of the process.
First delivery of 5,500 Minimi machine guns
from Belgium is also arriving Nepal soon. The shipment sent sometime in mid-December
contains 500 Minimis, but the arms have not yet arrived in Nepal. An East European
airliner making the delivery had got stuck in Kazakhstan due to a lack of overflying
permission from India. India has already given permission to the flight.
RNA, which joined the civilian and the armed
police forces in taking on the Maoist rebels little more than a year ago, plans to fully
equip its 55,000-strong forces with M-16 rifles soon.
Currently, the soldiers are using India-made
self-loaded rifles (SLRs), light machine guns (LMGs) and other arms, which reportedly have
started creating problems like stoppage and overheating.
Unlike SLRs, soldiers armed with M-16s -
which are generally attached to ammunition belts - can fire up to 30 rounds with little or
no stoppage in the battlefield. "With M-16s, we can easily shoot within the range of
300 or 350 metres," one army officer said.
First developed during Vietnam war, M-16s have been known for
their lightness, and accuracy while shooting at targets. The US forces and many other
elite forces around the world carry them.
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