NATIONAL 1 (Spotlight Weekly)]

Peace Proposal

Nepal expresses its willingness to open a regional peace-keeping training center with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan

By A CORRESPONDENT

At a time when Nepal is lobbying hard with the international community to seek support for its efforts to establish a regional peace-keeping training center in Paanchkhal, Kavre, the visit by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has injected fresh enthusiasm among policy-makers.

"Nepal plays very important role in the international peace-keeping operations," said Annan, talking to reporters upon his arrival. The UN chief praised Nepal for providing outstanding peace-keepers in international missions.

These words are clearly seen as a boost to Nepal's effort to establish the regional training center for the blue-helmets, especially in view of Annan's association with the UN Department for Peace-keeping Operations before he assumed his current position in 1997.

Mr. and Mrs Kofi Annan : Fruitful visit

Although secretary-general Annan paid a brief two-day trip, it was significant for a small country like Nepal. The visit gave the country an opportunity to highlight its problems and concerns first-hand to the head of the world's primary global body.

UN Secretary-General Annan held talks with several Nepalese officials and also called on Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala. King Birendra also granted audience to the UN chief.

During his talks with Prime Minister Koirala and Foreign Minister Chakra Prasad Bastola, UN Secretary-General Annan discussed a whole gamut of issues, including the impasse surrounding the Bhutanese refugees in eastern Nepal, protection of human rights, promotion of the interests of Least Developed Countries (LDCs) along with the issue of UN peace-keeping operations.

Nepal is demanding an increase in the number of Royal Nepalese Army officials who go for peace-keeping duties around the world.

In the last four decades of involvement in UN peace-keeping operations, Nepal has already sent more than 40,000 soldiers. According to the UN statistics, Nepal has altogether 1,030 personnel on peace-keeping missions abroad, comprising 22 observers, 24 policemen and 884 troops.

Nepalese blue-helmets are currently deployed in East Timor and Lebanon and there is a plan to send them to Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of Congo soon.

Nepal has also raised its plan to physically position the office of the director of the UN Regional Center for Peace and Disarmament for the Asia-Pacific region. That office currently operates out of UN headquarters in New York.

"Annan held talks on a broad spectrum of issues ranging from Bhutanese refugees to peace-keeping and disarmament," Foreign Minister Bastola said.

As one of the largest contributors of contingents for UN peace-keeping, Annan's visit to Nepal was very significant as the international environment is building for more extensive involvement of the UN in peace-keeping and conflict prevention.

Initially, Annan's South Asian itinerary did not include Nepal. But after some constructive lobbying from Nepalese diplomats, the secretary-general landed in the Himalayan kingdom. He is the fourth UN secretary-general after U Thant, Kurt Waldheim and Javier Perez de Cuellar, to have come to Nepal.

Fresh from his visit to Pakistan, Annan arrived here in March 12 and after a 24-hour stay, he left the country for Bangladesh. He is expected to wind up his South Asian tour after visiting India.