Shaktikhor, Nepal (AHN) – In a major break through in Nepal’s ongoing peace process, Nepal’s Maoist party formally handed over the command over its more than 19,000 ex- fighter to the Prime Minister led Special Committee (SC) on Saturday.
They have been languishing in seven major and 28 sub-cantonments since 2006 following a peace deal was signed between the then Nepal Government and Maoist party.
These ex-fighters had fought for decades in Nepal to establish a hard core communist regime.
The task of monitoring and supervising the Maoist combatants was previously undertaken by the UN’s peace mission, UNMIN.
After the UNMIN departed from Nepal on Jan. 15, the fate of the 19,000 Maoist enemy combatants has been uncertain due to the lack of a monitoring and supervising body.
On January 22, the responsibility was officially handed over to the Prime Minister led security council.
The 2006 reads that the combatants will be given several options while in the process of regrouping, like – integration in Nepal’s security agencies, rehabilitation in society, job offer in different sectors, providing seed money to do own business and others.
“We here by declare that from today onward all the members of the Maoist combatants have formally come under the SC,” the declaration reads.
Ending the four year long process, Saturday’s turn of events has boosted confidence in completing the remaining tasks of Nepal’s protracted peace process.
Nepal’s Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal and Chairman of UCPN (Maoist) Pushpa Kamal Dahal signed a historic hand-off agreement on Saturday at Shaktikhor (105 miles south from the capital Kathmandu), one of the major cantonments of the former PLA at an amid function witnessed by the senior Nepali leaders, chief of security agencies and Kathmandu based diplomats.
Both, Prime Minister Nepal and Chairman Dahal hoisted the Nepali flag and signed the declaration paper. “PLA is now the responsibility of the state,” the Prime Minister said. Similarly, Dahal said,” We still have long way to go. I thanked the patience of the combatants that they have waited such a long time and assistance that was provided by the international community.”
Immediately after the hand- off ceremony, the US hailed the event saying that,” The United States congratulates Nepal’s leaders for completing the important process of transferring the command and control of the Maoist combatants to the Special Committee on Supervision, Integration, and Rehabilitation of Maoist combatants. The handover of the Maoist People’s Liberation Army to the Special Committee constitutes a welcome and positive step forward in the peace process.”
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