Kathmandu: The UN on Friday ended its peace
mission in Nepal after four years, as the chief of the world
body asked the deadlocked parties to redouble their efforts to
push forward the stalled political reconciliation process.
The UN`s blue flag was today lowered at the
Kathmandu`s office of the UNMIN, which was established by the
world body as a special political mission in 2007 to manage
the arms and armed personnel of the Maoists and the Nepal
Army.
"Today, we symbolically lower the flag for the closure
of the mission, which officially comes to an end tomorrow at
midnight. A small mission liquidation team will remain, to
complete administrative withdrawal matters," said UNMIN Chief
Karin Landgren, who had last week courted controversy for her
"frank" assessment of the peace process.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today said the
parties had made "insufficient" progress in taking the peace
process to a logical end.
"Regrettably, insufficient progress was made. I
encourage the parties to redouble their efforts to build the
confidence that can bring progress on all fronts of Nepal?s
peace process," Ban said in a statement issued by the UNMIN in
the capital.
Landgren said "there are, most immediately,
outstanding issues in relation to the future of the arms and
armies.
It is still unclear who will supervise the peace
process even as the government and the main Opposition Maoists
today inked a crucial eleventh-hour deal over the issue.
Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal and UCPN-Maoist
chairman Prachanda inked a three-point deal to form a six-
member team to monitor the arms and armies of both Maoist and
the government after the departure of UNMIN tomorrow.
UNMIN, which was established on January 23, 2007 by UN
Security Council Resolution 1740, had extended its term for
the seventh time on September 15, 2010 for four months. It
wraps up its peace mission tomorrow.
Political parties have so far been unable to agree on
the future of some 19,000 former Maoist combatants, whether
they should be integrated into the government security forces
or rehabilitated back into society.
The Maoists, who joined mainstream politics after a
decade-long insurgency in 2006, has accused the mainstream
parties of trying to isolate the former rebels so that they
are deprived of leading another coalition.
The country has been in political limbo since the June
30 resignation of Prime Minister Nepal. Despite 16 rounds of
polls, the parliament has been unable to elect a new leader,
stalling the 2006 peace process in the country.
PTI
