Kathmandu, Nov 22: Asserting that the political crisis and Maoist violence are hampering development process, Germany, one of Nepal's largest donors, has offered to mediate in the peace talks, media reported today. If the conflicting parties are ready to accept third party involvement, any country from the European community is ready to play that role, German ambassador Rudiger Lemp told reporters yesterday.
Past two phases of the truce and cease-fire have failed as they lacked strong monitoring and observation to keep the peace talks on track, Lemp was quoted as saying by government-run daily the rising Nepal.
"We as a donor country strongly feel that the present conflict is eating up resources that the country badly needs," he said, adding it should be resolved through peaceful means, as Nepal cannot afford to take money away from social sector and development to spend on war and arms.
Development activities carried through German assistance have also been affected by the present political crisis, he said, and called on all democratic forces to unite to find a way out of the current crisis facing the country.
He also expressed dissatisfaction over the recent nominations at the local bodies by the government of Lokendra Bahadur Thapa from his own party cadres.
It is apparent that an election cannot be held in a free and fair manner under the present circumstances so, an all party government would be the best way out of the present political crisis, he said, thus endorsing one of the demands of the agitating five major political parties. Bureau Report