Kathmandu, July 08: A third round of peace talks between Nepal's government and Maoist rebels is being held up by the guerrillas' insistence that the army's movement first be restricted, official sources said today. Four facilitators, two appointed by each side, have spent the last few days in meetings with both the government and Maoists to spur on fresh negotiations, they said.

Maoist demands that troops be restricted to moving within five kilometers from their barracks, however, have stymied the facilitators' efforts, the sources added.

Asked about the dispute, Bharat Dhungana of the Maoists' information office in Kathmandu told newspersons: "the release of prisoners and restricting the movement of troops to five kilometers are priorities before the peace talks."
He rejected a counter-demand from the army that troop movement would be restricted only if the Maoists first turned over weapons looted from troops over the seven-year insurgency.

Dhungana said that a weapons handover could only come as part of a restructuring of Nepal's army and its merger with the Maoists' "People's Liberation Army."

Nepal has been mostly at peace since the government and rebels agreed to a ceasefire January 29, despite a series of small but deadly skirmishes reported between the parties over the past month.
There have been no formal negotiations since May 9, amid dispute over what was agreed to at the second round.

Bureau Report