Prachanda objects to Koirala’s secret letter to UN
Posted by Srn on July 24th, 2006
Strongly objecting Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala’s attempt to decommission Maoist arms written in confusing language and sent secretly to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan more than three weeks ago, Maoist Chairman Prachanda on Monday said his party disagrees over certain crucial points of the letter.
Prachanda has his first disagreement over the government way of sending letter secretively without consulting them, secondly the crucial points (3), which (the govt. letter requesting the UN to) says-”Assist in the monitoring of the combatants of the Maoist and decommissioning of their arms in order to ensure a free and fair election to the Constituent Assembly, and (4) monitor to assure that Nepali Army is inside barrack and is not being used for or against any side in order to ensure free and fair elections to the Constituent Assembly.
The Maoist supremo said, “such arbitrary and unilateral application of two different yardsticks to the two armies is highly objectionable and totally unacceptable to us. Particularly any talk of “decommissioning” of arms of only the PLA before the election to the constituent assembly is just unthinkable.”
The government letter was made public after more than two weeks by the Parliamentary Committee following mounting criticisms from various political parties and the Maoists.
-Azad
Full text of Prachanda’s letter to Kofi Annan
H.E. Mr. Kofi Annan
Secretary-General of the United Nations
New York
Dear Mr. Secretary-General,
This is to draw your attention to the letter sent to you by the Government of Nepal on 2 July 2006 and to register our strong protest and disagreement over certain crucial points of the letter.
Firstly, the letter was written & sent unilaterally and secretively without any consultation with us in utter violation of the spirit of ongoing negotiation between the Government of Nepal and the C.P.N (Maoist). We came to know about the letter through the media after nearly three weeks, and hence this delay to register our disagreement over it.
Secondly, and more importantly, the content of the letter, particularly as stated in points nos. 3 & 4, is in complete violation of the 12-point Understanding of 22 November 2005 and 8-point Agreement of 16 June 2006 reached between the two sides. For your kind recollection, clause-3 of the 8-point Agreement clearly states: “To request the United Nations to assist in the management of the armies and arms of both sides (emphasis added) and to monitor it for a free & fair election to the constituent assembly”. Against this, the said letter self-professedly and provocatively talks of “Assist in the monitoring of the combatants of the Maoists and decommissioning of their arms” and “Monitor to assure that the Nepal Army is inside barracks” etc. Such arbitrary and unilateral application of two different yardsticks to the two armies is highly objectionable and totally unacceptable to us. Particularly any talk of “decommissioning” of arms of only the PLA before the election to the constituent assembly is just unthinkable. As everybody knows, the so-called Nepal Army is still loyal to the autocratic monarchy and its democratic restructuring and keeping under credible international monitoring is more imperative & important for free & fair election to the constituent assembly.
We would like to reiterate our appreciation to the United Nations and to you personally for the positive role played so far in favour of democracy, peace and progress in Nepal and expect the same in future. We shall be happy to co-operate in any manner with the UN team planning to visit Nepal soon.
Please accept, Excellency, the assurances of our highest consideration.
Prachanda
Chairman
Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist)
24 July 2006
July 24th, 2006 at 4:40 pm
well, we all the citizen can not accept any types of violent natured activities .one thing we have to remember is one day they told us they are fighting with feudal army and next day they told us they are making praparation to fight with(imperialist,its not my words its theirs!) india.its not finished with this, they compel to villegers to make trench for their safe guard. we people can not accept these types of nonsense anymore. inspecting by un its their demand so they have to commited on their words if they are really reponsible party! for the country.
maoist party has got great chance to modify their organization if showed lapses of thought they will lose this chance for forever.very important thing is if they really keen to resolve national problem they should stop baby crying behaviour.matured and moderate politician has to gut to resolve problem on the table by talks or negociation.
we can not out cast maoist demand but they have to treat national concesus seriously. albeit national government ,international community and public has to outlawed their demand about de composing national securit”s arms.
July 24th, 2006 at 8:59 pm
Firstly, the Koirala government breached the 8-point deal by sending the letter to the UN secretively. Secondly, the letter was not unveiled even after the mounting pressure on the government from the rebels, civil society and other parties. Thirdly, the Maoists reacted very late, after nearly five days.
Though the seven-party alliance government and the rebels agreed to invite the UN to assist to monitor and manage armies and arms of both state and rebels’, we should understand that the Maoists are rebels who launched insurgency for the last 10 years leaving 13,000 people dead. The Maoists’ arms and armies are the main problems at the moment not the Nepal Army, management of the rebel arms and amries is more importanmt than that of the Nepal Army.
I dont think this issue will the cause for the Maoists to walkout of the peace process which has advanced very fast. There is no way to the Maoists to return to war.
July 25th, 2006 at 12:28 am
** It’s true ! A deceitful letter sent by Nepal Government **
Nepal Government did not play a fair game when it unilaterally sent the official letter inviting the UN to assist to monitor and manage the rebel and state arms to ensure free and fair election to the constituent assembly. The secretive nature of Nepal Government is clearly deceitful and it must be condemned. The point number 3 in the letter clearly stated that it wanted the UN to unilaterally decommissioning of Maoists arms to ensure a free and fair election. This is neither acceptable for Maoists nor for the general public. The reason is quite clear. Who will benefit after Maoists decommission their arms ? Definitely it will be beneficial for Nepal Army. Nepal Army will take advantage of this situation and it will influence the outcome of the constituent assembly election. We still have a large section of monarchists in Nepal Army. The army has not changed yet. It will not be a fair election.
Instead, both armies must be brought under the UN command and it must have mandate to merge together or structure a new army out of these two groups. In the mean time, for internal and external security of the country let the UN deploy foreign army. The deployment should be there till the completion of the election of constituent assembly and the new constitution is adopted.
Maoists should not be allowed to join Nepal government till they publicly dissociate from violence and extortion. We can keep our peace and freedom (Democracy) only when Maoists respect “Ballots” and stop worshiping “Guns”.