Nepal's multi-party government and leftist rebels will sign a
permanent ceasefire deal as part of a comprehensive peace accord on
Thursday, the chief of the state's peace committee said Sunday.
Hopes of peace have grown in the Himalayan nation since the two
sides signed a temporary truce in April following King Gyanendra
relinquishing power after mass street protests.
The government and rebels also signed a power-sharing pact last
week in which the leftists will place their weapons under UN
supervision and join an interim administration by December 1.
Both sides are under intense public pressure to turn this
positive movement into lasting peace, ending a decade-long
insurgency to topple the monarchy. The conflict has killed over
13,000 people.
"The ceasefire agreement will be part of a comprehensive
national peace accord due to be signed by Prime Minister (Girija
Prasad Koirala) and (leftist chief) Prachanda on Thursday," said
Ram Chandra Poudel, co-ordinator of the state's peace committee,
which liaises and handles the peace process.
"It will turn the present situation of temporary truce into a
permanent ceasefire," he said.
He said the accord would include a human rights agreement, and
spell out arms monitoring details.
On Saturday, the United Nations urged the government and leftist
guerrillas to start focusing on protecting human rights following
last week's power-sharing agreement.
Under that pact, the leftists agreed to confine the
35,000-strong rebel army to 28 camps and place their weapons under
the UN supervision.
In return, they will be awarded 73 seats in the planned
330-member parliament under the December 1 interim
administration.
The army will also be barracked and an equal number of their
arms stored.
Officials said sites for camps to house the guerrillas were
being identified jointly by the United Nations, the government and
the rebels.
The UN team and representatives from the government, leftist
rebels, police and the army flew to the mountainous areas just
northeast of the capital, Katmandu, Sunday.
The team flew to Illam nestled in Nepal's eastern mountains on
Saturday for the survey.
Poudel said extortion, kidnapping and intimidation that had been
ignored by authorities so far would not be spared. Political
parties and human rights groups have accused the leftists of
extorting money and kidnapping people, despite the truce. The
rebels countered saying they only collected voluntary
donations.
(China Daily November 13, 2006)
