UN official hopes leaders will bring out credible arms management plan

Kathmandu, October 11:

Deputy Prime Minister KP Oli today said the ongoing summit talks would soon settle key issues, including arms management and interim constitution, and bring all social disparities

to an end.

Deputy prime minister Oli was addressing Non-Resident Nepalis (NRNs) at a one-day seminar organised to mark the NRN Day.

The coalition government is committed to consolidating and strengthening democracy by holding elections to a constituent assembly, deputy prime minister Oli further said, adding:

“This will bring permanent peace in the country besides ending all prevailing disparities.”

Saying that the United Nations is already here to help Nepal, assistant secretary-general of the United Nations, Kul Chandra Gautam, hoped that the political leaders, during tomorrow’s summit talks, would agree to a “credible and sensible” plan for arms management, abandon violence, constitute an interim government of national unity and accelerate the process of conducting free and fair elections to a constituent assembly.

This, he said, would usher in a modern, progressive, multiparty democracy to build a just, prosperous and peaceful Nepal, where rights are respected and human security is secured.

“While this important political process is ongoing, it is vital that we also work simultaneously towards developing an ambitious post-conflict reconstruction and development plan, so that the Nepali people will see rapid improvement in their living standards,” Gautam further said.

Gautam called on the leaders of different political parties to come up with a negotiated settlement that would be in the interest of the country.

“In recent years, we (NRNs) felt embarrassed to introduce ourselves as Nepalis and having to acknowledge that our country had become a land of senseless war, unspeakable brutality, and rights violations, where a group of misguided “revolutionaries” were trying to impose a universal-discredited ideology.”

Gautam labelled the king as “arrogant” and “ambitious” for undermining democratic institutions and criticised the elected political leaders for “betraying” the people’s trust in the past. “The Jana Andolan of April 2006 has once again allowed us to redeem our dignity and hold our heads high when we introduce ourselves as Nepalis,” Gautam, the assistant secretary general of the UN, said.