Kathmandu, February 10:

Arms registration and storage by United Nations (UN) Monitors in the western part of Nepal has now been concluded, confirmed Ian Martin, the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General in Nepal, following a visit yesterday to cantonment sites of the PLA in Kailali and Surkhet.

Martin arrived at Kailali just as UN teams were registering and storing the arms of a final group of about 100 of the combatants based at the PLA seventh main cantonment site. He was joined on the ground by the senior UN arms monitor, General Jan Erik Wilhelmsen, according to a press release issued by United Nations Mission in Nepal (UNMIN) here today.

Under the procedures established by agreement between the Government and CPN-M, arms were catalogued and bar-coded by registration teams before being stored on racks inside cargo containers. The containers are locked and subject to UN monitoring.

Arms storage at Surkhet, which UNMIN chief Martin toured later in the day, had been completed on Thursday, the release added.

“With only two sites to go in the East, arms registration and storage is now approaching its conclusion, and that will be an important staging post in the peace process. But the conditions in the cantonments are lagging behind. I intend to raise these concerns with the Government,” Martin said.