Kathmandu, June 13:

Leaders of the Nepali Congress, CPN-UML and the CPN-Maoist are divided over the issue of adjustment and rehabilitation of over 19,000 UNMIN-verified Maoist combatants living in cantonments.

While the NC and UML leaders said the Maoist combatants should be integrated into the national army based on individual qualification, a Maoist leader said the combatants could enter government forces in groups as per the Comprehensive Peace Agreement and the Agreement on Monitoring and the Management of Arms and Armies, witnessed by UNMIN chief Ian Martin.

According to him, the agreement treats the People’s Liberation Army on par with the Nepal Army.

The agreement on monitoring of arms and armies is, however, silent on the process and modalities of adjustment and rehabilitation of the Maoist combatants.

“Maoist combatants can join the national army only after they pass criteria set for military service,” NC leader Dr Prakash Sharan Mahat said at an interaction organised here. He suggested forming a high-level technical committee which can scrutinise the Maoist

combatants’ eligibility in the national force on an individual basis.

Bhim Rawal of the CPN-UML said the parties should formulate a policy on the adjustment and rehabilitation of the Maoist combatants before the new government comes in. He lamented that the special committee under the Council of Ministers did not work out a policy on the adjustment process. Adjustment of the PLA personnel is one of the most contentious issues that has come in the way of formation of a post-election government.

Rawal said verified Maoist combatants could be adjusted or rehabilitated within three months once the policy is agreed upon. Rawal said all combatants should also be given an option of joining the national force or choosing to lead a civilian life.

But Barshaman Pun “Ananta” of the CPN-Maoist said, “NC and UML leaders were aware of this issue when the Peace Accord and arms management agreement were signed.”

“NC and UML leaders do not talk about democratisation and down-sizing of the Nepal Army. They only raise the issue of the PLA’s adjustment,” he said.

Pun said the issue of PLA adjustment was associated with ideology as well. Had there been no PLA in the camps, the nation would not have moved towards a republican order so peacefully, he said. “We know how late King Mahendra staged a coup against BP Koirala’s elected government in 1960s,” Pun said. He claimed that new preconditions on the issue of combatants’ adjustment are “aimed at derailing the peace process”.

Pun said no new agreement could be reached on the PLA adjustment by breaching the Peace Accord and agreement on arms and armies.

He, however, said his party was not in favour of continuing with two armies and parallel government in the county after the CA polls.