Kathmandu, August 22 :

Minister for Home Affairs Krishna Prasad Sitaula told the Parliamentary State Affairs Committee (SAC) today that a UN mission would arrive in Kathmandu in the first week of September to expedite the peace process.

“The UN team would arrive within 10 days,” Sitaula quoted Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala as saying in the Cabinet meeting today.

According to him, the government has requested the United Nations to send a mission, establish its office here and operate till sustainable peace is restored. He also said the Maoists would submit to the government their model of ‘designated cantonment’ for confining their combatants on August 25.

“The Maoists are currently working on selecting cantonment at various places in the country. It is necessary for us to work faster so that the UN team would be able to work better once it arrives here,” Sitaula told reporters after SAC’s meeting.

Expressing his firm belief that the dialogue would not break at any cost this time, the Home Minister said: “The three-month ceasefire will turn into a permanent one. The Maoist leadership is serious about making the dialogue successful.”

Sitaula, however, said that the Maoists cannot be treated like other political parties unless they continue to carry arms. Apprising SAC members about the government’s step to maintain law and order by controlling miscreants, he said that the Nepal Police, during a massive campaign launched today from Koteshwor to Sanepa, arrested 60 people.

Answering questions on government’s approach on the violation of the Ceasefire Code of Conduct and other agreements by the Maoists, Sitaula said, “We have seriously raised these concerns. The Maoist leaders have expressed their commitment to stop such activities.”

He told the SAC members that the government had taken security of highways as an utmost priority. “We have also been working on providing compensation to the conflict victims as quickly as possible. We have also been re-establishing police posts, 60 per cent of which were shifted earlier due to threats,” said Sitaula.

Citing the incidents in Udayapur and Jhapa, where the Maoists reportedly tried to annul the verdict given by the district courts, MP Hom Nath Dahal questioned the Maoists’ commitment to the Ceasefire Code of Conduct.

MP Pradip Nepal said: “The Maoists have implemented parallel taxation system in villages and their leaders have publicly said they would go for urban revolution, which is like the October revolution, if the talks fail. Are such actions and the statement not in violation of the Ceasefire Code of Conduct?”

He also asked Sitaula to get the list of Maoist combatants and militia from the CPN-Maoist.