The UN mission has returned to New York virtually empty-handed, except for the hope that the seven-party alliance (SPA) government and the CPN-Maoist would reach an agreement soon on the subject of arms management. Prime Minister Koirala and Maoist chairman Prachanda are reported to have agreed to send a joint letter. The government is keen on sending it but only on its terms that match the line adopted by the US and some other countries — that the Maoists and their weapons must be separated before their induction into an interim government. But the rebels do not seem to have moved away from their stand that the Maoist and the state armies must be judged by the same yardstick and that the constituent assembly (CA) alone should

decide how a new national army is to be formed by merging both these armies.

In the meantime, Ian Martin, the chief of the UN human rights watchdog office in Nepal, has called on both sides to send the joint letter in question to the UN by today because the UN mission is supposed to submit its report to the UN secretary-general Kofi Annan this week. But any hurry in sending a letter cannot constitute a virtue in itself, either. The implications of arms management are so wide-ranging and profound that it is difficult to persuade the rebels to agree on a one-sided disarmament. Also significant is the latest remark by Krishna Bahadur Mahara, the coordinator of the Maoist talks team, that the rebels would be ready even to destroy their weapons if all the political forces agreed on a republican set-up. This perhaps explains the nature of Maoist sensitivities. Another minister has warned of a civil war if the citizenship issue in the Terai area was not resol-ved before the CA polls. These discordant voices cha-racterise the politics of the day, but this cacophony is unlikely to steer the country to a clear destination.

The signals coming from various quarters do not appear to inspire confidence. Bamdev Gautam, CPN-UML politburo member, has accused Prime Minister Koirala and Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister KP Sharma Oli, from his own party, of provoking the rebels by their insistence, at foreigners’ behest, on decommissioning their arms. Gautam ruled out the possibility of bringing the Maoists into the political mainstream without giving them a ‘respectable space’. He predicted a royal takeover again if the Maoists withdrew from the peace talks. Indeed, giving the rebels a respectable alternative to the armed conflict is essential, so is the need for the SPA (government) to keep its word. As if not enough has been said,, Deputy Prime Minister Amik Sherchan has warned of another kind of possibility — intervention of foreign forces in Nepal. However, he did not name the country but predicted a large-scale massacre. Though several other politicians have raised the foreign bogey before him, it tends to create a scare of sorts. What, however, is true is, short of troops, foreign intervention is already here.