THT 10 YEARS AGO: 30,852 Maoists, 3,428 arms registered

Kathmandu, February 23, 2007

The United Nations Mission in Nepal (UNMIN) today made public initial details of 30,852 Maoist combatants and 3,428 weapons registered in cantonments.

Some weapons kept outside cantonment sites by the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist for security of leaders have also been registered, it said. “The UNMIN is in the process of registering members of the Maoist army currently engaged in leadership security arrangements or undergoing medical treatment outside the cantonment sites,” Ian Martin, the personal representative of the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, told a press conference here, before leaving for New York. Martin will hold a meeting with the UN budgetary authority in New York next week to finalise the UNMIN’s budget. He will also meet DFID officials in London on his way back here.

The weapons the UNMIN has registered include 91 mortars, of which 55 are localmade, 61 machine guns, 2,403 rifles, 61 sub-machine guns, 114 side arms, 212 shotguns, 233 home-made weapons and 253 “other weapons”. A total of 524 weapons retained for security by guards in camps and 49 retained away from cantonments for Maoist leaders’ security have also been included in the count.

Martin said the UNMIN is not in a position to confirm or deny reports of weapons purchases by the Maoists, although the registered weapons include a number of arms not used by the Nepali Army, such as the AK-47s.

SC show cause to govt on vacant NHRC posts

Kathmandu, February 23, 2007

The Supreme Court today issued notices to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and Cabinet and the Constitutional Council headed by PM Girija Prasad Koirala asking them to clarify why the posts of the chairperson and members of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) are still vacant.

A single bench of Justice Balaram KC was responding to a writ petition filed on February 20 by a group of four officials of the NHRC, seeking the apex court’s mandamus order to the authorities to appoint the chairperson and the members. The bench directed the authorities to submit their written replies within 15 days. The petitioners claimed that the government’s failure to appoint the NHRC officials has made the national rights body inactive.

According to them, 870 complaints are currently pending due to the absence of the members and the chief. The posts had fallen vacant after the NHRC’s former chairperson Nayan Bahadur Khatri and members resigned seven months ago after the parliament initiated an impeachment process against them.

Though the Council of Ministers decided to appoint former Chief Justice Bishwonath Upadhyaya the NHRC chairman and former administrator Dr Lila Pathak and rights activist Gauri Pradhan the members, the appointment was stalled.