Kathmandu, June 11, 2007

The UN Mission in Nepal (UNMIN) is all set to begin the second stage of verification of Maoist combatants from Thursday.

This was decided today by the Joint Monitoring Coordination Committee (JMCC) headed by UNMIN’s General Jan Erik Wilhelmsen.

UNMIN is planned to begin the second stage of verification from Chula Chuli cantonment in Ilam, then it would move to Rolpa in the west and come to Surkhet, Kailali and Nawalparasi. It is going to end the second phase of verification in the central region where a cantonment is established in Chitwan. “This (beginning second stage of verification from Thursday) is something confirmed and decided, the first team left for Ilam this morning,” said Wilhelmsen after the JMCC meeting today.

UNMIN is sending 110 people along with required logistics for the verification and has plans to “re-deploy” UNICEF officials in the process. The verification would be done based on the information collected in last January and February when the registration was done.

UNMIN has computerised database, on the basis of which the verification teams would categorise Maoist combatants in three groups. The three groups would be army personnel, minors and those recruited after the ceasefire code of conduct was signed. UNMIN would arrange 10 verification desks and 16 registration desks in order to verify at least over 500 people in a day. UNMIN has registered 30,852 Maoist combatants during the first stage of registration process.

Govt-NEFIN talks end inconclusively

Kathmandu, June 11, 2007

Talks between the government talks team and the National Federation of Indigenous and Nationalities (NEFIN) ended inconclusively even today, as the government side remained noncommittal to NEFIN’s demand for full proportional representation system of election in the constituent assembly.

Both sides are scheduled to hold talks again on Wednesday. “We have been demanding that the assembly election must be held on full proportional representation based on ethnicity and there must be a minimum representation of all the communities in the constitution making body,” NEFIN talks team coordinator Dr Om Gurung told the media at the end of the inconclusive talks.

He said the government must be ready to make a third amendment to the interim constitution if the NEFIN issues could not be incorporated in the second amendment likely to be made by June 14.

Government talks team coordinator and Minister for Peace and Reconstruction Ram Chandra Poudel said that the government is ready to address the NEFIN issues even by making the third amendment.