Nepal's former Maoist rebels begin handing over weapons

Nepal's former Maoist rebels begin handing over weapons

17/01/2007 - 11:38:07

Nepal’s former communist guerrillas began handing over weapons to UN monitors today, launching a landmark peace deal calling for thousands of fighters to disarm and stay in camps, officials said.

The Maoists entered mainstream politics for the first time two days earlier, when 83 former guerrillas took oaths of office and were sworn in as lawmakers in Nepal’s 330-seat interim parliament. They are now the second-largest group in the legislature.

UN arms monitors have begun registering the ex-fighters and their weapons just after noon at a camp in the southern town of Chitwan, about 100 miles south of the capital Kathmandu, said a spokesman for the rebel unit there.

The spokesman, who goes by the single name Abiral, said the process was going smoothly.

A UN official involved in the process said the rebels fighters lined up and handed the monitors documents that contained details about themselves and their weapons.

The weapons were then stored in large metal shipping containers brought in from neighbouring India, said the UN official.

The weapons and most of the former fighters will be confined to seven main camps. Some, however, will be housed in 21 smaller camps across the Himalayan nation.

The UN official said it was unclear how long the process would take.

These former rebels are to be confined to the UN-supervised camps until an election later this year for a special assembly, which will write a new constitution and decide on the ex-fighters’ future.

The Maoist guerrillas had fought to end the impoverished Himalayan country’s monarchy and in a decade-long rebellion that left 13,000 people dead.

In addition to taking legislative seats, the communists will also join an interim government that will hold the elections.

A government-rebel peace deal signed last year calls for the guerrillas to be confined to camps and their weapons to be locked in metal containers under UN supervision.

As part of the peace process, the seven ruling political parties and the rebels agreed to set up the current interim parliament. Negotiators from the parties and the Maoists also created an interim constitution.

The temporary legislature and constitution are to remain in place until the elections later this year. The assembly will draft a new, permanent constitution, which will determine what type of political system Nepal – a long-time constitutional monarchy – will have in the future.

A ceasefire between the government and rebels was declared in April 2006 following the weeks of mass pro-democracy protests that forced King Gyanendra to relinquish absolute control, which he had taken on the previous year, saying the government was corrupt and unable to halt the violent communist uprising.