UNMIN must stay: Maoists
KATHMANDU, AUG 22: -
The UCPN (Maoist) on Saturday said the government cannot unilaterally decide on the fate of the United Nations Mission in Nepal (UNMIN) as it was established as per mutual understanding between the then Seven-Party Alliance (SPA) government and the CPN (Maoist), The Kathmandu Post reeports.

The Maoists have it that any unilateral decision on the part of the government to send back UNMIN before having completed the task of integration and rehabilitation of Maoist combatants would put the peace process in jeopardy. The SPA and the Maoists had invited UNMIN in Aug. 2006 to support the peace process. “UNMIN is a common and neutral institution and the decision on its future can only be taken on the basis of political consensus,” said Maoist leader Janardan Sharma.

The Maoist stand comes a day after the Nepal Army asked the government not to extend the mission’s term, which expires on Sept. 15. The government has said it will take a call on the tenure based on political consensus.

“The absence of UNMIN will deepen the conflict, while the peace process will go into the doldrums,” Sharma said.

On Friday, Chief of Army Staff (CoAS) Chhatra Man Singh Gurung met Peace and Reconstruction Minister Rakam Chemjong and told him that UNMIN should not be “imposed on the country.”

The Maoists’ People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Chief Nanda Kishore Pun “Pasang” on Saturday said he will lodge a complaint against the Army in the upcoming meeting of the Joint Monitoring Coordination Committee (JMCC) scheduled for Aug. 26.

The NA, on the other hand, has announced that it will boycott the JMCC meeting if plans to discuss Army recruitment.



Meanwhule,: Minister for Peace and Reconstruction Rakam Chemjong on Saturday said UNMIN may not take the country’s peace process to a logical end. Speaking at the Reporters’ Club, the Minister said UNMIN’s task of monitoring arms and armies can be transferred to a domestic mechanism. He said UNMIN’s role in the peace process has ended as the tasks of verification of Maoist combatants, locking of weapons in containers and monitoring of the Constituent Assembly elections have ended.
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Libya out of bounds for Nepali workers

Kathmandu, 22 Aug.: Responding to host of complaints about the problems that face Nepali workers in Libya, the government has completely stopped issuing prior and final approval for sending workers in that country, Republica reports.
In the last two years since the government formally gave permission for manpower agencies to send workers to Libya, more than 2,500 persons have already reached there through institutional channels, to work mainly in the construction sector.
“We have suspended prior and final permissions for Libya on practical grounds, given the increasing number of reports of suffering by Nepalis there,” said Manohar Khanal, director of Department of Foreign Employment.
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