Kathmandu - Nepal's former Maoist rebel combatants have
issued veiled threats against political parties over growing
opposition to their integration into the national army, a media
report said Tuesday.
Rebel commanders said they were meeting in western Nepal to
discuss how to respond to political opposition to the large-scale
inclusion of combatants in the country's security forces, Kantipur
newspaper said.
'The discussions have focused on whether to accept the decision by
the political leadership or opt for another revolt,' Kantipur
newspaper quoted an unnamed Maoist commander as saying.
However, there were considerable differences of opinion among the
commanders of various Maoist combat divisions over what their future
move should be, the newspaper said.
'The issue was sparked off after three top former Maoist guerrilla
leaders met last month to discuss growing opposition to integration
of former rebels into the national army,' the newspaper quoted the
commander as saying.
Mahendra Bahadur Shahi, the head of the seventh Maoist division
based in western Nepal, who is considered a hardliner, even
threatened to start an armed revolt if politicians can't agree on the
integration of the former rebels, the newspaper said.
On Monday, a senior minister in the Maoist-led coalition
government said large-scale integration would be unacceptable to his
party.
Foreign Minister Upendra Yadav, who represents the influential
ethnic Madhesi People's Right Forum, said if the former rebel
fighters wanted to join the army, they must do so individually and
meet the set criteria for selection.
However, Maoist combatant leaders have rejected integration based
on individual qualification.
On Saturday, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said
integration of the former rebel combatants was the biggest challenge
for Nepal's peace process.
Of the originally 31,000 Maoist combatants in 28 UN supervised
camps across Nepal, only 19,000 passed the rigid verification by
United Nations Mission in Nepal (UNMIN) that qualified them for
integration.
The Maoists waged a decade-long insurgency to convert Nepal into a
communist republic.
What was initially a band of few hundred Maoists armed with
home-made weapons in 1996 became a feared fighting force of several
thousands within a few years, attacking army and police forces across
the country.
Nearly 14,000 people died in the insurgency which formally ended
after a mass movement toppled then-king Gyanednra's government in
early 2006.
The Maoists emerged as the biggest party in the elections for a
constituent assembly in April 2008, enabling them to form a coalition
government a few months later.
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