The United Kingdom has said the donor community is trying to hammer out a common position regarding the assistance to Nepal. The UK, which has already suspended military aid to Nepal in the wake of Feb 1 royal move, has also made clear that its development aid to Nepal would depend on the decision of the ongoing 61st annual meeting of the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva.

Kantipur daily Thursday quoted British ambassador to Nepal, Keith George Bloomfield, as saying that his country has extended support to the proposal tabled by Switzerland at the Geneva meet, prescribing restoration of democratic process in Nepal. He claimed that majority of donors were in support of the Swiss proposal.

The international community, Bloomfield said, has single voice regarding the call for release of the political detainees, withdrawal of the state of emergency and early restoration of press freedom.

The British envoy further said that Nepal’s major donors at a meeting in London on Friday were in ‘wait and see’ mode regarding their assistance programs. The meeting represented by the officials of Canada, the Netherlands, the UK and some other European Union nations decided to seek collective support at the Geneva meet for the restoration of democratic process in Nepal.

He argued that development and social activities in Nepal were shrinking following the royal move, which may result in the suspension of some of the development programs of the DFID, the British aid agency.

Saying that the Maoist problem was not going to be settled without the support and cooperation from the political parties, Bloomfield said the present situation wherein the political parties and their leaders have been prevented from carrying out their activities and are not allowed to have information was anything but normal.