Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala (File photo)
Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala (File photo)
Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala has assured that a joint letter to the United Nations for arms monitoring would be sent by Wednesday.
Talking to delegation of the civil society representatives who organized a sit-in front of the residence of Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala at Baluwatar on Tuesday evening, Prime Minister Koirala said, “There are only minor differences between the government and the Maoists over the issue of sending a joint letter to the UN and the differences will be bridged by Wednesday.
The high level UN team led by Staffan de Mistura that returned after the assessment visit of Nepal has asked the government and the Maoists to find consensus in the issue of arms management.
During its weeklong stay in Kathmandu, the UN Mission had held discussions with various personalities including Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala, ministers, leaders of the seven-party alliance, CPN (Maoist) and the foreign missions based here. The Mission had set a three-day ‘deadline’ till last Thursday (August 3) for the government and the Maoists to arrive at a consensus on how the UN should engage itself in Nepal’s peace process, but both sides failed to meet the deadline.
The civil society leaders organized the sit-in demanding an early implementation of the eight-point parties-Maoist agreement, especially the dissolution of the House and management of arms.
Civil society activists on their way to Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala?s residence at Baluwatar, Kathmandu, to submit a memorandum to the PM, urging the government for speedy peace process on Tuesday, Aug 08 06. nepalnews/ANA
Civil society activists on their way to Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala’s…
Human right activists, language and ethnic right activists, teachers, singers, artists and journalists took part in the sit-in.
Handing over the memorandum, the delegates told the Prime Minister that the civil society was not happy with the political developments. They also accused the government of being regressive in nature and going against the spirit of the Jana Aandolan (People’s movement) II.
“We reminded the PM that the civil society had also played a crucial role in making the Jana Aandolan-II successful. We urged him to listen to our voices,” said Dr Devendra Raj Pandey, coordinator of the Citizens’ Movement for Democracy and Peace, the organiser of the sit-in, after meeting the PM.
He quoted PM Koirala as saying that “visible progress” will take place in the government-Maoist talks in two to three days.
The memorandum has also demanded action against army officers involved in suppressing the peaceful demonstrations in April. It has sought immediate announcement of dates for elections of the constituent assembly.
Reports also quoted Maoist second in command Dr. Baburam Bhattrai as saying that his party chairman Prachanda had signed a letter to be sent to the United Nations and given it to Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala on Thursday but the later had not forwarded it till date.