Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan

Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan (File Photo)
In what has emerged as a major point of difference between the government and the Maoists, chairman of the CPN (Maoist), Prachanda, Monday wrote a letter to Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, registering strong protest against the letter sent by the Government of Nepal early this month.

Maoist supremo Pranchanda in a letter to the United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan on Monday said his party had serious objection to the Nepal Government’s letter to him calling for UN help in the management of arms and the militaries of the Maoists.

Prachanda said the government’s letter sent to the UN Secretary General on July 02 was “written & sent unilaterally and secretively without any consultation” with his party and that the letter talked about the management of the arms and the armies of the Maoists only.

Maoist supremo Prachanda
(Photo source : hindu.com)

“This is to draw your attention to the letter sent to you by the Government of Nepal on 2 July 2006 and to register our strong protest and disagreement over certain crucial points of the letter. Firstly, the letter was written & sent unilaterally and secretively without any consultation with us in utter violation of the spirit of ongoing negotiation between the Government of Nepal and the C.P.N (Maoist),” Prachanda’s letter read.

Saying that his party came to know about the government’s letter through the media after nearly three weeks, the rebel chief further said, “More importantly, the content of the letter, particularly as stated in points nos. 3 & 4, is in complete violation of the 12-point Understanding of 22 November 2005 and 8-point Agreement of 16 June 2006 reached between the two sides. For your kind recollection, clause-3 of the 8-point Agreement clearly states: “To request the United Nations to assist in the management of the armies and arms of both sides (emphasis added) and to monitor it for a free & fair election to the constituent assembly”.”

“Against this, the said letter self-professedly and provocatively talks of “Assist in the monitoring of the combatants of the Maoists and decommissioning of their arms” and “Monitor to assure that the Nepal Army is inside barracks”,” Prachanda’s letter to Annan read. It said that the unilateral application of two different yardsticks to the two armies is “highly objectionable and totally unacceptable” to the Maoists.

Prachanda, however, assured to cooperate the UN mission, which is visiting Nepal soon, and also lauded the positive role played so far by the UN in favour of democracy, peace and progress in Nepal.