The UCPN (Maoist) leadership, which failed to commence the second scheduled regrouping process on Sunday, has told the Nepali Congress leaders that they would select 5,000 to 6,000 combatants on their own and hand them over to the Nepal Army by April 12.
The Maoist leadership, however, was emphatic over one condition that the selected combatants should not be screened in such a way that a significant number of them get disqualifed. NC leaders sounded confident over the completion of the combatant handover process by the promised date, saying, "everything was on track." The fighters, however, would be screened by the Army as per its standard norms, they said.
"Prachanda has assured that the party would hand over the combatants to the Army by Chaitra 30 [April 12]. We have no objection if the Maoists want to first select the combatants by themselves since the Army is not going to visit the cantonments for the same," said Nepali Congress leader Krishna Prasad Situala. "The Nepal Army will conduct the final selections of those referred to it based on its standard norms."
Situala met UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal on Sunday morning, when Dahal assured that integration process would be carried out within the stipulated time frame.
On Saturday, Military in charge of PLA Barsha Man Pun had invited the commanders of the seven divisions for an 'urgent meeting' of the party's Integration Bureau in Kathmandu. Sources said they were invited to finalise the internal selection process. Commanders have checked the minimum requirements and tried to ensure that those to be sent for integration would meet the educational and health requirement and posses proper citizenship documents.
The internal regrouping was carried out by commanders at all the 15 cantonment sites to reduce the numbers of the combatants opting integration from the current strength of 9,705 to the ceiling of 6,500 agreed in the seven-point agreement. The selection will be endorsed by the Integration Bureau of the Maoist party scheduled for Monday.
Finance Minister Pun declined to divulge details but confirmed that commanders have instructed the combatants who can not meet the Nepal Army standards to go for voluntary retirement.
Later, Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai admitted that party had carried out internal regrouping at the cantonments. "This is a complex issue, we have done the internal homework to ensure that combatants referred for integration meet the standard norms," a participant quoted Bhattarai as telling the Special Committee meeting on Sunday afternoon. PM has also urged non-Maoist representatives not to doubt his commitment to vacate the camps within April 12 deadline. He said internal discussions within the Maoist party would complete in a day or two and assured that the peace process would advance.
Bhattarai further said outstanding issues like ranks, structure of the general directorate, training period and selection mechanism can be discussed further even after handover of combatants opting integration to the Nepal Army. The Special Committee is likely to sit either on Tuesday or Wednesday to make an effort to forge consensus on those issues. "We expressed concern that the deadline could be missed if the process is deadlocked further," said NC leader Ram Sharan Mahat. "The prime minister has reaffirmed the commitment that the process of vacating cantonments will complete within the stipulated time frame."
Maoist politburo member and PLA Commander Chandra Prakash Khanal 'Baldev' said the party would reach a conclusion on advancing the process on Monday. "All of the commanders will be reaching to the respective cantonments early by Monday evening or Tuesday morning. The process of awarding voluntary retirement will start at the camps in full swing from Tuesday," said Khanal.
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