Nepal peace talks edge forward but rebels unwilling to reject arms

NEPAL: Differences between Nepal's political leaders and communist rebels could be easily resolved if the guerrillas lay down their arms, lawmakers said Tuesday, but the Maoists remained skeptical as peace talks continued.

The negotiations, involving Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala, leaders of the ruling seven-party alliance and rebel chief Prachanda, resumed Sunday in the capital Katmandu. The peace process, aimed at ending a 10-year insurgency, had been stalled for four months on the issue of weapons management.

In June, the political parties and rebels agreed that the communists should be allowed to join an interim government in return for surrendering their weapons, but no progress has been made on either side.

"If the two sides are able to make headway on the issue of the rebels' weapons, most of the political differences can easily be resolved," said Ramesh Lekhak, labor minister and a member of the government peace talks team.

"We want the Maoists to transform themselves in to a democratic and legitimate force by giving up their arms-based politics. We can reach an understanding on every issue if they assure us that weapons are not used for political purposes," said Mahesh Acharya from the Nepali Congress, the Himalayan nation's largest party.

But the rebels expressed reservations.

"We suspect the government is backing away from its previous flexibility and appear more rigid on the issue of arms management. They are trying to force us to surrender arms in the pretext of separating them from our fighters, which is unacceptable to us," said Dev Gurung, a member of the rebel team.

Earlier senior Maoist negotiator Krishna Bahadur Mahara said a meeting on Sunday with Nepal's seven-party coalition the first high-level meeting in four months between the two sides had "ended on a very positive note".

"We hope to end Tuesday's talks with concrete agreements," he told AFP, while nevertheless asserting that the rebels and government "have not yet reached clarity on major political issues."

In seeking to reach a deal, the rebels appear to have toned down their demands for the immediate abolition of impoverished Nepal's 238-year-old monarchy.

"They are close to agreeing on the monarchy, in that its future will be decided as part of the constituent assembly elections. It's not final, but that's the most likely outcome," a Western diplomat said.

The seven-party coalition government has already agreed to constituent assembly elections, a key rebel demand, for a body that would rewrite Nepal's constitution permanently.

The diplomat said the main contentious issue was the future of the rebel army, which had been fighting since 1996 for a communist republic in a conflict that claimed at least 12,500 lives and crippled an already fragile economy.

The rebels, who have been observing a ceasefire, have said they are prepared to contain their People's Liberation Army in camps under United Nation supervision, but the government wants the Maoists to disarm before holding the assembly elections.

The rebels also want Nepal's 90,000-strong army to remain in their barracks.

Katmandu, Tuesday, AP, AFP