UN to Nepal: Hurry up on elections

NEPAL: The United Nations mission in Nepal on Monday told the Himalayan nation's government to get a move on and organise scheduled elections crucial to the impoverished country's future.

Under the terms of a peace deal struck late last year between the interim government and Maoist rebels, Nepal is supposed to hold elections by mid-June for a body that will redraw the constitution.

But the head of the United Nations Mission In Nepal (UNMIN), Ian Martin, said the deadline could be missed, leaving the country stuck in political limbo and the peace process exposed to more pressure.

"I would urge the political parties to heed the very timely call of the chief electoral commissioner for urgent decisions and action in approving much needed legislation," Martin told reporters.

He said Nepal's election commissioner had "made very clear that urgent action is necessary to allow for the passage of legislation, if the deadline is going to be feasible."

The constituent assembly elections will be closely watched, with embattled King Gyanendra already stripped of most of his powers facing the end of his reign and his country being declared a republic.

Recent weeks have seen mounting tensions between pro-royalists and the fiercely republican Maoists, who have accused supporters of the king of stirring up a wave of ethnic unrest in a bid to undermine the peace deal.

But Martin signalled another crucial element of the process so-called arms management, or the accounting of rebel fighters and weapons was moving ahead.

"We have developed plans which should allow us to complete by the end of the week the registration of all weapons, as well as the first stage of the registration of combatants," Martin said.

He added the UN mission in Nepal had completed the initial registration of former rebel weapons and soldiers at five of the seven designated cantonment areas.

- earlier the UN envoy said Nepal's government and Maoist rebels must improve conditions at camps housing thousands of the group's fighters as part of a peace deal between the two sides.

"What I am not satisfied with is the conditions for those living at the cantonment sites, in terms of shelter, sanitation and access ... water and electricity," Ian Martin, told reporters.

"It will have a serious impact on our work if there are not rapid improvements," Martin said after a weekend visit to two camps in west Nepal where U.N. monitors are registering thousands of Maoist fighters and their arms.

Meanwhile Nepal has tightened security after learning of plans by Hindu fundamentalists to use a festival in the capital to call for the declaration of a Hindu state, officials said.

Thousands of Hindu pilgrims and sadhus wandering ascetic Hindu holymen traditionally descend on Pashputinath Temple in Kathmandu to celebrate the annual festival, the main day of which falls this year on Friday.

"The government has received information about possible trouble being caused by Hindu fundamentalists during Shivaratri," a home office official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

"Security has been tightened in the capital while local authorities along the Nepal-India border have been alerted to keep a close eye on the flow of sadhus and Hindu devotees."

An advisor to King Gyanendra a monarch viewed by many devout Hindus as a living incarnation of Vishnu, the god of protection said last week that the festival will be used to call for Nepal to be redeclared a Hindu state.

"We have invited various Hindu activists and sadhus from India to participate in a peaceful protest rallies and sit-ins to be organised in the capital from February 17," said the aide, Bharat Keshar Singh.

Kathmandu, Tuesday, AFP, Reuters