Nepal’s Maoists apply for political party status

NEPAL: Nepal’s former rebel Maoists on Tuesday applied for the status of a political party ahead of crucial elections slated for later this year.

“We have submitted our application for recognition as a political party at the Election Commission. Our party’s official name will be Communist Party of Nepal (Maoists)” Maoist second-in-command Baburam Bhatterai told reporters.

The party’s official symbol will be a sickle and a hammer.

The ex-insurgents joined government earlier this month — taking five ministerial posts in the 22-member cabinet — after striking a peace deal late last year.

The government is tasked with steering impoverished Nepal into new elections which will permanently rewrite the Himalayan nation’s constitution and lead to a decision on whether to keep the monarchy.

A date for the elections has yet to be announced, despite a June target. After fighting for 10 years to impose a communist republic on the Hindu-majority kingdom in a war that left at least 13,000 people dead, the rebels signed up for peace in November 2006.

The Maoists, who still feature on Washington’s list of foreign “terrorist” organisations, have registered their weapons and fighters with the United Nations as part of the peace deal.

Meanwhile the United Nations began storing weapons from Nepal’s army, a key part of a peace deal that ended a decade-long armed conflict in the Himalayan nation, officials said.

“The UN arms monitoring team began registering weapons of Nepal Army from Tuesday noon,” Kieran Dwyer, spokesman of the United Nations Mission in Nepal, told AFP.

“We expect to complete the arms storage process in the next 3-4 days.”

The weapons are being locked up in an army camp on the outskirts of Kathmandu.

“We have begun storing equal numbers of arms to those of the Maoist army under the monitoring conditions,” said army spokesman Ramindra Chhetri.

The weapons will be sealed in 14 UN containers at a barracks in Chhauni and the army will keep the key, said Chhetri.

The UN was invited by Nepal’s government and Maoists to register and monitor the former rebels’ weapons and army.

It has registered just over 31,000 Maoist soldiers and 3,430 of their weapons at seven different sites across the country.

A second phase of UN monitoring, which includes verification of Maoist arms and fighters, is slated to begin only after the completion of the registration of Nepal Army weapons.

Kathmandu, Wednesday, AFP