Nepal's ex-rebels clamour to join national army

NEPAL - After years spent fighting security forces and dressing battlefield wounds, former Maoist rebel Namuna wants to join Nepal's army.

Namuna - whose nom-de-guerre means "exemplary" - is one of around 19,000 former guerrillas preparing to spend their third winter in UN-monitored camps as part of a peace deal that ended Nepal's decade-long civil war.

"Integration into the army should take place as soon as possible," the 26-year-old nurse and former fighter told AFP as she took a break from her work at the Maoist Shaktikhor camp hospital, a four-hour drive south of Kathmandu.

The former rebels, who now run the impoverished country after winning polls in April, insist they should be part of a new national army but Nepal's main opposition party is determined to keep them out.

On a visit last week, the camp of 1,200 Maoists was a hive of activity as the young men and women received communist ideological training, lessons on how to handle weapons as well as drilling with replica wooden rifles.

"Without our integration, there can be no peace," said the Maoist, whose real name is Biraja Adhikari and who treated battlefield bullet wounds and performed amputations during the civil war that claimed 13,000 lives.

Shaktikhor Camp, Sunday, AFP