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Arms remain sticking point in Nepal peace talks

2006-10-09 Nepal's Maoist rebels and the government may have edged closer to a deal on the future of the monarchy but the question of disarming the guerrillas remains a sticking point in peace talks, negotiators said on Monday.

Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala and leaders of the ruling seven-party alliance met Maoist chief Prachanda on Sunday, their first meeting in nearly four months, in a bid to rescue a peace process which had been in danger of stalling.

Both sides said the meeting was "highly positive" and they are due to meet again on Tuesday.

The government and rebels have observed a ceasefire since May to bring a halt to a decade-old insurgency in which around 13,000 people have been killed.

The government has offered to bring the rebels into an interim administration and agreed to a central rebel demand -- that elections should be held for a special assembly to prepare a new constitution and decide the future of the monarchy.

On Sunday, the two sides agreed that those elections should be held by June 2007, said rebel negotiator Baburam Bhattarai, the number two to Prachanda.

"Except this, there was no consensus on the main political agenda including the arms," Bhattarai told Reuters.

The Maoists see the constituent assembly elections as a mechanism to achieve their long-standing goal -- the abolition of the monarchy and establishment of a republic.

But talks have stalled over what to do about rebel arms and what role the monarchy should play in the run-up to that constituent assembly.

Wary of serving in an interim government which even pays lip-service to the king, the rebels have suggested the monarchy be abolished immediately.

"If the abolition of monarchy is not possible now, let us suspend it," Bhattarai said.

ARMS AND ARMIES

Some members of the government say the king should retain a ceremonial role until the elections. But Ram Chandra Poudel, a top leader of the Nepali Congress party, the biggest group in the ruling coalition, suggested a compromise might be close.

"The first meeting of the constituent assembly will decide whether Nepal will have the king or not," he said. "This is more or less a consensus."

Last month the guerrillas had threatened to launch protests against the government, which it said was dragging its feet in the search for peace.

The peace process took off in May after King Gyanendra surrendered power to a multi-party government after weeks of often bloody street protests.

Both sides have agreed to keep their armies and arms in camps or barracks under U.N. supervision during the constituent assembly elections.

But the government says the rebels must separate their arms from their fighters to ensure a free and fair vote, a demand the rebels fiercely reject.

"We'll not disarm until the old (state) army is democratised," Bhattarai said.

Bhattarai said that meant the army's top generals, who he said remained loyal to the king, should be fired, the 90,000-strong military reduced in size and the guerrillas integrated into it.

The government is ready to reform the military but is against the "assimilation" of the rebels into the army, Tourism Minister Pradip Gyanwali, a government negotiator, said.

"I think we'll arrive at some consensus at Tuesday's meeting," Gyanwali said.

Previous talks with the rebels failed in 2001 and 2003 after the then governments refused the rebel demand for constituent assembly elections.