Visiting UN Under-Secretary General wraps up his visit

The visiting Under Secretary-General for Political Affairs, B. Lynn Pascoe wrapped up his three-day visit to Nepal, Friday.

Pascoe arrived in Nepal on Wednesday to assess state of ongoing peace process and hold consultation with all stakeholders of the peace process.

He held meeting with Nepali Congress President Girija Prasad Koirala, UML Chairman Jhala Nath Khanal, UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal, Defense Minister Bidya Bhandari, Army Chief Chhatra Man Singh Gurung, among others, during his stay in Nepal.

During his meeting with political party leaders, Pascoe urged them to rebuild trust in order to keep the drive the peace process forward. The peace process has come to virtual halt due to differences growing among major political parties especially after the Maoist-led government stepped down in May, 2009.

Pascoe also visited Maoist cantonment in Shaktikhor, Chitwan, where the former Maoist guerilla have been living, to learn about their view about the peace process on Thursday and also inspected the works of United Nations Mission in Nepal (UNMIN) arms monitors.

Addressing a press conference organized at Tribhuvan International Airport before leaving Nepal, Pascoe expressed hope that all major political parties in the country would reach to an understanding to resolve the issues concerning peace process.

"It seems to me that after talking with very wide range of people that there is strong hope and strong understanding of what needs to be done to get there, to settle the peace issues," he said. “UN will continue working in anyway we can, to be helpful in this process".

He also brushed aside allegations of ruling political parties that UNMIN was not cooperating with the government by providing the details of the cantoned Maoist combatants. Speaking at a public function on Thursday, Pascoe termed criticism against the UNMIN "absurd´ and "boring" and called for an end to such criticism.

Pascoe maintained that UNMIN had no authority to provide information to the government. He also asked the government to get the details of the combatants from Joint Monitoring Coordination Committee.

"We work very closely through the JMCC on this process. We are working on numbers of people in the camps and all of that to try to be helpful," Pascoe said, "When it comes to giving out other data which is agreed by both sides, which stay confidential; that's not going to be handed out.”

Pascoe’s remarks comes in the wake of relation between government and the UNMIN turning sour after the latter denied giving fresh details about the Maoist combatants.

The government requested for the details after concerns that a large number of Maoist combatants had already left cantonment, but the Maoist party was still receiving allowance in their names.

- Asian Tribune -