As Nepal's political parties and the former Maoists rebels continue to fight each other, the country's fragile peace process is now on life support. United Nations' Mission in Nepal(UNMIN) will end on January 15, and there are no plans for how the country to will go about integrating the former Maoist guerrillas into the National Army, rehabilitate those who cannot be integrated and manage the weapons.Deepak Adhikari in his report for Time January 26, 2011,suggests that the peace process could be heading for a complete failure.
The UNMIN was given a mandate in 2007, to facilitate and monitor Nepal's peace process after a ten year long civil war between the Maoists and the government ended in 2006. With the request of the Nepali government, the mandate has been extended seven times. Karin Landgren, UNMIN chief, has warned that the peace process could fail in the current environment of in-fighting, bickering and mistrust.
The Maoists want the UNMIN to stay until the country's constitution is drafted but the government is adamantly rejecting any suggestion that the peace process still needs UN monitoring.
Leadership vacuum
Therein lies the problem. The current government headed by Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal is a care taker. For the past six months Nepal has been running without a legitimate government. The constituent assembly has convened 17 times to elect a Prime Minister but all efforts were futile. Political parties, including Mr. Nepal's CPN UML, Nepali Congress, the Maoists and the smaller regional parties in the assembly have all been unable to agree on one candidate. Mistrust and mutual disrespect runs deep among the parties and they seem completely oblivious to the farce they have created in the name of election.
As they are busy not trying to work on agreement, the country is sliding into an economic, social and political abyss. Kathmandu, the nation's capital, now suffers through 12 hours of daily power cuts and the rest of the country does not receive regular power supply either. The manufacturing sector is paralyzed by lawlessness and sectarian politics has created a rift in Nepali social fabric.
Nepal is becoming a failed state. But Prime Minister Madhav Kumar and the Nepali political establishment would rather push the UNMIN out, just to spite the Maoists.
The former guerrillas emerged as the largest party in a 2008 constituent assembly election and formed a coalition government headed by Pushpa Kamal Dahal(Prachanda). Since the early days, no one within the establishment was willing to work with the Maoists. The so called legacy lions of Nepali political arena kept coming up with ways to bring down the Prachanda lead government. Hypocrites to their very core, they demanded that the Maoists be completely transparent but would not apply the same to their conduct.
Restructuring the military
The legacy lions then used the military to torpedo the Prachanda government. Instigating the erstwhile Royal Nepalese Army, the country's most powerful army, they fueled the disagreement between Prachanda and the army chief on the integration of Maoist guerrillas.
Rukmangud Katwal, then chief of Nepali army, audaciously declared that he is under no obligation to listen to the sitting Prime Minister of the country. His refused to be under the command of the duly elected, civilian leader. Reason? Katwal claimed that integrating the rebels will fracture the army.
Well, it is not his job to decide the country's policies. He is an army chief, not a law maker. Peace agreement between the Maoists and the government was clear about the integration issue; Katwal had no business being politically motivated. Nevertheless, championed by the lions, he successfully dragged the issue out long enough for Prachanda to resign in disgrace. The Prime Minister's office in Nepal was disgraced by Katwal's actions and the way the establishment supported him instead of a duly elected leader.
For sure, it is wrong to give the Maoists clean pass and place all the blame on the establishment. During the ten year civil war, the Maoists perpetrated heinous acts of violence and killed hundreds of innocent civilians. Even after signing the peace accord, they have not been exactly saintly,often using their youth wing to extract revenge and settle political and ideological scores. But the current environment of blind mistrust of the Maoists and almost foolish acceptance of the legacy lions is dangerous too.
Running in circles
It has been more than three years since the constituent assembly was elected, but not a page of the Constitution has been drafted. The body was entrusted with formulating a Constitution that promotes democratic values and affirms the people's supreme authority. UNMIN's departure at this stage will not only complicate integration of Maoists and management of their weapons, but also magnify the legal vacuum created by delay in Constitution drafting process.
As the Nepali saying goes "PashupatiNath le sabai ko rakshay garun". Indeed, for Nepal higher power seems to be the last resort for any solution.
Bhumika Ghimire - Bhumika Ghimire is a freelance writer and reporter. She is a content producer for Associated Content and writes for OhMyNews.com and News ...
