Nepal peace process at 'serious point': UN

(March 12, 2010) Nepal's peace process is at a "very serious point", the United Nations' top political official said Thursday, urging party leaders to act on pledges made at the end of the war. B. Lynn Pascoe, the UN under-secretary-general for political affairs told journalists he was concerned that the peace process had stalled, three and a half years after the decade-long conflict between Maoist guerrillas and the state came to a close. He said he came to push the process along by emphasising that it was very important to move and it was time to take action. More than 16,000 people were killed in Nepal's conflict, and Pascoe warned there was a "danger of moving backwards", pointing out that 50 percent of countries return to war within 10 years of a peace agreement being signed. Pascoe called for action on the integration of more than 19,000 Maoist soldiers currently living in UN-monitored cantonments across the country into the regular army. The integration is a key tenet of the peace agreement, but military leaders have repeatedly resisted the move. Pascoe also stressed the importance of completing the country's new constitution, although he conceded that doing so by a May 28 deadline would be a "tall order". Lawmakers began debating the constitution in 2008, when the first post-war elections were held and the country's 240-year-old Hindu monarchy was abolished. But disagreements persist on such fundamental issues as the structure of the national government and the creation of federal states where none now exist.