Nepal’s Defense Minister Biddya Bhandari on Tuesday challenged the government saying that it would not be necessary for the Nepal Army and herself to follow the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) signed between the then Seven Party Alliance (SPA) and Maoist rebels.
Speaking in a press conference held by her ministry in Kathmandu, Bhandari stressed that Maoist fighters would at no cost be integrated into Nepal Army. She claimed that there exists no peace agreement for such military integration.
Responding to reporters’ queries about the promotion of Army Major General Toran Jung Bahadur Singh to the position of the Army Chief, Defense Minister Bhandari said that an army judge panel had already proved him innocent. She, however, did not answer the question why the Defense Ministry defied the Supreme Court‘s order not to promote Singh.
UN human rights agencies and other institutions have objected to the promotion of the Army General to the country’s Army Chief’s position despite his evidential involvement in the disappearance of 49 detainees in the Bhairabnath Army Battalion in Kathmandu.
In response to another question, Minister Bhandari argued that it would not be necessary to hand over Major Niranjan Basnet to the civil court since the Army court has already proved him innocent in the Maina Sunuwar case.
The UN had expelled Major Niranjan Basnet from the UN Peacekeeping mission in Chad saying that he was nationally and internationally accused of having murdered Maina Sunuwar, a 15-year old girl from Kavre district in Nepal.
Following such open defiance by the Defense Ministry, the whole government is likely to face difficulty facing Maoists’ accusation that the current government was formed by over-ruling the elected government’s civilian supremacy.
Both Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal and Defense Minister Biddya Bhandari belong to the same party—United Marxist-Leninist (UML). Both of them were defeated in the 10-April Constituent Assembly elections in which Maoists emerged as the largest political force in Nepal.
Currently, Maoists have been protesting against the government with a demand to restore civilian supremacy and national independence.