KATHMANDU, Nepal – 08 April 2009 – For over a decade, the Nepalese Army and the Maoist rebels spent most of their time training their weapons on one another. Following a peace agreement made by a political alliance of the seven major political parties – though no representatives from the Nepalese military – the war ended in 2006 and the rebels were sent into cantonments as part of a UN-brokered peace deal. On Tuesday, the Nepalese Army pulled out of the National Games (a sort of national version of the Olympics) after the Prime Minister, Prachanda, intervened to get the Maoist soldiers from the People’s Liberation Army involved in the games.
Although seemingly a trivial row, it reveals a contentious issue of Nepal’s peace process – that of the integration of the two armies.
The Maoists have been calling for a full integration of their forces into the Nepal Army, though this has always been resisted by the military top brass. The former rebels are demanding that their officers be given the same rank and want all the 17,000 or so fighters in the cantonments to be given positions in the Nepalese Army.
An election victory in 2008 gave the Maoists the seat of government and since then, relations between the Maoist-run Ministry of Defence and the Nepalese Army have been strained over the issue of integration.
The Maoist-led government has condemned the move (to withdraw from participating in some of the events of the National Games), saying it contravenes the peace agreement.
The Nepalese Army is thought by many Nepalis to be a bulwark against any plan the Maoists may have for complete control of the Himalayan nation of 26 million.
"They are supposed to be in the cantonments … Their entry into the games is not proper," a senior army officer told Reuters on Tuesday, on condition that he would not be indentified.
Some officers in the Nepalese Army admit that there may have to be some form of integration of rebel forces into the Nepalese armed forces, though not along the lines that the Maoists are proposing.
Instead the Nepalese Army say that they will look at each Maoist on a case by case basis.
Though a recent legal tussle revealed that the Maoists are quite determined to undermine the military, their Ministry of Defence not renewing the employment contracts of most of the general staff.
Nepal’s Supreme Court overturned the decision and the eight generals were reinstated. Though the court is sitting again today listening to an appeal from the lawyers of the Ministry of Defence.
Some analysts view these moves by the Maoists with deep suspicion and political leaders from the Nepal Congress Party and other political parties have accused the Maoists of wanting to establish a totalitarian communist state.
Ban Ki Moon, the Secretary General of the United Nations said recently that the integration should go ahead soon as it may threaten the fragile peace deal.
The UN mission to Nepal – UNMIN (United Nations Mission in Nepal) has also recently had it’s mandate extended by the UN Security Council.
Under the terms of the 2006 peace agreement, the Maoist combatants were confined to UN monitored camps and disarmed – their 3,500 weapons being stored in containers. An uncertain peace has prevailed ever since.
Nepal’s decade-long civil war is estimated to have cost 13,000 lives and resentments on both sides remain. Certainly, the integration issue is crucial in maintaining the fragile peace accord and most Nepalis are hoping it is confined to arguments about sports.