SAM KANG LI

The Maoists have once again made a perfunctory proposal to the NC to join the special committee on army integration. In return, the kangresis have reminded the Maoists about their lapsed nine-point memorandum. So the fates of combatants in temporary camps continue to hang in balance as the ruling coalition and main opposition party pretend to haggle over terms of integration. The delay, however, appears increasingly to be part of a greater design. No one, not even the comrades, really want the armies integrated. But they have to make it look like that is the core issue of the peace process.

Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal is under pressure from his cadres to rush the entry of ex-guerrillas into the Nepal Army. But he is acutely aware of its consequences. During the party conclave in Bhaktapur, Dahal reportedly lamented the failure of army integration exercise in Namibia, saying that although the leader of the rebels leads the army, the rank-and-file still sleep in separate barracks. "Is that what we want" he is reported to have asked.

One needn't be a conspiracy theorist to see that no one, except perhaps the guerrillas in the camps, really wants integration. The army doesn't want it, the parties don't want it, the neighbours don't want it, neither it seem, does the Maoist leadership. Earlier, PKD told GPK (a man he almost admires): "If all our cadres join the army, how will we wage electoral battles with you in future?"

It is now looking more and more like integration is a smokescreen to hide the Maoists' real intention of having a battle-ready parallel paramilitary to run with government money. This can happen if a new security unit is raised to accommodate Maoist combatants. Even if former militants continue to languish in temporary camps, the leadership loses nothing as the exchequer bears the cost of upkeep and training of their hardcore cadres.

NC stalwarts fear the insurgency will go into relapse and probably feel that the continued presence of UN monitors is the only defence against the Maoist takeover of the state. Once the combatants in camps have been rehabilitated, UNMIN will have to packup, and the kangresis don't really want the UN to leave even though they bad-mouth them all the time.

All this posturing over integration of Maoist militants into the Nepal Army is therefore sounding like a lot of hot air. And Nepalis are beginning to see through the games being played through the media headlines. They should get serious about integration and start saying what they mean. And they should concentrate on the issues of common concern: drafting a new constitution and improving lives.