KIRAN PANDAY

The government is peeved at the way UNMIN has deliberately looked the other way on continuing Maoist excesses, while pulling up the Defence Minister for a trial balloon she floated on recruitment. How come UNMIN is so prompt to slap the army on the wrist at every turn when the PLA gets away with murder, literally, in camps supervised by the UN?

Be that as it may, one can't blame the delay in demobilising and disarming Maoist combatants on UNMIN. That was the responsibility of the parties and the high-level committee set up to take the peace process forward. It is now clear that without a deal on power-sharing between the parties, the necessary trust on disarmament and rehabilitation, the rest of the peace process and finalising the constitution by May 27 simply won't be there.

The performance of UNMIN leaves a lot to be desired, but the UN is always the lowest common denominator of its member states. To expect it to be superhuman is unrealistic. A bloated, bungling UN peacekeeping machinery is a given. It is up to us to work within its narrow mandate to extract what we need for our own peace-building. Ultimately, it is up to the host government to create conditions that can put pressure on the international agency to discharge its duties in a more impartial and effective manner.

It's no fault of the UN monitors here that a political settlement to ensure the discharge of unqualified combatants has not yet been made. That should have been the first priority of the 22-party coalition that most resembles the seven-party alliance government that signed the peace agreement with the Maoists.

The demobilisation of Maoist combatants cannot begin as long as there is no consensus between political parties about the structure of the process. Good intentions are not enough.

By now, it should be clear that the business of constitution writing will continue to be problematic as long as the Maoists are not taken on board again as full partners of the peace process. That is a goal that has very little to do with the UN.

The best and fastest way to get rid of UNMIN is making its presence unnecessary. For that, Nepal's political leadership has to get its act together.

READ ALSO:
Wages of distortion, CK Lal - FROM ISSUE #476 (13 NOV 2009 - 19 NOV 2009)
United Nations for the nation - FROM ISSUE #475 (06 NOV 2009 - 12 NOV 2009)
Futile neutrality - FROM ISSUE #371 (19 OCT 2007 - 01 NOV 2007)