#325 1 - 7 December 2006 16 pages Rs 30 FAREWELL TO ARMS: A PLA Weekly Internet Poll # 325 fighter of the Fifth Division looks Q. Do you expect the interim constitution pensive at a cantonment camp near to be an adequate and fair document? Dahaban village, Rolpa on Sunday . Total votes: 3,546 Weekly Internet Poll # 326. To vote go to: www.nepalitimes.com Q. What do you think of the recently passed Citizenship bill? BRIAN SOKOL Mend in Nepal Next June’s CA election is looking like a mirage KIRAN NEPAL everyone else. But planning for needs to be put in writing. Voter obvious to Nepali and the polls and the run-up to them registration remains a contentious international monitors if voters lecting an assembly to draft can only happen when the issue. The cut-off dates for newly- are ill-informed, say if there is a a new constitution is what interim constitution is adopted, granted citizenship and for being lager than usual number of invalid Ebrought the political parties laws are passed on the scope of put on voter lists are conflicting. ballots. and the Maoists together. It is the the Commission’s mandate and Should a couple of million The election will essentially one thing almost everyone agrees details of voter registration. people be unable to vote, this too be a highly-polarised referendum on. Yet, it is unlikely the polls Until it is written into the will affect the fairness of the on the can take place in June 2007 as interim constitution, the EC election. Other lists must be monarchy, with planned. remains effectively illegal for the updated to reflect migration high stakes all Editorial p2 Missing the first deadline to purposes of the CA, and not patterns and internal around, and The week after sign the Comprehensive Peace allowed to plan constituencies, displacement. security will be a Accord was not by itself serious, lay down campaigning rules and Strict rules which dictate that major concern. With the army in but other cut-off dates have been administer a poll. The extent of registered voters may only vote in barracks and the APF greatly missed. The weapons lockdown, the EC’s ‘refereeing’ role is their home district will need to distrusted by the Maoists, the job finalising the interim undecided, including whether or be altered for maximum turnout, is left to the police. But will the constitution, and dissolution of not it will have any punitive including through absentee police be able handle the task? Can parliament are all on standby. authority to check campaign or ballots. Some changes need to be 45,000 police guard 37,000 The Election Commission ballot irregularities. written into the new potential polling booths? There stops short of saying that Just how ‘fair’ we expect this constitution, not just legislation. are shortfalls in all resources elections are impossible, as does election to be, and in what ways, An election to a constituent needed to run an election. But the assembly election is not a general biggest problem might not be election, but mixed-process logistical at all. Can the country polling. Voter education will be survive a postponed election? an essential function of the EC Will the parties be able to sustain and the parties if we are to have a their united front if the polls are valid election at all. It will be shifted to after the monsoon? 2 EDITORIAL 1 - 7 DECEMBER 2006 #325 Published by Himalmedia Pvt Ltd, Chief Editor: Kunda Dixit Editor: Sophia Tamot Executive Editor: Anagha Neelakantan Design: Kiran Maharjan Web: Rupendra Kayastha Desk: Jemima Sherpa Vicepresident Corporate Affairs: Sneh Sayami Director, Sales and Marketing: Sunaina Shah [email protected] Subscription: [email protected] Hatiban, Godavari Road, Lalitpur [email protected], GPO Box 7251, Kathmandu 5543333-6, Fax: 5521013 www.nepalitimes.com Printed at Jagadamba Press, Hatiban: 5547018 So far so good Nepal’s unique attempt to manage the conflict THE WEEK AFTER locally is an example to the rest of the world Hard to believe it’s been just over a week since the signing of the peace accord. The euphoria persists, but there is also great expectation and great impatience. fter two failed ceasefires, a Rebel armies have also been party can go for elections with The breathless live tv coverage from the parking lots of the genuine internal effort is reintegrated into society in weapons was also used here. Summit or the Shangri-La has oscillated from intense optimism to A underway to find a conflict areas where the UN has In Nepal, we haven’t used the acute pessimism. The people have been taken on a rollercoaster negotiated solution. No outside been involved. Some national term ‘DDR’ because neither side ride, but are now mature enough to see through the media’s short agency has directly mediated, and and rebel armies have been wanted it to look like a attention span and cynicism. Even when a daily overstretched Nepalis can be proud of this integrated, while others are surrender. The model used here itself to replicate the Pajero scandal by bannering a story on the homegrown process. decommissioned. When Sierra is: camping, UN monitoring, and SUVs of leaders, most readers refused to be swayed by its mocking tone. The changed political Leone held its election in 2002 reintegration (CMR) but can It’s fashionable these days to be disparaging of the seven there was neither an interim essentially have the same government nor arms longterm goal. party leaders and sneer at their perceived incompetence. You hear GUEST COLUMN this superior tone from expat peace consultants, and our own civil Chitra B Gurung management. The old system was Nepal’s scenario is different society has always bad-mouthed government to prove that it is kept, the rebels submitted their from that of the other countries indispensable. But it was the political parties that steadfastly weapons, 73,000 combatants were because here the sides at war have defended the middle path. They brought down a royal dictatorship scenario that led to the seven disarmed, and a small proportion now become partners. That is through a non-violent pro-democracy movement, and made peace possible by nudging the Maoists into the mainstream. party and Maoist alliance brought integrated into the national army. why it was possible to reach an Of course, the peace process hasn’t been smooth. It was the Jana Aandolan II through Under this disarmament, agreement on the one-lock never supposed to be. There was the usual fecklessness and which the violent conflict turned demobilisation and reintegration mechanism in the runup to a disunity, but that is what parties are by definition: they have short into a peaceful political struggle. (DDR) process the rebels first constituent assembly election. political time horizons and they bicker all the time. Those are Steps have been taken to manage came to camps to submit their The UN is the credibility givens. The fact that the alliance of seven parties achieved its both the state and the Maoist weapons, and then headed for force here to convince the people goal shows that it had leaders with vision, who understood that the army. The UN has kept itself demobilisation. Those fit for the that monitoring will hold the people most wanted peace, and then went about restoring it despite tremendous odds. engaged and is now ready to national army are inducted while Maoists to their word. If the In the past year, while the ultra-right used the security provide the technical expertise the others are sent for skills weapons come out it will have a apparatus to enforce its powergrab and the revolutionary left for weapons management through training to go back to civilian life. huge international impact on the believed change was only possible through bloodshed, the the one-lock mechanism. In the Congo, elections are UN’s credibility. To make this political middle demonstrated the moral superiority of non-violent Different approaches have being held after the rebels effective, a Community Arms struggle. The parties are the only entities been made to submitted their weapons. In Collection program is needed so which do not need the force of arms to gain manage armies Burundi an interim government weapons belonging to the militia and retain power. Their reason for being is the electoral process and democracy. and their was set up 16 months after the are also included. Having said that, the parties can’t afford weapons in peace agreement in August 2000. The Nepal Army has 92,000 to throw this away. A people’s democracy is other arenas of Even though 18 of the small soldiers under arms, the Nepal best safeguarded by improving their lives. conflict. In some groups had signed the peace Police has 50,000 and the APF The Nepali people have heard too many places the agreement the UN could only go 20,000. The agreement to keep a unkept promises and have been let down strength of the there in June 2004 due to delays similar number of state security too often—this time it must be for real. national security caused by two of the biggest weapons under arms is just a The government must not waste any more time in dogmatism and senseless force has been groups. Half the number from confidence-building exercise. rhetoric. It must get to work to make the cut in the both sides have been kept in the Although we have yet to go into peace dividend tangible. The best way to process of integrated security force there.