KATHMANDU, JUL 31 - Chief of General Staff of the Nepal Army Lt. Gen. Paban Jung Thapa has said integration of Maoist combatants in the security forces should be conditional.

“Personal integrity plays a key role in the reintegration of ex-Maoist cadres into the security forces. People with a clean chit will be considered for recruitment within the framework of the law of the land, that too, as per the stipulated rules and regulations,” the third-in-command of the Nepal Army (NA) said in an interview with the online edition of the Indian newspaper The Hindu. The paper’s online version on Thursday carried a news report based on the interview with the former Force Commander in the UN mission in Sudan. Thapa was on a two-day pilgrimage to the Venkateswara Temple in Tirupati.

Lt. Gen.Thapa said convicts, Army deserters and persons with cases of human rights violation and sedition against them would not be considered for induction into the security forces. The former rebel soldiers could be the part of nation’s border security, industrial security, forest security or the armed police, if not the mainstream Army, stated the report quoting Thapa.

“Before the [reintegration] process begins, we need to have a well-formulated ‘terms of reference’ in place as a benchmark for identifying the candidates,” said Thapa. He has also expressed “surprise” over the registration of around 3,500 weapons from over 19,000 Maoist combatants by the United Nations Mission in Nepal, saying he felt the numbers “don’t really match.”

The NA has opposed the bulk integration of the PLA  in the national Army. In a press statement issued in March, Chief of Army Staff Chhatra Man Singh Gurung had said the Army could consider the integration of individual combatants who meet its established standard after a broader political consensus.

Posted on: 2010-07-31 09:26

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