NA can't remain under UNMIN’s purview: Minister Bhandari
Useful Links
» A new way to read online, exact replica of your daily and magazine
» For all you tweety fans out there!
» Allows you to find only those news from any date you choose!
» Search any news/ articles by author/ category/ date/ keyword
KATHMANDU, AUG 30 - Defence Minister of the caretaker government, Bidhya Bhandari said on Monday that the Nepal Army (NA) cannot remain under the purview of United Nations Mission in Nepal (UNMIN). She added that UNMIN’s term could be extended by three months but with a revised mandate.
“NA cannot remain under UNMIN’s supervision anymore,” said Minister Bhandari, speaking at a programme in the Capital today.
“I firmly believe that the NA should be freed from UNMIN’s surveillance even by reviewing the peace accord.”
The Defence Minister accused the Maoists of hindering the regular activities of the NA by arguing over the points that have not been included in the Comprehensive Peace Accord (CPA).
Claiming that the NA and the Maoist People’s Liberation Army (PLA) combatants cannot be put at equal footing, Minister Bhandari urged that only those combatants that meet the United Nations (UN) standards should be integrated.
“The Maoists are using the combatants to strengthen their political stance,” she said.
Vote for NC
Minister Bhandari, who is also the vice chairman of the UML, hinted that the UML would support the Nepali Congress (NC) candidate Ram Chandra Poudel in the prime ministerial elections.
Admitting that the country failed to pick a new prime minister due to the UML’s neutrality in the past five elections, Minister Bhandari said the UML should vote in favour of either of the candidates vying for the prime minister’s post.
Bhandari claimed that the party politburo meet slated for Sep.9 would decide to support NC candidate Poudle by strengthening the leftist-democratic alliance, as it has become clear that the sixth round of PM election will fail to end the stalemate.
"The alliance of 22 political parties should not be broken," remarked Bhandari.
Posted on: 2010-08-30 05:28
Post Your Comment