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Disqualified ‘disgruntled’ with United Nations
- post-discharge pain
KATHMANDU, MAR 29 -
Nearly two months after disqualified Maoist combatants were discharged, the United Nations has encountered problems with post-discharge counselling.
The counselling centre in Bharatpur on the premises of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) regional office had to face the ire of disqualified fighters early this month. In all, 66 of them had visited the UNICEF office in Chitwan for counselling by last week.
The UN had to demand security from the government to manage the crowd. Around 40 combatants, who visited the regional office for three days, organised a sit-in at the Bharatpur office complaining that the UN had left them ‘in a lurch’. They also demanded travel and lodging expenses,which they had to pay out of their pocket because of ‘the UN’s inordinate delay in providing assistance’.
“We were not able to process the requests for counselling quickly because they had not called first to make the appointment with the counsellor. Some of them got angry and we asked police to maintain a presence nearby to help control the crowd, if necessary,” said Marty Logan, the Media Focal Point for the UN Country Team.
Following the problem—March 10 to 12—the UN wrote to the government demanding security for office staff. It also dispatched more counsellors from Kathmandu. At least six police personnel and 35 security guards are now deployed in the regional office, up from seven civilian guards.
The former combatants, however, have a different story. “We don’t know what the package agreement between the UN, the government and our leadership was and what was communicated to our commander,” Kamal Rashaili, a disqualified combatant, said on Friday. Rashaili, who was cantoned at the Krishna Sen Smriti Brigade in Rupandehi, visited the Bharatpur office from his home at Bhumai VDC, Nawalparasi. “I have no option—either for education or employment. It is very difficult to survive,” he said. PLA Deputy Commander Chandra Prakash Khanal said he had received complaints that getting an appointment was difficult. He said the party would discuss with the UN how to make “the programme combatant-friendly.”
The UN country team, in consultation with the government and the Maoists, has given the combatants four options—vocational training; resumption of education; training in health services; and support in developing micro-enterprises. From Jan. 6 to Feb. 8, altogether 2,394 combatants had left the cantonments to start life anew.
The UN has been running five counselling centres in each of the five development regions to advise on rehabilitation options.
As of 25 March, 750 of the discharged had contacted the UN office, 489 were referred to service providers, and 254 had already enrolled in education or training programmes. After counselling, each of them was given Rs. 1,000 as living allowance for the counselling period. In addition, they were also given travel expenses, depending on their travel needs.
Posted on: 2010-03-30 07:41
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