KATHMANDU, OCT 08 - Deputy Commander of the Maoist People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Chandra Prakash Khanal on Thursday said it would be impossible to discharge disqualified combatants unless the government came up with a comprehensive economic package for the 4,008 awaiting discharge.

“We have agreed to initiate the process of releasing disqualified combatants from the cantonments, but this will be possible only after the government announces an economic package for them,” Khanal said.

He said the PLA has forwarded some options to the government, including providing cash or land and establishing an industry based on the cooperative model for them. “If trained combatants who are disqualified are released from cantonments with just a job or training, the risk will be greater.”

However, officials at the Ministry of Peace and Reconstruction maintain that there has been agreement with the Maoists on removing disqualified fighters from the cantonments by Nov. 19. “The process of discharge will start from Oct. 11 and by Nov. 19 all the disqualified combatants will be sent to a temporary transit centre,” said Joint Secretary of Peace and Reconstruction Ministry Bishnu Nepal, who leads the technical committee to oversee the fighters’ rehabilitation. He said the government will provide  trainings after their discharge, help them find jobs and arrange loans for them to engage in occupations of their choice. “There is no proposal of a direct economic package,” he said. 

The government on Wednesday appointed a steering committee led by Peace and Reconstrution Minister Rakam Chemjong to coordinate the rehabilitation of disqualified combatants. The committee comprising two UCPN (Maoist) central leaders and representatives of the United Nations Mission in Nepal (UNMIN), United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) held its first meeting on Thursday and “decided to complete the discharge process in six phases.”

Maoist leader Kul Bahadur K.C. said that in the first phase, the committee will evaluate the situation and collect feedback from combatants. The steering committee is scheduled to visit the second division cantonment  at Dudhauli, Sindhuli on Sunday to start the discharge process, said Joint Secretary Nepal. “The visits to the cantonments are for collecting feedback from disqualified fighters on the government proposal,” said Khanal. “The discharge will start after the economic package is agreed upon.” He said he had put these views at the meeting of the Joint Monitoring Coordination Committee (JMCC) that convened on Thursday.

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