The United Nations Mission in Nepal (UNMIN) chief Ian Martin has revealed that the delay in the second-phase registration of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) (CPN-M) army, which was to begin on Tuesday, is because of the CPN- M's condition that the process should start only after improvement of living conditions in the cantonments.

Addressing a press conference at the UN House in Kathmandu Tuesday before leaving for New York to update the Security Council on Nepal's peace process and the UNMIN operation here, Martin also urged the Nepali government to improve the conditions in the camps which have repeatedly proved to be unsatisfactory for weather conditions, which cannot withstand the fast approaching monsoon.

However, he said "the obligation on the Maoist to allow verification to proceed is unconditional, and I have made clear to the Maoist leadership that UNMIN cannot accept its linkage to any pre-conditions."

He also informed that UNMIN personnel currently stood at 311 including 111 monitors from 26 countries.

The UNMIN completed Nepal Army (NA) arms registration and storage process on April 12, he said, adding that a total of 2,900 arms were registered stored.

As per the tripartite agreement signed between the Nepali government, the CPN-M and the UN, the NA will be storing arms equal in number of that locked up by the CPN-M.

Earlier, UNMIN had stored 3,500 CPN-M arms during the first phase of their arms registration at seven different cantonment sites across the country.

Source: Xinhua