Chairman of the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (CPN-M) Prachanda, on Thursday, criticized United Nations Mission in Nepal (UNMIN) chief Ian Martin for saying that the CPN-M had posed preconditions for allowing second stage of verification, reported the website nepalnews.com Friday.

"We had discussed with him a few days ago but he has said a few things beyond our agreement," Prachanda told reporters following a book-launching program organized in Kathmandu.

"We have not posed any precondition. We have just said that earlier understandings regarding cantonment management should be respected," he added.

Earlier on Tuesday, UNMIN chief Martin - who left the same day for New York to brief the Security Council, -- had said that no precondition was acceptable to the UNMIN to start the second stage of verification of CPN-M combatants.

Martin had said that the CPN-M leadership has not agreed to the process of second stage verification commencing until "other issues have been addressed: in particular, the improvement of conditions in the cantonments, government remuneration for those registered there, and the formation of the committee envisaged by Article 146 of the Interim Constitution to take responsibility for the future of the CPN-M army."

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

The UNMIN has been saying that it is ready to begin the second stage of registration and verification of personnel in the CPN-M cantonment sites. The second stage verification is said to be essential for two purposes: to identify minors who under the agreement must be discharged, and to determine whether personnel were recruited after May 25, 2006, in breach of the ceasefire code of conduct.

Source: Xinhua