A senior leader of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) (CPN-M) said Sunday referendum could be held to resolve the issue of CPN-M combatants' integration if the political parties fail to reach consensus, local news website Nepalnews.com reported.
Speaking at an interaction held at Reporter's Club in the Nepali capital Kathmandu on Sunday, CPN-M leader Dina Nath Sharma, who is also the party's chief whip in the Constituent Assembly (CA), said that they will move ahead with the referendum proposal even if Nepali Congress (NC), the main opposition party in the CA, opts to stay away from the Army Integration Special Committee (AISC), adding that it an entirely "personal view".
Sharma further said that if NC is indeed accountable to the people then it should participate in the special committee. If not, it would be viewed as "NC trying to complicate the peace process and government will opt for the alternative which is referendum", he added.
He also said the army integration process would be carried out as per the Comprehensive Peace Accord (CPA) signed between the then government and the CPN-M in November, 2006.
The Nepali government formed a five-member special committee on Oct. 28 to oversee the management, integration and rehabilitation of the CPN-M combatants monitored by the United Nations. The committee has still one seat vacant, which was assigned to the opposition party, NC.
On the other hand, NC central leader Ram Sharan Mahat on the same occasion claimed that army integration is not a major issue of the CPA, local news website eKantipur reported.
The government tried to overshadow other major issues of the CPA by giving unnecessary importance to the army integration, Mahat said.
"Among the major issues of the CPA, the government sees supervision of CPN-M combatants and arms but fails to consider rehabilitation of those displaced by conflict," said Mahat.
Mahat said that his party would only be a part of the special committee when the parties participating in it reach an agreement on the rights of the special committee and the number of representation from each party, according to Nepalnews.com report.
Speaking at the same program, Bhim Rawal, a leader from the coalition party in the CPN-M-led government, the communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist), claimed that there had been verbal understanding for equal representation among the political parties in the special committee in the past.
Source:Xinhua
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