Signing of a historic peace accord to end a decade of bloody civil war in Nepal was postponed yesterday as the government and Maoist rebels said they needed more time to finalize the document.
Neither side would enter into detail about the issues holding up the signing, but they said they were not major.
"Both sides agreed to extend the deadline as there are some minor issues which need to be addressed properly," government negotiating team member Pradeep Gyawali said.
"There are no major problems," rebel negotiator Dev Gurung said.
A new date for the signing would be set by Nepali Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala after consulting with Maoist rebel leader Prachanda, the government negotiating team member said.
Prachanda was due to fly to New Delhi from Kathmandu today to attend a media conference, the first outing on the world stage for the reclusive rebel leader. There was no immediate word on whether his trip would go ahead.
An initial deal was struck last week that would see the Maoist rebels take 73 seats in a new 330-seat parliament to be formed before the end of the month.
In return, the rebels have pledged to end their "people's war" that has claimed over 12,500 lives, place their weapons and army under UN monitoring and join the political mainstream.
"Our whole party organization will focus on the peaceful political process rather than war," rebel negotiator Dina Nath Sharma told reporters earlier this week.
Sharma said that the party would change its war-time organizational structure.
Soon after mass protests in April forced King Gyanendra to end his 14-months of direct rule and restore parliament, both sides invited the UN to monitor the peace accord.
The UN has inspected the seven areas where rebels have proposed containing their army and weapons.
But it has said it would be impossible to have a full monitoring team in place by Nov. 21, when the government and Maoists agreed that the rebel soldiers would be confined to camps.
The UN mission would monitor about 35,000 rebel soldiers and the 90,000-strong Nepal Army.
The rebels began their insurgency with the goal of toppling the monarchy and establishing a communist republic in the Himalayan nation.
They now say they are prepared to work within a democratic system, but have called for an end to the monarchy.
The new pact states the monarchy's fate will be decided at a meeting after elections to a special body to rewrite Nepal's constitution that will be staged next year.
The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government: Come work with us. The agency released two Mandarin-language videos on social media on Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted on YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day. The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China, which has recently targeted US officials with its own espionage operations. The videos are “aimed at
STEADFAST FRIEND: The bills encourage increased Taiwan-US engagement and address China’s distortion of UN Resolution 2758 to isolate Taiwan internationally The Presidential Office yesterday thanked the US House of Representatives for unanimously passing two Taiwan-related bills highlighting its solid support for Taiwan’s democracy and global participation, and for deepening bilateral relations. One of the bills, the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, requires the US Department of State to periodically review its guidelines for engagement with Taiwan, and report to the US Congress on the guidelines and plans to lift self-imposed limitations on US-Taiwan engagement. The other bill is the Taiwan International Solidarity Act, which clarifies that UN Resolution 2758 does not address the issue of the representation of Taiwan or its people in
US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on Friday expressed concern over the rate at which China is diversifying its military exercises, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Saturday. “The rates of change on the depth and breadth of their exercises is the one non-linear effect that I’ve seen in the last year that wakes me up at night or keeps me up at night,” Paparo was quoted by FT as saying while attending the annual Sedona Forum at the McCain Institute in Arizona. Paparo also expressed concern over the speed with which China was expanding its military. While the US
SHIFT: Taiwan’s better-than-expected first-quarter GDP and signs of weakness in the US have driven global capital back to emerging markets, the central bank head said The central bank yesterday blamed market speculation for the steep rise in the local currency, and urged exporters and financial institutions to stay calm and stop panic sell-offs to avoid hurting their own profitability. The nation’s top monetary policymaker said that it would step in, if necessary, to maintain order and stability in the foreign exchange market. The remarks came as the NT dollar yesterday closed up NT$0.919 to NT$30.145 against the US dollar in Taipei trading, after rising as high as NT$29.59 in intraday trading. The local currency has surged 5.85 percent against the greenback over the past two sessions, central
RSS