September 11, 2008	Thursday	Ramazan 10, 1429

KATHMANDU: Nepal will decide within six months the fate of thousands of former Maoist rebel fighters, its president said on Wednesday, potentially resolving a prickly issue seen as key to a lasting peace after a decade of civil war. The rehabilitation of the 19,000-strong Maoist army, confined to United Nations-supervised camps under a 2006 peace deal, is a major unresolved problem from the war which killed 13,000 people.

Nepal’s Maoist-led coalition wants to integrate thousands of the ex-rebel fighters into the regular defence forces.

The government is forming a committee to decide if that can be done, or if the former rebels can be offered government jobs or be given vocational training.

The plan has so far met stiff opposition from the Nepali army, which has said it does not want them in its ranks.

President Ram Baran Yadav said the new government, headed by former rebel chief Prachanda, would honour and implement the comprehensive peace agreement that ended the conflict.

“The main responsibility of the government is to take the peace process to a logical conclusion and prepare a new constitution in accordance with the aspirations of the Nepali people,” said Yadav, the fledgling republic’s first president.

The 2006 peace deal has so far resulted in the Himalayan nation ending a 239-year-old monarchy and becoming a republic, a key demand of the Maoists during the war that began in 1996.

The Maoists now head a coalition cabinet after emerging as the biggest winners in April elections.

Yadav, in his first address to the constituent assembly, spoke in Nepali from a flower-festooned rostrum.

He said other agreements with different ethnic groups, which had led to often violent protests demanding regional autonomy, would also be examined.

Yadav said the government would boost growth on the basis of public-private partnership, encourage foreign investment and try to alleviate poverty in a nation where one-third of its 26.4 million people live on a daily income of less than a dollar.

Other Maoist demands like reforms promising land to landless farmers, partial waiving of loans for some poor people, and a promise to raise the salary of civil servants, would be among the government’s priorities.

“I urge everyone to forget all the bitterness of the past and forge national consensus and unity for the creation of a new Nepal,” Yadav said.

The opposition said the plans lacked details.

“The government has made promises that cannot be met with state resources,” said Prakash Sharan Mahat, a senior leader of the opposition Nepali Congress party.—Reuters