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Arms verification begins on Jan 15: Martin

Saturday - 06th January 2007

Kathmandu, January 5:

Personal representative of the United Nations Secretary General Ian Martin today said the registration of the weapons of the People’s Liberation Army of Maoists would begin on January 15.
“Registration teams provided by UNDP are on stand-by to begin registration on January 15, initially of weapons and later of combatants,” said Martin at a pre-departure press conference this morning. He left for New York in the afternoon by Thai Airlines.
He said the weapons storage containers were now in place at six of the sites. How and when the containers will reach the Rolpa site is still being discussed. He said there were 13 UN arms monitors in the country.
The training of this first group would end tomorrow, and from Monday the arms monitors will operate in two teams, one from Kathmandu and the other from Nepalgunj. Martin’s office expects more arrivals every few days. The remainder of the 35 already authorised monitors will undertake training next week and will be available for deployment on January 15. Asked if the modalities of defining a combatant were finalised, he said those who served PLA before May 18 would be considered as combatants.
Regarding Nepal Army’s barracks to lock an equal number of weapons as those of PLA, he said the Army had identified “barracks on the outskirt of the valley. Whether the registration of weapons and combatants would begin simultaneously in all the cantonments, or one by one, he said it would be worked out after the teams visited the cantonments next week. The registration teams comprise civilian officers.
Martin said the recruitment and selection of the 111 members of the Interim Task Force was done with consensus by the Nepal Army and PLA members of the Joint Monitoring Coordination Committee, in the presence of military advisers from his office.
Martin’s Military Adviser would advise the commander of the ITF on the planning, organisation, training and equipment of the ITF.
“We expect the ITF deployment in the seven main cantonments late next week. JMCC will ensure that they will cooperate with the UN arms monitors,” said Martin.
He added that the report of the Secretary General, based on the recommendations of the Technical Assessment Mission, has been finalised and will become public in New York as soon as it is printed. He said his office expected the United Nations Security Council to take up Nepal on January 11. “But the agenda of the Security Council is always subject to last-minute changes,” he added.
On his meeting with the Chief Election Commissioner this week, Martin said, “We discussed the commencement of voter registration. My office will assist in voter education and will accompany the commissioners to regional training of district election officers early next week.”
He said the UN Chief Electoral Adviser, Dr Fida Nasrullah, would join the UN team upon Martin’s return to Kathmandu.


Source THT Online