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Arms registration completes this week

Tuesday - 13th February 2007

KATHMANDU, Feb. 12: Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary General Ian Martin, Monday, said that the United Nations Mission In Nepal (UNMIN) would complete preliminary registration of arms and combatants of the CPN-Maoists by the end of this week.

The road blockades in the east contributed to some delay in making all arrangements at the main cantonment sites, he said. "But, we have developed plans which should allow us to complete, by the end of this week, the registration of all weapons as well as the first stage of the registration of combatants."

"We will then report the full totals to the government and the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) leadership and discuss with them how to make them public," he said at a press conference organised at the UN building, Pulchok.

He said that he was satisfied with the arrangements he saw regarding the storage and monitoring of weapons of CPN (M).

"Throughout the disturbances, UNMIN has remained focused on our core task of arms management, and I have now seen for myself at Kailali and Surkhet the manner in which this has been conducted," Martin said.

The system was essentially the same as at other cantonments, with a 24-hour presence of the Interim Task Force (ITF) and the UN arms monitors living on site, he said. "During this week we will test the installation of 24-hour closed-circuit television surveillance."

"An urgent issue is the safe disposal or storage of improvised explosive devices�mostly socket bombs�as well as the dismantling of Nepal Army minefields, and we now have two UN experts advising us and beginning discussions with the parties about how to proceed."

"What I am not satisfied with is the conditions for those living at the cantonment sites, in terms of shelter, sanitation and access to basic services such as water and electricity, he said." "This is not a matter of direct UN responsibility, but it will have a serious impact on our work if there are not rapid improvements," he added.

He said this week seven UN arms monitors arrived, from Uruguay and Romania, bringing the current total to 48 UN monitors working with the support of the ITF. "We expect the number of UN monitors to climb to 66 by the end of this week, with arrivals from Brazil, the Republic of Korea, Sierra Leone, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, and to reach 80 in total by the end of February."

"The vehicles we urgently need for our mobility have been delayed in their transit from India by the situation in the Terai, but we expect a convoy to come to Kathmandu this week with approximately 80 vehicles. The first two of our helicopters will be making their first test flights today and will be operational once all safety procedures are in place."

Martin expressed concerns over the delay in the formation of laws related to Election Commission, which could affect holding constituent assembly elections, by mid-June. He also expressed concerns over the reports of the seizure of voters' rolls in some places.


Source gorkhapatra