PRIME MINISTER AND MAOIST LEADER MEET DURING

S E C R E T KATHMANDU 001563

SIPDIS

NOFORN
SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/16/2016
TAGS: PGOV PTER EAID NP
SUBJECT: PRIME MINISTER AND MAOIST LEADER MEET DURING
ONGOING TALKS

REF: A. 05 KATHMANDU 2556


B. KATHMANDU 1373

Classified By: Charge d'Affaires Larry Schwartz. Reasons 1.4 (b/d).

SUMMARY
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1. (S/NF) The Prime Minister's Foreign Affairs advisor told
us June 16 that during the first meeting since Prime Minister
Koirala resumed the post, Koirala and Maoist leader Prachanda
agreed earlier in the day on the dissolution of Parliament in
about two months but that Parliament would be restored if
constituent assembly elections were not held within a year.
This agreement, unlikely to be announced for some time,
follows a June 15 four-point agreement reached by the
government and Maoist negotiating teams. They agreed to have
a five-member Nepali team observe the talks between the two
sides; form a 31-member committee to monitor the Code of
Conduct; and to request the UN's Office of the High
Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to also monitor the
Code of Conduct. Hannes Siebert (protect),the US-AID funded
contractor working with the government on the peace process,
told Charge that the sides had also secretly formed a
four-lawyer committee to draft an interim constitution. End
Summary.

MAOIST LEADER AND PM KOIRALA AGREE ON DISSOLUTION OF
PARLIAMENT
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2. (C) Prime Minister Koirala's Foreign Affairs Advisor, Dr.
Suresh Chalise, told ADCM that Maoist leader Prachanda and PM
Koirala, during their June 16 talks, had secretly agreed on
the dissolution of Parliament. According to Chalise, the
Maoists had insisted on dissolving Parliament, and the
government, showing "flexibility," had agreed on the
condition that Parliament would again be restored if there
were no constituent assembly elections within a year.
Chalise suggested that the government might dissolve
Parliament in two months. Chalise said that PM Koirala
continued to recognize that the main problem was the
management of Maoist arms. Chalise stressed that the
government remained firm in its position that there must be a
permanent management of arms before the Maoists can be
inducted into government. He noted that an essential outcome
of the talks must be a clear message to the people of Nepal
that the Maoists will not be able to carry their guns again.


3. (C) Prachanda, his wife, and his deputy, Dr. Baburam
Bhattarai, arrived from Pokhara the morning of June 16 in a
commercial helicopter for the talks at the Prime Minister's
residence. The discussion between the PM and Prachanda was
relatively brief, and was followed by another round of talks
between the negotiating teams led by Home Minister Sitaula
and Maoist spokesperson Mahara. The PM's Military Advisor,
Ramesh Jung Thapa, confirmed that Maoists had provided their
own security surrounding the talks. However, Thapa told us
the talks between the PM and Prachanda were preliminary, and
that no decisions would be announced. Thapa noted that the
talks between Mahara and Sitaula would continue while the
Prime Minister was in Bangkok June 17-24 for medical care.

PARTIES - MAOISTS REACH FOUR POINT AGREEMENT
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4. (SBU) The leaders' meeting in Kathmandu capped a second
round of peace talks on June 15 led by Home Minister Krishna
Prasad Sitaula and Maoist spokesperson Krishna Bahadur Mahara
in the capital. Following talks, negotiators from the
seven-party alliance and Maoists signed a four point
agreement. They agreed to:

-- Form a 31-member Ceasefire Code of Conduct National
Monitoring Committee, which Home Minister Sitaula said would
be responsible for monitoring the implementation of the
Party-Maoist 12-point understanding (ref A) and the 25-point
Code of Conduct (ref B). The head of the Citizen's Movement

for Peace and Democracy and former Minister of Finance (1990)
Devendra Raj Pandey will head the 31-member committee.

-- Hold further talks under the observation of a committee of
five Nepali civil society leaders. Sitaula announced that
names of the observation committee: Former Supreme Court
Justice Laxman Prasad Aryal, Dr. Devendra Raj Pandey (who
also heads the Monitoring Committee),Padma Ratna Tuladhar,
Damanath Dhungana and Dr. Mathura Prasad Shrestha.

-- Request the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner
for Human Rights (OHCHR) to assist the truce monitoring
committee and to monitor human rights.

-- Hold direct talks between Prime Minister (PM) Koirala and
Maoist leader Prachanda soon. Maoist talks team leader
Mahara said the summit talks would focus on constituent
assembly elections and arms management.

POLITICAL LEADERS: POSITIVE STEP, BUT WILL REQUIRE
COORDINATION
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5. (C) Arjun Narsingh K.C., Central Committee Member Nepali
Congress (NC) said the formation of the monitoring and
observer committees was a positive development, however, he
believed a 31-member committee was too big to be effective.
He lamented that the idea to form the committees was
discussed by the Cabinet but not with the central committee
members of the political parties. He stressed that the most
important outstanding issue was the management of weapons.
Minendra Rijal, Central Committee Member, Nepali
Congress-Democratic (NC-D),and Jhalanath Khanal, Central
Committee Member, CPN-UML, both agreed that the formation of
the committees was positive, but noted there would be an
important need for coordination between the committees and
the government.


6. (S) Hannes Siebert, the USAID-funded contractor heading
the Transition for Peace Initiative (protect),told Charge
d'Affaires the morning of June 16 that he and his team were
working on draft terms of reference for the 31-member
monitoring committee, whom he noted were jointly agreed upon.
Siebert said that his group was also drafting instructions
for the observer group. Siebert worried that the peace
process was "moving a little too fast." He noted that there
has not been time to secure what the two sides have agreed
upon or a clear picture of how the various working groups and
committees that have been established will mesh. Siebert
commented that in the texts of agreements signed to date, the
government had not yet made dangerous concessions to the
Maoists, but his colleague added that the government has not
been able "to tie down the Maoists yet."

COMMITTEE TO DRAFT AN INTERIM CONSTITUTION
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7. (S/NF) Siebert said that the government and Maoists had
appointed a secret committee to draft an interim
constitution. Siebert asked that the new committee not be
discussed publicly as its existence would not be revealed for
two weeks, after the Prime Minister and Prachanda reached
agreement. Siebert described the group as "fairly high-level
lawyers" from both sides: two Maoist lawyers (who also
participate in a group with the three Maoist negotiators) and
two GON lawyers. Siebert said the committee's mandate was to
sort out the two sides' different roadmaps, draft a framework
agreement, and establish guidelines for an interim
government.

COMMENT
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8. (C) The peace process is happening at a breakneck pace and
the speed at which things are moving is breathtaking to
nearly all observers. While all seem to agree that reaching
an agreement on the decommissioning of Maoist arms will be
the determining factor in the negotiations' success or


ultimate failure. In the meantime, a successful monitoring
mechanism that will give teeth to the Code of Conduct is
critical. Quickly finding an independent funding mechanism
for the 31-man monitoring committee, plus the additional
field personnel to come, is essential so that it can be up
and running as soon as possible. As it stands, there is
still no coherent structure for monitoring the Code of
Conduct as the Maoists continue to violate the Code through
extortion and recruitment of cadre, as evidenced by the June
15 discovery of a dead 19-year old abducted by Maoists six
days ago in central Sindhupalchowk District.
SCHWARTZ