Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06KATHMANDU2335
2006-08-29 12:14:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Kathmandu
Cable title:  

NEPALI INTERIM CONSTITUTION STILL HAS GAPS

Tags:  PGOV NP 
pdf how-to read a cable
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C O N F I D E N T I A L KATHMANDU 002335 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/29/2016
TAGS: PGOV NP
SUBJECT: NEPALI INTERIM CONSTITUTION STILL HAS GAPS


Classified By: Ambassador James F. Moriarty. Reasons 1.4 (b/d).

Summary
-------

C O N F I D E N T I A L KATHMANDU 002335

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/29/2016
TAGS: PGOV NP
SUBJECT: NEPALI INTERIM CONSTITUTION STILL HAS GAPS


Classified By: Ambassador James F. Moriarty. Reasons 1.4 (b/d).

Summary
--------------


1. (C) The committee of party and Maoist-affiliated
representatives tasked with preparing an interim constitution
for Nepal presented its draft to the Government and Maoist
peace negotiating teams on August 25. The Interim
Constitution Drafting Committee (ICDC) took a little more
than two months to produce a 76-page draft. The final
document has a number of gaps but it does contain significant
language, including a referral of the issue of the monarchy
to a referendum, and important provisions regarding the
interim parliament, the interim executive, the Nepal Army,
the Maoist People's Liberation Army, the constituent assembly
and local governance. End Summary

Draft Interim Constitution Presented
--------------


2. (C) On August 25, after approximately two months of work,
the Interim Constitution Drafting Committee presented a
76-page, 172-article-long draft to the Government and Maoist
peace negotiating teams. The ICDC's 16 members, who were
largely lawyers and men (there were four women),were
affiliated with either the Seven-Party Alliance (SPA) or the
Maoists. The Committee's chairman was a former Supreme Court
Justice. The committee was established pursuant to the
fourth point of the June 16, 2006, 8-Point Agreement between
the SPA and the Maoists. Its mandate was quite broad.
According to the 8-Point Agreement, the drafters were to base
the interim constitution on two prior agreements: the
12-Point SPA-Maoist Understanding of November 2005 (the
Indian-brokered agreement that led the way to SPA-Maoist
cooperation during the April 2006 people's movement against
the King),and the Government-Maoist Code of Conduct from
late May 2006 (the so-called 25-Point Agreement).

Agreement In Spite of Differences
--------------


3. (C) Because of the Parties' and the Maoists' difficulties
first in agreeing on the committee's composition as well as
their subsequent differences on the substance of the draft,
the Government kept extending the committee's life. Perhaps
the most highly publicized issue concerned a continuing role
for the monarchy. Prime Minister Koirala faced strong
criticism from all the other party leaders, and some members

of his own Nepali Congress party, for saying in early August
that "space" should be allowed for the King. The week of
August 21, amid reports of continuing deadlock in the
committee, the Prime Minister called into question the
absolute necessity of an interim constitution. The news that
the members had actually reached agreement after 68 days was
a major news story on the 25th of August.

Key Provisions
--------------


4. (C) According to initial analyses and partial translation
of the draft text, the interim constitution appears to
provide the following:

--- The King: The future of the monarchy will be decided by a
referendum which will be held at the same time as the
Constituent Assembly elections. In the event the monarchy is
abolished, the chair of the Interim Parliament will function
as the President before the Constituent Assembly elections.

-- The Interim Parliament: Its membership is to be decided
through political consensus immediately upon implementation
of the interim constitution. The Interim Parliament's term
will end after the first meeting of the Constituent Assembly.

-- The Interim Executive: All executive powers are to be
vested in the Council of Ministers. That person who commands
a majority in the interim parliament shall be elected Prime
Minister. The PM shall appoint deputy and other ministers as
required upon the recommendation of the concerned parties.
Ministers need not be members of the interim parliament. The
Council of Ministers shall be collectively responsible to the
interim parliament.

-- The Nepal Army/People's Liberation Army: The Council of
Ministers shall appoint the Chief of Staff of the Nepal Army.
The Council of Ministers shall control, use and mobilize the
Nepal Army; the responsible committee of the interim
parliament must endorse mobilization within 30 days. The
Nepal Army and the (Maoist) People's Liberation Army (PLA)
shall be confined in cantonments until the Constituent
Assembly elections. A high-level army commission shall
control the mobilization of both armies with the
commissioners appointed by consensus between the Seven-Party
Alliance and the Maoists. After the elections, both armies
shall be under the interim parliament and the interim
executive. The Prime Minister shall be the supreme commander
of both. Militia shall be formed to maintain security during
the period governed by the interim constitution. After the
constituent assembly elections, both armies shall be
integrated into one national army.

-- The Constituent Assembly: The assembly shall be a
representative body elected through a system of one
person-one vote. It shall have a term of two years from its
first meeting with an additional six months in the event
there is a state of emergency. Its first meeting shall be
called on the 21st day after the election commission
publishes the final election results. The constituent
assembly will vote on the preamble and each article of the
new constitution. Voting shall be on consensus with a quorum
being two-thirds of the representatives.

-- Local Governance: The country shall have a federal
structure and be divided into nine autonomous provinces based
on ethnicity. Interim governments in each shall be formed
with the consensus of the SPA and the Maoists.

Comment: Many Open Questions
--------------


5. (C) Despite the interim constitution's 170-plus
provisions, it still leaves many issues unresolved.
Membership of the interim parliament and the awkward and
seemingly contradictory language on control of the Nepal Army
and the PLA are but two such questions. Controversial --
largely Maoist-driven -- provisions regarding division of
Nepal into nine autonomous regions (under which the capital
Kathmandu would fall into a new Newar province) are bracketed
in the constitution's text. The Government and Maoist
negotiating teams could easily make considerable changes in
that language as well as other articles. While we welcome
continued progress in the peace process, we fear that in the
area of the interim constitution, as in other areas of the
peace process, the Government may concede too much too soon.
The interim constitution's tolerance of a strong ongoing role
for the PLA is not reassuring. We also fear that the Maoists
will use the drafting of the interim constitution to push for
rapid movement towards an interim government, including
themselves and their weapons. Prime Minister Koirala will
need to exercise a firm hand as the drafting of the interim
constitution moves into its final stages.
MORIARTY