NOW IS THE TIME FOR UN MONITORS IN NEPAL

S E C R E T KATHMANDU 003061 SIPDIS NOFORN SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/17/2016 TAGS: PGOV PTER MARR UN NP SUBJECT: NOW IS THE TIME FOR UN MONITORS IN NEPAL REF: A. USUN 2165 ¶B. KATHMANDU 3014 ¶C. KATHMANDU 3023 Classified By: Ambassador James F. Moriarty. Reasons 1.4 (b/d) ¶1. This is an action request. Please see para 4. State of Play On Expanded UN Role -------------- ¶2. (C) On November 17, Acting Foreign Secretary Bhagirath Basnet confirmed to the DCM that Ambassador Acharya, Nepal's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, had delivered a letter the day before to UN Secretary General Annan (Ref A). The letter, actually two letters -- one from the PermRep covering a letter from Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Oli -- requested the UN's assistance in implementing the terms of the November 8 peace agreement (Ref B). FM Oli confirmed to the DCM November 16 that he would send the letter after having waited four days for Prime Minister Koirala to clear the request. The Foreign Secretary reported that the PermRep was in touch with the Peruvian Mission as the UN Security Council President. Basnet stated that the Peruvians had told Acharya to expect a UN Security Council Presidential Statement soon. The Acting Foreign Secretary was unsure when to expect action on a Security Council Resolution. UN Peace Team Wants Fast Action -------------- ¶3. (C) John Norris (protect throughout),political advisor to the UN Secretary General's Personal Representative Ian Martin, told the DCM November 17 that he strongly believed it was not necessary for the Department of Peace Keeping Operations (DPKO) to send another technical assessment team. Ref A indicated it would take DPKO several weeks to perform an assessment, write a report and plan next steps. Norris noted that UN Headquarters had already added additional personnel to the UN peace team including two logisticians and two assistant military advisors. Norris said that the UN team in place already was in a position to make the necessary judgments. He noted that General Wilhemson, the UN's Norwegian military advisor, had extensive DPKO experience. Norris said that sustained U.S. pressure on the UN for rapid deployment to Nepal would be very helpful. Comment and Action Request -------------- ¶4. (C) Embassy Kathmandu greatly appreciates the focus on this issue in Washington and New York. We are not experts in UN procedure. That said, we strongly urge that everything possible be done to get UN monitors on the ground as quickly as possible, with as clear a mandate from the Security Council as possible. Alarmingly, since the November 8 accord with the Government of Nepal, the Maoists have been forcibly recruiting child soldiers to pack the cantonments with new recruits bearing blunderbusses while holding back seasoned cadre and modern weapons. We expect that as soon as agreement is reached on the cantonment sites, the Maoists will move their raw recruits into those camps to establish facts on the ground that will be virtually impossible to roll back later. The Comprehensive Peace Accord between the Government of Nepal and the Maoists could come in the next few days. A viable UN monitoring presence to verify that combatants and their weapons are going into the cantonments is urgently required. The earlier the UN, with the imprimatur of the UN Security Council, engages on the ground here, the greater the likelihood that Nepal's fragile peace process will be a success. ¶5. (S/NF) The Maoists want the cantonment of their army and its weapons to be a sham exercise, so that they can continue to intimidate the people of Nepal. MORIARTY