NEPAL: MAOISTS AGREE TO RELEASE "CHILD SOLDIERS"

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 KATHMANDU 001147

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/16/2019
TAGS: PGOV PHUM KDEM NP
SUBJECT: NEPAL: MAOISTS AGREE TO RELEASE "CHILD SOLDIERS"

REF: KATHMANDU 01015

Classified By: Charge d' Affaires, a.i., Randy Berry. Reasons 1.4 (b/d)
.


1. (C) SUMMARY: Under pressure from the visiting UN Special
Representative on Children and Armed Conflict Radhika
Coomaraswamy, the Maoists and the government of Nepal have
reached an agreement on the discharge of the 4,008
disqualified combatants from Maoist cantonments. The
discharge will begin on December 27 and conclude within 40
days, followed by six months of intensive UN monitoring and
retraining. The Maoists promise not to re-enlist the
discharged combatants, but the two-year UN verification
process is vague. The removal of the disqualified and minor
combatants from the cantonments is a positive step, and could
reinvigorate negotiations on the integration and
rehabilitation of the 19,000 "verified" Maoist combatants.
End summary.

UN Pushed Hard for Agreement
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2. (SBU) The agreement on an action plan can be credited to
work by the UN Special Representative on Children and Armed
Conflict Radhika Coomaraswamy and Nepal UN offices. Under UN
Security Council Resolution 1612, the Maoists are identified
as an organization that uses child soldiers. The Special
Representative made it clear that it would be difficult to
remove the Maoists from this list if they unilaterally
discharged their child soldiers without agreeing to an action
plan proposed by the UN and signed off on by the government
of Nepal. After several rewrites, all three parties came to
agreement on this final plan. (Comment: In a telling sign of
the international pressure behind the agreement, at the
signing ceremony Maoist leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal gave his
entire speech in English. A more skeptical opinion is that
Dahal's choice of languages was meant to minimize press
coverage.)

Action Plan
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3. (U) The action plan has three stages: discharge,
verification and monitoring, and rehabilitation. The
discharge phase is scheduled to begin December 27 and all
disqualified combatants will be removed from the cantonments
within 40 days. The Maoist People's Liberation Army will
hold a release ceremony for the combatants before their
departure. UNICEF and the UNDP will coordinate all of the
discharge logistics, including certifying the identity of the
combatants, issuing photo-identification cards, and arranging
for the combatants to be transported from the cantonment site
to the nearest public transportation hub city. Each
combatant will receive R10,000 for transportation and
resettlement costs. Previous agreements to send the
combatants to centralized "transition centers" (reftel) have
been scrapped.

Verifying Where Everyone Goes and What They Do
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4. (SBU) The verification and monitoring process has been
split into two parts. First, the UN will create a
"monitoring body" tentatively comprised of UNICEF and OHCHR
staff, which will visit the combatants after they leave the
cantonments. The body will also be allowed to visit "any
relevant areas" to determine whether disqualified combatants
reentered Maoist military or paramilitary units. UNICEF
Country Representative Gillian Mellsop said that, in addition
to the cantonments, they viewed Maoist party and YCL offices
to be "relevant areas" and intended to conduct surprise
inspections. (Note: The disqualified minors are not supposed
to participate in violent or paramilitary activities,
although it is not specifically prohibited in the action
plan.) Second, an UNICEF taskforce will independently
monitor the Maoists using local and international NGO

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contractors. If, after one year, the taskforce determines
the minors have not reentered Maoist military or paramilitary
organizations, the UN will delist them--although the
taskforce will continue to monitor their status for an
additional year. (Note: The earliest the Maoists could be
delisted would be February 2011.) The taskforce is separate
from the six month monitoring body at the Maoists' request.
According to Coomaraswamy the Maoists do not trust the NGO
community to be objective monitors.

Rehabilitation Plans
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5. (SBU) The final phase is to offer the combatants training
packages in four fields: education, health training, business
activities, and vocational training. The Ministry of Peace
and Reconstruction will coordinate the training, and it will
be implemented by local partners. UNICEF will use its task
force partners to encourage participation in the training
programs, and estimates 50 percent of the combatants will
participate. Coomaraswamy said Maoist leader Pushpa Kamal
Dahal promised to encourage participation as well.

Minors Will Likely Stay Maoist
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6. (C) Despite overall praise for the agreement, UNICEF,
UNDP, and UNMIN all acknowledged the difficulties with
implementation and monitoring. The largest problem will be
preventing the discharged, the majority of whom are now over
18, from rejoining Maoist institutions. During the action
plan signing ceremony December 16, UNDP head Robert Piper
said, "we know through conversations that many of you carry a
strong sense of social activism, and we hope you will channel
it in the spirit of democracy." These are some of the most
committed Maoists in the rank and file, and it is naive to
think they will walk away from political involvement, or that
the Maoists would let them. Mellsop was confident UNICEF's
network of contacts would notice if significant numbers of
disqualified minors began enrolling in the YCL or other
violent organizations.

Comment
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7. (C) The disqualified combatants had become a major
roadblock in the larger integration and rehabilitation
debate. With their imminent departure from the cantonments,
Post is hopeful that the parties can begin to make decisions
on the overall integration and rehabilitation of the People's
Liberation Army. However, there is less optimism for the
future of the discharged. Despite the commitments and UN
monitoring plan it is likely the discharged will continue to
serve the party in the YCL or other similar organizations.
BERRY