NEPAL: INSTRUCTIONS FOR UNMIN MANDATE RENEWAL

UNCLAS STATE 003916 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: UNSC UNMIN PGOV NP SUBJECT: NEPAL: INSTRUCTIONS FOR UNMIN MANDATE RENEWAL ¶1. The Department instructs USUN to draw on the following points for use during the discussion of the Secretary General's report on the UN Mission to Nepal (UNMIN) scheduled to take place on Friday, January ¶16. ¶2. Begin points: -- I would like to welcome SRSG Martin back to the Council and thank him for his report. -- We recognize that UNMIN's role in monitoring compliance with the Agreement on Monitoring the Management of Arms and Armies and supporting the Joint Monitoring Coordinating Committee remains crucial as Nepalese leaders work to implement the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, the CPA, and to proceed with the drafting of a new constitution. -- We remain concerned, however, regarding the lack of progress in key areas of CPA implementation. -- Of particular concern is the lack of progress regarding the Special Committee, which is charged under the interim constitution with integration and rehabilitation of Maoist army combatants and supervision of the government and Maoist armies pending determination of a final program of military integration and rehabilitation. The committee was named on the eve of the Secretary General's arrival in Nepal in October, but has yet to begin work. The functioning of the Special Committee is essential to the Council's objective, underlined in the previous mandate renewal resolution of phasing out its monitoring responsibilities and reducing the number of arms monitors. -- We are also concerned with the situation of minors remaining in the cantonments. In early December, the Prime Minister, the Defense Minister and the commander of the Maoist People's Liberation Army committed to the UN Secretary General's Special Representative for Children in Armed Conflict to complete the discharge of nearly 3,000 minors identified by UNMIN from the cantonments by the end of February, but the Government of Nepal appears to have made no progress in this regard. -- The Government of Nepal appears to have also made no progress in removing roughly 1,000 other persons from the cantonments whom UNMIN also determined were not combatants. -- We urge Nepalese leaders to focus on these and other issues vital to the implementation of the peace process, including the standing up of the Disappearances Commission. -- The Government of Nepal should not expect that UNMIN will be extended indefinitely if the government does not take the essential steps necessary to move the peace process forward. -- The United States will continue to work closely with the Government of Nepal and the international community to promote our objectives of peace, stability and prosperity in Nepal. The concerns we have raised here notwithstanding, The United States is pleased by the immense progress the Government and people of Nepal have made, and will continue to support them as they work to complete the peace process and work to complete Nepal's new constitution. End points. RICE