Kathmandu (dpa)- Members of Nepal's Maoist party Thursday handed over their weapons and the keys to their arms containers to the government, in a move seen as a major step forward in the country's stalled peace process.
The 3,400 weapons were handed over by the Maoist People's Liberation Army (PLA) Commanders to the Army Integration Special Committee, which is headed by the government.
The move came a week after Maoist Vice Chairman Baburam Bhattarai was elected as the country's prime minister.
The Unified Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (UCPN-M) joined mainstream politics through the Constituent Assembly election in 2008. The former rebels signed a peace deal with the government in 2006, ending a decade long civil war in which more than 16,000 people were killed.
“The heads of all the cantonments have been directed to follow the direction of bringing the combatants and the arms under the Special Committee,” PLA Spokesman Chandra Parakash Khanal told the media.
Maoist combatants have been living in seven cantonments across the country since the Maoist insurgency ended. Their integration has been a major bone of contention between the political parties.
The handover was welcomed by opposition parties and by the United States Embassy in Nepal. While the UCPN-M is not included on the US's Foreign Terrorist Organization list, it is still listed as Specially Designated Global Terrorist by the US government.
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Author: Pratibha Tuladhar
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