Nepal PM says peace can’t be possible till Maoists shed arms

October 8th, 2009 KATHMANDU - Three years after they signed a peace pact with the Maoist guerrillas to end a decade-long insurgency, Nepal's major parties are now seeking a one-sided change in the deal in a move certain to widen the growing rift between the two sides. Defence Minister Bidya Bhandari, who belongs to the ruling Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist (UML), has created a furore by asking a parliamentary committee to allow the communist-led government to recruit fresh soldiers for the Nepal Army and buy arms, both of which are forbidden by the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) signed in November 2006.

September 16th, 2009 KATHMANDU - The meeting between the Nepal Government and the Maoists to end the ongoing deadlock ended inconclusively as Maoists stuck to their demand on passing a resolution against President Ram Baran Yadav. The meeting took place between the CPN (UML), the Nepali Congress and the Unified CPN (Maoist) in Singha Durbar on Tuesday.

September 16th, 2009 KATHMANDU - Reacting to Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao's two-day visit to Nepal, the opposition Maoist party Wednesday claimed her "unofficial agenda" was to assess a new prime minister for the Himalayan republic. "The present government of Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal has failed," said Chandra Prakash Gajurel, Maoist lawmaker and politburo member of the former guerrilla party.

September 13th, 2009 KATHMANDU - Nepal police faced a tough time in providing security to the country's Finance Minister, Surendra Pandey as Maoist protestors pelted stones at his vehicle on Saturday. Pandey, who was in Chipledhunga-Pokhara, about 200 kilometres from Kathmandu, to inaugurate Golden News Daily, had to return without attending the function.

August 7th, 2009 KATHMANDU - Nepal Defense Minister Bidhya Bhandari who returned to Kathmandu from New Delhi refuted any agreement with the Indian government regarding the import of arms. "There is no agreement on arms.

July 26th, 2009 KATHMANDU - Nepal's Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal Sunday dismissed reports in the Nepali and Indian media that his government was on an arms-shopping spree in India, saying they were "baseless rumours". Summoned by a parliamentary committee Sunday to clarify his coalition government's stand on making fresh arms purchases from India and other internal issues, the communist leader said his government would not do anything to endanger the ongoing peace process.

July 24th, 2009 KATHMANDU - Amidst the growing controversy over the resumption of Indian military assistance to Nepal, the UN Friday said such a gesture would violate the peace pact between the former Maoist guerrillas and ruling parties that ended a decade of violence in the Himalayan nation. The row was triggered Tuesday when Nepal's Defence Minister Vidya Bhandari met her Indian counterpart A.K.

July 22nd, 2009 KATHMANDU - Former Nepal prime minister and current opposition leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda has asked the new government of Nepal not to resume buying arms from India, warning that it would hit the ongoing peace negotiations adversely. Prachanda, whose Maoist party fought a 10-year battle to overthrow Nepal's constitutional monarchy, has asked Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal not to seek fresh military assistance from India, Prachanda's aide Samir Dahal told IANS.

June 24th, 2009 KATHMANDU - Closely watching the battle in India's West Bengal state between security forces and tribals backed by Indian Maoists, Nepal, the survivor of a decade-old Maoist uprising, Wednesday said the neighbouring country's decision to ban the Left radicals was its own internal affair. "It is the decision taken by a sovereign country," said Shankar Pokhrel, Nepal's information and communications minister who is also the spokesman of the communist-led government that came to power last month after the fall of the country's first Maoist government.

June 22nd, 2009 KATHMANDU - CPN (UML) leader KP Sharma Oli has said that the Maoists would join the government within two months.peaking to journalists at Tribhuvan International Airport here on Sunday on his arrival after completing his ten-day visit to India, Oli said the peace process would not succeed without the participation of Maoists. "Peace process will not reach a logical conclusion just by a consensus among Nepali Congress President Girija Prasad Koirala, Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal and UML chairman Jhala Nath Khanal," he added.

May 27th, 2009 KATHMANDU - The Unified CPN (Maoist) has refused Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal's call to join the government. Talking to reporters here on Tuesday, Maoist spokesperson Dina Nath Sharma said there is no possibility of them joining the government or working together until 'civil supremacy' is maintained.

May 13th, 2009 KATHMANDU - CPN-UML senior leader Madhav Kumar Nepal toady met caretaker Prime Minister Prachanda and urged him to assist them in the formation of new government. At the meeting held at Maoists senior leader Dr Baburam Bhattarai's residence in Pulchowk, Nepal said: "I have urged Prachanda to participate in the to-be-formed new government for taking the peace process to the logical conclusion." However, Prachanda said they would not involve and assist in the government formation unless President Ram Baran Yadav corrects his move to reinstate Army Chief, General Rookmangud Katawal.

May 7th, 2009 KATHMANDU - The CPN (UML) is all set to choose Madhav Kumar Nepal as the leader of the next coalition that will form the government. UML Vice-Chairperson Bidhya Devi Bhandari here on Wednesday said, "Madhav Kumar Nepal has the ability to bring together different parties.

May 5th, 2009 KATHMANDU - As the rift between Nepal's Maoists and the other political parties deepened following the resignation of Maoist Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon asked the parties to honour the peace pacts ahead of a UN Security Council meeting. The UN chief said that he was saddened by developments leading to Prachanda's resignation.

January 8th, 2009 KATHMANDU - Almost three years after they ended their guerrilla war against the government and came to power through an election, Nepal's Maoist party may still be using arms and violence, the UN has said. In his latest report on Nepal tabled before the UN Security Council that was released Friday, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says: 'The internal debate held during the national gathering (of the Maoists) and some public statements by Maoist leaders also resonated outside the party, giving rise to further questioning of the Maoists' commitment to multi-party democracy and concern that the party has not abandoned its military past.' The UN chief, who had made a high-profile visit to Nepal late last year, noted that violent incidents by the Maoists and their youth wing, the Young Communist League (YCL), continued to be reported.