Nepal Begins to Seal Fate of 19,000 Former Fighters

Nepal Begins to Seal Fate of 19,000 Former Fighters
Anil Giri

Kathmandu, Nepal

Nepal has started a key move to seal the fate of 19,000 former Maoist fighters who fought a decade-long war to remove the monarchy and the century-old Hindu identity from the tiny Himalayan country.

The war, waged under the flagship of the hardcore communist party UCPN (Maoist), begun in 1996 and ended in 2006 with the signing of a Comprehensive Peace Accord (CPA) in which the Maoists agreed to confine its former fighters inside cantonments.

Known as the People's Liberation Army ( PLA), the soldiers were the military arm of the party. As agreed among the ruling and opposition parties, the former guerrillas are given three choices--integration into the proposed Directorate of Nepal Army, a "golden handshake" severance package, and rehabilitation into society by opting for various job and other adjustment options.

Parties have agreed that out of the 19,000, only 6,500 will be integrated into the Nepal Army. The remaining will be given the choice of voluntary retirement or accepting the rehabilitation package.

Those who opt for volunteer retirement will get up to $11,500 in cash (Rs. 900,000).

Surveyors and monitors have left for the cantonments for a scheduled regrouping of the ex-fighters on Friday into seven satellite cantonments, where the combatants have been kept for the past five years.

Three of the seven main cantonments in Nawalparasi, Kalali and Chitwan districts where the PLA combatants have been settled are undergoing the regrouping process. Monitors will interview the fighters and according to their choices, the former soldiers will confined in separate camps for final processing.

Since 2007, these combatants had been monitored by the United Nations' political mission, UNMIN, which wrapped up its mission in January.