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Ray of hope for peace
- CPA third anniversary
DAY OF PEACE: (From left) NC President Girija Prasad Koirala (left), then CPN (Maoist) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal and then UML Chairman Madhav Kumar at a press conference after signing the Comprehensive Peace Agreement three years ago.
KATHMANDU, NOV 20 - On Monday, Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal flew to Singapore to meet hospitalised Nepali Congress (NC) President Girija Prasad Koirala. Dahal’s sudden visit to the city-state was not so much aimed at resolving the current political impasse as to mending fences with the octogenarian leader.
The visit, and subsequent developments on the eve of the third anniversary of the Comprehensive Peace Accord (CPA), has once again pushed the two leaders to the centre-stage of the peace process.
GPK and Dahal were the two major protagonists of Nepal’s peace process. An engagement that started before the 12-point agreement of 2005, the GPK-Dahal alliance was instrumental in bringing about historic changes in the country. As long as their relations remained cordial, the peace process went ahead smoothly.
But the constituent assembly (CA) election changed the political dyna-mics. With the Maoists emerging as the largest party, the NC and CPN-UML found themselves on the sidelines. This was clearly not a result GPK anticipated.
Three years on, the stakeholders have developed major differences in interpretation of the CPA as well as the framework of the ongoing peace process.
The three major components of the CPA—integration and rehabilitation of Maoist combatants, establishment of National Peace and Reconciliation Commission and Disappearance Commission, and constitution drafting have moved at a snail’s pace or not happened.
Political analysts blame the abandonment of consensual politics and subsequent polarisation between the Maoists and non-Maoists for the slow implementation of CPA.
UCPN (Maoist) Vice Chairman Baburam Bhattarai agrees that the implementation of CPA slowed down after the CA elections. Krishna Prasad Sitaula of NC thinks consensual politics was derailed when Maoists came to power. “After Maoists emerged as the largest political actor, Dahal departed from consensual politics,” said Sitaula.
The deadlock over integration and rehabilitation of Maoist combatants still persists and the commission mentioned in the CPA is yet to be formed. More importantly, the May 28, 2010 deadline for the statute could be missed unless the parties bury their differences quickly.
“Neither was the former Maoist-led government able to push the integration and rehabilitation agenda effectively, nor has the present government been able to do anything concrete in this regard” says Sitaula. Thus, the fate of more than 19,000 UN-verified combatants continues to be in a limbo.
Almost all CA committees are behind schedule and their timeline has been amended for the seventh time to meet the May 2010 deadline. The committees on state restructuring, forms of governance, and distribution of natural resources are yet to finalise concept papers.
There is, however, some optimism after the GPK-Dahal meeting in Singapore. Parties are now busy finding a compromise formula or “middle-way” to end the stalemate.
The proposed High Level Political Mechanism could prove crucial in gi-ving the peace process the much-needed impetus. “If we fail to form it, the peace process could even get derailed,” said Sitaula.
Bhattarai says, “If there is natio-nal consensus, I don’t see why we can’t meet the constitution deadline.”
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