 KATHMANDU - Nepal’s government plans to hold its last elections to a body to redraft the constitution before the end of next April, the country’s premier said in a letter to the United Nations released on Wednesday. “As we plan to hold the election to the constituent assembly by the end of the current Nepali year (mid-April 2007), I would be grateful if you could start extending the necessary support of the United Nations,” Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala said in a letter to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan sent on July 3.
The letter marks the first time the government has publicly given a time-frame for the constituent assembly elections. The staging of the ballot is a key demand of Maoist rebels, who Wednesday pledged to continue observing a truce with the Himalayan nationÂ’s recently reinstated government.
| Until the time is right for them to seize power and kill the opposition. They're Maoists after all. |
Koirala listed five points on which they would like UN assistance, including “monitoring of the combatants of the Maoists and decommissioning of their arms” and monitoring that the army stays in barracks and remains neutral.
| How about keeping the Maoist thugs neutral? |
In addition, Nepal requested continued human rights abuse monitoring by the UN and urged it to observe the election to the constituent assembly. |