Nepal: Maoists gave up to control 19.000 former fighters
Nepal’s Maoists have relinquished control of at least 19,000 former fighters to government control in a move expected to boost the country’s peace process.
Pushpa Kamal Dahal, the Maoist leader popularly known as Prachanda, and Madhav Kumar Nepal, the country’s prime minister, signed a joint declaration on Saturday to place the former fighters under the control of a cross-party committee headed by the prime minister.
The Nepal government now faces the thorny task of integrating the Maoist fighters into the security forces or rehabilitating them into civilian life in the Himalayan republic.
The handover was telecast live at a Maoist camp 80km south of the capital Kathmandu and comes a week after a United Nations peace mission wrapped up its operations in the country.