Draft Chain Of Command For Controlling Maoist Combatants
BY KTM Metro Reporter in Kathmandu
On January 26, 2010, the Army Integration Special Committee (AISC) has debated a structure of organization for bringing the Maoist People’s Liberation Army (PLA) under the direct control, supervision and instruction through a ‘chain of command’. The proposed ‘chain of command’ is the Government of Nepal will directly control a special committee that in turn controls a secretariat and a technical committee; such a secretariat controls monitoring teams; such monitoring teams control main cantonments and sub-cantonments. Such a special committee will have a representation of one person each of Nepali Army, Nepal Police, Armed Police, and of the Maoist people’s Liberation Army.
UCPN-Maoist representative in the AISC Janardan Sharma 'prabhakar' has staked a claim for the rights to coordinate the special committee, others have not agreed on his claim.
On January 27, 2010, the standing committee of the UCPN-Maoist has decided that the army integration should be only after the formulation and proclamation of an overall national security policy by the Constituent Assembly (CA). "Today’s discussion was focused on army integration process and opinions of the leaders of the other parties that the new constitution should not be written before the army integration. The meeting concluded that it means the army integration should be prior to constitution drafting process is against the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) and Interim Constitution of Nepal of 2007 and that the army integration should be carried out only after the CA finalizes the national security policy and the number of the national army and other security forces," spokesperson for the UCPN-Maoist Dina Nath Sharma said after the meeting according to the state-run newspaper ‘The Rising Nepal’ of January 28, 2010.