By IPS Correspondents
KATHMANDU, Jul 31 2006 (IPS)

For a week now, a United Nations mission sent by Secretary General Kofi Annan has been huddled in the Nepalese capital trying to hammer out an agreement between the government and Maoists rebels on how to manage weapons for a durable peace. But the task is turning out to be tricky.

The world body was invited last month by Nepalese Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala to assist in the peace process. One of its major tasks is to help find ways to manage arms of the combatants, and provide technical and other support to ensure free and fair elections to a future constituent assembly. The writing of a new constitution by that assembly is seen by all sides as a permanent solution to Nepal’s ten-year-old conflict, which has so far killed more than 13,000 people.

But since the U.N. can only do what the parties allow it to do, getting them to come to a common understanding is turning out to be difficult. The Maoists say they will put their arms under U.N. monitoring only if the government’s army also does the same.. The government, on the other hand, argues that its army is a legitimate force and therefore will not submit to disarmament.

This crucial difference, along with other related issues, has kept the U.N. mission led by Swedish diplomat Staffan de Mistura busy over the week. In the latest sign that the task was getting tougher than imagined, de Mistura, who has previously served as Annan’s emissary to southern Lebanon and Iraq, spelled out his frustrations by warning publicly that the U.N. has limited time for an agreement.

On Sunday, after meetings with the government and Maoists, he said: “The main point I tried to make is that we have three and a half days left of the mission and it is very important to have urgently, on the side of all of the Nepalese interlocutors, a common understanding, especially regarding the issue of arms management.”

The outburst did not go down well. Maoist spokesman and leader of their negotiating team Krishna Bahadur Mahara told IPS that de Mistura’s outburst was uncalled for. “It is not the U.N.’s job to pressure us,” he said. “It is us who have to reach an understanding, not the U.N. The U.N. can only facilitate the process. But I think the mission is a little confused.”

Minendra Rijal, leader of one of the seven major political parties governing this poor country dittoed the sentiment. “Such pressure from the U.N. is uncalled for,” he said.

But sources close to the U.N. mission have told IPS that de Mistura’s frustration is genuine. They point out that there existed a brief “window of opportunity” for both sides in the Nepal conflict to seize to get the peace process institutionalized. If that window is closed, “then fine, the U.N. will go elsewhere and it will be a tragedy for the people of Nepal,” one diplomatic source said.

The fear is that the window is fast closing. As the Seven Party Alliance (SPA) government and Maoists haggle over the finer points of arms management, crises in Lebanon, Sudan and Sri Lanka are beginning to divert the world body’s attention. “Nepal will soon be off the radar screen if this chance is not seized,” the diplomat said.

That sense of urgency has yet to reach the parties involved. On Tuesday, de Mistura was still shuttling back and forth through the narrow streets of Kathmandu, meeting various sides and trying to hammer out a consensus. His main aim, say mission sources, is to get the two sides to agree on a common formula for managing their weapons until elections to a constituent assembly are held. That will ensure that the elections are free and fair. But it is doubtful that he will return to New York on Thursday with an agreement in hand, though nothing can be ruled out for certain, say knowledgeable sources.

The key differences among the various sides boil down to the issue of arms management. While the two sides have been at peace since April, the peace process is still fragile. Both the SPA government and Maoists have committed themselves to find a durable peace by holding elections to a constituent assembly. That election will be held by an interim government, which could be formed soon with Maoist participation.

But without first disarming the Maoists, the SPA is not keen to form the interim government, nor hold the constituent assembly elections. And if both sides stick to their respective positions, there will not only be no U.N. involvement, but also the formation of an interim government and holding of constituent assembly elections will be in doubt, severely jeopardizing the peace process.

On Monday, Koirala categorically ruled out “Maoist participation in an interim government without them first laying down their arms.” His senior advisor, Suresh Chandra Chalise, expanded on the point in an interview with IPS. “We are eager to see the Maoists in government, but until their arms are managed, it will be difficult to induct them,” he said.

This raising of the stakes has angered the Maoists. ‘’It’s only fair that both armies be under U.N. monitoring under similar arrangements. How can we alone submit to such monitoring when the other force is free to do as it pleases,” asks Maoist leader Mahara.

“We are not keen on fighting anymore. But if the mandate of the people is ignored and if we are pushed to the corner, then of course we will have to pick up arms again. But they should understand that we are here to search for genuine peace, not fight,” Mahara added.

Government officials say, they are sensitive to Maoist concerns. “We are currently working on several models of arms management that will hopefully be acceptable to all parties concerned,” Chalise said. Those models will include, among others, separation of combatant armies, containment of arms and overall monitoring by the U.N.

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