Ian Martin, Personal Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General
I have to begin by expressing my dismay at the deaths, injuries and destruction of property that has taken place in the Terai in recent days, and the deep concern of the United Nations regarding the situation that has given rise to these. It is of course a matter of national responsibility to address this, but I add my voice to those calling on all parties to avoid violence and promote tolerance. The role of my Office is to support a free and fair Constituent Assembly process, and the efforts we are supporting to make this possible on the agreed schedule can only be jeopardized if the situation in the Terai continues or escalates. At the same time, I recall the words of Secretary-General Ban Ki- Moon in his 9 January report to the Security Council, that "if Nepal fails to meaningfully include traditionally marginalized groups in the peace process and in the election, and in the deliberations of the Constituent Assembly, the country will lose a crucial opportunity to harness the strength and the vision of its own people."
As you know, on 23 January the Security Council through its Resolution 1740 formally and unanimously established a mission in Nepal to assist the peace process. The United Nations Mission in Nepal, or UNMIN, has been mandated to monitor the arms and armies of the combatants, and to assist and monitor the elections to the Constituent Assembly. The mission has been mandated for a period of twelve months, but let me make clear that this does not mean that personnel will remain any longer than their tasks are necessary - for example, electoral staff after the election has taken place, or arms monitors if the monitoring of arms and armies is no longer required. The resolution stipulates that the mandate can be terminated or further extended upon the request of the Government.
The Security Council resolution opens the door to a full budget for the Mission, which will take some weeks to go through the stages of approval. But we do not have to wait for final approval before proceeding to recruit additional personnel and bring the required logistical support, drawing upon the $9.3 million already authorized. On Wednesday two large aircraft landed at Kathmandu bringing communications and engineering equipment, together with the first two helicopters, and a further flight is expected on Saturday.
Meanwhile registration has been under way at the Maoist army main cantonment sites at Chitwan and Nawalparasi. There has been excellent cooperation among our arms monitors, the Interim Task Force and UNDP registration teams, and in most respects with the Maoist army commanders. By the end of today we expect to have registered almost all the combatants at both sites, including of course those from the related satellite sites. The registration of weapons was halted for a time due to a technical issue about how they are being recorded. We thought this had been resolved earlier, but it was finally resolved in a meeting which I and General Wilhelmsen had with Chairman Prachanda, Dr Bhattarai and Commander Pasang this morning. General Wilhelmsen and Commander Pasang have since gone by helicopter to the two cantonment sites to make sure the resolution of the issue is understood on the ground, and I am pleased to say I have heard from General Wilhelmsen that weapons registration has now resumed.
Although we have lost some time, the teams have also been gaining experience and should be able to complete the process at the first two sites by Sunday and move to the three cantonment sites in the west, Rolpa, Surkhet and Kailali, moving finally on to the two eastern sites , Sindhuli and Jhapa. Registration should move faster at these sites, but I am not able to give an estimate for when weapons storage will have been completed: that now depends not so much on the UN as on the speed with which personnel are presented to our teams.
As I mentioned at my last press conference, this is only the first stage of the registration of arms and combatants. More detailed information about each combatant will be gathered in the second stage, enabling information provided in the first stage to be verified. We will go straight on to the second stage as soon as the first stage has been completed.
There are now 40 UN arms monitors working in Nepal. All of them have been trained and deployed to their respective sectors or to headquarters to carry out the monitoring process. The number of UN monitors will continue to expand progressively until we reach our full contingent of 186 monitors. The current monitors come from Canada, Finland, Guatemala, Jordan, Indonesia, Nigeria, Norway, Russia, Slovakia, Switzerland, Turkey and Yemen, and we are grateful to member states who have contributed personnel and other support, or who have indicated their willingness to do so as we deploy further.
UNMIN of course continues to assist the national Election Commission in carrying out its tasks, providing technical advice and assistance regarding electoral legislation, voter education and the updating of voter rolls. We currently have six electoral advisers in Nepal, with new arrivals taking place regularly -there will be another tomorrow. This week my Chief Electoral Adviser and I were invited by the Chief Election Commissioner to accompany him as he observed the process for updating the voter rolls on the outskirts of Kathmandu, and were impressed by the preparations that have had to be made in a very short time.