Nepali gov't, guerillas reach consensus on arms management

Nepali government and guerillas have reached a concrete understanding on arms management following the several rounds of informal talks between the two sides, local media on Tuesday.

"As per the agreement, all the weapons of guerillas will be stored and locked up in a cantonment where the combatants are cantoned before the formation of interim government," a leading web newsportal ekantipur.com reported, quoted a senior negotiator as saying.

The guerilla leadership will keep the keys to the stores but the UN will install fixed cameras to monitor the storage and will have the right to make inspection whenever it desires.

"As per the agreement, an equal number of weapons belonging to the Nepali Army will also be stored and locked up in the store and the UN will inspect them as well.

Although the two sides reached agreement on political issues last week, the issue of arms management had been the most contentious one between the two sides, according to the report.

There will be more or less equal participation of Nepali Congress, Communist Party of Nepal (United Marxist-Leninist) and guerillas in the interim government and parliament as per the understanding on political issues.

Source: Xinhua