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KATHMANDU - NEPAL will ask the United Nations to continue to monitor thousands of former Maoist guerrillas confined to camps as part of a peace deal, a minister said on Thursday.
'We will send a formal request to the United Nations for a six-month extension before the mission's deadline on July 22,' peace minister Ram Chandra Poudel said.
'We still need them to monitor the Maoist arms and army,' the minister said.
The UN was invited to assist in Nepal's peace process when a deal was signed between Maoist rebels and mainstream parties in 2006 to end a decade-long civil war.
Since the peace deal was signed, the world's last Hindu monarchy has been abolished and the Maoists have emerged as the largest political force, with their leader poised to be the country's next prime minister.
But the UN has said the parties need to consider the long-term future of the 19,000 former rebel fighters, as well as Nepal's army.
'Continued monitoring also needs to be seen in terms of achieving a long-term solution for the future of the two armies,' said United Nations Mission in Nepal spokesman Kieran Dwyer.
The Maoists have long insisted that their fighters should be integrated into the national army, but Nepal's army chief has repeatedly said there is no place for indoctrinated former guerrillas in the force. -- AFP
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