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A decade of bloody civil war in Nepal is due to end, as the government and Maoist rebels were poised to sign a historic peace deal.
The two sides held eight hours of negotiations on the accord Wednesday, but despite failing to finalize the formal peace agreement, they would be signing as planned, negotiators said.
“The government and the Maoists will definitely sign the accord Thursday. There are no disagreements,” Ramesh Lekhak, a government negotiator and the minister for labour told AFP late Wednesday.
“There are no major differences between us and the government, but we still need to agree on certain things,” Krishna Bahadur Mahara, the rebel spokesman told AFP.
“Thursday morning we will sit for more talks, and I am sure that we will sign,” Mahara said.
An initial deal was struck last week that will see the Maoist rebels take 73 seats in a new 330 seat parliament due to be formed before the end of the month.
In return, the rebels have pledged to end their “people's war”, place their weapons and army under United Nations monitoring and join the political mainstream.
“Our whole party organisation will focus on peaceful political process rather than war,” rebel negotiator Dina Nath Sharma told AFP Tuesday.
“Our party felt the necessity to change the party's war-time organisational structure,” Sharma said, adding that a four-member rebel committee will submit a report on the necessary changes “within a couple of days”.
Shortly after mass protests forced King Gyanendra to end his 14-months of direct rule of the nation, both sides invited the United Nations to monitor the peace accord.
The UN has inspected the seven areas where rebels have proposed containing their army and weapons, but has said it would be impossible for a full monitoring team to be in place by November 21, when the government and rebels agreed that the rebel soldiers would be confined to camps.
The UN mission would monitor about 35,000 rebel soldiers and the 90,000-strong Nepal Army.
At least 12,500 people have been killed since the rebels began their “people's war” in 1996, aimed at toppling the monarchy and establishing a communist republic in the Himalayan nation.
The rebels have now said they were prepared to work within a democratic system, but have called for an end to the monarchy in the troubled Himalayan country.
The new pact states the monarchy's fate would be decided at a meeting after elections to a special body to rewrite Nepal's constitution, to be staged next year.
Maoist leader Prachanda, whose forces fought to turn the country into a republic, said last week the rebels would not accept the monarchy.
“If a ceremonial role for the monarchy is chosen, we will go to the people again and say to them they have made a mistake. There is no room for any form of monarchy,” Prachanda said.
Mass street protests forced King Gyanendra to restore parliament in April and led to a renewal of the peace process that had collapsed twice before, in 2001 and in 2003, plunging the tiny Himalayan nation back into conflict.
