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Nepal communists give up control over ex-fighters
Associated Press - January 22, 2011
Thira L. Bhusal, Katmandu, Nepal – The head of Nepal's former communist rebels handed command of his fighters over to the government Saturday as part of a peace deal that ended the Himalayan nation's decade-long conflict.
Nepal's prime minister and the Communist Party of Nepal, known as the Maoists, reached the deal earlier this month for a special committee to monitor the 19,000-strong ex-rebel force, just as a UN peace mission was ending its watch.
"From today onward, all the members of the Maoist combatants have formally come under the special committee," Communist chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal said, before joining the Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal in releasing balloons during a ceremony at one of Nepal's 28 camp for former fighters.
The prime minister hoisted the national flag in place of the rebel banner at the Shaktikhor camp in Chitwan, 50 miles (80 kilometers) southwest of Katmandu, the capital. "Now the government shoulders all the responsibility, including the supervision, integration and rehabilitation" of former fighters, the prime minister said, though officials have yet to give details on how the ex-fighters will be brought back into society or integrated into the government security forces.
A group of 64 monitors – selected from the army, police and political parties including the Maoists – will now watch the seven major camps and 21 small camps where the former fighters have lived since 2006, when they gave up an armed revolt that had left more than 13,000 people dead.
The UN peace mission had monitored the camps since January 2007, but it left Jan. 15 after Nepal refused to extend its mandate.
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