Okhara (Nepal): Peace talks between Nepal's government and Maoists resumed on Thursday, with rebel chief Prachanda saying the process was picking up speed and that a long-awaited meeting with the prime minister was imminent.
Prachanda said the peace process had been running into trouble until he held a productive meeting with the government's home minister and chief negotiator Krishna Prasad Situala on Sunday.
"There was a crisis of confidence but after my meeting with the home minister it has been narrowed down," he told Reuters in Pokhara, shortly before talks resumed 200 km away in the capital Kathmandu.
The government and rebels have been observing a ceasefire for more than a month and held a first round of peace talks three weeks ago to end a decade-long insurgency that has cost 13,000 lives and shattered the tourism and aid-dependent economy.
The 52-year-old rebel chief, wearing a check shirt and spectacles and sporting a moustache, said he hoped the government would soon agree to dissolve parliament and set up an interim government which would include the Maoists.
That government would then hold elections to a special assembly to draw up a new constitution. "There are still some serious differences with the seven political parties," he said. "But after my talks with the home minister, the possibility of dissolving parliament has increased."
Parliament was only restored in April when King Gyanendra surrendered power after weeks of mass street protests organised by an alliance of seven political parties and supported by the rebels.
But the Maoists say parliament does not represent them, nor civil society which also played a key role in the mass campaign. On Monday, political parties said they intended to suspend parliament for some weeks in an attempt to placate the rebels.
The other main bone of contention remains the question of disarming the rebel People's Liberation Army. "Some leaders of political parties see the PLA and our arms as the main problem," Prachanda said.
"But the problem is the government army." Prachanda said the Maoists were not ready to lay down their arms ahead of the constituent assembly elections because they did not trust the state army.
"In our view the PLA and their arms are not terrorising people," he said. "It is the Nepalese Army that is terrorising people." Prachanda said the two sides should put their weapons under the supervision of the UN or any other "credible" international organisation.
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