English - Support to Participatory Constitution Building in Nepal ...

Contradiction and dualityand instead of having such a huge number of army, the country could gofor trained militias who would defend the country at times of war andduring emergencies.Parties are interpreting the CPA clause on integration of armies differentlyand playing with the vagueness of the wording. Initially, UNMIN wantedto use the DDR process but was unable to do so due to a strong objectionfrom the Maoists. The rationale for the UNMIN to adopt DDR is basedon the UN’s own experience of supporting DDR processes in post-conflictcountries for the management of ex-combatants. The UN has implementedDDR process in Sierra Leone, DRC, Liberia, Haiti, Burundi, Sudan, Aceh(Indonesia), Afghanistan, Somalia and Uganda. The rationale for otherparties is basically aimed at detaching the combatants from Maoists partyand avoiding the bulky integration into national security forces- the NepalArmy.The win-win (uniqueness of Nepali peace process) between the Maoistsand the other parties has created contradictions in the SSR. Earlier themainstream political parties did not want the integration of the Maoistex-combatants, particularly before the election to the CA, and now theMaoists do not want this to happen before the promulgation of thenew Constitution. Upreti (2010) comments that there is no uniformunderstanding on the national security in Nepal. Nepali mainstreampolitics still perceive national security as the sole responsibility of themilitary, which is incomplete. Furthermore, he warns that South Asia ingeneral and India in particular is increasingly facing the problems of globalterrorism. Though Nepal has not yet been directly targeted by globalterrorist networks, the spillover effects of terrorists’ act in India couldpenetrate in Nepal because of the open border that stretches 1,800 kms.4.7 Land reform in talksDistribution, ownership and access to land resources have long beendivisive in Nepal. Land issue is structurally related to landless peopleas social injustice, marginalisation, exploitation, poverty and violence.Maoist’s war received impetus by these generation-old land-relatedgrievances. Maoists made ‘revolutionary land reform’ a key componentof their agenda for social change. Consequently, the CPA-2006 reflected acommitment ‘to end feudalism’ and ensure ‘scientific land reform’. Similarprovisions are contained in the Interim Constitution-2007. Despite thisconsensus among the major political parties on the need for land reform,the issue has remained very sensitive, politicised and contradictory in thepost-conflict state building process.300