Wednesday, April 13 2005 09:52 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Kathmandu: Nepal's major political parties yesterday (Apr 12, 2005) hailed as a "positive step" the agreement between the Government and the United Nations on setting up a UN monitoring operation in the kingdom to help prevent human rights abuses, saying it would increase the world body's involvement in the country's peace efforts.

"The decision to send the UN monitoring team to Nepal was a positive step, I don't consider it a negative thing," said Nepali Congress deputy general secretary Govinda Raj Joshi, adding, "Something is better than nothing."

"We will see how it functions, the effectiveness of the UN monitoring team depends upon its implementation," Joshi said after attending an informal meeting of the party.

He said, "At least there is some mechanism to which we can report abuses." The party's informal meeting chaired by its president Girija Prasad Koirala reviewed the current developments and discussed ways to intensify pro-democracy agitations from the Nepalese New Year, which commences on April 14, he said.

Communist Party of Nepal-UML (CPN-UML) spokesman Pradeep Nepal also welcomed the move to establish a UN monitoring office in the kingdom, saying it "will increase the UN involvement in Nepal's peace efforts". This would "increase international involvement in Nepalese affairs, which we are not opposed to", he said.