United Nations: The UN Security Council has urged all the stakeholders in Nepal including the new government and major political parties to work together to ensure that the peace process continues in the Himalayan country.

After a special meeting of the Security Council on Nepal Friday, its president for the month of November, Ambassador Jorge Urbina of Costa Rica, told reporters that the powerful 15-member body of the UN has reaffirmed its support for the Nepal peace process.

Members of the Security Council urged the Nepal government and the other political parties to "work together in a spirit of compromise" to expedite the peace process and take decisions necessary to allow the United Nations Mission in Nepal to carry out its work, Urbina said.

The United Nations Mission in Nepal (UNMIN) has been in the country since January 2007. During his visit to Nepal last week, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon decided that the mission would get another extension.

Earlier, briefing the Security Council on the current situation in the country, the Special UN Envoy for Nepal and UNMIN head, Ian Martin, said Nepal still needs continued international support, despite remarkable progress made by it towards peace and democracy.

After the decade-long civil war, during which more than 13,000 people were killed, democracy was established in Nepal early this year and the 240-year-old monarchy abolished.

Giving his assessment of the ground realities in Nepal, Martin said the political transformation in the Himalayan country must go hand in hand with social and economic transformation and steady progress in the peace process would ensure international support.

Martin said he shared the council's desire to bring UNMIN's mandate to completion as soon as possible. The Secretary-General wanted to drawdown further and close the mission in a manner that did not jeopardise the peace process and ensured continuing international support for consolidating peace.

In discussions with the Secretary-General last week, Nepal's prime minister had said that the mission's presence at the cantonments would remain necessary pending integration and rehabilitation, Martin said.

The UN envoy said the world body's aim is not only to complete the mission as soon as possible, but also ensure the sustained and intensified support of the UN system and international community to the peace, development and change which the people of Nepal have demanded.

 

Source : IANS