KOL SPECIAL

India?s big ?No? to UN involvement in Nepal


BY SURENDRA PHUYAL

NEW DELHI, Sept 10 - During a recent New Delhi visit of United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan?s Special Advisor Lakhadar Brahimi, New Delhi rejected suggestions that the United Nations provided its good offices in the resolution of nearly a decade old Maoist insurgency in Nepal.
Officially bound for Colombo at the invitation of Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga, Brahimi was in New Delhi for four days around Aug. 29-Sept.1, and the top UN diplomat held extensive consultation with India?s External Affairs Minister K. Natwar Singh, Secretary Shyam Saran and other top officials in the government, multiple sources privy to the goings-on here said.

During Brahimi?s Delhi stopover, another senior political advisor to the UN Secretary General Samuel Tamrat, who has visited Nepal several times in recent times; and United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Nepal, Ian Martin, was also here for consultations.

?It [that the three top UN officials involved in Nepal?s conflict were in Delhi at the same time] was more than just a coincidence,? one source close to the South Block said. The top UN officials? joint consultation with New Delhi on the latest situation in Nepal was an event also missed by the Indian and Delhi?s international media circle.

After meeting External Affairs Minister Singh, Brahimi seemed a ?little puzzled? to know that India does not want UN?s involvement in the resolution of Nepal?s tri-polar conflict, the source who also discussed the situation in Nepal with Brahimi said. It was not immediately clear what kind of third party mediation, if at all, Delhi favoured for resolution of the bloody conflict, something it says has started to spill over into its territory, in the northern neighbour.

It was also not clear what course of action would the UN Secretary General?s office and New Delhi for that matter, take to encourage peace negotiations in Nepal, amid growing multiparty clamours for UN involvement in the conflict resolution.

Hailing from Algeria, Brahimi also has experiences of dealing with other conflict hotspots like Iraq and Sri Lanka. He went on a six-day visit, his first, to Nepal in the second week of July, during which time he had meetings with Kathmandu-based diplomats, experts, top government officials and King Gyanendra. This was what he had to say on the situation in Nepal before winding up his trip: ?A solution is not beyond reach. A solution is needed urgently.?