By NNN-PTI,
Kathmandu : UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Friday arrived here on a two-day visit, which is expected to consolidate Nepal’s landmark peace process that led to the Maoists ending their decade-long insurgency in the Himalayan nation.
Ban is on Friday scheduled to meet Prime Minister Prachanda, who had invited him for the trip during their meeting in New York on the sidelines of the 63rd UN General Assembly, and discuss the peace process in the country.
The first official visit of the UN chief to Nepal is aimed at consolidating the support being provided by the United Nations to the peace process in the Himalayan nation, official sources said.
“We are happy to have UN Secretary General Ban in Nepal at this critical time,” said Minister for Peace and Reconstruction Janardan Sharma. The visit will further strengthen Nepal’s peace process and will help us to take the process to its logical end, he said.
The world body’s UNMIN is involved in managing the arms and the combatants of the Maoists PLA.
The UN has been playing a very important role in Nepal’s peace process and I hope that it will extend the help in the coming days, he said.
The brief visit will be wrapped up with his address at the Constituent Assembly meeting. The Secretary General is also scheduled to meet President Ram Baran Yadav, former Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala and Chairman of the Constituent Assembly Subhash Nemwang today.
Earlier, the UN Secretary-General had expressed concern over the delay in the progress of the peace process, particularly those related to the integration and rehabilitation of Maoist’s combatants.
Sharp differences have come to the fore among the Nepalese political parties on the complex issue of integrating 19,000-strong former Maoists rebels into the army.