Prem Sagar Poudel
Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has again started the work of making the United Nations Mission (UNMIN) active for Nepal under the pretext of completing the rest of the peace process. Prime Minister Dahal started such preparations by calling UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to Nepal.
After the Maoist came to the peace process, the work of Maoist fighters and arms management was done by UNMIN. UNMIN was active in helping Maoists to misuse Nepal’s state funds by increasing the number of fighters. UNMIN was back on 15 January 2011 after the deadline was not extended. After that, the government of Nepal itself completed the important work of the peace process like the army adjustment. The mistake of UNMIN was made public in the dispute between the then Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal and the Maoists of Nepal.
The two important tasks of the peace process, truth and reconciliation are still confusing. Prime Minister Dahal is trying to resolve these issues during his tenure. However, directly, CPN-UML, and indirectly even Nepali Congress are not thinking of supporting Prime Minister Dahal. Apart from this, Prime Minister Dahal sought help from the US in this matter. However, even the Americans did not seem to be thinking of helping as Prime Minister Dahal wanted. After failing on all fronts, Prime Minister Dahal sought refuge with Secretary-General Guterres.
After meeting with Prime Minister Dahal on 12 Kartik 2080 (29 October 2023), Secretary-General Guterres said in a press conference, “The UN is ready to help Nepal’s peace process and transitional justice, which is in its final stages, be completed.” Looking at the statement of Secretary-General Guterres and the priority of his visit to Nepal, it seems that the UNMIN structure will remain in Nepal again in the name of helping the peace process. UNMIN, which had been accused of working against India and China in the past, was not an easy farewell, but it was a positive result of political thinking. If the problem that has not been solved for two decades is not easy to solve in the situation, it seems that this structure will remain active in Nepal for the next few decades if UNMIN is present.
At a time when millions of innocents were killed in the Hamas-Israel war, the justification of Secretary General Guterres’s visit to Nepal has not been confirmed. The question of why Nepal’s peace process became more important to Secretary-General Guterres than the Hamas-Israel war also makes it clear that something important work is happening in Nepal. It seems that the visit of Secretary-General Guterres will pave the way for the construction of two structures of the United Nations in Nepal. First, UNMIN to complete the rest of the peace process, and second, a permanent structure to work on climate change.
The first structure will be in Kathmandu and the second in the Himalayan region. In the press conference, Secretary General Guterres said, “Nepal is caught in the storm of the global crisis which has no involvement of its own. An international initiative is needed to solve it. Developed countries should help a country like Nepal deal with the major threats posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, inflation, and climate change. On this journey, I will visit the Himalayas to see for myself the dire effects of the climate crisis.”
Secretary General Guterres said that Nepal has lost one third of its snow in the last thirty years. He said, “The glaciers here are melting at a high rate. Its impact on communities is devastating. I will meet the locals in the Himalayas to hear what they have to say. I will understand directly how they are affected.” His expression indicated that the United Nations is in the final stages of conducting a special program in the Himalayan region.
While in Nepal, UNMIN did espionage against China and India. Because of this, India put more pressure on Nepal to remove UNMIN. After UNMIN’s outbound in 2011, a unit named DPA (Department of Political Affairs) was established at the United Nations office in Nepal as its remnant. Based on the evidence of working against China, the then Prime Minister KP Oli’s cabinet decided to write a letter to the United Nations to immediately close the office in June 2018.
Another organization established to work on the matter of Nepal’s conflict, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights office in Nepal, also focused more on the human rights of independent Tibetans. From March 10, 2008, there were protests in Kathmandu with slogans of Tibetan independence. On March 25, the head of the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Nepal, Richard Bennett, issued a statement warning the Nepalese government against the arrest of Tibetans protesting the protests. In 2008, when the US government’s Deputy Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asia, Evan Feigenbaum, visited Kathmandu, Ram made a public statement that the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Nepal favored the peaceful demonstration of Tibetans.
Unnatural interests and dubious activities of UN staff in Nepal have become public from time to time. The fact that they were active in spy work under the cover of the United Nations is also without controversy. During the visit of Secretary-General Guterres to Nepal, the central climate change-related organization will be located in the Himalayan region. America has been interested in this area for a long time. Recently, India is also trying to show its influence in the Himalayan region by following the US. It seems that Prime Minister Dahal is helping them to do what they could not do under the cover of the United Nations. The latest version of this theme was prepared during Dahal’s visit to America.
