Kathmandu: Nepal government and the Maoists on Wednesday agreed to send a joint letter to the United Nations seeking its engagement in the management of arms and monitoring of ceasefire to facilitate the ongoing peace process in the country.
The agreement was reached during a high-level meeting between Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala and Maoist chief Prachanda, Koirala's Foreign Affairs Advisor Suresh Acharya said.
The government has already handed over the joint letter to the UN office in Nepal which would forward it to the UN Headquarters in New York, a source close to the Prime Minister said.
The letter consists of five points covering arms management of both the Maoists and the Nepalese Army, monitoring human rights situation, monitoring the ceasefire code of conduct and observing the election to the Constituent Assembly, he said.
Earlier, Koirala and Prachanda had sent separate letters to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan asking for the world body's involvement in the peace process.
A high-level UN Mission that visited Nepal under the leadership of Stephen de Mistura last week asked the government and the Maoists to reach a consensus to facilitate the UN's engagement in the peace process in the Himalayan nation.
The UN team, which spent a week in Nepal, was to submit its report about its assessment on the situation in Nepal to the UN Secretary General by Wednesday and Kathmandu was required to send a joint letter signed by both the government and the Maoists before that.
The letter has removed doubts about the future of the peace process in Nepal. Earlier on Monday, top Maoist leader Baburam Bhattarai had warned that the peace process might suffer a setback if the government insisted on the rebels to lay down arms.
He also took objection to Koirala's remarks that monarchy should be given space in democracy.
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