Pascoe wraps up Nepal trip

Untied Nations Under Secretary-General for Political Affairs, B. Lynn Pascoe, wrapped up his three-day visit to Nepal Friday.

Speaking at a press conference at the Tribhuvan International Airport before his departure, Pascoe appeared hopeful for an understanding among political parties to resolve the issues concerning the peace process.

"It seems to me that after talking with very wide range of people that there is strong hope and strong understanding of what needs to be done to get there, to settle the peace issues," said he adding that UN "will continue working in anyway we can, to be helpful in this process".

He also refuted allegations against UNMIN of not cooperating with the government by providing the details of the cantoned Maoist combatants. Pascoe made it clear that UNMIN had no authority to supply information exclusively to the government.

"It is totally wrong to say that there's non-cooperation. The UNMIN mandate is limited to giving information that is provided by each side. That's what we can do," said he.

"We work very closely through the JMCC on this process. We are working on numbers of people in the camps and all of that to try to be helpful," Pascoe further said, "When it comes to giving out other data which is agreed by both sides, which stay confidential; that's not going to be handed out. We follow what we have been asked to do and what has been agreed to do by the two sides."

During his meetings with top political leaders, the UN delegate urged them to rebuild trust in order to keep the peace process on track.

He met Nepali Congress president Girija Prasad Koirala, Maoist chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal, UML chairman Jhala Nath Khanal, Defence Minister Bidhya Bhandari and leaders of Madhesi political parties.

He also visited the Maoist cantonment in Shaktikhor, Chitwan, Thursday and inspected the works of UNMIN arms monitors. nepalnews.com