UN monitors were collecting weapons from former communist rebels at two camps in south Nepal and were expected to start in all seven such camps by next week, officials said Thursday.
Ian Martin, chief UN official in Nepal, said the registration and collection of the Maoist rebels’ weapons had begun Wednesday in camps at Chitwan and Nawalparasi towns. UN monitors were also ready to begin the task at the camps in Surkhet in west Nepal at an unspecified time, and in the remaining camps by early next week, Martin said.
He declined to say what types of weapons or how many of them had been collected so far from the first two camps. “The beginning of the registration process has gone smoothly,” Martin said.
The rebels have blocked journalists from camps where the collection had begun. However, UN officials in the capital, Katmandu, showed journalists video and photographs of the process.
Under an agreement between the rebels and government, the rebel fighters will be confined to the seven main camps and 21 smaller ones until a still-to-be-formed special assembly decides on their futures.
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