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UNMIN:
Verification of under aged PLA personnel
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Kathmandu,
27 December 2007 UNMIN
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| Question: 4,008 are disqualified and almost 3,000 are minors. What is the criteria?
Ian
Martin: We had to apply two criteria, one whether those involved were
over eighteen or under eighteen on the 25th of May 2006, and secondly,
whether they were recruited before or after that date. So the others are
those who were assessed to have been over 18 but to have been recruited
after the 25th of May 2006. Now, we also
believe that a significant number of the minors were recruited after the
25 May 2006, but once someone was assessed
to have been a minor it wasn't necessary to go on and apply the second
criterion of date of recruitment as well. |
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| Question: What happens to those children, those who are under 18 years of age?
Ian
Martin: So far as the minors are concerned,
as I indicated, UNICEF has been ready for some time with other organisations
working with children to assist. That assistance obviously can include
assisting people in returning to education if that's their wish, or vocational
training or other kind of assistance to reintegrate into their communities. |
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UNMIN:
Verification of PLA personnel - 2nd Phase
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The
corrected number of PLA personnel registered
in the first phase was 31,318.
18,923
of these personnel were verified in the second phase as members of the
Maoist army. |
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An
additional 932 persons who had not been
registered in the first phase were presented
for the verification process in the second phase. 679
of this total were verified as members of the Maoist army. |
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8,640
personnel did not appear for verification
interviews in the second phase and were automatically disqualified. |
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4,008
persons remain to be discharged from cantonments
after the total of absentees has been taken into account. |
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2,973
of this total were assessed to be under
the age of 18 on 25 May 2006. |
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The
full total verified as members of the Maoist army is thus 19,602,
comprising
15,756
men and 3,846 women. |
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| Question: Regarding the 8,641 who did not attend the second phase of verification.
Do you have any idea, among them, how many have been involved in the YCL?
Ian
Martin: We don't know. I mean, frankly, we have a little information
as to where those people are at the moment. Certainly some of the child
protection agencies have come across some of them back in their own communities.
It may indeed be that some are now active in the YCL in their own communities
or elsewhere. But we simply don't have that information. |
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Ian
Martin: We do engage in 24-hour surveillance of weapons storage,
because they are gathered together in seven sites, Maoist cantonments,
and one for the Nepal Army.
| Source:
UNMIN , December 2007 |
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