Monday, November 3, 2008

Ruling Nepali communist parties form coordination committee


KATHMANDU, Nov. 2 (Xinhua) -- The two ruling communist parties in Nepal on Sunday formed a high-level coordination committee to ensure better coordination between them and advise the government on important issues.

Senior leaders of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), led by its chairman and Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal "Prachanda", and the coalition party, the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) (CPN-UML), held a meeting on Sunday and decided to form the 12-member committee with senior CPN-M leader Mohan Baidya, also known as "Kiran" and former CPN-UML general secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal as coordinators, local news website Nepalnews.com reported.

"A joint coordination committee has been formed to hold discussions on mutual relations between the two parties and to advise the government," another local news website eKantipur quoted CPN-M spokesperson Krishna Bahadur Mahara as saying after the meeting.

"We decided to further discuss the issues relating to government operation tomorrow," said CPN-UML leader Bhim Rawal.

Besides the formation of the committee, the ruling partners have formed two separate investigation committees to look into the clashes between their cadres erupting recently.

The cadres of CPN-M youth front Young Communist League (YCL) and the CPN-UML's Youth Force have been engaged in frequent clashes in various parts of the country recently.

They also discussed the inclusion of the opposition party Nepali Congress (NC) representative into the special committee for army integration. They have agreed to take measures from their side to persuade the NC to join the committee.

The Nepali government formed a five-member special committee on Oct. 28 to oversee the management, integration and rehabilitation of the CPN-M combatants monitored by UN. The committee has still one seat vacant, which was assigned to the opposition party, NC.

Prime Minister and CPN-M chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal "Prachanda" and CPN-UML general secretary Jhala Nath Khanal were also present at the meeting.

Top leaders of the two parties will again meet on Monday to further discuss ways to resolve their differences on a number of issues including the tricky issue of army integration, leaders said.

Prachanda was elected the prime minister on Aug. 15, and the republic cabinet got its final shape on Aug. 31.

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