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India-Pakistan
Maoists trying to keep sophisticated weapons: US
2007-01-21
KATHMANDU - The US ambassador to Nepal has charged that Maoists are trying to keep sophisticated weapons despite their pledge to hand them over to the United Nations, newspaper reports said Saturday. Under a peace deal reached between the government and the Maoists, the Communist ex-rebels are to hand in their weapons to the UN for lockup.

The comments came just days after the United Nations and the Maoists announced the process of registering Maoists had begun in two main cantonments in south west Nepal. However, neither the UN nor the Maoists have disclosed the types and number of weapons being registered.
"What's this?"
"It's a sword."
"You call that a weapon?"
"Hey, it's made of steel!"
"Oh, okay, sorry, we'll put it down as a 'sophisticated weapon.' Next!"
‘The Maoists are trying to buy primitive and handmade weapons from India (on the) black market to put them in the UN containers and retain the sophisticated weapons,’ Kathmandu Post quoted Ambassador James F Moriarty as saying.
'cause they're thinking they're going to need them in the near future ...
Moriarty also said the Maoists had recruited a large number of fighters in November to inflate the number of Maoist fighters. ‘Probably they didn’t have 35,000 fighters and probably because they wanted to keep part of their ex-guerrillas out of the cantonments,’ The Post quoted him as saying. Moriarty, who has been a fierce critic of the Maoists, has asked the UN to make sure that real weapons and real Maoist combatants are in the cantonments.

The UN has declined to give the exact number and types of weapons the Maoists are handing in, saying the Maoists were sensitive about the issue.
Oh, you think?
The Maoists have also prevented the media from recording the event.
Let the Ghurkas and the RAB have ten minutes with these guys ...
The Maoists are currently confined to sev main cantonments and 21 satellite camps located across Nepal. Although the Maoists previously claimed there were 35,000 fighters, the figure is widely disputed by experts in the Nepalese capital.
Posted by:Steve White

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