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US to keep military aid to Nepal on hold: Rocca
The US will continue its suspension of aid to Nepal's army till political detainees are released and civil liberties restored, US Secy of State, Christina Rocca, said.
The US will continue its suspension of aid to Nepal's army till political detainees are released and civil liberties restored, senior American official, Christina Rocca, said at the end of her visit on Wednesday.
Washington's leading policymaking official on Nepal, Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs Rocca had arrived in the Himalayan kingdom on a three-day visit on Monday.
Winding up her trip on Wednesday with an audience with King Gyanendra at the Narayanhity royal palace, Rocca said military assistance to the Royal Nepalese Army would remain under review.
It was suspended in February after King Gyanendra sacked the Government of Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, assumed absolute powers and imposed a state of emergency with the suspension of civil rights.
India too had stopped military supplies to Nepal after the royal coup, but announced on Tuesday that it would "release some of the supplies currently in the pipeline".
Though King Gyanendra lifted emergency on April 29, Rocca, reiterating her government's stand, said political detainees should be released, civil rights restored and a reconciliatory process started between the king and political parties to face Nepal's "increasingly existential threat" from the communist insurgents.
In 2002, after Maoist guerrillas broke off peace talks with the then Government and renewed attacks, the US stepped up its security assistance to Nepal with a one-time allocation of $12 million. In the last four years, Washington's security assistance amounted to $22 million.
Rocca, however, said her government would continue development support to Nepal that in the last two years has increased dramatically from $24 million to $42 million annually.
Asked if the differing US and Indian decisions on resumption of military aid showed a lack of coordination among Nepal's major donors India, the US and Britain, Rocca said the three governments were still in coordination and maintained a commonality of interests, though their internal reviews could differ.
Rocca, who met the king, his deputies and the foreign minister, as well as leaders of major political parties, said her meetings had been productive.
"I have found considerable receptivity to our hope that all legitimate forces will unite in pursuit of the twin goals (of functional democracy and solution to the Maoist insurgency)."
Despite the festering rift between the king and the parties since 2002, the US hopes both sides will come together to find a way forward since there can be no military solution to the escalating "brutal Maoist insurgency".
"The problem has to be resolved at the negotiating table," she said, "And for that, everybody has to pull together."
