KATMANDU, Nepal — The head of Nepal’s former communist rebels handed command of his fighters over to the government yesterday as part of a peace deal that ended the Himalayan nation’s decade-long conflict.
Nepal’s prime minister, Madhav Kumar Nepal, and the Communist Party of Nepal, known as the Maoists, reached the deal earlier this month for a special committee to monitor the 19,000-strong force, just as a UN peace mission was ending its watch.
Monitors — selected from the army, police, and political parties including the Maoists — will now watch the seven major camps and 21 small camps where the former fighters have lived since 2006, when they gave up an armed revolt that had left more than 13,000 people dead.
The UN peace mission had monitored the camps since January 2007, but it left Jan. 15 after Nepal refused to extend its mandate.
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