Nepal's new PM sworn in after Maoist walkout
By Deepesh Shrestha
KATHMANDU (AFP) — A moderate leftist leader was sworn in as prime minister of Nepal on Monday, three weeks after the resignation of his Maoist predecessor over a dispute with the army.
Madhav Kumar Nepal of the Communist Party of Nepal-UML took the oath of office from President Ram Baran Yadav in a ceremony in the capital Kathmandu.
Nepal, a 56-year-old political veteran, was elected unopposed by lawmakers at the weekend -- ending a deadlock caused when Maoist chief Prachanda stepped down after only eight months in the post.
Prachanda, who led the Maoist rebels in a decade-long civil war until 2006, came to power in elections last year but quit after his bid to fire the army chief failed.
"I will carry out my duty by remaining within the boundary of Nepalese law without any fear, discrimination and ill intentions," Nepal said in his oath as dignitaries and foreign diplomats looked on.
Nepal won the backing of an alliance of 22 parties that holds 350 seats in the 601-member constituent assembly.
The Maoists said they would boycott the new parliament and vowed to keep up street protests against the president, who blocked their attempt to sack the army chief.
The political crisis raised fears about the 2006 agreement that ended the civil war -- in which at least 13,000 people died -- and the new prime minister immediately stressed that the peace deal was his priority.
"This government has a historic responsibility to take the peace process to a positive conclusion and draft the constitution on time," Nepal told reporters shortly after the swearing-in ceremony.
"I have become the prime minister in order to fill the political vacuum and I will try my best to bring the Maoists into the government."
Drafting a new Nepalese constitution by a May 2010 deadline will be one of the prime minister's biggest challenges, with many parties disagreeing on how power should be distributed.
Political commentators have also questioned whether the multi-party ruling alliance would survive for long, but Nepal said he was confident that unity would be possible.
"Those who predict that this government will last not even for three months are day-dreaming," he said.
The Maoists, who won more than twice the number of seats of their nearest rivals in last year's elections, said they were not open to negotiations.
"We will not join the government, which will fail because the coalition is not natural," Chandra Prakash Gajurel, a senior Maoist leader, told AFP.
"We will fight for civilian supremacy. The president has to correct his move."
The row between Prachanda and the head of the army, General Rookmangud Katawal, centred on the fate of 19,000 former Maoist rebel fighters now confined to United Nations-supervised camps.
Prachanda demanded that they be integrated into the national army to cement the peace process.
But the army refused, saying the guerrillas were indoctrinated Maoists who could never become non-partisan soldiers.
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