Friday, July 4, 2003
Nepal to consider sending troops to Iraq
Agence France-Presse Kathmandu, July 4
Nepal will consider a US request to send a battalion of troops to Iraq, the Himalayan kingdom's information minister said on Friday.
"The Nepalese government has received a formal request from the US Central Command to send a battalion of the Nepalese army for an Iraq peace mission team," Kamal Thapa said. "Nepal will decide on the request at an appropriate time," he added.
The United States has been searching around South Asia for troops to join a "stabilization" force in Iraq. Arch-rivals India and Pakistan along with Bangladesh have all been engaged in protracted debates on whether to join US-led troops.
Nepal has been an active supporter of UN peacekeeping operations, participating in nine missions, with troops from the kingdom still in East Timor and Sierra Leone.
But in 2001 the army was deployed for the first time at home to put down a Maoist rebellion that has left more than 7,800 people dead since 1996. The Maoists, who want to overthrow the constitutional monarchy, have been observing a truce with the government since January.
Nepal, which was supported by the United States in its crackdown on the Maoists, took no position on the Iraq war but saw a number of demonstrations against the invasion.
The kingdom supported the US-led war that ousted the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2001, offering US warplanes overflight rights despite opposition by left-wing parties and the Maoists.
© Hindustan Times Ltd. 2003. Reproduction in any form is prohibited without prior permission