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Resigned Nepal PM Assures Multinational Donors


Nearly one week after the resignation of Nepal's Maoist Prime Minister, the international donor community is questioning the effectiveness of continuing to fund Nepal's unstable peace process.

Nepal's recently resigned prime minister assured multinational donors and international envoys from 16 countries that he is still committed to Nepal's peace process.

Speaking to representatives from the World Bank and Asian Development Bank and Envoys from the United States, Germany, France, Britain, Norway, China and India, caretaker Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, known as Prachanda, also addressed concerns over a recently leaked video tape.

In the tape, Prime Minister Dahal is seen boasting to Maoist cadres that he would capture state power once the Maoist rebel forces are integrated into the Nepal army.

He told donors he was trying to "boost the morale of the cadres" at the time the video was recorded, but said he is now fully committed to the peace process.

Nepal remains in political deadlock since he resigned last week after his call to oust the head of the Nepali Army was revoked by the president.

As a result of the political instability, The Nepal Development Forum (NDF) - where donors meet to determine the country's aid stream - has been postponed from this week to September.

The chief the U.N. Mission in Nepal Karin Landgren, also at today's meeting, says the donor community discussed whether they should continue to put significant resources into the country. She says the mission has more funding in support of the peace process than it can actually disperse mostly due to Nepal's ongoing security issues.

"There are several reasons for bottlenecks in the distribution of funding, but certainly donors are feeling that this is backed up and this probably is not the moment to put more resources in if they cannot be dispersed," said Landgren.

Nepal, situated between two of the world's growing economies India and China, relies heavily on foreign aid for development.

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