Security Council to discuss situation in Nepal

United Nations Security Council would discuss the current situation in Nepal in the wake of Prime Minister Prachanda's resignation at a special meeting here on Tuesday.

Though the meeting was scheduled well in advance to discuss the recently submitted report of the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, on Nepal, Tuesday's meeting, UN diplomats said could not have come at a more appropriate time given the current political turmoil in the Himalayan country.

The meeting would be chaired by the Russian Ambassador to the UN, Vitaly Churkin, who in the capacity of the president of the 15-member Security Council for the month of May.

The Representative of the Secretary-General in Nepal, Karin Landgren, would brief the Security Council on the current situation in the country and give her assessment to the members of the council.

In his report submitted to the Security Council last week, the Secretary-General had noted that progress has been made in Nepal's peace process, including steps towards drafting a new constitution.

Nepal plunged into a fresh political crisis after Prachanda resigned in the wake of President Ram Baran Yadav asking the Army Chief, who was sacked by him, to remain in office.

In his report, prepared before the current political turmoil, Ban had however warned that the relations between the CPN-M and its main coalition partner, the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) (UML), as well as among the four political parties in the Maoist-led coalition Government, remain "fractious, marked by public acrimony and weak consultation over major decisions."

A decade-long civil war, claiming some 13,000 lives, ended in 2006 with the signing of a peace accord between the Government and Maoists.

After conducting Constituent Assembly elections last May, the nation abolished its 240-year-old monarchy, declared itself a republic and elected Ram Baran Yadav as the country's first  President.