BAN KI-MOON CONGRATULATES NEPAL ON CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY'S FIRST MEETING

BAN KI-MOON CONGRATULATES NEPAL ON CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY'S FIRST MEETING New York, May 28 2008 4:01PM United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today congratulated the people of Nepal on the "historic" first meeting of the Asian nation's Constituent Assembly.

"The people of Nepal have clearly spoken for peace and change through the 10 April Assembly election," Mr. Ban said in a <"http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2008/sgsm11601.doc.htm">statement issued by his spokesperson.

He encouraged all parties to continue cooperating and to form a new government as soon as possible.

Yesterday, the Secretary-General's Special Representative Ian Martin said that despite last month's successful country-wide polls for the 601-member Assembly, they do "not represent the completion" of the peace process.

He told reporters in Kathmandu that Nepal still faces challenges in forming the new government and in creating a basis for stable governance and economic development.

Nearly 570 Assembly members took their oaths yesterday at a swearing-in ceremony in the country, which has emerged from a decade-long civil war that claimed an estimated 13,000 lives before the Government and Maoist rebels signed a peace accord in 2006.
2008-05-28 00:00:00.000

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