Government produced a detailed to SC

After lying several times to the Supreme Court, the government produced a detailed explanation to the Supreme Court last Tuesday on the deployment of army personnel on peace-keeping missions abroad.

The Ministry of Defence had filed affidavits that it had not signed any agreement with the UN while sending army personnel on any peace-keeping mission. When the SC cross-checked with the RNA and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other government bodies and the writ petitioners, the court found that the Ministry had lied to the court.

Then the court ordered all MoD and MoFA, RNA and the office of the Auditor General to produce the agreements and details on how RNA welfare fund was spent or face contempt of court action .In response , the Ministry of Defence sent copies of a dozen agreements with the UN on deployment of army men in peace keeping missions.

The Ministry told the court it had signed agreements with the UN while deploying army personnel in Middle East on 1973, Israel and Lebanon in 1977, Yugoslavia in 1992, Somalia in 1993 and Siralion and East Timor in 1999. According to the Ministry’s claim, it had signed agreements with UN while sending army men to Siralion, Kongo and Sudan in 2003 and Burundi and Haiti in 2004. Since the Ministry had sent the document marked as a secret one, the Supreme Court Registrar Dr Ram Krishna Timalsena decided not to provide a copy to anyone including the petitioners.

Only after the apex court warning to take action on contempt of court did the Ministry submit an agreement between the UN and the government signed in 2004 and declined to produce any other copies of agreements to the court . On August 23, a division bench of Justices Anup Raj Sharma and Sharada Prasad Pundit had directed the Ministry to furnish a copy of the agreement or face contempt of court action. Before the order, the court had, several times, directed the ministry and the RNA to furnish the copies of the agreements.

The Ministry and the RNA, responding the court’s initial show- cause notices, had claimed that they did not have any agreement with the UN for deployment of army personnel on peace- keeping missions but later claimed that though they had signed agreements they did not have any copy.

The petitioner had accused the RNA of giving those on peacekepping missions few facilities and wanted a court order to provide them facilities as per the agreement between the UN and the government. It had also charged that after not paying the peackeepers their due, a huge amount was saved in the RNA welfare fund which was massively misused.