Wednesday, July 19, 2006

-Sun Heping, Chinese Ambassador in Nepal

July 1, 2006 is a great day for all the nationalities of China including Tibetan people. On the very day, Chinese President Hu Jintao inaugurated a train service ceremony of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway, the first ever rail link to the "roof of the world", in Golmud, a start-off point of the landmark railway in northwest China's Qinghai Province, to mark the railway's opening to traffic.

President Hu said that the opening to traffic of the Qinghai-Tibet railway is another magnificent accomplishment China has achieved in its socialist modernization drive. Construction of the Qinghai-Tibet railroad is a long-cherished dream of generations of the Chinese people.

The project is not only a magnificent feat in China's history of railway construction, but also a great miracle of the world's railroad history. Rewriting the history of global railway construction, China has solved three major difficulties, frozen tundra, high altitude and plateau environmental protection.

In the launching ceremony, President Hu emphasized the extremely importance of environmental protection of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and noted railway workers and passengers traveling on the Qinghai-Tibet railway should consciously treasure waters and mountains as well as grass and woods on the Plateau, and they should help conserve the eco system and environment along the railway.

This successful practice has made it clear again to the people at large that diligent and intelligent Chinese people are ambitious, self-confident and capable of continuously making extraordinary achievements, and of standing amongst the world's advanced nations. The feat of the completion will be recorded forever into the history of the People's Republic of China.

Tibetan people call the Qinghai-Tibet Railway a "road to heaven" that brings Tibetans harmony, happiness and economic prosperity. It is a railway that people of various ethnic groups in Tibet have expected for more than half a century. It is bound to have a profound and far-reaching historical significance.

The construction of the Qinghai-Tibet railway has brought forth four enlightenments.

Firstly, we must stick to development, which is the top imperative task for China to govern and rejuvenate our country, so as to continuously enhance the country's overall strength.

Secondly, we must rev up scientific and technological progress so as to greatly improve our capability of innovation.

Thirdly, we must bring into full play the political advantage of the socialist institution, so as to realize a situation that the entire nation is united to jointly accomplish feats.

Fourthly, we must carry forward the spirit of arduous struggle and unceasingly strife in order to dauntlessly create historic feats.

The construction of the Qinghai-Tibet railway was a strategic decision made by the Communist Party of China and the State Council, and it is an unprecedented difficult job in human's history.

The Qinghai-Tibet railway is 1,956 kilometers-long with 960 km of the track located 4,000 meters above the sea level and the highest point at 5,072 meters.

The railway stretches from Xining, capital of Qinghai Province, to Lhasa. The section of 814 km from Xining to Golmud began operation in 1984 and the 1,142 kilometers-long Golmud-Lhasa section started construction on June 29, 2001 with about 29.46 billion yuan (US$3.68 billion) spent on it.

The railway is the world's highest and longest plateau railroad and also the first railway connecting the Tibet Autonomous Region with the rest of China.

Upon its completion, the maximum train speed is designed to reach 100 kilometers per hour in the frozen earth areas and 120 kilometers per hour on non-frozen earth.

A hard seat sells for 389 yuan (US$49) from Beijing to Lhasa, while hard sleeper costs 813 yuan (US$102), and the price for a soft sleeper is 1,262 yuan (US$158).

After President Hu cut the ribbon for the launching of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway, a train carrying model workers and passengers on the project set out from Golmud to Lhasa where it was due to arrive at the night of July 1. Another train set out from Lhasa.

Train enters "forbidden zone for lives" on Qinghai-Tibet route. A passenger train heading for Tibet drove into an area more than 4,000 meters above sea level, commonly-acknowledged as the "forbidden zone for lives" on the Qinghai-Tibet plateau, about one hour after its departure from Golmud in Qinghai Province.

30 minutes after, Tibet bound train drives into Hoh Xil, China's largest area of uninhabited land but home to endangered Tibetan antelopes.

And then, the first train in human history passes the tunnel of the Kunlun Mountains, a legendry range that was widely seen as insurmountable.

Launching of the Qinghai-Tibet railway will provide a historic opportunity for the economic and social development in Qinghai Province and Tibet Autonomous Region. The railway is projected to help double tourism revenues by 2010 and reduce transport costs for goods by 75 percent in Tibet.

The two will take the wonderful opportunity to carry out the conception of scientific development, design industrial distribution in a scientific way, optimize the distribution of resources and push forward the economic restructuring, so as to speed up the formation of economic patterns with regional advantages and ethnic characteristics.

Efforts have been made to explore in a scientific manner the tourism resources along the railway, to create tourist brands with the plateau characteristics and to rev the development of local tourism industry.

Upon the operation of the railroad, endeavors will be exerted to develop advantageous resources and provide more jobs to help increase income of local farmers and herdsmen and improve the living standards of various ethnic groups along the transport line. The areas along the Qinghai-Tibet railroad will be gradually built into booming economies with social harmony and beautiful environment.

Along with the maiden run of the landmark Qinghai-Tibet railway on July 1, 2006, not only national pride is on the rise, but also infrastructure convenience for Sino-South Asian trade boom is largely improved.

The Qinghai-Tibet Railway is not just a big deal for China, but also for the further promotion of friendly relations and cooperation in all the fields between China and South Asian countries.

China's strategy to develop its western regions and the launching of the Qinghai-Tibet railway imply that it is a long-term trend for China and South Asian countries to surmount various difficulties to expand economic cooperation through utilization of geographic advantages.

The newly launched railway will help pave the way for trade between China and South Asian countries including Nepal to be expanded more conveniently by providing much easier access to the Chinese hinterland instead of a detour by marine route to get to China for trade business. The landmark Qinghai-Tibet railway will provide a historic opportunity for a trade boom between China and Nepal.

China cherishes the traditional friendship between the two countries. Pursuing a foreign policy of "bringing harmony, security and prosperity to neighbors", China is willing to seek mutual development by strengthening economic and trade relations with Nepal. China likes to see Nepal benefit from the new railway, and is ready to create a win-win situation with Nepal by taking advantage of the new railway.

In recent years, the bilateral trade has been promoted largely. With the completion of the new railway, there will surely be much more convenience for the goods exchanges of the two countries, Travel time will be shortened, and cost of transport will be lowered. The trade boom in return will bring along development of a chain of relative industries in Nepal, such as tourism, service industry, transportation and infrastructure construction. The economic and trade cooperation between the two countries is now having a promising future.

There is a Chinese saying that "happiness doubles when being shared with friends". On this happy occasion of the commencement of Qinghai-Tibet Railway, we are very glad to have our best Nepali friends here to share with us our joys of success.

Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to extend to the Government of Nepal, political parties and people from all walks of life my hearty thanks for the warm congratulations and friendly sentiment towards China on the occasion of the operation of Qinghai-Tibet Railway. I wish Nepal peace, social stability, progress, economic prosperity and people's happiness.

The author's remarks made at a programme on the operation of the Railway organized by the China Study Center, Nepal, on July 14, 2006 , in Kathmandu-ed.

Environmental Railway comes closer to Nepal

Dr. Upendra Gautam, China Study Center , Nepal

China naturally integrates with South Asia by the mountains and rivers-specifically speaking it is the Himalayan range, and the integrity of flow of the Ganga , the Brahmputra and the Sutlej . Now a new high-tech link is being developed. Let me view development of this link from China 's fine sense of history. On 1 st of July, the 85 th anniversary day of the Chinese Communist Party, the first regular railway service to Lhasa was flagged off from Beijing . Covering 4062 KM, the train reached Lhasa after 48 hours. Thus, the railway service became yet another significant steel way to further solidly unify remote Tibet with the rest of the country. This train service started its return trip from Lhasa to Beijing on 4 th of July. Indeed, it was 4th July in 1837 when Grand Junction Railway, world's first long-distance railway, was opened between Birmingham and Liverpool in the UK. It was on this very day in 1886 when the First scheduled Canadian trans-continental train arrived in Port Moody, British Columbia. It was the 4th July too of 1947 when "Indian Independence Bill" was presented before British House of Commons, enforcing bifurcation of British India into two sovereign countries - India and Pakistan, two of the eventual major destinations of the Chinese railway. Surely it is not to forget that July 4 is the US Day of Independence from the British imperialist rule as well.

I am making even a reference to the American Day of Independence because some people assume that the West, led by the US , was against the subject rail service on ground of environmental concern. But practical people-to-people cooperation, for example from Canada, indicates that component of the Chinese Himalayan rail service utilized the high-tech Canadian products, and people of these countries are more than willing to have a ride on this heavenly train sooner than latter.

No doubt, the rail service travels through the highest elevation of 5072 meters from the sea level. It is the world's highest altitude and longest plateau railway-extending 1956 km from Qinghai province's capital Xining to Lhasa in the south-west.

"The highest altitude" feature marks out China 's another great sense-the sublime sense of struggle. About 550 km of this railway track run on permanently frozen earth. It was precisely because of the instability of the earth the Chinese scientists and technologists had to wait for so many years to link high Himalayan region of Tibet with rest of the country as they required to innovate the way out to permanently freeze up the earth. Now the railway uses 1686-meter long Kunlung mountain tunnel, the world's longest tunnel built on permanently frozen earth. The train speed on the permanently frozen earth is designed to be 100 km/hour while this will be 120 km/hour on normal track. In such an ecological context, the phenomenon of global warming is certainly a threat to Tibet railway. Chinese Academy of Sciences has long back asked for cooperation among China , India and Nepal for research on the effects of global warming on melting of snow in the high Himalayan ecology.

It will be a simple honesty to pay respect here to Prof. Wang Hongwei of Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies , Beijing who long before visualized several railway connections between China and parts of South and Central Asia . His visualized connections included Yunnan-Myanmar and Bangladesh and Tibet-Nepal and the heartland of India (that is, India 's Bihar , UP, Delhi , Punjab and Haryana provinces). Even though the railway has now only reached Lhasa , it has brought Nepal closer to Asia 's Far East (that is, Japan , Republic of Korea and Democratic People's Republic of Korea ) via Shanghai . Now the Nepali students, tradesmen, workers and tourists can go for their mission as well as long haul visit in various directions through Lhasa .

And Lhasa these days is abuzz with standardization of new lexicon or gamut of words/phrases relating to train services as they did not exist in the Tibetan language before. And one of these phrases is "Mei Kuo Er" or "railway" though "Ri Li" can also be used in Tibetan oral expression for the train. We delightfully appreciate the Chinese and Tibetan scientists, technicians and labor for bringing the new railway culture on the roof or the world, and thus bringing it closer to Nepal , a nation which shares with Tibet the most extensive social, cultural and economic ties.

Finally I congratulate the Chinese people on their historic achievement.

Vote of thanks offered by the author at a talk program to mark the commencement of the Qinghai-Lhasa railway linkage-ed.

Role of Civil Society in Conflict Mediation and Peace Building in Nepal

Professor. Dr Tone Bleie, Chief, Gender and Dev. Section (UNESCAP), Thailand

I like to express that we in the international community register with optimism the important political changes that have taken place recently and which still evolve from day to day (in Nepal).

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has stated "reinstatement of parliament and unilateral ceasefire by the Maoists have paved the way for finding a political solution to the Maoist conflict and addressing the underlying causes of violence". The political process has progressed since this statement was made in April; including the 18th of May announcement of the restored House of Representatives, first round of negotiations and the 25-point codes of conduct at Godavari on May 26th, the 8-point agreement signed on June 16th and very importantly the ongoing diverse civil movement for restructuring of key institutions of the state, establishment of rule of law, implementation of the 12-point agreement, firm steps towards inclusive democracy and bold steps towards reconciliation, disarmament, integration and reconstruction.

The country is still in a volatile state with no-war-and-no-peace. The transition towards a phase of post-conflict reconstruction depends on adherence to already negotiated agreements, responsiveness to allow an expanded role of civil society in the peace process, and restraints on the part of the international community and major regional actors, hence recognizing the right of the people of Nepal to stake out their own future. Experiences in many conflict-ridden societies, also countries which have involved assistance from the United Nations have shown how critical it is to establish move from this volatile no-war-no-peace phase to a next phase of positive peace. This early transformation requires long-term consolidation, in which both the (future) elected political leaders, the civil society and the international community invest continuous efforts, to avoid the regression into a new pre-conflict phase or even a return to conflict as observed in some of UNESCAP's other member countries in this region.

UNESCAP under my leadership has recently engaged in a consultative process in some member countries, Cambodia, Timor Leste and Nepal in order to assess possible regional cooperation between these countries in future post-conflict reconstruction efforts.

In this consultation process, we have defined the pillars for reconstruction that move countries out of conflict and sustain peace building as: security, justice and reconciliation, realization of social and economic well-being, and access to governance and participation.

Nepal's commitments to human rights, including social, cultural and economic rights, political and civil rights, women's rights, children' rights and indigenous rights, some of which are translated into policies and plans and are now forcefully articulated by the ongoing movement - have to be adhered to in the ongoing political process, in terms of representation and by fully addressing their concerns and grievances. The just drafted Plan of Action to ensure that Nepal adheres to UN Security Council Resolution 1325 is a timely effort that we expect will become endorsed by all parties in this political process.

In this volatile phase of no-war - no-peace and in the early post-conflict phase, women's engagement makes a critical difference in the political agenda by introducing neglected agendas in governance. Such agendas include combating all forms of violence, including domestic violence and the negative and positive aspects of use of different reconciliation instruments including retributive justice (including use of punishment) versus restorative justice (based on mediation). And in addition, the agenda includes involvement of grassroots movements and organizations and mediation between different interests of society and finding creative solutions to reconstruction in fragmented societies.

The importance of women's involvement, have been shown in a number of conflict-torn countries, including Chechnya, Bolivia, Algeria, Cambodia and in India's North East (the Naga conflict). Reconciliation depends on democratic underpinnings of ensuring economic justice and social and political power sharing. Reconciliation can reinforce the democratic process, especially if it does not only involve politicians and other formal dealmakers, but also ordinary citizens, both young and old women and men, also from the indigenous and dalit communities. It is essential that the reconciliation process is allowed to become a home-grown process that includes key instruments of justice, trust building, healing and reparation. Such a process will have to take time, and can only painfully ensure genuine coexistence, trust and inclusive democracy. In this phase and the post-conflict phase the media has an important public education responsibility. All types of media have responsibilities in promoting tolerance, uncovering injustice but also in addressing means of restoring justice, and enhancing the ability of women and men, different castes and indigenous to learn from own and others history of injustice in order to build a common future. All these are means and outcomes that may restore justice, and contribute to the long-term foundation for rectifying structural injustices and ensuring a lasting peace in Nepal.

Author's remarks at a Program organized by Center for Economic and Technical Studies (CETS) in cooperation with Fried rich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) at Administrative Staff College, Jawlakhel, 15-16 July 2006-ed.

Peace through Economic Development in Post Conflict Situations in Nepal

Prof.Dr. Hari Bansh Jha, Executive Director, Centre for Economic and Technical Studies (CETS)

Background

Normally, conflict occurs mostly in poor countries. About 80 per cent of the world's poorest countries have civil war within 15 years (Kuroda, 2005). War resumes within five years in 44 per cent of all post conflict situations (Junne & Verkoren). Conflict has a tendency to perpetuate once it erupts as pervasive poverty makes societies more vulnerable to conflict; while conflict creates more space for poverty. The violent conflict itself is the prediction of future large scale violence.

The conflict has a devastating impact on different sectors of the national economy. In general, the civil war of five years has a tendency to reduce the average annual growth rate by more than 2 per cent. The average military spending of a developing country is 2.8 per cent of GDP in the peace time, which increases to 5 per cent during the civil war (Hoeffler & Reynal-Querol, 2003). This affects public expenditures such as infrastructure, income, health and other such sectors. But more than this the main economic losses from civil war arise not from the waste caused by the diversion of resources from development to violence but from the destruction of communications, electricity and other such activities.

The Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs) and HIV quite often grows among the military both on the government and rebel sides as these people are young, sexually active and often unmarried. Even during the peacetime, the infection from such diseases is two to five times higher than those of general population and it increases spectacularly during the war time. HIV in military ranged from 6.5 per cent in Cambodia to 61 per cent in Sierra Lecne (Hoeffler & Reynal-Querol, 2003). Both regular soldiers and rebels force women to give sexual favours against the protection. During this period, rape with women grows dramatically and the victims are mostly the refugees, displaced women and girls. In Rwandan war over 200,000 women refugees had been raped (Hoeffler & Reynal-Querol, 2003).

Conflict prevention and reconstruction is the key to the mission of poverty reduction during the post-conflict situation. In the post-conflict situation, development activities are launched in a way that they help reconstruction of infrastructure, communication, hydropower, industries and national economy. Such multilateral agencies as the World Bank spend nearly 16 per cent of its total lending in activities aimed at mitigating the effects of conflict. Since 1998, the Post Conflict Fund of the Bank approved $ 66 million for 136 projects; of which Africa accounted for 43 per cent (Kuroda, 2005).

Nepal at the present time is also passing through post conflict phase in which open warfare has ceased to exist. However, the internal situation of the country during this period is tense with major chances of large scale violence to erupt again. This time is very crucial. Experience of many other countries shows lapse in ceasing the opportunity during this phase might cause violence again. But careful handling of the situation could help restore peace for which it is most essential to launch economic development activities vigorously.

Economic Costs

In Nepal , the conflict had begun in 1996. Since then about 15,000 people have been killed. 270,000 people are believed to have been displaced and 1.5 million youth have been forced to migrate to various countries for security, safety and livelihood (Dahal, 2006:26). 1,500 VDC buildings have been partially or completely destroyed (Mahat, 2006). The rural bridges, schools, communication installations, district level government offices, police posts and private properties have been damaged. Revenue is collected both by the government and the rebels (Timilsina, 2005).

Economic costs of destruction in some of these areas caused a loss of $ 2 billion to the nation (Dahal, 2006:27). During the period 1990-2000, the GDP growth rate in Nepal was 4.8 per cent, which declined perceptibly to 2.6 per cent when the conflict escalated between 2001 and 2005. This resulted into annual economic loss of GDP by 2.2 per cent (Acharya, 2005). In monetary terms, Rs. 92.5 billion is estimated to have been lost between 1991 and 2005 (ibid).

Furthermore, the development expenditure recorded annual growth rate of 0.7 per cent between 1990 and 2000 at 1994-95 price. But it declined by 4.6 per cent between 2001 and 2005. Reversely, the actual defense expenditure which recorded 4.8 per cent between 1990 and 2000 at 1994-95 price grew spectacularly by nearly 12 per cent over the period 2001-2005 (ibid).

The GDP growth rate in the current fiscal year 2005-06 declined to as low as 1.9 per cent from 2.7 per cent last year, which might be largely due to the cumulative effective of conflict. There has also been human and capital flight from the conflict affected regions. Nearly 20 per cent of the male working age population had to leave certain affected districts (WB, no date). The conflict also dampened private sector investment and confidence owing to insecurity and at the same time lowered public investment caused by the curtailment of development spending. Sales of the private sector reduced by 20 to 25 per cent in the rural market (WB, no date).

Vicious Circle

The vicious circle of conflict and poverty in Nepal can be broken through economic development. Development activities not only provide an opportunity to different groups to work together but it also makes them forward looking rather than looking at the past. Any job providing alternative to fighting not only provides a new identity but it also has a tendency to forget the feeling of revenge of the past. In this context, it is the degree of economic development that can determine the possibility of occurrence of shooting and looting. Generation of massive employment opportunities through developmental activities and distribution of its fruits among different groups can largely break the chances of renewing conflict (Junne & Verkoren).

The rebel groups need to trade war and weapons for work and employment. These people should learn to make best use of new skills to reintegrate and contribute to peacetime workforce in the place of shooting and killing. Besides, seed money also needs to be given the women, young and disabled for starting business, small enterprises, learning trades and finding new jobs. Vocational training should be provided by the government institutions, NGOs, religious groups and artisans. Micro and small enterprises should be developed and employment intensive work program be initiated. In Mozambique , over 9,000 ex-combatants were provided skills-training courses and they were also given essential toolkits to start their own businesses. Over 70 per cent of these trained persons were employed and 600 micro-enterprises were created. However, some of these activities are so expensive that the resource-constrained country like Nepal cannot afford to make all needed investment in this sector. Hence, apart from the government, the donors, private sector and the civil society should join hands together to mitigate the problem.

Donors

The donors need to implement microfinance programmes giving preference to those already active in providing relief services to the displaced populations, widows and other affected groups. In such financing, the loans need to be provided interest-free and in the long term they need to be converted into grants. A study conducted by Carnegie Commission estimated that in 1990s the international community made interventions worth $200 billion in seven conflict-torn countries, including in Bosnia & Herzegovina , Somalia , Rwanda , Haiti , Cambodia and El Salvador (Kuroda, 2005). Among the different multilateral donor agencies, ILO has expertise in implementing a multidisciplinary action programme on skills and entrepreneurship development in countries in post conflict situations. ILO speeds up the postwar stabilization of the society by reinserting such population into the working population with a view to reducing the disastrous after-effects of the conflicts and also to avert further resort to wars. The trade unions and employers' organizations are made to engage in and reinforce into the peace process (ILO, 1997).

Private Sector

The role of private sector is crucial for the recovery of Nepalese economy shattered badly by conflict. Business both at the domestic and international levels might help a lot in the recovery of the ailing economy. Private sector can contribute a lot by generating jobs and accelerating the process of economic recovery. Water, transport, energy and telecommunications are beyond the financial capacity of GON but there is a great potentiality to attract private sector in some of these areas.

Investment by the private sector in various sectors such as in telecommunications is crucial as it not only promotes business but also helps develop dialogue among different interest groups. Such technologies as cellular networks and web kiosks allow citizens of different groups to have communication (Melhem: 2006).

But it cannot be taken for granted for the private sector to take the considerable risks in the absence of appropriate economic incentives. In countries where congenial environment was created for attracting the private companies, the result has been far encouraging. For example, Somalia is a failed state and there is no government worth the name there since 1991. But the private sector proved surprisingly innovative. Private companies managed to cope without a system of governance in areas like in telecommunications, electricity generations, water systems, etc. In post-war Afghanistan , the private sector focused on construction activities, apart from carpet and raising exports. The government and international agencies might help private sector develop conflict-sensitive business practices such as the improvement of security system, management of natural resources, and in activities related to combating corruption and crime.

Civil Society

Civil society has enormous expertise, ideas and capacity of gathering resources for development. Unless these are put in action at most needed spots (right in the villages and communities), they would never bring desired results. So, the need is that enlightened civil society members with their rich ideas and expertise should come forward with devotion to volunteer support in process and actions for development at the lowest level. Besides, the civil society members could help in creating (and/or changing) attitude and organizing effective informal institutions in districts/villages/communities for development, in addition to providing technical support in planning, creating environment for most effective use of local resources and providing help in gathering most needed external resources, and suggestions for effective implementation of development efforts. For this, the civil society would need to create and/or strengthen its own institutions from center to village/community levels not in competition with but in collaboration with the government and other development partners as catalyst and supporter for development.

The civil society could also help create Multi-donor Development Fund to support development activities. Besides, they could lobby and advocate at the national and international levels for debt write off of Nepal as this country is heavily indebted and its per capita income is too low (US $ 160 in 2004 as per World Development Report 2006 and US$ 311 in 2004-05 as per the Economic Survey 2005-2006). As per the news report the per capita debt in this country is NRs. 13,000, which needs to be waived in the post-conflict situation so that the expected resources are diverted to the development activities. Nepal could use the multilateral agencies in a way that they might prove effective in mobilizing resources for development for which coordinated initiatives need to be made both at the policy and field level to avoid duplication of efforts (Nagarajan, 1999).

Initiatives

As a mark of intervention in the post-conflict reconstruction and development in Nepal , voice has been raised in certain quarters for the massive expansion of basic social services, apart from focus on disarmament, demobilization and reintegration. Similarly, focus is given to promote livelihood support and to carry out local development activities through block grants and targeted programmes for disparity reduction. Emphasis is also placed for upgrading and developing of physical infrastructural facilities such as building of VDC buildings, roads, airports, irrigation, power and creating conducive environment for investment by the private sector, NRNs and FDI (Gautam, 2006). Some of these activities might prove useful to restore sustainable peace. Besides, investment in some of the following infrastructural projects could also be considered seriously as they could generate massive employment opportunities on the one hand and have multiplier effect on different sectors of the national economy on the other.

Development of all the hydro-power projects – be it at the micro, small, medium or mega levels

Undertaking major irrigation projects, including Kamala Diversion Project

Construction of Postal/Hulaqi Road connecting the Terai from Mechi to Mahakali and its parallel road in the hills

Construction of Broad Gauze Railway Line in the Terai from Mechi to Mahakali in parallel to Postal/Hulaqi Road , including the expansion of railway line from Jaynagar to Bardibas via Janakpur.

Construction of Railway line between Birgunj and Kathmandu

Immediate development of Software Parks at appropriate locations in the Terai and in the Hills

Development of projects related to tourism circuit connecting the tourist spots of Terai like Lumbini with Kushinagar/Gaya; Greater Janakpur Development Project, Simraungadh and other such tourist centres and the national parks and other such activities in the Hills

Mineral Explorations of commercial viable projects

Development of Export Processing Zones (EPZs), particularly in the peripheral Terai rgion

A Big Push

All the above development activities are important for income and employment generation and also for peace initiative in the long run. But they are based more on the economic principle of "critical minimum effort," which entails some support in each sector. But considering the seriousness of the situation in post-conflict stage, this theory cannot work any longer. "Big Push" approach has to be applied for which development of power sector alone could help resolve most of the conflict related problems – be it related to livelihood support, safety, security or other problems such as rehabilitation and employment of displaced population and other weaker sections of the society. Economists like Paul Streeten, A.O. Hirschman and W.W. Rostow are all in favour of unbalanced growth of the economy as advocated in "Big Push" model.

The "Big Push" model of growth proved most effective and successful in the then Soviet Union . Immediately after the October Revolution of 1917, Lenin introduced central planning system in his country in which 86 per cent of the total investment was made in capital-goods sector (Seth, 1974). Power sector was accorded top priority as it was accepted as the basis for further industrialization of the county under the State Commission for Electrification (popularly known as Goelro) set up in 1920. Lenin's aphorism was "Soviets plus electrification equals Communism" (ibid).

Nepal 's model of development should also be based on the development of power like the case of Soviet Union . If this country has to be developed, massive power generation through hydro-power projects is unavoidable as there is immense scope of its development at micro, small, medium and mega levels. Nepal, if at all it follows this model, it can not only provide livelihood support to the population affected by the conflict but could also get rid of the insurgency related problem for ever once the poverty is rooted out from the country through the development of power. However, unlike Lenin's aphorism in Nepal the development of power would mean " Nepal plus electrification equals Democracy."

A Way Forward

The political parties including the Maoists and civil society have political ideas but when it comes to the core issue of economic and development issues they are miserable. Be it the 12 point understanding, the 25 point code of conduct or the recent 8 point agreement, neither of these offer any concrete view on how the economic conditions of the Nepalese people could be improved. Consolidation of peace should go simultaneously with activities related to reconstruction and development. It will not be wise enough to wait for the reconstruction and development plans to take its course till the political processes are over (Gautam, 2006). If the state is not able to provide the general people means to improve their livelihood through reconstruction and development, the high pitch of April revolution is likely to wear off and the people will be disenchanted and disillusioned with this system as well in not too distant future.

Author's paper presented at a seminar on "Role of Civil Society in Conflict Mediation and Peace Building in Nepal " organized by Centre for Economic and Technical Studies (CETS) in cooperation with Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) held July 15 & 16, 2006-ed

Recommendations for Interim Constitution Drafting Committee

Karon Cochran-Budhathoki, Human Rights Defender/Conflict Resolution Practitioner

Preamble shall include:

· Sprit of April 2006 movement that means moving towards state restructure and republican country through constituent assembly

· May 2006 House of Representative Proclamation

· Recognition of diversities of country such as culture, tradition, language, ethnicity, etc

· Principles of state mechanisms such as multiparty system, respect of human rights, people’s sovereignty, inclusive democracy, secular, etc

· Recognition of martyrs and wounded persons of the movement

Recognition of those who sacrificed and took significant risk for the success of the movement

Recognition of the 1990 movement and the martyrs and wounded persons

National Language:

· Nepali as connecting language; English as second working language and other local languages as working and official languages in respective areas

National Anthem:

· It must cover the diversities of country and respect the people’s dignity, and should be finalized by special panel of experts (historians, political scientists, members of civil society, and musical composers and performers) through competition

Citizenship:

· Born inside the territory of Nepal (Both parents should be eligible to affidavit citizenship to their kids)

· Independently who are born in Nepal

· Provisions for dual citizenship

· Permanent residency for married persons (foreign female with Nepali male and foreign male with Nepali female) and the provisions of dual citizenship must include for these persons. This provision should be also applicable to their children.

Honorary citizenship awarded by the state

Fundamental Rights:

Following rights shall include as additional fundamental human rights:

Abolishment of capital punishment

Right to primary health care

Disables rights

Land rights (right to tiller)

Rights of local people in natural resources

Free and compulsory education (school level)

Right to employment with social security

Complete press freedom with the abolishment of treason

Fair wages and labor rights

Equal social, economic, and political rights without discrimination (includes non-discrimination based on gender, religion, ethnicity, class, sexual orientation, etc.)

Property Rights or Access to Ownership, and Inheritance

Property rights or access to ownership provisions for married persons (foreign female with Nepali male and foreign male with Nepali female). They should be entitled to own, use and purchase/sell/exchange physical or any other forms of properties as Nepali citizens. This provision should be equally applicable to the kids born such marriage.

Equal access to inheritance, and the ability to “will” property

Directives Policies and Principles:

Must be made binding and obligatory for the state

Representation:

Proportional and equal representation of women and underrepresented/disenfranchised groups in branches government, committees/commissions, mechanisms created to address transitional justice, etc.

Monarchy:

Monarchy should be kept in ad-hoc status and the clear provision regarding the future of monarchy that will determined through constituent assembly

Monarchy should not be allowed to exercise any form of statutory powers enjoyed as Head of State and Supreme Commander of Army, and these authorities/powers should be transferred to the Prime Minister

Legislative:

Full legislative powers to the House of Representative (HoR)

National Assembly should be eliminated

Parliamentary hearing must be made compulsory for all government appointment, promotion, etc.

Outlining the alternative mechanism as replacement of the HoR with based on HoR proclamation and SPA and the Maoists understanding

Executive:

Prime Minister should be entitled to exercise the powers of Head of Government and Head of State, and Supreme Commander of Army

Judicial:

Court hearing process and the appointment in judicial bodies must be made transparent. The contempt of court should be limited to being applied only during in court proceeding (the current contempt laws suppress the right to freedom of expression, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, etc…) and shouldn’t be used as it has been in the past, to hide wrongdoings of the court and judicial authorities

Judicial council must be strengthened with full monitoring and implementation authority for judicial reform

Constituent Assembly Election Commission (CAEC):

Special provision for the formation of the CAEC with the inclusion of political scientists, legal professionals, election experts (including civil society that is experienced in “free and fair elections”), geologists and former bureaucrat by terminating the existing Election Commission

The CAEC should be authorized to develop working procedures for constituent assembly election commission and constituent assembly election process

The CAEC must have representatives from marginalized/disenfranchised groups such as dalit, janajatis, women, etc…..)

Adoption of international covenants, conventions and treaties:

Article 9 (2) of the 1990 Nepal Treaty Act should be included in interim constitution

The legislative should adopt such conventions, covenants and treaties after conducting hearing in parliament’s human rights committee

Constitutional Council:

Speaker and Chief Justice headed by the Prime Minister

Judicial Council:

Law minister, senior justice of Supreme Court, senior lawyer and the representative of Nepal Bar Association under the chair of Chief Justice

Security Council:

Speaker, Defence minister, President of Parliament’s Defence committee and Chief of Army Staff headed by Prime Minister

Nepali Army:

Practically kept under the Defence Ministry

Accountable to Defence Ministry and Parliament

Prime Minister as Supreme Commander of the Army

Military mobilization upon the recommendation by the security council and approved by the parliament after the hearing conducted in respective committees

Military’s criminal activities must be brought to civilian court

Court martial and other secret hearing proceedings, must be ended