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| Kathmandu, Sunday March 02, 2003 Falgun 18, 2059. |
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Managing conflict with humane touch
By DR JAGADISH C POKHAREL
The ceasefire and the decision to resolve the
conflict through talks (barta) by the Maoists and the Government in the country is a
welcome event. To use this opportunity for lasting peace is in the nation’s best
interest. Following the ceasefire, an increased number of political pundits and mediators
are providing sweeping recommendations and technical advices to the government, political
parties and Maoists. Some suggest that we should be moving faster on all fronts as this
might be short lived. Others have come up with an elaborate academic framework and
clinical recommendations. They have made good arguments to show what the best alternative
is to non-negotiation. Some hardcore political ideologues are still busy sharpening their
political concepts for settlement.
These are commendable efforts and demonstrate
how everyone is interested in lasting peace in the country. Yet there are certain aspects
of this conflict that cannot be ignored while pursuing for settlement. The purely academic
and detached recommendation for immediate settlement focusing more on political bargaining
and posturing at the highest political level misses the point that the victim’s
relatives are still mourning for their dead, the children still crying and broken legs of
some teachers are yet to be cured. Many children and students have seen too brutal scenes
to live normally for some time to come. The blood is too fresh and the feelings are too
strong to allow immediate settlements through hardcore political dealings to be
acceptable.
The scale of pain and suffering and the
nature of this conflict also ask for more healing time. This is the first time in Nepal’s
history that over 7,000 people have been killed within such a short time. This is also the
first time that the victims of conflicts goes beyond the warring army and includes a large
number of civilians and ordinary people as well. Also this is the first time that Nepali
people have seen such brutal killings and so many dead bodies and gruesome scenes that
have seriously affected normal minds particularly the youth and young children.
For the first time, a large number of youth
have participated in brutality and killings. Though we are not as yet quite sure about the
number of girls and women being sexually abused, the stories of young girls and female
cadres in the Maoist camp have revealed that there have been serious sexual abuses. This
is also first time that so many Nepali people have been physically displaced from their
homes. Of course, the loss of public property and individual identity and records is yet
to be assessed. Against this background, the push for quick resolution, no matter how
transparent, is bound to create very strong feelings against any settlement. The common
people who suffered too deeply but are unable to politically bargain will not be able to
digest these cut and dry political deals. They, justifiably, will feel betrayed by the
political parties and the system.
These human aspects of the debate cannot be
disregarded as weaknesses by the political players. As many in the Maoist affected areas
were killed because of their ideological differences with the Maoists, they will be asking
their political party leaders, if all this blood and pain was to facilitate the same
political leaders to shake hands and share power then why should they trust them in the
future? Since they were neither soldiers, nor well-equipped to fight with either side, why
should two groups of soldiers decide on their behalf? Who gave them the right to do so?
Why then the political parties kept on building their difference on ideological grounds?
Since they were killed for their belief why should their belief be negotiated? The mass
meetings and mass rituals (kiriya and mundane) are only a few of the expressions that will
follow. They cannot be ignored.
This also applies to the Maoists side. The
young boys and girls who did not have much choice and time to understand complex politics
other than participate in the war will be asking equally or even more pertinent and
difficult questions. How will the girl who has been challenging the many social values
through her revolutionary acts be able to get resettled and be rehabilitated in this
society? Can we expect the young boys and girls engaged in most brutal killings to behave
normally—go to school or colleges and become a normal adult? Will they not be asking
what they achieved? Will the leadership be able to convince the cadre that they have
delivered what they expected when they took up arms? Can this be justified only on the
political strategic grounds?
One might try to brush aside these questions
as too sentimental, but the messages one gets from those who suffered at the hands of the
Maoist and the Maoist cadres at the village level, suggest that these questions cannot be
downplayed. What the players should be cautioned is that these very feeling should not
become the cause for another rebellion; the rebellion against the established political
parties on either side and eventually against the very resolution that the political
powers will eventually come up with.
This implies that healing process should
precede the formal political bargaining and the formal give and take. The issues of
employment, rehabilitation, reintegration, demonstration of compassion to the sufferers on
both sides, some certainty to those families who have lost most in the conflict,
addressing the possible rebellion within the different camps, and others should be taken
up immediately and more aggressively. The process should address small but valuable humane
side, to gain time and let the feelings and blood to cool down. The political give and
take can take a back seat and both sides should move in a more discrete manner while the
following activities should be given priority and be further enhanced:
· Some form of confession or apology on the
part of victimizers to the victims
· Assurance for the people to go back to
their places
· Assurance that once in their places there
is some availability of food and basic services until the next harvesting such as food for
work
· Immediate arrangements for schooling of
the youth and children
· Counseling for the traumatized women,
children and youth
· Some rehabilitation programmes for the
victims
· Encouragement for joint engagement between
local people and Maoist rebels in collective works such as school buildings, health
services and local level works
· Programmes that provide opportunity for
reintegration at the local level
The ceasefire provides an opportunity to work
for lasting peace. Too fast a pace and skewed focus on the political give and take,
disregards the feelings of the victims and sufferers. Priority should be given to the
humanitarian aspect. This helps build confidence and increases mutual acceptance by both
the victims and victimizers, and in the process heal wounds. The government should come up
with decentralized and flexible programme package that can be adapted to specific
situation at the local level. Only broader guidelines for reintegration and reconciliation
should be provided by the center.
Making informal and formal talks and
negotiations more humane gives us time and creates environment to work upwards to achieve
more complex and abstract political settlements possible. They also make the settlements
more acceptable. Experience from similar situations elsewhere shows that political
negotiations that ignore the basic human feelings and needs can only breed discontent and
lead to reemergence of conflict much sooner than expected, often more violently than
before. We should work discretely on the political front and more aggressively on the
humanitarian front to succeed in establishing lasting peace.
(The author is former member of National Planning
Commission)
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