FEATURES NEWS THE RISING NEPAL (DAILY)

By Mukti Rijal

THE cease-fire announced by the government and the Maoists has dawned an environment of peace and security. People have started to move freely and sense of fear and insecurity looming large for the last few years has been minimised. Development activities that halted due to conflict and disturbance have slowly got to be revived. Even tourists looking Nepal as a dangerous and risky place have changed their mind.

Free

The Mahashivaratri observed very recently established the fact that the people are longing for peace and once they find that the situation is free from fear and threats they make best use of the possibilities. Last year the auspicious occasion was marked by gloom and despair as people from near and far could not pay homage to Lord Pashupatinath due to insecure and tense situation whereas this year people from neighbouring villages and countries visited Pashupatinath in a big number.

Economic activities are seen taking upward curve. The city streets of Kathmandu that looked deserted after evening till last month have witnessed a new surge of mobility and liveliness. This indicates that peace is inextricably linked with life of people.

Peace is essential for people of all strata of the society as the recent conflict in Nepal proved the fact that the poor and weaker section of the society are the worst sufferers of the conflict. Poor farmers in the Far West and Mid West Development Regions, women and children had to face the brunt of war. They were displaced and fled their homes for safety and security. In the situation of conflict human rights of the people are violated. Not only the state security forces but the Maoists have been alleged to have violated the human rights in the report of Amnesty International issue not very long back.
This shows that war is what it does to the human rights violations of the people. War and belligerency should be ended at any cost. And there should be dialogues between the parties to the conflict in order to sort out the problems so that the situation of conflict never recurs.

It is heartening to note that the government and the Maoists have pledged to resolve the crisis through dialogue and negotiation. The process to achieve amicable settlement of the dispute is not easy and cannot be done shortly. This requires patience, efforts and skills to face the adverse situation in a deft manner. Conflict management and resolution has been a rich discipline of study and practice. The experts on conflict management and conflict transformation have developed manuals and handbooks containing analysis and tips on handling and resolving conflicts.

Harvard Negotiation Project of the United States has developed an effective system of conflict resolution. According to the project an efficient system of conflict regulation must fulfil three main functions that treat people and problem separately, concentrate on interests and not on positions and develop options that benefit both sides. In every treatment of social conflict there is factual and relational level. Constructive conflict resolution is possible if the relational level is taken seriously and scope is allowed for the expression of feelings, fears, desires , experiences etc.

The first phase of the conflict resolution consists of the detailed description of the conflict. The second phase of the conflict resolution is the analysis of the conflict. This should focus on clarifying the identified areas of contention from a variety of points of view: the history of their emergence and context in which they arose, the links between the issues and their detailed nature; the positions, interests, desires, expectations and fears of the parties.

The third phase of the conflict regulation is devoted to the formulation of possible options for a joint regulation of the conflict. The important thing in this phase is to stimulate the creativity and imagination of those involved in such way that innovative solution come into view. Suitable methods and techniques for achieving this include; discussing types of solution that have already been used in comparable conflicts, visual moderation techniques and the idea of future workshops. Finally the aim of the fourth phase is to compare and assess the options to come to a concrete agreement.

New Dimension

The win-win problem solving approach of conflict resolution has helped in spreading the culture of constructive conflict regulation. One should recognise the fact that the conflicts produce constructive and entire new dimension of understanding the problems and addressing them. It is expected that the current problems facing Nepal arising out of conflict can be handled better if the government and the Maoists appreciate each other, sit for dialogue and find solution to the impending crisis. There is no alternative to peace. The peace should be constructive and equity based. Then it becomes durable and lasting.

Other Stories