A Challenge every country faces is to rebuild states and communities after war and conflicts. The newly formed government will not be on a proper track to carry out the process of rebuilding states whereas the perception of people takes time to alter. We have seen such scenario in various countries and similar has happened in Nepal. Nepal had ten years long Maoist insurgency that killed thousands of people. It has not been easy for Nepal for Post war and conflicts rebuilding. After the conflict with Maoist was settled signing Comprehensive Peace Accord (CPA), Nepal was struck by massive earthquake which collapsed thousands of the houses and structures along with thousands of Human lifes. Government took strategies first to settle down the Maoist conflict and to rebuild the states and communities. Non-Governmental Organizations and Local Communities has helped the state for the rebuilding process as well.
Before Comprehensive Peace Accord
Nepal is a sovereign country since its origination and with the span of time, it had gone through several political instabilities. Nepal had Panchayat system where political parties were banned from 1960 to 1990. After Panchayat was thrown by largest political movement, the banned over political parties have been removed. Nepal went through interim government immediate after. A new constitution was released and government started its process of election to form a stable government. After few instable governments, few communist members, named themselves Maoist, started Civil war against the government. This civil war started to grow on time. These front, Maoist Guerrilla Force, destroyed the government offices, infrastructures and possess difficulty for government to work. This process continued on time but a political change in the country on February 2005 turned the situation. On the 1st February 2005, King Gyanendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev announced state of Emergency throwing the government led by Mr. Sher Bahadur Deuwa due to incompetency on Peace Agreement between Maoist and Government as well as maintain Peace and Order in state. On April 2006, Seven Party Alliances started Civil Protest which was supported by Maoist on later days and after 19 days, on April 24, 2006 King Gyanendra handed the nation to Seven Party Alliance to maintain peace and security and protect democracy. Girija Prasad Koirala from Nepali Congress led the newly formed government as the Prime minister. On May 18, 2006 new act was established where all 90,000 troops were made under Parliament, Royal Families were treated as civilians, Nepal was made secular country not a Hindu Country and stopping the national anthem which has prayers for the Royals.
Comprehensive Peace Accord (Nov 21, 2006)
Maoist made an agreement with the newly formed government to rest down the weapons and end the conflict between Nepal Government and Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist). Both the Parties agreed for permanent truce managing military forces of Nepal Army and Maoist Guerrilla Force and handing over the arms to Nepal Government by Maoist. The Comprehensive Peace Accord (CPA) focussed on the establishment of National Human Rights Commission, a National Peace and Rehabilitation Commission and a Truth and Reconciliation Commission for political, social and economic changes in the country and to establish humanitarian law and human rights principles. Both the Parties wrote a letter to UN to observe and assist the Electoral process for the Constitution Assembly Election. They agreed to decide about the monarchical institution by the simple majority of the upcoming constitution assembly.
Interim Management
To immediately handle the post war and conflict situation, Nepali Congress leader Girija Prasasd Koirala was appointed as the Prime minister of Nepal soon after King Gyanendra handed the nation’s operation responsibilities to Seven Party Alliance (SPA). The Interim Prime Minister major responsibility were to conduct Constitution Assembly Election and to sign Comprehensive Peace Accord with Maoist.
Before the Constitution Assembly could happen, the interim constitution and interim cabinet minister were into action for the proper operation of the country. The major action was to manage the arms and army of Maoist which process was clearly sorted in CPA. The maoist army remained in the temporary cantonment which has been maintained in seven different locations in Nepal. There will be 2-3 sub cantonment around the main cantonment as per necessary. Regarding Arms and Ammunition, all the arms and ammunition will be securely locked in the cantonment with the support from UN. The arms and ammunition required to safeguard cantonment were only kept out. These were the Part from the Maoist, Nepal Army stayed in the Barack for the period of peace keeping which assured the safety of Maoist in Cantonment. Also the equal amount of arms and ammunition of Nepal Army were securely locked in the presence of Nepali Army by the support of UN. Maoist took every possible options to feel safe while they are in the peace talks.
Maoist Guerrilla Force Management and Integration in Nepalese Army
Army Management was another major issue in Comprehensive Peace Accord (CPA). Maoist registered 19,600 Army that needed to get addressed by the government of Nepal. Thus, Nepal Government came with two provisions for addressing Maoist Force namely, joining of Nepalese Army and Returning back to civil life with or without rehabilitation support. Only 1463 former combatant qualified for the integration in Nepalese army.1420 graduated from Nepal Army Military Academy on 2013. Rest returned to their civil life without rehabilitation support or rehabilitation support up to $10,200.
One Colonel, two Lieutenant Colonel, 13 Major, 30 Captain, 24 Lieutenant, 14 warrant officer first class, 42 warrant officer second class, 165 sergeants, 189 corporals, 177 lance corporal, 763 privates were integrated in Nepalese Army after they graduated from Nepal Army Military Academy on 2013.
Constitution Assembly Election
The Interim Government succeeded on conducting first Constitution Assembly Election on April 10, 2008. In that election, Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) got 229 seats out of 601 winning 38.1% of total Assembly Members seats. Nepali Congress got 115 seats and Communist Party of Nepal (UML) got 108 and several other smaller political parties got their nominal stake in Constitution Assembly. The first Constitution Assembly was from May 28, 2008 to May 28, 2012. During this period, Nepal got its First President and its First Vice President. After the Presidential election, the new government was formed where Maoist leader Mr. Pushpa Kamal Dahal (Prachanda) led the country as Prime Minister.
After the failure of first constitutional Assembly there was the election of second constitution assembly. Meanwhile there was interim government to conduct second constitution assembly election. In Second Constitution Assembly election, Nepali Congress won the highest seats in Parliament which is 196 seats out of 601 seats followed by Communist Party of Nepal (UML) by 175 seats where the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) which had won highest seats in previous constitution assembly election just won 80 seats.
The election of Nepal has two different voting pattern. Each constituency elects one member under the First Past The Post (FPTP) system of election. Nepal uses the parallel voting system where the voters cast another vote for the party wise proportional representation. Candidates are either chosen by Political Parties or they can be independent one. On FPTP system of election there was 240 seats for constitution Assembly and on Proportional election system there was 335 seats and 26 seats are for nomination for peoples from different background to represent diversity in constitution assembly. The proportional seats are distributed with the modified Sainte-Lague method of allocation.
Earthquake (April 25, 2015 & May 12, 2018)
Nepal got struck by devastating earthquake of magnitude 7.8 on April 25, 2018 having epicentre at middle of two major cities, Kathmandu and Pokhara. After Nepal was just recovering from the Maoist conflict it got hit by this earthquake which tore down major infrastructure, thousands of houses fell and millions were affected by it. Many of the historic site, temples, chaityas, bihars and monuments were destroyed. This earthquake was followed by several aftershocks and on May 12, 2018 another major earthquake with magnitude of 7.2 was hit on the eastern part of Nepal near the Mount Everest. This caused more and more destruction in Nepal.
8962 peoples were reported death in Earthquake whereas 22,302 were reported injured. 773,095 private houses and 2687 government buildings were fully damaged and 298,998 private houses and 3776 government houses were partially damaged.
Nepal Reconstruction Authority (NRA)
The earthquake created a scenario for reconstruction an urgent issue, so Nepal Government started Nepal Reconstruction Authority (NRA) on December 25, 2015. The role of NRA was to facilitate the earthquake victims by providing grants approved by government and help them build the houses which will be unaffected by earthquake to some extent and reconstruct heritages and ancient cities and villages.
Nepal Reconstruction Authority is working under three segments on Centre Level Project Implementation viz. Grant Management and Local Infrastructure, Building and Education. These three segments have started the reconstruction process where Grant Management and Local Infrastructure provides grant to private house and help in the construction of private houses, the Building looks after the governmental buildings and the Education looks after the reconstruction of schools and colleges.
After three years of earthquake, Nepal Reconstruction Authority work is somehow satisfactory. The total Household Survey is 996,582 by NRA on which the Benefiter from NRA were 807,486. Nepal Government has passed the bill to provide the grant on three instalments which will be determined after the certain completion of the houses the earthquake victims are building. 714,186 Benefiter received their first Tranche, 469,448 received their second Tranche, 258,599 received their third and last Tranche. NRA has also trained 51,649 peoples working in the field of construction for constructing the earthquake resistant building.
War Victims and their current Status
The known victims from February 1996 to November 2006 from the Maoist were 15,021. It is found that 80% of people directly affected the Maoist Conflict were belonging to lower middle or lower economic status. 83% of the victims has received High School Level Education or below. 43% of the victims had politics as their occupation which was followed by agriculture which was 21%. And the saddest part is 5.51% were the students who were the victims of the Maoist Insurgency. 93% Victims were from Maoist Violence and 7% victims were from the State. 85% of the victims received support from the state but many of the victims searched for justice from the government which they have not received.
After nine years of signing of CPA, Nepal Government established Nepal’s two transitional justice mechanisms namely Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) and the Commission of Investigation on Enforced Disappeared Persons (CIEDP) to provide the justice to the people at the war at Maoist insurgency. 60,298 complaints from the victims have been lodged in TRC whereas 3000 has been received in CIEDP. The numbers of complaints have been increasing since the establishment of the TRC and CIEDP but not a single complaint has been solved yet. This has been a serious issue for the transitional justice when Nepal has been elected as member on UN Human Rights Council and Nepal itself is facing the issues regarding Human Rights.
Role of NGO and INGO in Rebuilding states and Communities
NGO and INGO have been massively working in Nepal in the public awareness, rehabilitate the war victims and help in reconstruction affected by 10 year long civil war. The major agenda is 4R – Rescue, Relief, Reconstruct and Rehabilitate.
NGO primary action on Rescue is to point out the people on post conflict zone and move them to secure zone. INGO collaborate with NGOs to carry out these actions where some NGOs initiate the actions on their own.
NGO and INGO distributes the materials as the relief to maintain the post war and conflict situation. They also work on the community based modal to distribute the items for the effective and fare disperse among the victims.
Construction materials distribution, training the masons on the building, covering the labour wages and spreading awareness for reconstruction of the houses and reconstruction of structures after the war. Some NGO had the holistic approach to the reconstruction of the places. This holistic approach found to be very useful and appropriate in the context of Nepal.
Rehabilitation is the major factor on post war and conflict situation. People are mentally disturbed in such situation. It could be a major challenge to bring back the perception of people into the normal state. Thus, INGO and NGO are actively involved in conducting leadership development training, Skill development training for men and women, therapy to make the life back to normal again.
The Role of NGO and INGO not only limited to 4R, they had also been working closely to government to help them meet their goals. On the process, they conduct related trainings, seminars and other activities that help in boosting the activities of government on resolving post war conflicts situation and rebuild state and communities.
Conclusion
Nepal suffered from political instabilities which created the situation of Maoist Insurgency. The ten year long Maoist insurgency killed the life of thousands, creating panic and non-humanitarian situation. The suffering was added by the incapacity to handle the situation by the government. Government could have handled this situation long ago if it had considered the situation of Maoist as the serious issue earlier. The people need not have to face the long 10 year Maoist Insurgency. The issue of Maoist was under consideration when Monarchy used its ultimate power and they need helping hands to overthrow monarchy. This process was the result of short sightedness of the political leaders. On the name of political understanding, several humanitarian actions were compromised which can be seen by late formation of transitional justice mechanism which has not yet came into practise. Though GO, NGO and INGO are actively involved in helping for the cost of rebuilding nations and communities the political condition is worsening the situation.
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