Underlining the fate and suffering of the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Columbia, Nepal must end prolonged transitional period, meaningless impasses and worthless tug of war because peace is ultimately indispensable. Let’s focus on achieving unity of efforts in order to ensure durable peace, security and prosperity for Nepal

Precisely on June 13, 2015, I was in Hogaris de Paz (Homes of Peace) in Medellin, Colombia listening to the sufferings of ordinary Colombian people entangled into the horrifying stories of the conflict.

It was hard to imagine a historic peace deal - a year later - would end Latin America’s longest running conflict that claimed more than 260,000 lives and displaced millions.

A decade following the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Accord (CPA) in Nepal, I often wonder as majority of Nepalese people would have for some time, “is there any escape from this quagmire of near-wicked-problems where every issue is complicated and haywire?

And is there anything that could make our nation united and glorious again?” I hope cocktails of my encounters will make some sense in contemporary Nepalese context.

In 1997, I was in a training programme in the USA. My Filipino friend - a short-fat-smart-subaltern - had told me “when someone in a country takes up arms against the government they would have already committed a “first mistake”. The government would have then committed the “second mistake” by mustering every narratives to suppress them”.

“When both start learning and be accustomed to fight each other, the violence shall take over the control. Thereafter, they will be busy committing serious mistakes by maiming, killing, mining and destructing. This is the truth of an internal conflict”. He had ended in one breath.

At that time the Maoists in Nepal had just started their so-called “People’s War”. Not regretting asking the first question, I had catapulted my inquisitiveness “how does it end”? Taking deep breath, Alex had answered me, “it would probably continue for more than half a century”. Down the road, the narration Alex had made was not wrong except Nepal ended the crisis much earlier than his projection.

A decade later in 2007, I was serving in the headquarters of the United Nations, New York. Sitting front-facing with my Sri Lankan colleague Perera in the Delegates Dining Room, I had tried my inquisitiveness over the sip of sugarless-post-lunch- coffee and hesitantly asked, “Sir, don’t blame me for spoiling our fantastic lunch but be kind to tell me about your experiences”.

Blending his mighty black mustache and bright white teeth he had smiled and said “don’t worry, I shall tell you the truth”. The crux of his long talk was “conflict is a prolonged curse that virtually changes the course of a nation and it’s a wicked problem”.

By then, Nepal had inked the CPA just a year before. The whole world had rejoiced the end of conflict in the beautiful country Nepal. I thought we Nepalese were smart people hence we could end the conflict within a decade. Precisely, 1996-2006, that’s it!

But while we were exiting the lounge, I paired my pace with Perera as he was limping because of war wound to his right foot.

He had said, “I host a number of splinters in my calf and it hurts”. Plato was right to say “Only the dead have seen the end of war.”

Standing for a while in the lobby overlooking the Japanese Peace Bell Garden, Perera continued, “When a nation indulges in a violent conflict many people suffer and they suffer terribly. The cuts of fight would deeply scar their sense of humanity”.

When I listened to Perera I also remembered Alex. I nostalgically thought of the Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, who in 1994, standing next to this Peace Bell, had said, “Peace is precious. It is not enough to yearn for peace. Peace requires work - long, hard, difficult work.”.

Here, neither I am qualified nor do I intend to comment on “what went wrong or right in Nepal”.

However, connecting the dots and cues from my friends and encounters, let’s face the reality once and for all. My friend Alex was right and Perera also spoke from his heart. Colombia did not prove our understanding wrong.

To sum up, underlining the fate and suffering of the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Columbia, Nepal must end prolonged transitional period, meaningless impasses and worthless tug of war because peace is ultimately indispensable.

Let’s focus on integrating unity of efforts in order to achieve durable stability, security and prosperity for Nepal.

Remember, each one of us has a part to play in the history. If you are uncertain on your part, close your eyes and think for a while possibly you shall hear my message loud and clear. Time is running out and it’s time to solve the problem not the contrary.

Sijapati is a graduate of the Royal College of Defence Studies (RCDS), London, and a former soldier of the Nepal Army who served in the UNHQ, New York from 2006 to 2010