17 years—and counting

Beyond the paraphernalia of the peace lie deep wounds of the war that are yet to be healed.

When the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) was signed between the then CPN (Maoist) and the Government of Nepal, in 2006, the world was amazed by Nepal’s swift transition from conflict to peace. After all, the country had seen the deaths of an estimated 17,000 people in 10 years, and peace seemed a distant prospect. Maoists of a slightly different hue had been fighting in the jungles of Chhattisgarh and Odisha, among other states, in the “red corridor” of neighbouring India, for five decades; in Sri Lanka, the state was preparing for a coup de grace against Tamil separatist militants; Afghanistan was burning as America’s Bush administration waged an all-out war against an entire country in its pursuit of just one man. Insurrections of various kinds erupted here and there in other parts of South Asia and the entire region appeared to be in turmoil. Amidst this, the news from Kathmandu that the insurgents and the government had struck a peace deal seemed like an aberration, a mini-miracle.