Economic & Legal Impact of Conflict on States & People in South Asia with Specific Reference to Nepal

For almost a decade, the Kingdom of Nepal has been confronting a civil war (termed People's War) launched by the Maoist faction of the Communist Party of Nepal, with a view to replace the current political system of governance (multi-party democracy with a constitutional monarchy - put in place in 1990) by a secular communist republic. Relying essentially on guerilla methods and tactics, the Maoists have successfully gained of a vast territorial area, and this has created a type of triangular power equation in the country. Nepal's experience is in a number of ways similar to that of other South Asian countries which have also long suffered from civil war, both from the standpoint of a composite of cause and effect as well as the methods used to attempt conflict management. Against the background of a commonalty of problems, which occasionally overlap, this article attempts to assess the legal and economic implications of the decade-long conflict on Nepal's social and political governance, along with some suggestions in favor of peace-making. Keywords: Africa; Bhutan; Bangladesh; Costs of Conflict (legal and economic); East Pakistan; Human rights; Indian Peace Keeping Force; International Law; Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam; Maoists; Military courts; Military Expenditures; Nepal; Pakistan; People's War; Post-conflict; Rule of law; Srilanka; South Asia; Special Courts; Special Terrorism laws and acts. time to time in the course of history human affairs reach an equilibrium, equilibrium so stable as almost to give the illusion of permanence. The ages come to their sum and apex. Institutions, manners, conventions, the entire sociocultural complex, seem fixed and final. Yet, in fact behind the facade the structure may be already creaking to its collapse, and whatever survives or is rebuilt from the ruin is very different from what has gone before. Frank P. Chambers THIS AGE OF CONFLICT (Harcourt, Brace and World, 1962) at 4 I. Causality of Conflict in General Conflict (or war in a broader sense) is known to be one of the most potent causes of human suffering and underdevelopment. Roughly fifteen million deaths were caused by wars of all types in developing countries between 1950 and 1990. From 1989 to 1995, there were between 31 and 54 internationally recorded conflicts in each year, and an average of 15 major wars occurring at any time.1 Compared to the previous decades, the wars in the eighties and the nineties have not only become more frequent, but also have gotten longer.2 In view of the above, there is an increasing concern about the nexus between low human development and conflict.3 Available statistics show that conflict (war) and human development are closely related in a twoway vicious cycle. Among the ten countries listed with the lowest Human Development Index, eight have suffered serious civil wars in recent years.4 More importantly, half of the fifty countries classified by the UN as 'least developed' experienced major armed conflict in the last twenty years. Conflict is, indeed, a major constraint to development. There is not one single reason for conflicts. The sources are multifold as they are multi-faceted. Conflicts have myriad possible scenarios and outcomes. The investigation, therefore, demands a broad and multidisciplinary perspective. Also, since the policies for economic adjustment often conflict with political adjustment, a coherent and integrated approach to blend law, politics and economics is important in the peace agenda. Collier provided an interesting yet debatable analysis on causes of civil war based on his global empirical study covering a period of 1965-99.5 Contrary to the general belief about the existence of a link between conflict and economic conditions, Collier did not find any systematic effect on risk/conflict through inequality, lack of democracy, and ethnic and religious divisions. The example he provided about the occurrence of civil war where rebel organizations are financially viable makes us rethink about the motivations, thus causes, for conflict: whether 'greed' or 'grievances'. …