Difficulties of peace-building in Nepal

Sonal Singh¹ describes how political conflict has affected people's health in Nepal, concluding that health care professionals can play an important role in peace-building efforts. However, this is not as easy as it sounds.

In December 2002, we organized a 2-day meeting in the central developing region of Nepal, which was attended by health directors from 29 of the 33 sub-health posts (the local medical clinics in Nepal). During the meeting, we used group discussion to identify the difficulties encountered under the conflict. The participants reported their suffering at the hands of both the Maoists and government security forces, mentioning that they are often caught in the crossfire between the 2 opposing sides. The Maoists regard health care workers with suspicion, viewing them as supporters of other political parties or spies for the government. Conversely, the government security forces suspect the health care workers of being Maoist supporters.

All the participants told us that the frequent misbehaviour of both parties has caused mental trauma. Health care professionals should play an important role in peace-building, but how much of themselves do they have to sacrifice in the course of doing so?

Amod K. Poudyal Masamine Jimba Susumu Wakai Department of International Community Health Graduate School of Medicine The University of Tokyo Tokyo, Japan

Acknowledgements: We thank Naresh P. KC and Ram C. Silwal for their fieldwork related to this letter, and Krishna C. Poudel for his support in writing the letter.