English - Support to Participatory Constitution Building in Nepal ...

The Remake of a Statefrequently. Often state security forces are not able to controlcrimes and make people feel secure. Criminals are misusingmessy security situation and fragile transition as an opportunity.People are in a situation of trauma from the combined effectsof worsened transitional security and the resultant fear. Wheninsecurity and fear persists in community, promoting R&Rencounters difficulties. Revealing truth and healing requiresbuilding confidence and trust. However, willful participation andcollaboration in facilitating R&R is not possible without buildingtrust and mutual respect. Therefore, addressing the situation ofinsecurity and fear at local level is one of the pre-conditions forR&R.b. Risk of small arms and landmines: SALW 6 were seriouslyproliferated in Nepal during the time of the conflict (Upeti2006a). Illegal arm trading from India is becoming a lucrativebusiness during this time. The legacy of the illegal arms tradingduring the last 10 years is continued and even increased in theTerai region posing serious security challenges. Land-mining andthe use of Improvised Explosive Devices (IED) were commonpractices during the time of active armed conflict. Now, childrenand ordinary people are suffering from the left out landmines.Residual effects of small arms and landmines have greatlycontributed to community insecurity and confidence-buildingprocess.c. Social stigmatisation: Social stigmatisation and marginalisation ofconflict victims (especially the single mothers with unidentifiedhusbands), wounded people etc. are still not getting positiveattitude towards conflict victims and survivors. It was reportedthat many women and girls were forced to have sex with fightingforces and became pregnant. However, once the fightingforces were transferred, the pregnant women used to be leftalone. Families and society badly treated these mothers withunidentified husbands. The society does not accept such children.Thus, their lives have become increasingly difficult. Woundedpeople, widows, children and wives with unidentified fathers6The United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR) defines SALW as all conventionalweapons that can be carried by an individual or by a light vehicle. These weapons do not require anextensive logistical and maintenance capability. Small arms include pistols, rifles, sub-machine guns,machine guns and ammunition. Light weapons (in addition to small arms) include small-calibre cannons,grenades, landmines, mortars, light anti-tank weapons, anti-tank mines, shoulder-fired anti-aircraftmissiles and ammunition (see Chapter 12 for elaboration).267