The peace process and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Nepal : with case studies of Liberia, Sierra Leone and South Africa

Nepal is a small country in size that lies between India and China. This small country experienced a Maoist insurgency, known as the People’s War that started in 1996 and ended in 2006. Different social, political and individual factors caused this war that saw massive human rights violations from both the rebels and the government. Between 15000 and 16000 Nepalese were killed, made homeless/displaced and disabled, abducted and/or disappeared; and thousands of properties were stolen or destroyed (Dhruba, 2005; Gyawali, 2009; Hada, 2001; Himalayan Times, 2005; Shakya, 2006; Thapa, 2004). The Comprehensive Peace Accord (CPA) ended the People’s War in 2006; however, the peace process has not been completed. Nor have the massive human rights violations, causes and effects of the war been addressed. In 2015, 10 years after the CPA, a Nepali Truth and Reconciliation Commission was formed. The aim of this commission was to deliver justice to those who had experienced human rights violations during the insurgency and to create an atmosphere of reconciliation in Nepali society (Kantipur, 2015). This thesis examines the causes of the People’s War in Nepal. It then presents case studies of the processes and outcomes of TRCs in Liberia, Sierra Leone and South Africa. These TRCs completed their functions in facilitating peace and delivering justice by providing the suggestions and recommendations. The special case studies provide significant guidance to the TRC of Nepal and suggest important recommendations such as reconciliation, rehabilitation and reparation procedures to complete the peace process (TRC, 1995, 2004, 2009)

高性能屋内無線ネットワークの研究

電気通信大学201

Impact of COVID-19 public health measures on other respiratory illnesses

Since the declaration of COVID-19 pandemic by WHO on 13 March2020, over 210 countries / territories have had active cases and 1/3rd of the world’s population have been on complete lockdown or partial restriction. Main route of transmission of COVID-19 is through droplets like most communicable respiratory illnesses followed by infected surfaces. Public measures like wearing masks, social distancing, hand washing and other respiratory hygiene are being followed in unprecedented level and people are tested rapidly if they show symptoms of the disease such as fever, cough, fatigue, myalgia and dyspnea. These symptoms are similar to other respiratory diseases such as common flu, influenza, pneumonia and Tuberculosis. The preventive measures are also effective in these diseases. In Wuhan, China the lockdown lasted for 76 days and seems to follow similar course in other countries. The air pollution and travel has also decreased which will further decrease transmission of respiratory illnesses. These behavioral changes can get embedded into human cultures and play a vital role to decrease incidence of other respiratory illnesses. To measure the impact, we need to be observant and carry time series analysis of the pre and post pandemic data. With proper strategies this could be utilized as an opportunity to reduce burden of other respiratory communicable disease. Keywords: COVID-19, respiratory infection, social distancing, tuberculosis, influenza, lockdow

THE ROLE OF TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION COMMISSION IN PEACE BUILDING: NEPAL

The ten-year Maoist insurgency in Nepal ended in 2006 with Comprehensive Peace Accord (CPA). A Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was established to address the human rights violations including societal impacts which occurred during the insurgency and to bring justice to its victims and perpetrators. Hence, this paper explores the role of the TRC in facilitating and establishing peace by analysing and comparing similar TRCs’ operations in South Africa, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. For this, the study utilizes primary information data collection methods and content analysis to critically examine the role of TRCs in the peace process. It identifies the key achievements of these previous TRCs and recommends ‘6R’ measures to Nepali TRC for justice and peace establishment in Nepal

THE ROLE OF POLITICAL PARTIES IN NEPAL’S PEACE BUILDING PROCESS

After ten years of civil war in Nepal (1996 - 2006) the combatant forces brokered the Comprehensive Peace Accord (CPA). The war had ended but peace was never established and Nepal’s political economy remains weak and barely functioning. The CPA has been inoperative because of power struggles of the numerous parliamentary political parties in the post-insurgency Nepalese Governments. The political parties see no use for the CPA in these power struggles. Their sole and continuing objective is to secure political power. The causes of and the problems created by the civil war have been ignored in the power struggles of the parliamentary parties. The peace process in Nepal is now paralysed. The political parties have ignored, avoided, isolated and derailed the peace building process in Nepal. Hence, this paper analyses the political reality and the paralysed peace process in Nepal. It also examines how the activities of political parties have deliberately failed to bring the process of peace building to Nepal. And finally, it proposes practical peace building measures by which peace building could occur in Nepal which would bypass the power struggles of the political parties in Nepal

A Study on The Factors affecting the Loan decision of the Customers of Capital City of Nepal

Master's thesis Business Administration BE501 - University of Agder 2018The need of the customers has always been a significant concern for the banking and financial institutions regarding the loan requirement and the financing need because the actual lack of the financing is always backed up by the desire to repay the loan and the desire to demand more loan in future times. Since the banking and financial institutions has increased to a large number in the present context in comparison to a decade earlier, and the competition has reached an extreme level. With 28 commercial banks, more than 70 development banks, more than 75 finance companies, and several other co-operatives the market liquidity has been increasing day by day whereas the funds are not being invested in the place or sector that yields sufficient return that covers the cost and adds profit margin to the business. Because of the idle money, the value of fund of major banks and financial institutions is above 5% in the present context which has made them relatively less competitive in the market. The present study entitled “Factors affecting the Loan decisions of Customers in capital city of Nepal” is undertaken with the specific objective to identify the influencing factors that customers consider while taking out the loan from banks and financial institutions. Accordingly, other primary objectives of this study are to determine the various variables that affect the loan decision of the customers and to define the degree of influence/significance of the relationship between the identified independent variables with the loan decision of the customers. The research was done on the topic “Factor effecting the Loan decision of Customers in Capital city of Nepal.” A comprehensive literature review was conducted in which the concepts of various types of loans, the reasons for seeking the loan and the relationship between independent variables, i.e. variables affecting the loan decision of the customers and the loan decision of the customers were reviewed and discussed from both customer and banks perspective. Various researches, articles by multiple authors, scholars were reviewed and discussed. For the study, literature reviews of the various studies that have been conducted on or similar to the subject in different parts of the world were reviewed. The hypotheses that were required to fulfill the research objectives were derived from the literature study. A conceptual model was also developed taking into considerations the various variables and perceived relationships among them. For this study, a survey study was conducted to find out the relationship between the independent variables and dependent variable. The independent variables taken were quality of service provided by BFIs, satisfaction received by the customers from the service provided by BFIs, different loan covenants, the loan product itself, the installment structure on loan, the requirement of the insurance policy and guarantee and the interest rate on loan. The dependent variable was the loan decision of the customers. Questionnaires from a total of 219 respondents were collected and used for further analysis. The data collected from the respondents were analyzed and interpreted through the help of different statistical tools and results derived from the hypotheses testing were presented using different figures and graphs. The study includes demographic profile of respondents such as age, gender, academic qualification, employment status and monthly income. Descriptive statistics of different factors were studied. Cronbach's Alpha and Pearson correlation tests were used to infer the results of the study. After analysis of the data, we can conclude that there is a significant relationship between various variables such as quality of service, satisfaction level of the customer, interest rates on the loan, loan covenants, installment structure and the loan product whereas no significant relationship was found between the insurance and guarantee condition of the loan. Similarly, through the data from both banks’ respondent and customers, it has been tried to find the similarities and deviations of the influence of the independent variables towards dependent variable. After the analysis of the data collected from both side, it has been found that there is a high deviation in responses in two sub-variables of the independent variables. They are the influence of the sufficient number of bank personnel and the influence of others. Apart from these two, all the sub variables have similar kind of response from both banks and customers. Similarly, to identify the correlation between the multivariate variables, canonical correlation analysis is used. Further, this study has provided various areas for future research. The areas include the development of products that are demanded by the customers and meet the need of the customers, focusing on the behavioral changes of the customers due to emerging competition in financial sector and mainly focusing on the service quality and conducting customer centric business

Initial Experience of Percutaneous Nephrolithotomy at Lumbini Medical College

  Introduction: Renal stone disease is a challenging problem in urologic practice especially in our locality because of large stone burden and recurrence. Since ,the early 1980s when percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PCNL) was established for management of renal stones, open surgical procedures have virtually been replaced. PCNL is a safe, effective and minimally invasive approach compared to open surgery for patients with large single, multiple or staghorn stones. The aim of this prospective study was to evaluate and to review our experience with PCNL in management of renal and upper ureteric stones.   Methods: Prospective study carried out at Lumbini Medical College and Teaching Hospital during 1stJanuary 2011 to 31st October 2011. Sixty patients were evaluated and subjected to PCNL. After clinical investigations like ultrasonography (USG) and intravenous urography (IVU), once patients were found to have renal or upper ureteric stones they were informed and explained about PCNL, its likely complications, probable hospital stay, the cost of treatment and data were recorded along with the operative time, estimated blood loss, stone burden, stone-free rate, length of hospitalization and complications .Patients were followed up after three months to rule out recurrence of stones by plain abdominal x-ray of kidney, ureter and bladder and USG.   Results: Out of 60 patients 35 were male and 25 were female (M: F=1.4:1) with mean age of 37 years and were subjected to PCNL monotherapy. With the average stone size of 3.26cm, the mean operative time was 78 minutes. Complete stone removal achieved by PCNL alone in 60 cases, with insignificant residual small stones we achieved 97% stone clearance rate. The mean hospital stay was 3.7 days. No Serious complications were encountered, 9 (15%) patients required blood transfusion and 3 (5%) patients developed transient post-operative pyrexia.   Conclusion: PCNL is the first line treatment option for management of large renal stones which as monotherapy has advantages in removal of renal and upper ureteric stones and achieving excellent results with minimal morbidity

Experience of Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy at Lumbini Medical College Teaching Hospital

  Introduction: The difficult gallbladder is the most common difficult laparoscopy being performed by generalsurgeons all over the world and the potential one that places the patient at significant risk. The present study aimed to study all the cases of laparoscopic cholecystectomy conducted in current setup at Lumbini Medical College and Teaching Hospital, to compare the results with the published literature and also analyze the complications and ways to decrease the incidence of conversion to open procedure.   Methods: Five hundred twenty five patients age 10-90 years, male:female ratio of 1:3.86 with body weight 45-65 kilogram, who had undergone laparoscopic cholecystectomy for symptomatic cholelithiasis without choledocholithiasis from April 2011 to April 2013 were studied.   Results: All the laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) were without major complications. Only nineteen out of five hundred twentyfive (3.6%) required conversion to open cholecystectomy (OC). Reasons for conversion included: dense omental or visceral adhesions; two (0.38%), unclear anatomy; 16 (3.04%), common bile duct injury; one (0.19%). There were 20 cases of shrunken gallbladder suspicious of malignancy but didn’t required conversion.   Conclusion: Laparoscopic cholecystectomy is the preferred method in our setup even in difficult cases

Hospital incident command system, the pillar of COVID-19 outbreak response: An experience from Patan Hospital, Nepal

In times of disaster, hospital’s preparedness for disaster and response plan contributes significantly to better functioning of the hospital and reducing mortality and morbidity. Activating Hospital incident command system in a timely manner in Patan Hospital has showed how the hospital is better prepared to handle this epidemic outbreak. Keyword: Disaster, epidemic, hospital preparedness, incident command syste

Incidence and predation rate of hornet (Vespa spp.) on European honeybee (Apis mellifera L.) apiary at mid-hill areas of Lalitpur district, Nepal

Predatory hornets are considered as one of the major constraints to beekeeping industry. Therefore, its incidence and predation rate was studied throughout the year at two locations- rural and forest areas of mid-hill in Laliptur district during 2016/017 to 2017/018. Observation was made on the number of hornet and honey bee captured by hornet in three different times of the day for three continuous minutes every fortnightly on five honeybee colonies. During the study period, major hornet species captured around the honeybee apiary at both locations were, Vespa velutina Lepeletier, Vespa basalis Smith, Vespa tropica (Linnaeus) and Vespa mandarina Smith. The hornet incidence varied significantly between the years and locations along with different observation dates. Their incidence and predation rates were low in early spring and summer that gradually increased with the highest peak in October and November in both locations. The maximum predation was on mid-November (62.07%) and early-November (53.49%) at rural and forest locations, respectively during 2016/017. In 2017/018, the highest predation was on early-November (70.27%) at rural area while it was in mid-November (58.62%) in the apiaries near the forest area. The population of hornet was considerably higher at forest areas and their incidence around the honeybee apiaries were negatively correlated with rainfall. Hence, assessment of the temporal and spatial population variations and predation rates along with weather parameters is helpful in to develop sustainable management plans of the hornet in apiary