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Showing posts from August, 2005

Mediating for Peace: Lessons from the UN and Norway

Posted on kantipuronline.com on: 2005-07-24 23:41:53 The Independent of Bangladesh: http://independent-bangladesh.com/news/aug/02/02082005ed.htm#A5 Scandinavian Business on World News Network: http://archive.wn.com/2005/08/02/1400/scandinaviabusiness A conflict doesn’t end overnight. It’s a long, slow process, in which two parties, once they arrive at the table, go from small negotiations to more contentious ones.By Sushma Joshi Mediation is tough business. UN negotiators more accustomed to the traffic gridlock in Manhattan than the environs of downtown Kathmandu may have found that mediating in a civil war is far from a cocktail party in the Big Apple. Nepal’s polite but firm refusal to the UN’s advances is not the first time a nation has greeted the UN with a firm “No.” Since 1949, India has strenuously refused UN intervention in the long-standing Indo-Pak dispute over the state of Jammu and Kashmir. The Indian government sought UN intervention in 1949, accusing Pakistan of interfe