CK Lal is right when he enumerates the lessons Nepal can learn from the Peruvian conflict (State of the State, 'A Peruvian parallel', #268). But perhaps Peru is not the place to go to learn about how to make peace: for that we have to go to El Salvador. After nearly 15 years of an intensifying civil war, tens of thousands of deaths, vigilante killings and massacres, peace was finally brokered between the guerrillas and the state in the mid-1980s. How did this happen? With United Nations mediation and active support from the international communities. There is absolutely no reason why the same can't be done in Nepal-it is in a similar stage of conflict, although El Salvador's violence was more vicious. But, some will say, India will shoot down UN mediation even before it can fly. Not necessarily. There is already a softening of the Indian position. Besides, the United States which had originally opposed UN mediation in El Salvador, was convinced that the good offices of an honest broker was needed and that it was more desirable for Washington to have a democratic El Salvador than a dictatorial or totalitarian one. Maybe New Delhi can take a lesson or two from that episode in its dealing with Nepal.

J B Thapa,
New Delhi