Editorial: Don’t target peacekeepers

One year has passed since Oct 7 marking the attack on Gaza Strip that killed more than 1100 people, including 10 Nepali students, and led to the capture of 250, including a young Nepali student, Vipin Joshi. The Israel-Hamas war in the Mideast has only escalated since then, killing more than 11000 people, mainly in southern Lebanon, with the intensification of Israel’s operation against Hezbollah. 

Even as a tenuous peace holds in the larger Mideast despite a widening war, latest developments like increasing hostilities between Israel and Iran and the former’s raids on the bases of the United Nations’ Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) offer little respite. 

Per reports, five peacekeepers of the 9500-strong UNIFIL, created in March 1978 to confirm Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon, restore international peace and security and assist the Lebanese government in restoring its effective authority in the area, have sustained injuries in the attacks after Israel’s announcement of ‘limited incursions’ into the war-torn country.

These raids, which come barely a year after the loss of 10 Nepali lives in the Hamas attack and the disappearance of a student, should ring alarm bells for our government. This is because Nepal, as a significant contributor to the United Nations peacekeeping missions around the world, has troops deployed under the umbrella of UNIFIL as well.

As the birthplace of Gautam Buddha and several other enlightened beings, the onus is on Nepal to lead an international appeal requesting the warring parties not to target the keepers of a fragile peace, in the Mideast and beyond. 

Wars offer no solution to daunting problems facing the world. Sacred mantras in our holy scriptures like the Veds wish for peace on Earth and beyond, sing the glory of peace and the virtue of living together in perfect harmony with fellow humans and Nature.     

Therefore, the onus is on the government ruling this spiritual land of multiple faiths like Kirat, Buddhism, Hinduism, Shaivism, Bon and animism to lead an initiative for global peace by seeking to bring all warring sides together. Taking initiatives for hosting a global peace summit in Lumbini, the birthplace of the Buddha and other enlightened beings, can be a step in the right direction. 

Let Vijaya Dashami, which marks the triumph of good over evil, inspire us all to end this madness called war, once and for all.