The human toll: Political Science faculty studies effects of conflict, displacement in home country


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Dr. Adhikari's class Armed Conflict, Forced Migration, and Conflict Resolution collected 220 items for Refugees.

If all the refugees in the world were to comprise one nation, that nation would be the 26th largest in the world. Not since World War II have there been so many displaced by conflict all around the world.

While that may be hard to believe for those living in Michigan, it has been the project Central Michigan University faculty Prakash Adhikari's life.

Adhikari, who grew up in the northeast Taplejung district of Nepal, spent three years studying the Nepalese Civil War that had torn apart his country.

This civil war pitted the Communist Party of Nepal, led by Pushpa Kamal Dahal, against the reigning parliamentary system that had been opposing leftist reforms. This conflict led to the deaths of an estimated 17,000 civilians and displaced 100,000 more, according to Insight on Conflict.

Now a faculty member of CMU as of 2011, he has brought his refugee experience to Mount Pleasant.

Adhikari organized a collection for refugees living in Michigan with the help of students in his POLS 398A: Armed Conflicts, Forced Migrations and Conflict Resolutions class and Amnesty International CMU, a registered student organization. This collection was scheduled to end on March 25, but students and faculty are still donating items.

As of April 1, 258 items, including silverware, toothbrushes, razors, toilet paper and hangers have been donated to the collection, which will be given to relocated refugees through the Refugee Development Center in Lansing.

"These people are really in need," said Amnesty's vice president Mallory Walton. "And we've been getting a really good response from students."

Adhikari, who traveled to the United States after earning his masters degree in economics from Tribhuvan University in Nepal in 1997, took an interest in a lesser-known aspect of conflict research: its affect on daily life.

"Not many people are interested in studying refugees, which I thought was interesting because people are interested in understanding the causes of war, but not the causes of refugees, or the plight of refugees and the challenges they face," he said. "I could have gotten data from anywhere and just written it and been finished. I thought, since I was already spending time writing a dissertation, why not do something that is interesting and something I like and so I picked this."

After fighting to receive the $12,000 Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant from the National Science Foundation in 2008, Adhikari began the lengthy process of studying displaced persons in Nepal.

"I wanted to study the causes of flight. So I studied people who left, people who stayed behind and people who left and then came back home," he said. "If you want to understand why some people flee, you need to understand why some do not."

Countries such as Afghanistan, which has been in conflict since before Adhikari was born, should be empty by the logic that the fear of harm is a universal motivator. If everyone thought that way, the country would be empty of civilians, he said. Somalia, which has been without a recognized government for decades, is still populated.

"I wanted to find out what makes these people stay," he said. "Are they not afraid of death? What is keeping them? That is what got me into studying refugees."

Using a random sample, with the assistance of the Informal Sector Service Center, an organization dedicated to documenting human rights violations in the region, he began finding the first of an eventual 1,808 names of persons affected by the war in Nepal.

Using his research grant, Adhikari hired approximately 70 Nepalese "enumerators" to aid in his efforts. Despite his manpower, he trekked across the economic and topographical regions to interview nearly 300 of the persons himself. Adhikari approached those living in refugee camps and those remaining in their home villages carrying a 54-page questionnaire, looking for answers.

In his research, he confirmed that the fear of death is the number one motivator, but the destruction of resources was also a major motivator of forced migrants.

"In a war, people are losing property, their homes, their jobs and when you lose all of that, people flee," he said. "The viably of those economic possibilities, even if there is war, if you still have employment and still can make a living, then people stay. But more importantly, during conflict people come up with different strategies of coping with war and one of those I found in my research, when you have strong community bonds, a dense social network that connects people to each other through various means."

Adhikari found that people are drawn together during times of war, and those with connections in their home town are more likely to remain behind, even if that means risking death.

This search for answers once took Adhikari into the northern mountains of Nepal. After three days, he arrived at a village that had been frequented by both military and rebel forces. The man he was searching out for his research had been ordered to leave numerous times by both sides, but had remained nonetheless. The man, who was described by Adhikari as a pillar of his community, had stayed with his people despite accusations of treason and thinly veiled threats.

Adhikari stayed as a guest in his house for a week before presenting him with the questionnaire.

It is helpful to know the culture, Adhikari said. If I had been an American, I might have asked him immediately and left when he said 'no.' But I stayed with him, was honest about my work, and ended up speaking with him later.

The man never abandoned his village, and still lives there today. 

The two became friends and have remained in contact since Adhikari's research in the region concluded. 

Adhikari had run-ins with both sides of the confluct during his research. On one occasion, he traveled with a representative from INSEC to take photographs of a Maoist rebel training camp in West Nepal.

To his surprise, he found the rebels were open to him taking photographs on the condition that he did not release them to the media.

"They told me, 'go take them,'" he said. "'But don't give them to journalists or you know the consequence.'"

He found that by not passing judgment and being forthcoming with his goals, he was able to negotiate with both sides. While sometimes terrifying, the experiences added to his understanding of the conflict.

"War changes the way people interact with one another," Adhikari said. "If there were two friends, and one joined the insurgents and one joined the army, each probably killed members of the other's family. Now that the war is over, people can't be the same after that."

Adhikari described the years he spent working in Nepal as "moving." His experiences greatly helped him understand the plight of displaced persons everywhere. He prefers the term "displaced people" when describing those who have been forcibly migrated by conflict, as this is a more apt descriptor than the term refugee, which only refers to those who have fled a country entirely.

Adhikari is thankful that the conflict did not claim the lives of any of his family members. The Taplejung district still carries fond memories for Adhikari. He doesn't doubt that the persisting snows and the reaching mountains of his family's home will someday call him back. 

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