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Kathmandu,Wednesday February 23, 2000 Fagun 11, 2056.
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Playing into Thimphu’s hands
The secretary level Nepal-Bhutan talks concluded last week without any
progress. If anything the talks have thrown cold water over the Nepalese foreign
minister’s assertion last month that the refugee problem would be resolved soon. It
is now clear that Bhutan is not interested in resolving the crisis or it does not want to
accept the conditions laid down in the eighth round of bilateral talks. Obviously, Bhutan,
which forcibly drove out one sixth of its population in 1991 does not want to accept that
the refugees languishing in the refugee camps of eastern Nepal are its citizens. In other
words, the Bhutanese side is once again up its old tricks. The fact that the Bhutanese
side appeared to be unprepared when Nepalese officials broached the topic of refugee
categorisation only indicates their level of interest in resolving the issue. It may also
be stressed that India which claims complete neutrality over the refugee issue, has
encouraged a despotic regime by refusing to mediate or even putting pressure on the Druk
regime.
The eighth Joint Ministerial Level Committee (JMLC) round had no plans for
secretary level talks to work on the modalities for refugee verification. What the last
JMLC talks explicitly mentioned was that the next JMLC meet would be the final round
before the repatriation of refugees. However, it should be noted that the latest talks at
the secretary level was arranged by Thimphu which was well aware that the subject for
discussion was categorisation of refugees. Therefore, it requires more than a pinch of
salt to take in the claim of Nepalese officials which justifies lack of progress with the
pretext of unpreparedness on Thimphu’s part. At best, this can only serve as a lame
excuse.
This is the umpteenth time that the much touted Nepal-Bhutan talks have
foundered without any appreciable change in the posture of the Druk regime. This certainly
gives the impression that the talks were merely a ploy to bluff UN authorities who
assemble in Geneva to take stock of refugee issues worldwide. As a consequence, the
Nepalese side and Bhutanese refugee groups have been left high and dry.
These "unproductive sessions" show that the Nepalese side lacks the
manoeuvrability required to reach a fruitful culmination of nearly a decade long talks on
the refugee problem. Ridiculously enough, the Nepalese side has resented the media’s
role, which, according to some members of the delegation has aborted the
"delicate" process by jumping to conclusions in advance and speculating on the
likely outcome. It has now become clear that it is not the media that has damaged
Nepal-Bhutan talks but the incompetence of Nepalese delegates who have failed to make the
Druk regime accept the conditions laid down in the last meeting. Bhutan appears to be
better off than Nepal since it is indirectly backed by India on this issue. So long as
India remains behind the Bhutanese, the issue of repartriation is unlikely to bear fruit
any time soon. Apparently, none of our delegates who travelled to Thimphu has understood
this.
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