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Kathmandu,Saturday May 06, 2000 Baishakh 24, 2057.
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Ogata to talk with India May lobby for
assimilating one third refugees
By Kavita Sherchan
KATHMANDU, May 5 - The United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees Sadako Ogata who left for New Delhi yesterday after completing her week-long tour
to Bhutan and Nepal has left the Bhutanese refugees here worried about their fate.
Although Ogata told reporters that her trip to New Delhi was
a general one and would not concentrate only on the Bhutanese refugees problem, refugees
here say it is exactly for that purpose that she is visiting the sub-region’s
‘big brother’.
The refugee leaders on condition of anonymity say Ogata is
trying to talk India into taking one third of the Bhutanese refugees.
Bhutan has been pushing this idea for long. It has been
trying to convince the international community that Bhutan being such a small country
cannot accommodate all refugees and has suggested assimilating two thirds of the refugees
in Nepal since these countries have large population already. And many have fallen in its
trap.
The European Union (EU) delegation that came to Nepal last
month also talked on the same line. Talking to The Kathmandu Post on April 26 after the
official visit was over, Thomas Mann, deputy leader of the EU delegation, had said
"Bhutan can have some of the refugees back in their country. But they cannot have
them all".
He had put forth the Bhutanese argument: "There are
100,000 refugees and Bhutan is such a small country".
Mann had also said India should be involved in the
repatriation process and she should take some refugees too. He said they would convince EU
to raise it during the Summit with India in June.
"The Indians have to be responsible," Mann had
said. "Perhaps we will have them divided into few groups. Some of them will have to
go back to Bhutan, others should be here in your country and in my opinion the rest should
be there in India. Why not? It’s such a big country."
But refugees are not willing to accept this arrangement.
"Why should we?" asks Rakesh Chhetri, a refugee
activist. "Bhutan is our homeland. We want to go back to our homes. Otherwise, we
will continue to stay in Nepal as refugees until our problem is solved." According to
sources, refugees in Jhapa have already started planning things out. They are holding
meetings to tackle the problem and are preparing to prevent it, said the source.
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