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Kathmandu Tuesday April 17, 2001 Baishakh 04, 2058.
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Speed up
verification
The Nepal-Bhutan Joint Verification Team
(JVT), responsible for identifying the Bhutanese refugees, has so far interviewed only 625
people since it began the verification process 19 days ago. This, no doubt, is too slow a
pace to be acceptable. Differentiating 100 families of Bhutanese citizens from
non-Bhutanese would not have taken so long, had the JVT been formed only to categorize the
refugees. This indicates that the JVT has not been working just to determine nationality.
The manner in which the JVT has been verifying the Bhutanese refugees shows that it is
acting rather like a commission of inquiry into the forced eviction of the refugees than
as a verification committee pure and simple. Such a snail pace verification process
appears to be a time buying
tactic that will directly affect the progress of the refugee repatriation process.
The tenth round of Nepal-Bhutan ministerial
level talks decided to form the Joint Verification Team to verify the nationality of the
Bhutanese refugees, languishing in the seven different camps for the last ten years. The
two sides agreed to the US proposed verification plan that combined both the family and
the individual as the basis for verification. The JVT began verifying the refugees since
the last week of March from Khudunabari refugee camp. However, the JVT did not specify how
long it would take to verify the 15,000 families in the refugee camps. Another concern is
whether the Joint Ministerial Level Committee (JMLC) will as agreed be able to resolve any
"complications" that arise while "categorizing" the refugees? And when
will the actual process of repatriation take place? These are a few questions that still
remain unanswered even though the JVT has indeed brought a ray of hope. Moreover, the fear
still persists that the Druk regime may not allow back those refugees who left the country
under political and cultural pressure when they refused to abide by the Dirglamnamzha
(cultural etiquette) and Tsawasum (law of loyalty).
The forms that have to be filled up by the
refugees before they are interviewed have also raised several questions. Questions such as
who evicted you, and why did you not make an appeal to higher authority against your
forced eviction are not only improper but also appear very silly. The Druk regime must
determine whether the evicted Lhotshampas are genuine Bhutanese citizens. But it cannot
harass the refugees with unnecessary questions nor can it delay the process of
repatriation. The government must realize that Bhutan has always adopted time buying
tactics rather than admitting to the draconian law that evicted over one hundred thousand
Lhotshampas from Bhutan. The JVT has taken too long to identify even 100 families. If this
is the pace of the verification, it will take at least six years to complete the entire
process, besides developing several complications along the way. The government must
impress upon the JVT that the Bhutanese team cannot play a delaying game to deny the
refugees’ right to repatriation with dignity and honour.
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