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Kathmandu Friday December 21, 2001 Paush 06, 2058.
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Verification of one camp over, question is what next?
By Damakant Jayshi
KATHMANDU, Dec 20 – With the verification of over 12,000 Bhutanese
refugees in Jhapa’s Khudunabari camp concluding last Friday, all eyes are now on the
12th Ministerial Joint Committee (MJC) meeting slated for Kathmandu "some time in the
future" to deliberate on the next phase of refugee repatriation.
However, the next phase hangs in the balance with intractable positions of
Nepal and Bhutan on harmonising their positions on the categorisation of the refugees.
There is also the question of simultaneously beginning verification in other camps while
the repatriation of Khudunabari would be discussed. Both the countries have
"principally agreed" to do that.
The verification of the Bhutanese refugees, which began on March 26, lasted
153 days. Refugees in six more camps, five in Jhapa and one in Morang, are still left to
be verified.
Both the Nepalese and Bhutanese members of the JVT would now report back to
their respective governments about the verification process. This would be followed by
harmonisation and categorisation of the refugees, said a Nepalese official.
Nepalese officials seemed resigned to what they call stubborn insistence of
Bhutan not to see beyond some documents whose very nature is being questioned by the
refugees. Much to the relief of the 100,000-odd Bhutanese refugees of Nepali origin
languishing in the seven camps in Jhapa and Morang districts, Nepal has been emphasising
on narrowing down the two categories – Bhutanese who were evicted forcefully and
non-Bhutanese.
However, the Dragon Kingdom insists on the agreement 1994 between the two
countries that has agreed on two other categories as well – Bhutanese who emigrated
willingly and Bhutanese with criminal records.
The documents cited by Bhutan government on the status of the refugees is
also "dubious". They have harped on the documents "willingly signed by
former Bhutanese while leaving Bhutan". Most refugees, however, maintain that these
documents were signed under duress. They allege that the Bhutanese locals, with the active
connivance of Bhutanese local officials in southern Bhutan, harassed the Lhotsampas to
drive them out of their homeland.
As far the "criminal records" are concerned, refugee leaders claim
they were the tools used by the Dzonkhas to quell pro-democracy movement in Royal Bhutan.
The leaders leading the movement have been singled out and branded criminals on fabricated
charges, say the Bhutanese leaders, now staying in Kathmandu.
"All charges have been cooked by the Bhutanese government," said R
Basnet, President of Bhutan National Democratic Party (BNDP). Rakesh Chhetri, Executive
Director of CEMARD, a human rights organisation for Bhutanese refugees agreed, adding that
he too would be arrested the moment he entered Bhutan, "though there are no official
charges against me".
Both Basnet and Chhetri accuse Bhutan of deliberately delaying the lasting
solution to the problem. The Bhutanese refugee leaders also emphatically said that
categorisation was not necessary at all. "Once the verification is over, why go for
categorisation," questioned Basnet. Even those Bhutanese who might be termed
non-Bhutanese must have the right to appeal to an international and impartial tribunal, he
added. "No one can be left stateless; either Bhutan or Nepal will have to do
something about those who are dubbed non-Bhutanese."
Basnet further said that Bhutan was using the delay to consolidate its
resettlement plan in the lands vacated by the Bhutanese citizens-now-turned-refugees.
Foreign Ministry officials said that the focus will now be on harmonisation
of differences in the position of the two countries on the categorisation of the refugees.
However, there are strong differences in the position of the two governments on the
harmonisation of the refugees. Under the present dispensation, refugees fear that most of
them would not be able to go back to their homeland.
The foreign ministers of the two countries will, once again, try to solve
this seemingly vexed problem, say the Ministry officials. Though the dates are yet to be
finalised, the two ministers would meet for the 12th Ministerial Joint Committee meeting
"sometime after the SAARC Summit (January 4-6) in Kathmandu".
Even on the sidelines of the regional meeting in early January, Nepal and
Bhutan are expected to take up the decade-long festering refugee impasse. But not much is
expected as the focus will still be on the fate of the over 12,000 verified refugees of
the Khudunabari camp.
As of now, all eyes are on the 12th MJC meet in Kathmandu next year.
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