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Kathmandu Thursday November 08, 2001 Kartik 23, 2058.
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Dialogue ends in deadlock
Post Report
KATHMANDU, Nov 7 – The foreign secretary-level
Nepal-Bhutan dialogue on Bhutanese refugees came to a deadlock once again with both
sides sticking to their respective stance on the categorisation of the refugees.
The 12th Ministerial Joint Committee meeting that will be
held in Thimpu in Bhutan will now be take up the matter, the time for which will be
decided by the respective governments after consultations.
Both the Foreign Secretaries, Narayan Shumsher Thapa of Nepal
and Ugyen Tshering of Bhutan, said at a joint press meet today that the matter will now
come up in the ministerial level.
After two days and four rounds of talks led by the respective
foreign secretaries, the issue remains where it stood when the talks began on Tuesday.
Nepalese Foreign Secretary Thapa admitted that the
differences between the two countries remain on the harmonisation, which he as termed the
focus of the two-day talks. "There are certain differences that we could not
reconcile. So we have suggested that the matter be taken up at the next ministerial
round," said Thapa.
Talking about the sharp differences on the two countries
positions on the categorisation of the Bhutanese refugees, Thapa quipped, "There are
four categories and there will be four positions."
While Nepal had pushed for two categories, Bhutanese and
non-Bhutanese, the Dragon Kingdom was not willing to discard the other two categories,
"Bhutanese who emigrated willingly" and "Bhutanese with criminal
records."
Spokesperson at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Gyan Chandra
Acharya said the ministry-level talks would be held "soon." Acharya added that
Bhutan has not outrightly rejected Nepal’s proposals on harmonisation. "They
said that they would discuss our proposals with their government."
Bhutan’s Foreign Secretary Tshering said that the two
sides had an exhaustive exchange of views on the harmonisation, which is "an issue
that has been kept pending for a long time."
When asked if there has been any harmonisation of positions
of the two countries on categorisation, Tshering declined to give a categorical answer,
saying, "We will continue the discussions."
Tshering said the fieldwork has to continue anyway, when he
was pointed out the futility of verification currently underway at the Khudunabari camp
when the two countries had such sharp differences on categorisation.
Bhutan brought its draft proposal on the
"harmonisation," the focus in these rounds of talks. But the Bhutanese
delegation was not willing to budge from its adopted stance. However, the officials
declined to divulge exactly what the Bhutanese proposals contained.
Earlier, Thapa also told the reporters that the verification
process at the Khudunabari camp in Jhapa district will be completed by the second week of
December. A short gap for consultations with the respective governments will follow the
completion of the verification process, said Thapa. He added that the Joint Verification
Team would then select the place to start categorisation.
Replying on the chances of resolving the decade-long refugee
imbroglio, Nepal’s foreign secretary said, "Refugee problem is a complex one
everywhere. We are trying to find a common ground to resolve this problem."
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