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Kathmandu Saturday February 16, 2002 Falgun 04, 2058.
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12th round
The 12th Ministerial level Joint Committee (MJC)
meeting between Nepal and Bhutan is expected to take place next week. This meeting will
decide the fate of more than one hundred thousand refugees, languishing in seven different
UNHRC-run camps in eastern Nepal since 1991. The Joint Verification Team (JVT) formed last
March has completed the process of verifying 1,963 refugee families at Khudunabari camp.
Of the total numbers verified, ninety five percent have produced evidence of bona-fide
Bhutanese nationality. Six more camps remain to be verified. Now, both sides have to sit
down and vet the refugees on a case by case basis to categorise those verified before
actual repatriation takes place. The joint-secretary level meeting held in Kathmandu last
November ended inconclusively as both sides stuck to their stances on categorisation.
Bhutan has refused to take back refugees whom it claims have criminal records. However,
Nepal has opposed Bhutan’s stand, pointing out that all refugees languishing in
UNHRC-run camps are Bhutan’s responsibility and should be allowed to return home with
dignity and honour.
The Habitat International Coalition (HIC)
brought out a report on Bhutan’s resettlement plan last December stating that
"Bhutan has allocated refugees’ lands in Samchi and Sarbhang districts to army
and police personnel". Bhutan has been encouraging northerners to settle in southern
Bhutan, on lands previously occupied by Bhutanese who later became refugees. A Nepal-based
Bhutanese Human Rights group has also found that the Druk regime has given many northern
Bhutanese incentive to migrate to lands left behind by the refugees. Such a resettlement
plan will only delay the repatriation process further. Bhutan has forcibly evicted its
nationals of Nepali origin under its archaic laws. Southern Bhutan is fertile and
comparatively well developed. It is only too obvious that Thimpu has deliberately
initiated the resettlement plan to undermine the refugees’ rights.
Nepal cannot ignore the fast unfolding
resettlement plan in southern Bhutan. There is little point holding bilateral talks on
repatriation when Bhutan has refused to recognise the refugees’ rights. Bhutan has
drafted a new constitution to suit the purposes of its dominant classes and with little
regard for democratic values. Bhutan must not be allowed to simply sideline the decade old
refugee problem in this fashion. Nepal must raise the issue of land resettlement at the
forthcoming bilateral talks if these are to be little more than a formality. The reason
why there is delay in the repatriation process is that Nepal has never taken a firm enough
stand. Neither has the Nepali leadership been strong enough to press Bhutan to take back
its refugees, nor have we ourselves taken the problem seriously. These refugees living in
limbo since 1991 have been the victims of a totalitarian regime. India, the country of
their first asylum, is well aware of this. While not letting Bhutan get away with ousting
a sixth of its own population, Nepal must also realise that the final solution may lie not
in Thimpu or Kathmandu, but in Delhi, unless it is prepared to fully internationalise the
issue. |
