Be Angry

IT is clear now that Bhutan, as usual, continues to dilly-dally on even holding talks with Nepal on the Bhutanese refugees problem, let alone finding solution to the imbroglio that has dogged this country for over ten years. When the two sides met some four months ago after a long gap, it was agreed that the nest round of talks would take place some time early January in Thimpu. It now appears that the Dragon Kingdom does not have much of an inclination to invite the Nepalese delegation for the ninth Joint Ministerial Level Committee (JMLC) meeting. The impression that Bhutan like to procrastinate the issue can be gleaned from the fact that despite Foreign Minister Dr. Ram Sharan Mahat meeting his Bhutanese counterpart on two occasions since the last round of JMLC talks in Kathmandu the Bhutanese have refused to agree to a date for the next talks. It is the second week of January and Nepal is still awaiting the Bhutanese response. It is not the first time, though, that the Bhutanese government has demonstrated such an attitude of unresponsiveness.

Ever since the Bhutanese refugee problem erupted, that Himalayan Kingdom has exhibited an unwavering constancy in its dealing with the problem that it itself created. The constancy has been its delaying tactics. It employs various devices-for example, the verification proposal ñ to put off the resolution of the refugee issue. Even on finding a date for holding talks, it comes up with the flimsiest of excuses. For example, when Dr. Mahat met his counterpart Jigme Y. Thinley during the last UN General Assembly and discussed the holding of the ninth JMLC meet, Thinley hid behind a lame plea that he had not been able to discuss the issue back home after the eighth round of talks due to time constraint. Again, in November in Thimpu where Dr. Mahat had gone to extend invitation for the since then aborted SAARC summit meeting, Bhutan refused to give a date for the talks.

Such instances provide enough proof that Thimpu is quite content in prolonging the talks process and thus prolonging the agony of the more than 100,000 Bhutanese refugees languishing in camps in eastern Nepal. Though mere holding of talks is not going to see the resolution of the crisis unless Bhutan changes its intransigent approach, it rests on Nepal to send appropriate signals to the Thimpu regime that such inaction even at the level of fixing a date for the talks, finally revived after a long hiatus, is absolutely unacceptable. In other words, the Foreign Ministry should now be very angry.

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