Sound Of Optimism
FOREIGN Minister. Dr. Ram Sharan Mahat’s
upbeat opinion as to the resolution of the Bhutanese refugee entanglement
has come as a surprise to many. This is in sharp contrast to the
prevailing perception in Kathmandu that the Bhutanese regime is happy to
keep dragging the issue as long as it can. Such a perception was further
reinforced by the fact that the Thimpu has for over four months now
refused to offer a date for the next round of talks to be held there
according to the agreement. This despite the fact that Kathmandu has made
known its desire twice officially when Dr. Mahat met his counterpart on
two different occasions to hold the talks as soon as possible. Therefore,
Dr. Mahat’s indication that Nepal was expecting a significant
breakthrough towards the settlement of the Bhutanese refugee issue in the
upcoming foreign ministerial level meeting has been greeted with a
pleasant surprise. Dr. Mahat expressed his hope that the next meeting
would be the final and fruitful ministerial level talks between Nepal and
Bhutan. At a face- to-face with journalists Thursday he attributed his
optimism to the presumably recent views expressed by Bhutan. He revealed
that there is now an agreement over the identification of refugees and
confusion and misunderstandings between the two sides have been cleared.
The goodwill shown by Bhutan, in response to Nepal’s declaration that
dignified return of the refugees was the only concern of Nepal and not the
Bhutanese internal political affairs, had prompted this sanguinity.This is
indeed good news that the Dragon Kingdom has demonstrated a change of
attitude to the problem that it itself created some ten years ago by
putting in motion what is virtually an ethnic- cleansing process whereby
Bhutanese of Nepalese origin are driven out of Kingdom. As a result
of that policy, some 100,000 expelled refugees live a life of misery in
camps in eastern Nepal. The new upbeat mood here notwithstanding, it would
be certainly to Nepal’s disadvantage if such perceived shift in
Bhutan’s approach to the problem is taken at face value. Though for the
Foreign Ministry, there must be very firm grounds to believe that
Bhutanese side’s traditional obduracy has softened, it would be well to
recognise that Nepal can let its guard down only at its own diplomatic
peril.
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