Start Earnest Attempts To End Refugee Problem

I read your editorial with great concern. The concern is as much for the speedy verification as well as for the eventual repatriation of the Bhutanese refugees. I may sound too critical but let me say that the Nepalese side has also made some mistakes in allowing the problem to linger on for so long.

We never took the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the diplomacy seriously and waited for too long to bring the refugee issue at a political level. We do not have a foreign minister even in the present cabinet and no MP seems to be interested in this issue. How many governments have we had in these 11 tumultuous years and have any of our foreign ministers ever done any serious homework before going to Bhutan for negotiations?

Have we ever tried to get a national consensus on this issue? Have we ever constituted a high level ‘task force’ to find a strategy to counter the Bhutanese position? It is futile to blame the other side when we are not prepared to deal with the problem.

We have the needed expertise to form a strong enough ‘task force’ to advise the government on this issue and we must, and can, form an all-party committee to evolve a consensus in our approach to this problem. If we are not able to do it then just admit ‘defeat’ and get all the Bhutanese refugees ‘naturalized’. Let us not blame anybody but start an earnest attempt to deal with the problem anew.

Adarsha Tuladhar
UNDP
East Timor