Too Little

GOING by the reports from Thimpu, Bhutan has continued to hold fast to its policy of dragging the refugee issue as best as it can. Nepalese officials taking part in the 11th ministerial round of talks on the Bhutanese refugee issue found across the table a Bhutanese side that refused to entertain Nepal’s proposal to verify all the Bhutanese refugees in a time-bound manner. Knowing Bhutan’s legendary way of dealing with this problem that it itself created as part of its ethnic cleansing policy in the late eighties, its unyielding position does not come as a surprise. Nonetheless, this must be an upsetting piece of news to the Bhutanese refugees languishing in different camps in eastern Nepal for over a decade. Given the frustratingly slow-paced verification process, Nepal was expected to try to convince Bhutan to a time-bound process of verification and eventual repatriation. Bhutan, in the event, showed that it cares little about taking steps that would facilitate a speedier resolution of the refugee crisis. Sources in the Nepalese delegation told this newspaper Wednesday that it had only agreed to the idea of increasing the pace, to only a very limited degree, of ongoing verification in one of the refugee camps. The two sides signed a minute in which they agreed to split the present Joint Verification Team into two to increase the verification process at the Khudunabari camp, one of the seven UNHCR-maintained camps in Jhapa and Morang districts.

This "concession" is just too little. Given the fact that only 900 families were able to be verified over four months out of the 15,000 families in the camps, the latest agreement to have two, instead of one, JVTs is an insufficient move that indicates the Dragon Kingdom’s extreme reluctance to genuinely go for a speedier verification process. The two sides also agreed to categorise the refugees of the Khudunabari camp, where the verification work is focused at present, once they are verified. But suspicions about Bhutan’s sincerity in the whole process were reinforced when Bhutanese Foreign Minister Jigme Thinley refused to clarify, in a telephonic interview with our reporter, what category of the refugees it will be taking back. Thimpu’s past insistence that it will take back only "bonafide Bhutanese" flies in the face of Nepal’s correct contention that it should take back all the refugees except those in the non-Bhutanese category. All in all, the 11th round of ministerial-level talks appear to have got stuck, once again, in Thimpu’s standard rebuff of any move that brings an end to the agony of the over 100,000 southern Bhutanese it kicked out just because they happened to be of Nepalese origin. By doing so, it has once again demonstrated its notorious callousness.

Be Reasonable

EVER since Nepal adopted a liberal economic policy there has been a substantial increase in the foreign direct investment (FDI). The increase in FDI revealed that the number of joint venture projects was on the rise in Nepal. Though there was a significant increase in the FDI right after the restoration of democracy factors like political instability coupled with growing social insecurity led investors to withdraw their investment or to pull out completely from the joint venture projects. The deteriorating law and order condition posed a threat to investors forcing them to divert their investment elsewhere which had a negative impact on the overall economic growth. The damage caused to some industries by extremist forces recently has drawn serious concern of the industrialists from different parts of the country. The industrialists also expressed their worries over the state of security and announced publicly that they were keen to hold dialogue with the Maoists in order to address all the problems plaguing the industrial sector. The President of the Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industries Rabi Bhakta Shrestha the other day, expressed worries over the fact that the industries may be mired by disorders in the days ahead. He raised the point in an apparent reference to the list of demands submitted by the All Nepal Workers’ Union (Revolutionary) to the management in hotel, carpet and garment industries. The FNCCI President called upon the government to provide security to the industries and at the same time made an appeal to the Maoists not to do things that harm the industries. It is quite obvious that industrial growth is directly linked with economic growth. More industries mean a wide revenue base and a stronger economy. The government must bear this reality in mind and must do accordingly to ensure that the industries are not being put under pressure to shut down because of the unjustifiable demand of any group. The revolutionary workers’ union should not put forward any unreasonable demands. Likewise the industrialists must reach a compromise regarding demands that are worth reckoning. Self-restraint and meaningful dialogue is the only way out. Flexibility on both the sides regarding the fulfillment of demands could certainly save the industries from pulling down their shutters forever. It is hence imperative for the government to look into the issue and make the necessary arrangements to re-orient the entire system towards a constructive and productive process.