Bhutanese Refugee Problem
Towards An Amicable Solution

By Uttam Maharjan

THE Bhutanese refugee problem has been festering for a decade. The problem may be considered a corollary to Bhutan’s policy of discrimination against and ethnic cleansing of Nepali-speaking southern Bhutanese, known as the Lhotsampas.

History

In 1985 AD, the Bhutanese government made discriminatory amendments to the Citizenship Act, 1958 with the sole purpose of ethnically cleansing the Lhotsampas. As a result, the Nepali-speaking Bhutanese had to flee their country in the late 1980s and early 1990s. They finally reached eastern Nepal by travelling all the way through India.

The first batch of 60 refugees came to Nepal in December 1990. The number has since swollen to about 100,000, including about 17,000 children born over the last ten years.

The Bhutanese refugees are now living in seven camps in eastern Nepal, six in Jhapa and one in Morang. They have been provided with food, clothing, lodging and other amenities like health care and education under the supervision of the UNHCR.

The ethnic policy adopted by Bhutan is in gross contravention of human rights, according to which people have an inalienable right to reside in their country without fear or terror. But the Dragon Kingdom has grossly discriminated against the Lhotsampas in favour of the Dzongka-speaking people.

More than 150 political prisoners have reportedly been languishing in various jails in Bhutan. The southern Bhutanese have been deprived of job opportunities and even the high-ranking officials have been unceremoniously dismissed. The children of such people have been prohibited from attending school in violation of their rights. What is more distressing is that the properties of the refugees have been given to other Bhutanese for their use.

With the objective of solving the refugee problem, the Nepal-Bhutan Joint Ministerial Committee was formed in 1993. Since then, 10 rounds of talks, including the recently concluded one in Kathmandu, have been held.

Nepal and Bhutan have disagreement over the classification of the refugees, which was made at the first round of talks held in 1993. The imbroglio has figured prominently during several rounds of talks.

Bhutan’s intransigent stand is that it will take back only bonafide Bhutanese, leaving the fate of other Bhutanese in the air. The other categories of refugees include emigrated Bhutanese, non-Bhutanese and criminal Bhutanese. If this happens, such Bhutanese will be stateless people just like the Jews before the creation in 1948 of Israel in the former British mandate of Palestine as a Jewish state.

The other side of the problem relates to the verification of the refugees. Way back in 1994, Nepal and Bhutan agreed to form a refugee verification team with five members from each side. Till the 10th round of talks, Bhutan had been insisting on verifying the refugees individually contrary to Nepal’s view that the refugees should be verified on the basis of family heads.

The verification of such refugee is neither logical nor viable in that land ownership and other official documents are registered in Bhutan in the name of family heads. If the Bhutanese modality of verification is adhered to, then more than 50 per cent of the refugees will be deprived of getting a chance to go back to their homeland.

In fact, Bhutan seems to have been employing dilatory tactics throughout the nine rounds of talks, giving the runaround to Nepal and the world community. However, the world community has gradually become aware of Bhutan’s ploy of dilly-dallying in solving the refugee problem.

The European Parliament has passed two strong resolutions for the solution to the problem. The UNHCR and the United States of America have also been zealous about solving the problem. It is due to world attention drawn to the problem that it has now been internationalised.

International human rights organisations and donor agencies have also exerted tremendous pressure on Bhutan. It might be due to this international pressure and a growing understanding between Nepal and Bhutan that Bhutan made a major turnabout in its stand on the refugee verification during the 10th round of talks.

The major breakthrough achieved during the talks is that Bhutan agreed to Nepal’s stand that the refugees should be verified on the basis of family heads. Bhutan has also agreed to positively consider all of their relevant documents, giving up its previous insistence on considering only citizenship and land ownership certificates.

It was agreed during the talks that the refugees sheltering in one of the seven camps would be verified beginning this month and the process would be extended to other camps in due course. For this, the Nepal-Bhutan team will inspect the refugee camps for verification.

When a family head is verified, the other members of the family will be verified. The members would include those below 25 years of age. A verification mechanism will be developed and scrutinised to facilitate verification. The refugees will also be interviewed personally.

The refugees have been demanding that they should be repatriated to their homeland with dignity, they should be classified into two groups only--Bhutanese and non-Bhutanese and Bhutan should hold talks with their leader Tek Nath Rijal. However, the success of the recent talks has made them all the more hopeful.

Hope

With the flexibility recently shown by Bhutan to the verification process, it may be hoped that it will also show goodwill towards accepting Nepal’s position on the refugee classification. After all, political will and commitment are a prerequisite for solving any problem, political or otherwise. In this regard, Bhutan really deserves praise for showing political will, paving the way for breaking the deadlock over the verification process.

Sexual Abuse: A Great Challenge

By Mona Shrestha Adhikari

THE articles - Chhori haru ghar bhitrai asurakshit (Daughters unsafe even within their homes) by Sharada Subba in an issue of the Sadhana Family Digest, drew my attention to the facts of the girl children being ill-treated within the family. Look at the cases cited in the article:

A teacher in the neighbourhood raped a six-year old girl student of his school. An uncle raped his 13-year old niece for three years. Raju Thapa (28) a resident of Kirtipur, is said to have had sexual intercourse with his 13-year-old maid almost everyday while his wife pretended to be sleeping on the bed. Kathmandu District Court sentenced Raju for three years and the maid was compensated for the abuse with half share in his property. In all these cases, the abuser threatened to kill or maim the victim in case she disclosed it to anyone.

The child is the father of the nation. If brought up carefully the child may prove a great asset to the nation. Hindu religion says, a girl child before her menstruation, is a Kanya Kumari (virgin Mary in its Christian equivalence). Vedic culture considers her a symbol of goddess, pure and holy. Do these Vedic culture fit in any way with the barbaric crimes committed by these men? Does religion in any way have any deterrent effect on humans? The answer is perhaps ‘no’ when the series of heinous crimes committed against these girls are taken into account.

The girls at such a tender age are being sexually abused, which leaves a traumatic effect in their mind. She is not only physically abused but crippled both emotionally and psychologically. What is more alarming, threatening to unravel the moral fabrics, is that out of 74 rape cases studied, the abusers are fathers in nine cases, brothers in nine uncles in two cases.

Shocking it may sound, yet this remains the unpalatable reality. The girls already under trauma want to face the police and walk up to the court. The depression and nightmare resulting from such abuse make their lives troublesome. In several cases, they have attempted suicides.

In most of the cases, the abuser gets away with inpunity. They get six to 10 years of imprisonment and are asked to give away half their share of property to the victim. This is the maximum penalty that the court can impose on them. Now the question arises, whether or not it is fair enough?

The victims’ suffering doesn’t end with the end of the case. In most cases, the victim never receives what she legally deserves. Despite the court’s decision the abuser runs away and the police is often left behind in apprehending him. When police fails to hunt down him, what option does the victim and her family have? Police’s failure to arrest the abusers leaves the victim and her family with the only option that is to take the law in their hand. That certainly doesn’t solve the problem but rather complicates it.

Well, the punishment for raping a minor, which is only six to 10 years of imprisonment, is something easy to get away with. How many culprits have been actually sentenced to the term stipulated in the law is a question yet to be answered. And, who will compensate for the trauma that she is going to live with for the whole life? How can the damage caused to her physical, psychological and emotional life be accounted for? And, what should be the compensation for all these?

Taking a closer look at the judicial system and the statistics gathered so far, one can find only five female judges in Nepal. Two in the appellate court, three in the district court, and none in the Supreme Court. Had there been more female judges in jury, justice to these girl children would have been healthier, perhaps. The culprits too wouldn’t have been able to get away with the economic punishments, which prevails in the present judicial system.

Only recently, another grim story of raping and killing a minor came to light which involved people from the judicial system. The incident only gives an insight of our judicial system. Another case is that of a nine year old, class two student, of Public Boarding School who was sexually abused for nine months by the school principal — Kantipur vernacular daily wrote in its Bhadra issue. The principal is said to have been taken into police custody.

In the house, be it the daughter or the maid, it is very important that they are treated well and remain secure from possible abuse and harassment. In the cases where the maid is the victim, the women in the house should play a major role in ensuring that the maid is given needed security. After all, the maid too is someone’s daughter who had left her family and home due to economic hardships and is working for someone else. As regard to the daughters, mothers should ensure that the young daughters are not left unattended by females in the house. There are many families, where both parents go out to work, leaving their daughters with male servants, or with neighbours.

Nepal is not the only country where girl child is being sexually abused. Such incidents are there all over the world. No matter which part of the world it is, the innocent girl child in Nepal is the same as the one residing in the north or the south. As regards to the culprits, one does not need to go further, as cases have shown that they could be anyone, even their own family males, whose genes these innocent girls carry.

The role of women in the house is very important in preventing such incidents. Women should therefore educate daughters and other female members in the house about such incidents taking place now and then, behavioural style with the opposite sex, situations that can take place and ways/means to overcome them all.

How many mothers do it? Very few would be the answer. Not only is education to girl child important, but the male child should equally be educated. After all they are the future men. In respect to the women, what should they do and what they shouldn’t with regards to their attitude/behaviours with women, are important. Many behaviours of a man are the result of his upbringing. Therefore, a male child should be mannered well from his childhood so as to become a gentleman tomorrow.

The Fall Of The Congress Government

By Guna Dev Bhattarai

THE Sixth National Conference of the Nepali Congress met at Birgunj in January 1956 A.D. In that particular conference all the workers realised their past mistakes and miscalculations and began to mobilise public support here and there. The Birgunj Conference elected Subarna Shumshere the next President. The Birgunj Conference elected Suburna Shumshere the next President. The party declared to achieve socialism by peaceful and democratic methods and a representative government with an elected Constituent Assembly and a constitutional monarchy. To begin with, the government of Tanka Prasad Acharya was supported by the Congress Party but when Tanka Prasad gave a statement stating that his government was not yet certain as to the objectives of the election B.P. Koirala condemned the statement. The Congress Party surmised that the Prime Minister might have been influenced by the reactionary elements to give the above statement.

The Nepali Congress Party began to be vigilant about the political development in the country. During the premiership of Dr. K. I. Singh who categorically stated that the impending election would not be held on the basis of elected constituent assembly. The statement of K.I. Singh provoked most of the leaders of all the parties. In the meantime a strong democratic front came into existence and many dissident members, including M.P. Koirala, unconditionally returned to the parent party. At the Biratnagar special conference held in June 1959, B. P. Koirala was reelected to the presidentship so that he might infuse a new life with full vigour to the party.

When the democratic front launched the Satyagraha of December 1957 King Mahendra realised the gravity of the situation and became eager to fix the date of election but it was to be held for Parliament. For some time the Congress party was in a fix but later agreed to accept the king’s proposal. Finally the Congress party decided to participate in the election.

B.P. Koirala’s move was heartily welcomed by the people. The Nepali Congress Party was the only party which could demonstrate its strength by means of public meetings. The party had ample financial resources because of the full cooperation of the C Class Ranas. The people had not forgotten the role played by the Congress Party to oust the autocratic rule of the Ranas. That is why the majority of the people wished the Congress party came out with a thumping majority in the Parliament so their long cherished wishes might be fulfilled.

In the general election the Congress Party bagged seventy four seats out of 108 ones contested. King Mahendra invited B.P. Koirala to head the Government. The constitution of 1059 A.D. though democratic in spirit had many limitations imposed on the elected representatives. Any way the Congress Party was determined to follow the constitution and lead the nation towards political and economic reforms.

The Congress Party was not in a position to bring about sweeping change overnight in the country. It had to cope with various sections of people as well as the Congress ones. Some of the members of the Party pressurised the government to bring about economic changes the land reforms, in particular.

The government had to face external and internal problems. In May 1960 A.D. the Seventh National Conference of the Party tried to reconcile to the changing circumstances of the country. On the one hand the opposition parties and the reactionary elements were trying to defame the Government on every respect and on the other hand some of the Congress workers were forgetting their responsibilities and obligations and wanted undesirable benefits at the cost of the party. To make the matter worse, some members went to the extent of asking B.P. Koirala to step aside from the Presidentship but their unwanted desires ended in smoke. The majority of the party workers realised that only B.P. Koirala could successfully lead the party and the Government. Nevertheless, B.P. Koirala inspite of his integrity and earnestness could not succeed in bringing unity in the party. The reforms enunciated by Congress Party were vehemently criticised by the landowner Rana Zamindars and the likes. Law and order situations began to go from bad to worse because of irresponsible elements and unwanted activities which geared to defame the government. Baseless statements were issued by the opportunists who had no political base in the country. To make the matter worse some Congress members, and M.P. Koirala in particular, joined the opposition formed by the Gorkha Praja Parishad, the Terai Congress and the Karmareer Mahamandal which unanimously defamed the government for the latter’s failure in every department. In short the life of the Congress had been sinking day by day and on Poush 1, 2017 B.S. the king’s personal rule began.