'Verified refugees hold adequate evidences'

By A Staff Reporter

KATHMANDU, Feb. 24: At a time when the Nepal-Bhutan Joint Verification Team (JVT) in Bhutan is all set to categorise the refugees, who have been verified in Khudunabari camp in eastern Nepal, a Bhutanese Human Rights Organisation has claimed that nearly all the verified refugees have adequate evidences to prove they are bonafide Bhutanese citizens.

A six-member team from Nepal flew to Thimpu today to resume its work on categorising the verified refugees. An equal number of Bhutanese JVT team will join the Nepalese counterpart.

The JVT is expected to complete its work of categorising the refugees before the 13th round of ministerial meeting scheduled for March 24 in the Bhutanese capital. The recently held 12th round of ministerial level meeting in Kathmandu had decided to categorise the refugees.

The organisation also presented some sample details of the verified refugees, which it had prepared earlier. The JVT had completed the verification of more than 12,000 refugees in Khudunabari, one of the seven UNHCR- administered refugee camps in eastern Nepal, 14 months ago.

"Details of the findings clearly show that all the verified families of Khudunabari are legitimate citizens of Bhutan owing property and land," said Ratan Gazemere, president of the Association of Human Rights Activists - Bhutan (AHURA- Bhutan).

Gazemere has demanded that the refugees not be divided into four categories, as the refugees are all bonafide citizens.

Nepal and Bhutan had agreed in 1993 to categories the refugees into four groups- bonafide Bhutanese, non-Bhutanese, those with criminal records and voluntary migrants. Gazemere also said that many of the Bhutanese were forcefully evicted at gunpoint.

AHURA-Bhutan also presented some examples of the verification papers.

AHURA-Bhutan has demanded that the results of the verification be made public and their civil, political, social, economic and cultural rights be ensured while being repatriated to Bhutan.

The human rights group at a programme today also urged the international community to pressurise Bhutan and Nepal to take concrete steps to promote the early and dignified repatriation of more than 100,000 Bhutanese refugees of Nepalese origin.

Categorisation to deprive any refugee for being repatriated to Bhutan is a direct violation of the fundamental human rights and serious breach of international humanitarian norms and principle, said Dr. Manfred Ringhofer, president of AHURA-Japan during the function.

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