NATIONAL 4 - (Spotlight Weekly)

Never Ending Saga?

After eight rounds of failed meetings in the past, the Dragon Kingdom has once again resorted to its time buying move

By A CORRESPONDENT

Bhutan is back to its old tricks again. After the eighth round of ministerial level talks on the festering Bhutanese refugee issue held in Kathmandu, the Dragon Kingdom has demoted the level of talks which has just concluded in Thimpu.

The ninth meeting, as said by Foreign Minister Ram Sharan Mahat, will be the last one before the verification of the refugees in seven different camps in eastern Nepal begins. The second JMLC meeting in the early 90's had categorized the around 100,000 Bhutanese refugees into four groups: Bonafide citizens, Bhutanese who have immigrated, Bhuatanese who have committed crimes, and Non Bhutanese people.

What will be the outcome of the talks at Thimpu is difficult to ascertain now, analysts here say that Bhutan has once again resorted to its time buying move. What they point at is the several round of talks in the past -- both on the ministerial and the bureaucratic levels.

In 1997 alone two secretarial level talks had taken place but both failed to produce any result. After almost three years impasse --following the two Himalayan Kingdoms met in 1996 for the seventh JMLC meeting -- it was only last year when the two nations sat for the foreign ministerial level meet.

After that meeting, while Bhutan was tight-lipped on the outcome, Foreign Minister Mahat boasted that the Dragon Kingdom had agreed to take back the second category refugees -- those, as claimed by Bhutan, who had voluntarily migrated. The Druk Yul has been maintaining that it would take back only category one refugees --Bonafide citizens.

Informed sources say that the majority of refugees fall in the category two since most of them were forced out of Bhutan in the late 80's and early 90's when Bhutan launched its ethnic cleansing policy. The Bhutanese move had to do with its "one nation - one people" policy.

It was under the same policy, the Dragon Kingdom had influenced the UNHCR officials here to prepare the list of few selected Bhutanese refugees -- believed to be Buddhists and with Mongloid faces.

During the eighth round of talks in the capital, Bhutan had brought a name list -- bearing the names of some 6000 refugees prepared by the UNHCR -- and proposed to begin the verification process. The Nepalese side had refused the idea.

What trick will the Dragon Kingdom play this time in the secretary level meet (scheduled from February 14 through 17) remains to be seen.

Senior Journalist Off To The U.S.

Senior Journalist Dhruva Hari Adhikari is proceeding to the United States to participate in 2000 Primary elections. This will provide an opportunity to Adhikary to identify and discuss the issues and values of the American electorate in the 2000 Presidential Election. Adhikary has been chosen and invited by the government of the U.S. to represent Nepalese journalists. It is learnt journalists from other countries also have been invited to the same program.