NATIONAL 2 (Spotlight Weekly)]

Tedious Talkathon

Despite the emphasis both countries have placed on resolving the problem of Bhutanese refugees in Nepal, matters have been hardly moved beyond talks

By AKSHAY SHARMA

Nepal initially had expressed its unwillingness to allow Bhutanese asylum seekers into Nepal. Responding the appeals made by activists, then-prime minister Krishna Prasad Bhattarai ordered the Kakarbhitta border opened for Bhutanese refugees from February 1991. Since then, some 90,000 Bhutanese refugees have been languishing in camps in eastern Nepal, while the two governments are finding ways to send them home.

Finance Minster Ram Sharan Mahat is in charge of this Herculean task this week in the Bhutanese capital Thimpu. Again, the discussions focus on four points: the verification, categorization, harmonization and repatriation of the Bhutanese refugees.

After growing pressure from the international community, the process of refugee verification has begun. Slow progress and half-hearted commitment have dashed much of the early optimism of the refugees.

As Bhutan and Nepal do not share a border, the dimensions of the problem have grown complex. Efforts to involve India, through which the refugees came into Nepal, have largely failed, with New Delhi urging Kathmandu and Thimpu to resolve the matter bilaterally.

"The 1910 treaty formally gave power to the British over Bhutan’s foreign affairs, clearly incorporating Bhutan into the sphere of the British Empire," writes Peter Collister in his book "Bhutan and the British". After India’s independence in 1947, New Delhi took charge of the foreign and defence policies of Bhutan.

International attention on the refugees and the Bhutanese dissident movement did not begin until mid-1991. "Previously, only about 10,000 people had actually left Bhutan because of the tense conditions and government reprisals, and most of these people were in India not Nepal," write D.N.S. Dhakal and Christopher Strawn in their book "Bhutan: A movement in Exile". "But in June of 1991, a campaign of forced evictions began, first confined to the southeastern border area. By December of 1991, there was a mass exodus from Bhutan from most of the southern districts, and thousands were leaving the country complaining of terror campaign," they write.

The refugees traveled through India to enter refugee camps in eastern Nepal in July and August of 1991. Over the next year the number of refugees swelled by 10,000 a month. United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and international relief agencies have been providing humanitarian assistance.

In January 1994, Nepal and Bhutan set up a joint ministerial committee to resolve the crisis. Kathmandu agreed to classify the refugees into four groups: (a) bona fide Bhutanese evicted forcibly (b) Bhutanese who migrated (c) non- Bhutanese (d) Bhutanese who have committed criminal acts.

"In early 1993, Nepal threatened to raise the issue first with India, and if that accomplished nothing then internationally. India, though, has undercut Nepal’s threat by telling Nepal not to internationalize the issue, and refusing to get involved, insisting that the refugee issue should be bilaterally by Bhutan and Nepal," write Dhakal and Strawn.

"Unwilling to go against India’s dictates, as India is extremely influential in Bhutanese and Nepalese affairs, Nepal has been forced to follow a tedious policy of ‘quiet diplomacy’ which has observed little effect since the refugees came to Nepal."

"The problem has two sides because Bhutan is dependent on India in security and foreign affairs. The current tactic is to confuse the public and to prolong the crisis," says an expert on condition of anonymity. "It is a well-known fact that the massive exodus of refugees is not the creation of Bhutan."

Adds another expert: "The exodus of the refugees has been a one-way traffic permitted by friendly India. And it has not permitted the refugees to return in the same manner. These refugees can be compared to the Bihari Muslims that have been stranded in Bangladesh."

Dhakal and Strawn write: "Since 1988 many Nepali Bhutanese were compelled to leave Bhutan: some had their citizenship withdrawn or denied; others simply ordered to leave the country; a few were physically forced across the border. Usually implicit and explicit threats of violence backed up the Bhutanese governments orders."

"At first the refugees did not want to leave India for Nepal. But the situation got so bad that they were forced to make their decisions in 1991. Not only were the refugees denied to settle in camps in Indian soil, which were torn down by the Indian police, but also some were abducted from Assam, and the police and the civil administration of Assam visited Bhutan frequently, where they were bribes by the Bhutan police. Likewise, Bhutan police were allowed to come to Assam freely to arrest dissidents," note Dhakal and Strawn.

With the problem growing and elements provoking events behind the scenes, only the future knows when — if at all — they would be able to go back home.