NATIONAL 1 (Spotlight Weekly)]

One Step Forward

By agreeing on the verification process, Nepal and Bhutan move closer toward resolving the refugee issue

By BHAGIRATH YOGI

The unwarranted violence in the capital overshadowed a major 'breakthrough' in the direction of resolving the decade-long impasse of the Bhutanese refugees.

As the Nepali and Bhutanese foreign ministers arrived to address a joint press meeting at the end of the three-day long talks (December 26-28) late Wednesday, a change in the air could be perceived easily. Officials said they had agreed on the modalities of verification of refugees residing in seven camps in eastern Nepal.

"Nepal and Bhutan have agreed to verify the Bhutanese refugees on the basis of family units, to begin with, in one of the seven refugee camps in eastern Nepal within January 2001. Both sides have also agreed to establish a Joint Verification Team (JVT) and nominate five members from each side to the JVT within a week," said a joint press statement.

The Joint Ministerial Level Committee also directed the leaders of the two teams to visit eastern Nepal within this month for logistics, security and other arrangements to secure smooth functioning of the JVT, the statement said.

"The verification will be done bilaterally," said Foreign Minister Chakra Bastola. Added Bhutanese Foreign Minister Jigme Y. Thinley, "All valid documents with the refugees would be looked up."

It was time to rejoice for the nearly 100,000 refugees languishing in refugee camps in Nepal for the last decade. "If the verification team considers our valid documents, then nearly 99 percent of the refugees in the camps could go back home," said Ratan Gajmere, a Bhutanese human rights activist.

Taking place as it was amid growing international pressure, people had high hopes from the tenth round of bilateral talks. As the talks progressed at the Shital Niwas, the bone of contention was the issue of thrashing out a mutually acceptable modality for verifying the refugees.

During the eighth ministerial level talks in 1999, both Nepal and Bhutan agreed to start verification process in the seven refugee camps in eastern Nepal to establish if all the people residing there were Bhutanese citizens. In the ninth meeting held in May last year, both sides, however, came up with different proposals. While Nepal insisted that the verification process be carried out on the basis of family as a unit, the Bhutanese side maintained that such a process should take an individual above 18 years of age as a unit.

Thanks to lobbying by Sadako Ogata, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, who visited Nepal and Bhutan last year, and a 'farewell visit' by the two US officials at the end of the year, Bhutan seemed to be coming closer to the Nepali proposal.

"Bhutan's position is very close to the US proposal," said Rakesh Chhetri, a Bhutanese political analyst. "It was forced to exhibit flexibility this time around due to domestic and international compulsions."

Things seemed to be changing for the better for the refugee community. The European Parliament passed a second resolution urging the governments of both Nepal and Bhutan to find an early and peaceful solution to the problem. A donor consortium meeting in Thimpu in November last year discussed the issue for the first time. During their visit, the US Assistant Secretaries of State Julia Taft and Karl Inderfurth floated their own proposal. And, finally, there was a "farewell letter" from the outgoing US President Bill Clinton exhibiting his interest in the refugee issue.

"Unlike in the previous talks, we could see flexibility on the part of Bhutanese delegates," said Gyan Chandra Acharya, spokesman at the Foreign Ministry, who participated in the talks. "This is a progress toward clearing the hurdles that remained in resolving the refugee impasse."

Analysts are worried to see a fresh round of instability in Nepal as bilateral talks are heading toward a positive direction. "Whenever there is a breakthrough (regarding the refugee issue), Nepal falls into the grip of instability," said Chhetri. "Nepali politics has been affecting our fate one way or the other."

Pressed hard against the ULFA and Bodo militants of India, who are taking refuge in the Bhutanese territory, and the unresolved issue of Bhutanese refugees, the Bhutanese government finally seemed to be realizing the need of mending fences with its own Lhotsampa community, that constitute nearly one-sixth population of the country. Or, is it? Only time will tell.