National 3 (Spotlight Weekly)

From Pillar To Post

The desperate refugees urge third-party mediation to resolve the 12-year-old impasse

By BHAGIRATH YOGI

A day before newly appointed Indian Foreign Minister Yashwant Sinha was to embark on a visit to Bhutan, a Bhutanese refugee group in eastern Nepal urged Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba to seek the Indian government's help in ensuring their early repatriation. The Bhutanese Refugee Repatriation Committee (BRRC) sent a letter to the Nepalese premier on Saturday urging him to take up the issue with his Indian counterpart, Atal Behari Vajpayee.

bhutanese refugees : When will they return

"We have given up hope on bilateral consultations to resolve the issue," said Kishor Rai, a member of the BRRC. "We have been forced to seek third-party mediation as 11 rounds of bilateral negotiations between Nepal and Bhutan have not yielded any result."

Refugee leaders hope that mediation by India would be instrumental in nudging its two Himalayan neighbours toward finding an amicable solution to the refugee problem. India, on its part, has refused to mediate, saying it is a bilateral matter.

Analysts say India's role could be crucial, especially since it takes care of the foreign relations and defense affairs of Bhutan in accordance with its 1949 treaty with the Drukpa regime. Moreover, the refugees had crossed over Indian territory to reach Nepal in the late eighties, as Nepal and Bhutan don't have contiguous borders.

Some Bhutanese refugee leaders acknowledge that India is under no compulsion to exert pressure on Bhutan to resolve the imbroglio. Instead, it might see its own security, energy and other interests best served by placating Bhutan.

Assam Tribune, an Indian newspaper published from Guwahati, reported Tuesday that India and Bhutan have agreed to be in close contact to address the problem of ULFA-Bodo militant groups operating from Bhutan during Sinha's Aug. 5-7 visit. Bhutan has maintained that its territory would not be allowed to be used against the interests of India, the newspaper report said. In June last year, the Bhutanese government had reached an understanding with ULFA militants to close down four of their camps in Bhutan by the end of the year and hold discussions thereafter on winding down the rest.

In a smart move, King Jigme Singye Wangchuk of Bhutan has offered to move his country towards what may be seen as "guided democracy," during the recently concluded 80th session of `Tshongdu' (Bhutanese National Assembly), by allowing his people to choose between multi-party or two-party democracy. "But people who have fled Bhutan will not be allowed to take part in this exercise," the assembly said.

"This means that Bhutan is practicing its own brand of democracy without allowing its own people, who are now living as refugees in Nepal, to take part in crucial decisions of the state," said Rakesh Chhetri, a Bhutanese analyst based in Kathmandu.

Critics say the so-called exercise to usher in democracy would shield Bhutan from growing international pressure to take back nearly one-sixth of its own citizens - who were allegedly evicted by Bhutanese security personnel in the wake of the discriminatory citizenship act introduced in 1985. This means the chances of an early and dignified repatriation of the refugees have become very low.

A group of European Union envoys who visited Bhutanese refugee camps in eastern Nepal in early July noticed signs of frustration there. "We noticed serious frustration among the refugees, especially youths, caused by the lack of progress towards their repatriation," said Kert Meniecke, leader of the EU fact-finding mission and charge d'affaires at the Danish embassy in Kathmandu, upon his return. He said the EU members would exert pressure on the governments of Nepal and Bhutan to expedite the joint verification process.

A Joint Verification Team (JVT) comprising Nepalese and Bhutanese officials had completed verification of the refugees living in Khudunabari, one of the seven refugee camps in eastern Nepal, in December last year. The refugee community has demanded that the results of verification be made public and the process be resumed in the remaining camps.

"Over 99 percent of the refugees in the Khudunabari camp had produced valid documents in front of the JVT to prove their Bhutanese nationality," said Ratan Gazmere, chief coordinator of AHURA Bhutan, a Bhutanese human rights group. "The international community should now pressurize the Bhutanese government to take back its own citizens." Nepalese authorities had accepted the proposal for joint verification of refugees after Bhutan insisted that most of the people residing in the camps were non-Bhutanese. They said they were awaiting a response from the Bhutanese side for the 12th joint ministerial level meeting between the two countries to expedite the verification process.

Upon his return home this week - after enjoying renowned Bhutanese hospitality for five days - Royal Nepalese ambassador to India and Bhutan, Dr. Bhekh Bahadur Thapa, told the official RSS news agency that Thimpu had taken the issue of gradually taking back the refugees positively. He, however, did not elaborate on the basis of his optimism.

The refugee community, on their part, hold the acute political instability in their host country and lack of leadership and inefficiency at Shital Niwas mainly responsible for the impasse. It was only after a sustained campaign by the refugees and international pressure that Bhutan had agreed to start the joint verification process.

Only last month, all the refugees who had undergone verification in Khudunabari camp sent a joint petition to the prime ministers of Nepal and Bhutan urging both governments to declare the results of verification of their camp immediately, resume verification of remaining six campswithout further delay and make arrangements for the repatriation and reinstatement of the verified Bhutanese refugees back to their respective homesteads in Bhutan. They also called upon the international community to work toward early resolution of the Bhutanese refugee crisis and facilitate their early repatriation to their homeland with full dignity and honor.

There have been 11 rounds of bilateral talks between Nepal and Bhutan over the last 12 years to resolve the issue of refugee repatriation. During the 11th round of talks in December 2000, the two sides agreed to set up the JVT, which started its work in March 2001 and verified the last family from Khudunabari on December 15 that year.

The desperate BRRC said Saturday that it would urge King Gyanendra to internationalize the refugee issue if the Indian government did not respond to their mediation request. What if India didn't respond? The refugees would have little choice but to pray to Lord Pashupatinath, believed to bestow blessings upon all devotees in an impartial way.