Controversy On Verification

Following the opposition from Bhutanese refugee and human rights groups, the first verification list lands in a controversy

By A CORRESSPONDENT

The hope of Bhutanese refugees to return to their homeland has been shattered following the publication of the list of verified refugees made public by Joint Verification Team (JVT) last week. As the refugees have themselves burnt the copies of the list arguing that it is against their interest, the 3-year-long study and exercise has turned into a fiasco.

Demonstration : To no avail

When the controversy first surfaced a few weeks ago following a decision of Nepalese government to issue Nepalese citizenship to Bhutanese refugees who cannot prove their bona fide, what kind of list would appear was any body's guess.

Nepal and Bhutan had set up the JVT to verify over 12,000 refugees languishing at the Khudunabari camp in eastern Nepal. The final list made public by the JVT, however, included less than 3 percent of the refugees as being bona fide. Around 24 percent were included in the category of non-Bhutanese, around 3 percent in the category of criminals and the rest in the category of Bhutanese who migrated voluntarily, who will need to re-apply for the Bhutanese citizen if they want to return. The refugees have been given 15 days time to appeal against the decision of the list.

After intense international pressure, Bhutanese government had agreed to talk on repatriation of the over 100,000 refugees. Cleverly, Bhutanese put their own modality to categorize the refugees. "I don't understand how the government led by prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba set up a verification team and how Lokendra Bahadur Chand government gave green signal to issue Nepalese citizenship to the Bhutanese who can not prove their bona fide," said a foreign relation expert.

In the last one and a half decade, southern faces of Himalayan region have seen many violent movements particularly in the areas of concentration of Nepalese population. Having lived in tranquility for centuries, Bhutanese government used force to evict many Nepalese origin people from their homeland in southern Bhutan in 1990. Following the demand of Bhutanese Nepalese for political and human rights reform, the Druk government took harsh measure to evict them in what is seen as ethnic cleansing.

The present trend has shown that the repatriation of Bhutanese refugees is a difficult and complex process. It indicates that the refugees might have to live in the camps for many years to come.

Following many disputes and disagreements in the initial phase of verification, Nepalese and Bhutanese officials have finally completed verification of about 12 percent of total Bhutanese refugees. According to refugee leaders, the modality has been developed aiming to bar refugees from returning to their native.

Bhutanese political parties and human rights groups have already issued statements denouncing the verification results. According to them, the verification process only served Bhutanese interest as it further proved the point made by Bhutanese government that all the refugees are not bona fide citizens of Bhutan.

Not only the Bhutanese, many other people of Nepalese origin from the Indian states of Manipur, Assam, Meghalaya, and Darjeeling of West Bengal, have also left their native land to escape violent insurgency. They have come to Nepal and have already assimilated here.

With the inception of Maoist movement in Nepal in 1996, Nepal, itself, is no more a safe place. Large number of Nepalese population have displaced internally. Despite the case-fire between the Maoists and the government, many internally displaced populations have yet to return to their home.

It seems that there is crisis all over the southern face of Himalayas particularly in the mountainous areas. As Bhutanese refugee problem is a part of the series of the crisis, it seems that it may not settle on the basis of piece-meal. There is a long way to go before real repatriation of Bhutanese refugee could begin.