When recently Bhutan took its first steps towards democracy, the international community and media showered praise on its monarch. But for those living in exile for past 17 years and more, will this herald a new chapter in their lives and will they be able to return to the land that they consider their own?
New Delhi: When recently a century old kingdom in India’s neighbourhood took its first steps towards democracy, the international community and media showered praise on its monarch for embracing a progressive and modern system of governance that was more inclusive than exclusive.
The fact that at least one-sixth of its population remained outside the purview of this democratic process was hardly considered worthy of hogging the headlines.
Somewhere on this planet, these hundred thousand plus people are waiting to be called back to a country that they consider their own.
Democracy in Bhutan will never acquire legitimacy unless it allows all its citizens living in Nepal and India for the past 17 years to come back and resume their lives as legitimate and dignified citizens of the country.
This was an overwhelming sentiment expressed during a ‘Consultation on the Concerns of Bhutanese Refugees in South Asia’ organised by South Asians for Human Rights (SAHR) in the Indian capital New Delhi.
Escapees of the reign of terror
An estimated 107,431 Bhutanese refugees live in Nepal in seven camps run by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). In addition, there are many Bhutanese, whose number is difficult to ascertain in the absence of any official figures, scattered over many Indian states like Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Assam and West Bengal. Unofficial estimates put their figure between 10,000 to 15,000.
India has denied them refugee status, citing a bilateral treaty of 1949, which allows citizens of either country to freely cross each other’s borders, making them ineligible for any help from international agencies like the UNHCR.
These refugees arrived in Nepal and India at different points of time beginning 1990s, when the Bhutanese king forced them to move out of the country because he did not consider them to be bona fide citizens.
All of them are the escapees of the reign of terror that the royal Bhutanese government unleashed on them. Rape, torture, killing, imprisonment, burning of houses had become the order of the day, making it impossible for them to live a life free from fear.
Ninety eight per cent of refugees living in the camps are of Nepalese origin. They speak Nepalese language and follow Hinduism. They had had settled down in southern part of Bhutan in the nineteenth century when they were brought there as labourers. Over time they became an integral part of the Bhutanese society and made an immense contribution in its development in all spheres. They came to be known as Lhotshampas, or the natives of the south.
Make democracy credible
Outlining the priority areas for the king to look into, Devendra Raj Pandey of SAHR from Nepal chapter said: “A just and democratic step for the Bhutanese king would be to welcome the Lhotshamapas and allow them full freedom.”
He said that it is not just the Lhotshampas, the Sharchops in eastern Bhutan too have been restive and so are other sections of the population.
Kuldip Nayar, who was part of a three-member fact-finding mission organised by SAHR to Nepal in December 2006 recalled that how disturbed was he to see the pitiable conditions of the refugees living in camps with insufficient subsistence allowance given out to them by the UNHCR.
A report titled: No Gross National Happiness for Bhutanese Refugees that was brought out after the fact-finding notes: “Typically, a nine-member family lives in a hut [measuring 8'X5' feet]. As the family expands, it continues to live in the same hut, with sometimes 15 members squeezing into the same space. There are cases of four to five families sharing the same hut.”
The report further says that the medical facilities are extremely basic. There is no trained mid-wife, nor is there a hospital.
Another astonishing fact that the report noted was that some 40,000 children were born in exile.
Fifteen rounds of talks between the Nepalese and Bhutanese governments so far to address the issue of refugees have not yielded any tangible results.
“The talks are now in a limbo,” said Thinley Penjore, president of Druk National Congress (Democratic) during the consultation that had among its participants the former Indian prime minister I.K. Gujral, veteran journalist Kuldip Nayar, senior journalist Pamela Philipose, India’s Planning Commission member Syeda Hameed, SAHR’s bureau member Kamla Bhasin, activist Anand Swaroop Verma and many other eminent citizens from India and Nepal along with representatives of Bhutanese refugees.
He also described as to how 150,000 or so Lhotshampas, who were still living in Bhutan, were subjected to all sorts of discrimination and persecution. “Human rights violations are rampant, not just for the people living in the south but also for pro democracy supporters irrespective of their ethnic identity,” he said.
Questioning the credibility of recently held elections he commented: “The people in Upper House are handpicked by the king. Even those who have come to power through electoral process in the Lower House are all confidantes of the king. Many of them have served the king in the past as ministers and advisors. The king remains as powerful as he ever was.”
