| noname |
Posted
on 21-Oct-03 02:10 AM
Beyond the borders
The dawn of democracy in Nepal in 1990 gave some hope to Lhotshampas - Bhutanese of Nepali origin mostly residing in Southern Bhutan, who were facing ethnic discrimination by a brutal regime in their own country. The democratic movement inside Bhutan coupled, to some extent, with the concern of Bhutanese regime of the nationalist movement of Nepali speaking people in some parts of India set off backlash against Lhotshampas. Compelled to leave their own country to evade the oppression of a racially motivated autocratic regime, they started fleeing towards Nepal. Before the officials and politicians in Nepal could understand the dynamics and complexities of the problem and think in depth of the issue, eastern Nepal was already flooded with more than 100,000 Bhutanese of Nepali origin.
And after twelve years shuttle diplomacy, fourteen already concluded ministerial level meetings, nearly equal numbers of other official delegations, visits of several prominent leaders, countless unofficial consultations and pressure from different countries and agencies, the issue has not been resolved - in a sense, it has gone more complex. Nepal has exhausted all of its available cards, ranging from use of diplomatic channels to internationalize the issues - whenever Nepal threatened to internationalize the issue, Bhutan would come with proposal for another round of Ministerial level meeting - to no avail. The Druk regime has always been successful in achieving what it has intended for : to buy the time.
In the very first Ministerial meeting - Nepali side was led by Sher Bahadur Deuba - in 1993 the Druk regime was successful in pressing their agenda to categorize the refugees in four groups: those forcefully evicted from their homes in Bhutan, those who had left Bhutan voluntarily, criminals and non-Bhutanese. After ten years and thirteen more such meetings, the Bhutanese side is pressing Nepal to accept that only first category of refugees, which according to Bhutan is only about 2 percent, are bonafide Bhutanese and Bhutan is responsible to take care of only those, fate of rest has to be decided by others! UNHCR, the US and German have already dismissed this as unacceptable and they have already asked for third party involvement in the verification process.
Involvement of India
India, which is suzerain of Bhutan by a 1949 friendship treaty between India and Bhutan, has been conspicuously mum in this issue by sidelining it as a bilateral issue between Nepal and Bhutan. Nepal has from the very beginning asked for interference from India in resolving this crisis. Without any other effective means to pressurize Bhutan, the so called even handedness of India in this issue, in fact, favors Bhutan.
In September 1999, when the Ministerial level meeting was being resumed after a pressing gap of 3 and half years, many assumed that some backdoor agreement has been achieved among the three neighbors. Indian foreign minister, Jaswant Singh, had just concluded his visit to Nepal, and Dr. Ram Sharan Mahat, the then foreign Minister of Nepal, had indicated that he was able to hold informal talks with Bhutanese representatives in the presence of Indian representatives in Delhi, led many believe that India had agreed, to use the then PM Krishna Pd. Bhattrai's phrase, 'to slightly favor Nepal'. Some went so far as to speculate that Nepal has agreed to keep silence in Kalapani issue in exchange of the favor by Indian side. However, it later turned out that Bhutan was merely trying to dupe Nepal so that the issue could not be raised in the coming SAARC meeting.
At this outset, a team headed by Dr. Bhekh Bahadur Thapa, who was ambassador to India for about 6 years, is holding 15th Ministerial Level meeting with Bhutanese side. It is yet to be seen what will be the result of this meeting, but given the record of Druk regime, the chances are bleak - even though Dr. Thapa was seemingly beaming with confidence before leaving Nepal because of his meeting with the Foreign Minister of Bhutan in the sidelines of UN general assembly last month and his assurances to accelerate the process.
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| noname |
Posted
on 24-Oct-03 05:14 AM
Let me first laud the major breakthrough in the 15th MJC. Kudos to Dr. Thapa and company!
There are many incomplete tasks as well. It's yet to be requested to India to let pass those refugees through it's territory, and fate of the 'breakthrough' hinges on the terms and conditions that Indian administration will impose for the 'favor' it does.
It was decided in the 15th MJC that category 2 refugees, those who had left Bhutan voluntarily, can apply for Nepalese Citizenship, reports Kuensel Online, the official news service of Druk regime. Quoting, Rakesh Chhetri, one Bhutani human rights leader in exile, today's Nepali Times reports: Do you think the refugees are fools to tread the minefield back home when they have an option to be safe in Nepal? There is one more interesting portfolio change in Druk government: Jigme Y. Thinle, the former Foreign Minister of Bhutan who played central role in shaping the outcome of past MJCs, has been now shifted to Home minister, and he will be the one who will 'take care' of those repatriate, if any, Bhutanese.
Then comes this verification process. Although the refugees placed wrongly in different categories can still lodge a complaint, due to lack of third party involvement, the credibility of this process is questionable again.
Be it the categorizing of the refugees, or formation of JV team, or exclusion of any third party in the verification team, it was always Bhutanese side who had upper hand. Nepali side was always downplayed and duped. It is still not clear whether Bhutanese side really wants to solve the problem, or they are using their last available card to buy the time.
To quote Navin Sing Khadka in the Nepali Times: The fate of the refugees languishing in the camps still hangs in the balance.
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