Refugee agenda disappeared (Opinion)
By Hari Adhikari
The resurrection of the voice of the Nepali people against an anti- people autocratic regime once again underscores the triumph of the human spirit. The peace loving Nepali citizens, the ever vigilant media, a committed band of political leaders under one banner of Seven Party Alliance (SPA), and a host of vigilant associations are saluted for overcoming all odds and freeing Nepal from the grips of despotism.
Moreover, the tacit understanding between the Maoists and the SPA in launching the people's movement beginning April 2006 spelt out a new chapter in ending dictatorships around the world.
The restoration of the House of Representatives further provides a framework under which the Nepali citizens can be liberated entirely from the yoke of slavery to autocratic kingship. This should, indeed, be a blue print for all major Nepali community round the world. It is, therefore, important that during this glorious moment, it should be brought to the notice of all democracy loving people of the world and the entire Nepali citizens that the Bhutanese refugees languishing in the refugee camps are a byproduct of a very similar cause.
It is known all over that the administrative network of Bhutan is based on racial discrimination that created a refugee exodus of 130,000 of its citizens from a thinly populated nation. These evicted citizens had no fault other than earnestly appealing to their Monarch to allow them to practice their cultural and citizenship rights as had been the case during the previous monarch.
Unfortunately, the government resorted to strong arm tactics and ruthlessly converted its innocent citizens into victims of political prejudice. Consequently, the regime created a dubious distinction of being the only nation of creating 25percent of its citizen refugees.
Being refugees it is obvious that due to resource constraints enough evidence could not be produced before the international community to see the truth. While the Bhutanese government used every means at its disposal to paint these innocent evicted citizen as illegal immigrants, or voluntarily migrated people or criminals. Sadly, a large segment of the international community still buy these arguments. To further compound the matters and aggravate the already pathetic plight of the refugees, the previous governments of Nepal fell into the trap led by Bhutan and accepted the verification process. The consequences are obvious for all to see where the Druk regime has been able to place almost all people in category 2. The current scenario depicts tremendous pressure on 94.88 percent of the Bhutanese refugees to assimilate in Nepal.
Bhutan emboldened by its diplomatic maneuvers is propagating fabricated stories to convince the international communities to absorb the refugees in Nepal. Some European nations have even come forward to adopt small portion of the refugees in the name of sharing the burden requesting Bhutan to repatriate only category 1 and 4. It is indeed surprising that these two categories would contain only 640 people. At such a critical juncture, it would be suicidal on the part of the refugee community if their genuine concerns were not properly advocated.
It is an acknowledged fact that the refugees in the camps are bonafide Bhutanese nationals. These facts have been substantiated time and again. The documents these people hold are as legitimate as held by our brethrens from the other Bhutanese communities. But, in the absence of bold effort from the host country to seek required help for justice (if necessary) from the UN's Security Council, International Court of Justice and its tribunal along with regional player India and the United States, the repatriation of entire refugees to their motherland seems a distant possibility.
In addition, the 1951 refugee convention and the 1967 protocol of UNHCR provides the following three option (1)"Voluntary repatriation of refugees to their country of origin.(2) Through local integration and (3) if that is not possible, through resettlement in third country. Out of these, the Druk regime is desperately trying to convince all on options 2 and 3. It is indeed a sad situation where nations and leaders are buying Bhutan's fabricated arguments. Surprisingly too, Delhi which played such a deserving role in the issue of Nepal feels ashamed to do so for the cause of Bhutan's democracy.
In such a pathetic situation, the Bhutanese in camps are frantically trying to draw the attention of awakened civil societies, responsible medias, the people of Nepal and their political parties and associations who played the decisive role to end the totalitarian rule in Nepal.
In addition, we request the review of the entire categorization process through either the bar association and National Human Rights Commission or any suitable or legitimate agency of Nepal that was carried out by the Joint Verification Team on whether the 94.88 percent of refugees were genuinely categorized as voluntarily migrated and non-Bhutanese. Also requested, if symbolic return of the refugees in small figure is needed such as 640 person for breaking through the deadlock of Bhutan and Nepal as western diplomats and Indian NGOs suggest, then there must be an arrangement of the repatriation of an equal number or less from category 2. Otherwise, after taking back category 1 and 4 (that is forceful evicted genuine Bhutanese and category 4 that is involved in the criminal activities), the Bhutanese regime will close its door of repatriation pretending its law of the land and resolution of the National Assembly does not allow further repatriation. This will prevent the return of those who fall in the category 2 & 3 as chief justice of Bhutan said in the public gathering during the so called constitution consultations in Bhutan in presence of Bhutan's crown prince.
Last but not the least, carefully keeping the condition of repatriation of entire Bhutanese to Bhutan, India should be requested officially by all parties of Nepal and newly formed government or representatives of constituent assembly to promote its effort of repatriating all Bhutanese to their homeland.
(The writer is a former member of National Assembly)