NRB Initiatives

Notice by Bhutan News Service and APFA-Bhutan

Dear readers,

Bhutan News Service and Association of Press Freedom Activists (APFA) – Bhutan take initiative for building network among the Bhutanese living in different parts of the world with the aim to finally transforming it into a Non Resident Bhutanese platform.

We wish to create environment for building such network through our sites and currently it has no such committee formed and we don’t intend to form ourselves. In the longer run, when people feel the need and have enough discussion and framework prepared, we will work for a bigger gathering to announce its formation with representatives from all continents where Bhutanese live.

Editors and Managers

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22nd April, 2009

Dear Friend,

DNC Supports the Call for the formation of a Non-Resident Bhutanese (NRB) platform

Druk National Congress supports the idea mooted by Dr D.N.S.Dhakal, Executive Chief of Bhutan National Democratic Party (BNDP), to constitute a non-resident Bhutanese (NRB) platform. DNC suggests that membership to this platform should be open to all Bhutanese individuals who have been residing outside Bhutan, including those who have been living outside Bhutan for business or employment. All of us should be in dialogue on the process of writing the constitution of NRB platform and its long-term goal for the welfare of non resident Bhutanese, Bhutan and the Bhutanese community at large.

This platform will have to emerge as the ambassador of Bhutan and Bhutanese people in foreign countries, to transfer educational, technological and business knowhow to and from Bhutan.

The membership to the NRB platform should be open to all Bhutanese nationals living abroad. We can refer to the kind of arrangement Non-Resident Indian, Non-Resident Nepalese or the kind of linkages the non-resident nationals of other communities have with their mother countries. DNC as a founding member of this NRB platform will work towards a mutually beneficial arrangement for Bhutan and its diaspora living outside its boundaries.

As many Bhutanese are all dispersed around the world, and many more could be joining in the future, we need someone to establish inter-connectivity of our people who are living abroad. DNC proposes that Dr D.N.S.Dhakal, take the responsibility of laying the foundation of the NRB platform. He is one of the best educated persons in our country and he has his own mechanism to travel around the world.

Once we complete the necessary groundwork, delegates from each county can meet either in India, Nepal or any other convenient country to finalize the process of managing the NRB platform. DNC will do the necessary groundwork to complete the formalities required in India.

DNC believes that the third country resettlement program for Bhutanese refugees has opened-up challenges and opportunities for the Bhutanese. Our people are being placed in far-away lands where they have little access to culture, religion and value system that we have been used to thus far.

This is a stressful situation. But, it is also true that after being caged in the refugee camps for the last 17 years, our people are given an opportunity to earn a living and compete for excellence in educational and business opportunities. Our small country that was largely isolated thus far is now being opened to the outside world at an unprecedented pace through the third-country resettlement process.

I wish all success to the endeavor of Dr D.N.S.Dhakal, and DNC would engage actively with Dr Dhakal in the process of forming the NRB platform and I urge all individuals, groups and parties to lend him the required support and cooperation.

Rongthong Kuenly Dorji
President

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Ref. No/BNDP/Press Release#2

Date: 16/05/2009

Bhutan National Democratic Party (BNDP) considers the resettled refugees in overseas countries as non-resident Bhutanese. It considers the third country resettlement of Bhutanese refugees an interim solution. The Party is committed to continue with the struggle to usher inclusive democratic changes in Bhutan. It will support the formation of Non-Resident Bhutanese (NRB) platform in order to enable the Bhutanese people to keep interconnected with the community and the country.

The Party will work actively to make this initiative a reality and calls upon its members settled in different counties to participate in the consolidation of Bhutanese Diaspora.

Dr D. N. S. Dhakal
Executive Chief