Nepalese DPM says 16th round talks is final

Birtamod, October 15: Nepalese Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs K. P. Oli said the meeting to be held between Bhutan and Nepal next month would take a final decision over the repatriation of the exiled Bhutanese.

After a meeting with the leaders in exile in Birtamod on Sunday, Oli expressed his hope that the issue would find a solution of the protracted crisis.

On the occasion the Bhutanese Movement Steering Committee handed a memorandum to him. The memorandum stated that the recent US proposal of accommodating 60,000 exiled Bhutanese in the US has not only affected the movement of democracy and human rights in Bhutan, but it has also raised questions about their future.

The memorandum further said, considering these issues, the Nepal government should give top priority to the repatriation of exiled Bhutanese during the talks with Bhutan.

"The forthcoming talks will be decisive. In case of it being otherwise we will look for alternatives. The government, however, doesn't want to prolong the process," Oli said.

President of the Bhutan People's Party (BPP) Balaram Poudel, President of the Druk National Congress (DNC) Thinley Penjor, general secretary of the People's Forum for Human Rights (PFHR) D. P. Kafle, women leader Yasodha Budathoki, wife of founding president of BPP R. K. Budathoki, jointly submitted the memorandum.

OLi assured the Bhutanese leaders that the talks scheduled for next month in Kathmandu would settle everything related to them. Bhutan News Service