Nepalese leaders extend support for Bhutanese movement

Kathmandu, April 16, 2009: Releasing From Palace to Prision, a book written by human rights activist Tek Nath Rizal, the former prime minister of Nepal and president of Nepali Congress Girija Prasad Koirala stressed the party’s support towards the Bhutanese democratic struggle.

Koirala releasing the book

“I have deeper sentiments with the Bhutanese issue”, said Koirala on Thursday in a program hosted by Oxford International Publication at Hotel Shangri-La in Kathmandu. “Until I live, I will have all forms of supports to the Bhutan’s democratic movement.”

He further said, he has talked with Bhutanese king and the prime minister several times for repatriation of exiled Bhutanese. “Though they responded positively, they never executed their words,” he said.

He highlighted the important role that India should play for repatriation of the exiled Bhutanese.

C. P. Gajurel, a central committee member of the ruling Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoists), who also heads the party’s foreign relation department, strongly criticized the resettlement process offered by the United States of America and other countries. “I have not understood how kind the Americans are to give citizenship to the Bhutanese who have never demanded for it”, said Gajurel.

Saying that India has role in solving this two decade long crisis, Gajurel said his party also failed to pick up the issue despite being in government leadership.

Participants at the function

However, Madav Kumar Nepal, the former general secretary of Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist, Leninists) said that it makes no difference on the feeling towards democratization and human rights establishment in Bhutan even if all the exiled Bhutanese get relocated to third countries.

According to Nepal, no one can suppress the movement of the Bhutanese citizens, rather they become stronger and more potential in such countries.

This second book by Rizal features how the most trusted character of the fourth King Jigme Singye was forced to go to prison, where he received inhuman torture for a decade.

Speaking about the book, Rizal said that the book was a vivid example of how Nepali-speaking Bhutanese were treated by the regime in the past.