SAFHR asks India to give passage for repatriation

Kathmandu, June 18: South Asian Forum for Human Rights (SAFHR) has asked the Indian government to allow the exiled Bhutanese to get back to their country voluntarily through the Indian soil.

In an appeal published, SAFHR said it strongly condemns the violent action taken by the Indian security forces against a group of people whose only wish is to peacefully march back to their own country.

"In no words has this group ever indicated that they wish to create any problems on Indian soil. Bhutan and India have a special agreement that allows their people to travel back and forth between the two countries without visa requirements, therefore it is totally unacceptable that the Indian government bar these people from entering India. Bhutan is separated from Nepal by a strip of Indian territory. Therefore, there is no other passage overland into Bhutan from Nepal, unless one passes through India," it added.

The appeal further reads, "Clearly, a section of the (exiled Bhutanese), however wrong they might have been in the choice of the manner of expressing their frustration and anger, at the total denial of their right to return to their homeland, have most vividly expressed their rejection of the option of settlement in a third country. Also, they were justifiably unhappy at the international community's tacit approval of the exercise of sham democracy initiated in Bhutan by the ruling Wangchuk dynasty and their cohorts. Understandably the holding of the so-called 'mock election exercise' in Bhutan, at this time, added fuel to the fire."

SAFHR, therefore, asked the government of India to uphold the democratic values it claims to espouse and to stop using force in obstructing the group of exiled Bhutanese from exercising their democratic rights and freedoms. It also urged the international community to respect the sentiment of those exiled Bhutanese who want to return to their homeland, which is just and fair right.

SAFHR has, similarly, expressed concern about the violence erupted in the Beldangi II camp recently in which the human rights group said has the involvement of the members of Revolutionary Youth Organisation and the Revolutionary Students Organisation affiliated to Bhutan Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist-Maoist).

The human rights body also accused the leaders of the National Front for Democracy of encouraging the youths in the camp for the incident. Bhutan News Service