Ratan Gazmere and S. K. Pradhan

[Ed. Note: The following story has been assembled from three e-mails received from the authors on Dec. 24 and Dec. 25, 2000. Ratan Gazmere is the chief coordinator of the Association of Human Rights ActivistsÐBhutan (AHURAÐBhutan), and S. K. Pradhan is the secretary-general of the People's Forum for Human Rights and Development (PFHRD). Another e-mail about the arrest of the authors was sent by Dilip Bishwo of AHURAÐBhutan and Rup Lal Pradhan of PFHRD].

Justice was the motivation for
scores of Bhutanese refugees to travel to Kathmandu for the most recent round of bilateral negotiations between the governments of Bhutan and Nepal that were held from Dec. 25 to 28, 2000, in Nepal's capital. This round, the 10th round, was widely expected to significantly determine the future of the more than 100,000 refugees living in seven camps in Jhapa and Morang in eastern Nepal.

Instead, the approximately 100 Bhutanese refugees who went to Kathmandu were arrested after three days of peaceful demonstrations outside of Shital Niwas where the talks were taking place between the two governments. On the morning of Dec. 27, the Bhutanese refugees were chanting slogans when a contingent of Nepali riot police forcefully began grabbing the refugees, manhandling them and loading them into a police vehicle. A blue police van made about three trips to take away the refugees, and the final group of demonstrators were shoved into a police truck and driven off. The arrested refugees also included their leaders, Ratan Gazmere of the Association of Human Rights ActivistsÐBhutan (AHURAÐBhutan) and S. K. Pradhan of the People's Forum for Human Rights and Development (PFHRD).

On Dec. 26, the police had brutally charged the refugees with batons, injuring at least 30 refugees and seriously injuring five others. On Dec. 25, the first day of the demonstrations, the refugees had submitted a memorandum to the foreign ministers of Bhutan and Nepal, who were leading the talks of the Joint Ministerial Level Committee (JMLC), in which they appealed for representation in the negotiations under the leadership of Tek Nath Rizal, a former prisoner of conscience adopted by Amnesty International (AI) who had spent 10 years in Bhutan's prisons fighting for the human rights of the country's people. Since his release from prison a year ago, Rizal has been seeking an audience with His Majesty King Jigme Singye Wangchuk of Bhutan to plead for the return of all Bhutanese citizens in exile in Nepal and India and to bring back peace and normalcy to the Kingdom of Bhutan.

On Dec. 26, when their pleas continued to be ignored, the refugees placed forward four of the demonstrators as their representatives and asked for entry into the venue of the talks to meet the ministers and discuss the matter of refugee representation in the talks. As they began to move forward, supported by the demonstrators, the police charged them with batons.

The refugees strongly feel that their representation in the course of the negotiations, during verification and finally in the process of eventual repatriation is inevitable if their concerns and apprehensions are to be seriously taken into consideration and an acceptable solution to this long crisis is to be found. The previous nine rounds of bilateral parleys have done very little to address the aspirations of the Bhutanese refugees. The Bhutanese refugees firmly believe that it is time for the JMLC to invite representatives from the Bhutanese refugee community to participate in the negotiations to move the talks forward.

'The involvement of other parties other than just the two governments is the need and call of the day,' said the refugees in their memorandum to the foreign ministers. 'One of the primary groups which has been kept outside of the ongoing negotiations so far are the very subjects whose fate is being decided upon by the JMLC.'

Only by granting them a seat at the negotiations, the refugees claim, will the JMLC demonstrate its commitment to move towards a lasting solution to this refugee crisis. In the absence of such an arrangement, the Bhutanese refugees will find it impossible to extend cooperation on any actions based on decisions reached during this and all future rounds of bilateral negotiations.

In addition, the refugees see the involvement of representatives of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) as inevitable to ensure the impartial and independent verification of the Bhutanese refugees in the seven camps and the early and dignified return to their original homes and farms in Bhutan of these people who have been stranded in eastern Nepal for the last decade. In the absence of independent and impartial verification devoid of the application of international human rights norms and principals, it can only be safely assumed that the verification mechanisms and the ensuing exercise will only serve Bhutan's interests.

In this regard, the Bhutanese refugees call on the governments of Bhutan and Nepal to heed the directives of the United Nations Human Rights Commission (UNHRC), which during its 51st session in Geneva, Switzerland, in August 1999 issued a chairman's statement calling on the two governments to 'avail themselves of technical assistance from the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and from the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, so as to facilitate a fair and lasting resolution which takes into account representations on behalf of the displaced population.' It is time, the refugees maintain, that the JMLC heeds this call of the United Nations, which, they emphasise, includes the participation of the refugees in the negotiations. In the absence of such an environment, the Bhutanese refugees urge His Majesty's government of Nepal to seek international intervention.

Lastly, the Bhutanese refugees call for a halt in the resettlement exercise currently being implemented by Bhutan to ostensibly pre-empt any chances of repatriation.

Against this backdrop in which peaceful attempts at dialogue have been met with baton charges and arrests, AHURA - Bhutan and PFHRD, on behalf of the Bhutanese refugees, call on the international community to intervene in the situation to facilitate a resolution of the problem acceptable to the refugees. While appreciating the recent concerns expressed by the international community, particularly those of the European Parliament, Bhutan's donor governments and agencies and the most recent call of U.S. President Bill Clinton for the resolution of the Bhutanese refugee crisis, AHURAÐBhutan appeals for continued and sustained international pressure on the government of Bhutan. AHURAÐ Bhutan and PFHRD also call on national, regional and international human rights groups to show solidarity with the cause of the Bhutanese refugees and to take initiatives towards achieving the genuine demands of the refugees for representation.