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| The census exercise thus came to an end and the southern border of Bhutan became a hotbed of militancy for several years. | The census exercise thus came to an end and the southern border of Bhutan became a hotbed of militancy for several years. | ||
| The refugee leaders believed that for them to receive UN assistance and recognition of their sought-after ‘refugee’ status, their numbers should not be less than 100,000. To achieve this end, the insurgents primarily targeted the homes of Nepalese in southern Bhutan. Through persuasion as well as through coercion, more of them were persuaded to leave Bhutan and join the others at the camps that had slowly been established in eastern Nepal |
The refugee leaders believed that for them to receive UN assistance and recognition of their sought-after ‘refugee’ status, their numbers should not be less than 100,000. To achieve this end, the insurgents primarily targeted the homes of Nepalese in southern Bhutan. Through persuasion as well as through coercion, more of them were persuaded to leave Bhutan and join the others at the camps that had slowly been established in eastern Nepal. {{Citation needed|date=July 2009}} | ||
| Thus a group of several thousand left and settled in refugee camps set up by UNHCR. The UNHCR began to distribute aid to the refugees but did not implement any screening process to the camps. Many poor, border-dwelling Nepalese claimed to be refugees as well to receive aid, and within a year the camps population exploded from around 5000 to 100,000. The Bhutanese refugee issue was thus born and remains unresolved. | Thus a group of several thousand left and settled in refugee camps set up by UNHCR. The UNHCR began to distribute aid to the refugees but did not implement any screening process to the camps. Many poor, border-dwelling Nepalese claimed to be refugees as well to receive aid, and within a year the camps population exploded from around 5000 to 100,000. The Bhutanese refugee issue was thus born and remains unresolved. | ||
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The Bhutanese refugees are a group of people of Nepalese origin, registered in camps in eastern Nepal during the 1990s. They claim to be Bhutanese citizens forcibly expelled from Bhutan.
Bhutan's point of view
Bhutanese refugee (Lhotsampa) who had been living in southern Bhutan since the late nineteenth century were expelled from Bhutan after the country carried out its first census in 1988. They currently reside in refugee camps in south-eastern Nepal.
- This section attempts to reflect the perspective of the Kingdom of Bhutan and/or the ethnic majority group (with cultural, ethnic and linguistic links to other Tibetan peoples) that dominates this state.
The earliest surviving records of Bhutan’s history show that Tibetan influence already existed from the 6th century. King Songtsen Gampo who ruled Tibet from 627-649AD was responsible for the construction of Bhutan’s oldest surviving Buddhist temples, the Kyichhu Lhakhang in Paro and the Jambay Lhakhang in Bumthang. Settlement in Bhutan by people of Tibetan origin happened by this time.
The first reports of people of Nepalese origin in Bhutan was around 1620, when Shabdrung Ngawang Namgyal commissioned a few Newar craftsmen from the Kathmandu valley in Nepal to make a silver stupa to contain the ashes of his father Tempa Nima. <Aris> There are no references of any further movement of people from Nepal to Bhutan until the beginning of the 20th century.
Settlement in Bhutan of people from Nepal happened for the first time in the early 20th century encouraged by Bhutan House in Kalimpong for the purpose of collecting taxes for Bhutan House. In the 1930s, Bhutan House settled 5000 families of Nepali workers in Tsirang alone. In the 1940s, the British Political Officer Sir Basil Gould, was quoted as saying that when he warned Sir Raja Sonam Tobgye Dorji of Bhutan House of the potential danger of allowing so many ethnic Nepalese to settle in southern Bhutan, he replied that “since they were not registered subjects they could be evicted whenever the need arose”
Towards the end of the reign of the second King Jigme Wangchuck, in the 1950s, the numbers of new immigrants had swelled causing tension between the King and the Dorji family in the Bhutan House. Amnesty was given in 1958 through a new citizenship act for all those who could prove their presence in Bhutan for at least 10 years prior to 1958.
From 1961 onward however, with Indian support, the government began planned developmental activities consisting of significant infrastructure development works. Not comfortable with India’s desire to bring in workers in large numbers from India, the government initially tried to prove its own capacity by insisting that the planned Thimphu-Phuntsholing highway be done with its own workforce. While it did succeed in this, completing the 182 km highway in just two years, the import of workers from India was inevitable. With most Bhutanese working self-employed as farmers, Bhutan lacked a ready supply of workers willing to take up the major infrastructure projects. This led eventually to the large-scale import of skilled and unskilled construction workers from India. These people were most of Nepali origin who were able to slowly settle down under the guise of the naturalized immigrants. With the pressures of the developmental activities, this trend remained unchecked or inadequately checked for many years. Immigration check posts and immigration offices were in fact established for the first time only after the 1990 problem.
By the 1980s, the government had become acutely conscious not just of widespread illegal immigration of people of Nepali origin into Bhutan, but also of the total lack of integration even of long-term immigrants into the political and cultural mainstream of the country. Most of the immigrants knew very little of the culture of Bhutan and most could not understand any one of the local languages including Dzongkha. In the rural areas they remained so 'Nepalese' in their culture they were indistinguishable from the Nepalese in Nepal itself. For its part, government officials had long ignored the situation assuming that most of these people who were most often observed in non-Bhutanese clothes were in fact non-Bhutanese visitors or residents. Perceiving this growing dichotomy as a threat to national unity, the Government promulgated directives in the 1980s that sought to preserve Bhutan's cultural identity as well as to formally embrace the citizens of other ethnic groups in a "One Nation One People" policy. The government implied that the 'culture' to be preserved would be that of the various northern Bhutanese groups. This policy therefore required citizens to wear the attire of the northern Bhutanese in public places and reinforced the status of Dzongkha as the national language. Nepali was discontinued as a subject in the schools thus bringing it at par with the status of the other languages of Bhutan, none of which are taught. Such policies were criticized at first by human rights groups as well as Bhutan's Nepalese economic migrant community, who perceived the policy to be directed against them.
In 1985, the government passed a new citizenship act which clarified and attempted to enforce the 1958 Citizenship Act to control the flood of illegal immigration. From 1988 the government conducted its first real census exercise. The basis for the census findings was the 1958 'cut off' year, the year that the Nepali population had first received Bhutanese citizenship. Those individuals who could not provide proof of residency prior to 1958 were adjudged to be illegal immigrants. There was a perception of a Greater Nepal movement emerging from the nepali-dominated areas in Nepal, Darjeeling, Kalimpong and West Bengal which the Bhutanese feared as Nepali chauvinism.
The government however failed to properly train the census officials and this led to some tension among the public. The government also attempted to enforce the dress code and language code all at the same time. These measures combined to alienate even bonafide citizens of Nepali descent.
Matters reached a climax in September 1990 after organized groups of 10,000 or more ethnic Nepalis from the Indian side of the border, organized protest marches in different districts, burned down schools, stripped local government officials of their national attire which they burned publicly, carried out kidnappings and murders of other ethnic Nepalis who did not join their protests. Some of the organizers of the marches were arrested and detained. They were led by the Bhutan Peoples' Party, a militant group. However the Bhutanese government later released most of them. Those with ties to the groups responsible for the murders and kidnappings were forced to leave, but many other innocent ethnic-Nepali citizens were coerced to leave by the angry ethnic-Nepali dissidents.
The Kyodo News Agency reported the ‘massacre’ of the demonstrators at the hands of the Bhutanese army. This report was reportedly submitted by a Nepali reporter based in Siliguri and passed on to the headquarters in Kathmandu. The report was later dismissed as inaccurate but it damaged Bhutan’s international image. The Kyodo News Agency reportedly apologized to the government of Bhutan for the incorrect report even though the government of Bhutan did not demand the apology in writing,not wanting to even acknowledge the fraudulent claim.
The census exercise thus came to an end and the southern border of Bhutan became a hotbed of militancy for several years.
The refugee leaders believed that for them to receive UN assistance and recognition of their sought-after ‘refugee’ status, their numbers should not be less than 100,000. To achieve this end, the insurgents primarily targeted the homes of Nepalese in southern Bhutan. Through persuasion as well as through coercion, more of them were persuaded to leave Bhutan and join the others at the camps that had slowly been established in eastern Nepal.
Thus a group of several thousand left and settled in refugee camps set up by UNHCR. The UNHCR began to distribute aid to the refugees but did not implement any screening process to the camps. Many poor, border-dwelling Nepalese claimed to be refugees as well to receive aid, and within a year the camps population exploded from around 5000 to 100,000. The Bhutanese refugee issue was thus born and remains unresolved.
Refugee point of view
- This section attempts to reflect the perspective of the (ethnically Indo-Aryan) persons expelled under claims of illegal residence in Bhutan, and/or of an ethnic group they claim to belong to, at least a part of which lived as a minority in Bhutan legally for quite some time, and at least a part of which continues to do so.
Bhutanese refugee (Lhotsampa) who had been living in southern Bhutan since the late nineteenth century were expelled from Bhutan after the country carried out its first census in 1988. They currently reside in refugee camps in south-eastern Nepal.
Historical background
The ethnic Nepalese population consisting of Kirat, Hindu, Tamang, Gurung etc., had been living in Southern Bhutan since the nineteenth century. These people are called Lhotsampa or the Southern people by the Druks. They were the descendents of economic migrants who had initially found refuge in Southern Bhutan.
The problems started in 1980s when the Government of Bhutan discovered in a census that the Druk population were slightly larger than the Lhotsampa population and that the population growth rate of Lhotsampa was greater than that of Druks. This was perceived as a threat by the autocratic Government. Hence, in 1985, the Government passed a new Citizenship Act which prevented many of the Lhotsampa from being recognized as Bhutanese nationals. To reinforce this movement, the Government forced the use of the Bhutanese national dress and etiquette.
People from the Royal Advisory Council such as Tek Nath Rizal, a Lhotsampa, a trusted official who acted as a chief link between the Government and the Nepalese population in the south was also imprisoned as one of the chief instigators of the racial riots in Southern Bhutan. In 1998 after being granted a Royal Pardon, he left for Nepal to form the "People's Forum for Human Rights".
Most of the refugees were taken up by Nepal which currently has about 103,000 Bhutanese refugees according to UNHCR.
Resettlement efforts
The U.S. has offered to resettle 60,000 of the 107,000 Bhutanese refugees of Nepalese origin now living in seven U.N. refugee camps in southeastern Nepal, and began receiving this group in 2008. Five other nations—Australia, Canada, Norway, Netherlands and Denmark—have offered to resettle 10,000 each . New Zealand has offered to settle 600 refugees over a period of five years starting in 2008. As of January, 2009, more than 8,000 Bhutanese refugees were resettled in various countries.
Other countries also operate resettlement programs in the camps. Norway has already settled 200 Bhutanese refugees, and Canada has agreed to accept up to 5000 through to 2012.
Notes
- Sunanda K. Datta-Ray: "Smash and Grab: The Annexation of Sikkim", page 51. Vikas publishing, 1980
Sources
- Michael Aris, Bhutan: The Early History of a Himalayan Kingdom, Vikas, 1980, ISBN 0-7069-1029-X
- Leo E. Rose, The Politics of Bhutan, Cornell University Press, 1977, ISBN 0-8014-0909-8
- Sunanda K. Datta-Ray, Smash and Grab: The Annexation of Sikkim.Vikas, 1980. ISBN 0-7069-2509-2.
- "327 Killed in Bhutan Last Week", 12–27. Japan Times, 1990-09-28
- Anti-nationals in open revolt, Kuensel (p. 1), 29 September 1990
- Leo E., Rose, "The Nepali Ethnic Community in the Northeast of the Subcontinent", Conference on "Democratization, Ethnicity and Development in South & Southeast Asia, p. 11-12, 1993
- UNHCR brief on Bhutanese Refugees: http://www.unhcr.org/publ/PUBL/4444d3c93e.html
- Bhutanese Refugee page on Human Rights Watch: http://www.hrw.org/doc?t=asia&c=bhutan
- Michael Aris (1980). Bhutan: The Early History of a Himalayan Kingdom. Vikas. ISBN 0-7069-1029-X.
- Leo E. Rose (1977). The Politics of Bhutan. Cornell University Press. ISBN 0-8014-0909-8.
- Sunanda K. Datta-Ray (1980). Smash and Grab: The Annexation of Sikkim. Vikas. ISBN ISBN 0-7069-2509-2.
- "327 Killed in Bhutan Last Week". Japan Times. 1990-09-28. pp. 12–27. Retrieved 2006-07-03.
- "Anti-nationals in open revolt". Kuensel. 1990-09-29. p. 1. Retrieved 2006-07-03.
- Rose, Leo E. (1993). "The Nepali Ethnic Community in the Northeast of the Subcontinent". Conference on "Democratization, Ethnicty and Development in South & Southeast Asia. pp. 11–12.
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- "the bhutanese refugees historical background". chhahari. Retrieved 2007-04-27.
References
- , Sunanda K Datta-Ray: "Smash and Grab: The Annexation of Sikkim", page 51. Vikas publishing, 1980
- Voice of America 18 October 2006
- UNHCR Publication
- http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/03/25/bhutan.refugees/index.html
- http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKDEL406476._CH_.2420
- IRIN (10 November 2008). "Nepal: Bhutanese refugees find new life beyond the camps". UNHCR Refworld. Retrieved 2009-04-26.
- Government of Canada (9 December 2008). "Resettling Bhutanese Refugees – Update on Canada's Commitment". Citizenship and Immigration Canada. Retrieved 2009-04-26.
See also
 Foreign relations of Bhutan | ||
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| Disputes | ||
| Related | ||