The small Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan is hailed as the last Shangri-la in a region plagued by conflict and poverty. Attracted by its policy of Gross National Happiness, Western media have held up the country’s apparently peaceful transition to democracy as a model of wise governance by a Buddhist regime protecting its culture from the ravages of consumerism.
But behind its facade of otherworldly charm, Bhutan holds a secret. Twenty years ago, its monarchy, threatened by an increase in Bhutan’s ethnic Nepalese population, hit on a simple solution: ethnic cleansing. Families who had been living in Bhutan for generations were stripped of their citizenship. One hundred thousand Hindu Bhutanese — around one sixth of the country’s entire population - were driven into exile and their land redistributed among the Drukpas, Bhutan’s Buddhist elite.
Now a combination of divisions among the refugees, renewed tension inside Bhutan and the surprise election victory by Maoists in Nepal, is threatening a plan that finally gives hope to 107,000 refugees who have been languishing in camps in eastern Nepal for the last 17 years. Tens of thousands of unregistered refugees are living stateless and in abject poverty in Nepal and India.
There are also fears among exiled Bhutanese leaders that a new wave of expulsions from the remaining ethnic Nepalese population, called Lhotshampas, is imminent.
“The process is happening already,” said Ratan Gazmere, a leading human-rights activist and a refugee himself. “But I cannot convince the international community of that.”
Gazmere, who was tortured and jailed for two years in the capital Thimpu, said widespread discrimination continues inside the country.
Lhotshampas are denied education and in the last census, held in 2005, around 13 percent of the whole population of Bhutan, most of them Nepalese, were classified as “non-nationals.” As a result, 82,000 Bhutanese were denied a vote in last month’s first-ever general election. Non-nationals are not allowed freedom of movement or to start a business.
Paradoxically, it is a potential solution to the crisis that seems to have tipped the Lhotshampa community into fresh uncertainty. In 2006, with the international community facing an apparently endless bill for maintaining the refugee camps, an agreement was reached whereby some refugees would be resettled in the West while others would stay in Nepal and pressure would be brought on the Bhutanese government to allow others to return.
The US Assistant Secretary of State Ellen Sauerbrey said her country would offer citizenship to 60,000 of the refugees. Other countries, including Canada, have stepped in with similar offers.
With the prospect of around half of the refugees leaving the camps, leaders fear pressure on Bhutan to allow the rest home will evaporate. Put simply, they say, the government of Bhutan will be rewarded for its ethnic cleansing.
Extremists in the camps, including a new Maoist organization, have allegedly threatened refugees not to apply to leave for the US.
“My concern is that the refugees should not suffer more than they already have,” Gazmere said.
Disaffected young Lhotshampas who have grown up in the camps or suffered discrimination in southern Bhutan are turning to violence. Several bombs exploded in Bhutan in January, including one in Thimpu. Although no one was killed, the escalation resulted in security forces shooting dead five men they described as Maoists.
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