Ethnic cleansing

New York-based Human Rights Watch has rightly assessed the gross violation of human rights in Bhutan. The Druk regime, which evicted over one hundred thousand people back in the 1990s, continues to deny the rights of minorities living there for centuries. Now, the fear is that the third country resettlement plan undertaken by the United States may further encourage the Druk dictator to evict the remaining Lhotshampas. And this is happening at the behest of India -- the largest democracy, which is backing Bhutan's policy of ethnic cleansing. Bhutan has adopted several ways to evict the Nepali minority. First, it has introduced a 'No Objection Certificate' system. It is a must for admission in schools, registration of any firm, running a business establishment for a living or employment. Issuance of such certificates has denied the basic education to the children of Lhotshampas. Second, Bhutan has no constitution as to ensure the rights of the minority. The royal edicts are the supreme law of that country. As a result, hundreds of innocent people have been languishing in the Druk jails for decades.

No country has committed such heinous crimes against its people. Bhutan has denied no objection certificates to the Lhotshampas, with a clear intention of evicting them gradually. It has denied the right of over one hundred thousand refugees to return to their homeland. Yet, some Western countries, which are defending democracy across the world, have funded development projects in Bhutan. India has gone to the extent of protecting the autocratic regime. Earlier, Northeast Indian states did so to uproot the Nepali settlement. Hundreds of thousand of people of Nepali origin were forcefully evicted from Manipur, Meghalaya and Assam states in the 1980s citing them as foreigners. Now, Bhutan has done the same thing as Northeast Indian states did in the 1980s.

Bhutan is planning to hold polls early next year to eyewash the international community. The refugees languishing in UNHCR-administered camps in eastern Nepal will not be allowed to participate in the elections. Although the Druk regime has admitted that the refugees are bona-fide Bhutanese citizens, it has refused to take them back. Besides, the mockery of Bhutanese democracy is that the regime has allowed no individuals to form a political party. While one-fifth of the population is languishing outside Bhutan as refugees, how credible and authentic would such elections be? Obviously, Bhutan has not given up its state policy of ethnic cleansing. It continues to adopt techniques to block the repatriation attempt and sweep the minority out of its territory. Bhutan could do so by taking the side of the largest democratic country, India.

Source: The Kathmandu Post, May 19, 2007