Bhutan's dark stain: The case of the Lhotshampa Refugees

[the_future_modernes]

What happened?

Bhutanese Refugees: The Story of a Forgotten People

Bhutan’s 650,000 people comprise three main groups, along with other small groups.

The Ngalongs of the western mountains and the central Bhutanese with whom they have intermarried form the elite. They form a minority alongside the more numerous Sharchhops (“easterners”). Both Ngalongs and Sharchhops are Buddhist.

The Lhotshampa, who live mainly in the south of the country, are the third largest group in Bhutan. Originally from Nepal, they speak Nepali and most practise Hinduism.

Analysis of population statistics provided by the Bhutanese government, in which the population is shown to have increased steadily despite the expulsion of more than 80,000 people in the early 1990s, can reveal that Bhutan has attempted to hide the exodus of a large part of the Lhotshampa community.

The figures also suggest the potential for further discrimination against the Lhotshampas in future.

Many Lhotshampas are vulnerable because of their precarious citizenship status. Even those recognised as Bhutanese citizens face discrimination.


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In 1958, Bhutan passed its first Citizenship Act. People of Nepalese origin had migrated to Bhutan from the end of the 19th century as contractual workers.

They and their descendants had very little security in Bhutan until they were granted full citizenship under the 1958 Citizenship Act.

During the 1960s and 1970s, it was government policy to promote integration of people of Nepalese origin (known as Lhotshampas) into the Bhutanese mainstream, and many Lhotshampas rose to occupy influential positions in the bureaucracy.

During the 1980s, the Lhotshampas came to be seen as a threat to the political order.

The section A Brief History of the Refugee Crisis and the Timeline outline the repression and expulsion of tens of thousands of Lhotshampas. Lhotshampas remaining in Bhutan today face an uncertain future, with continuing discrimination and the possibility of being excluded from the emerging democratic process.
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Government Repression of Southern Bhutanese[Lhotshampas]

In 1985 the government began its defense of Drukpa culture and traditions. A new citizenship act was passed that applied new criteria of citizenship, and made them retrospective, declaring all previous legislations null and void. The new citizenship Act of 1985, One Nation One People policy, Driglam Namza, Compulsory Labour, and No Objection Certificate were the vivid government repressions against the Nepali speaking Lhotshampas that resulted the democracy movement of 1990.

One Nation One People Policy

In the name of national integration, government's drive for "One Nation One People'' policy made all the southern Bhutanese liable to a fine or imprisonment if they ventured out in anything other than western traditional costume, and Nepali language was removed from the school curriculum. Many southern Bhutanese were fined and imprisoned for not complying with this order. The wearing of 'gho' and 'kira' , traditional Drukpa male and female garments was unsuited to the heat of southern Bhutan.

Driglam Namza, an ancient code of social etiquette of the western Bhutanese which dictates how to eat, how to sit, how to talk, how to dress or how to bow before the authority, and what hair style to adopt, was made mandatory to all the Bhutanese despite their cultural diversity.

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And now?


No Homecoming for Bhutanese Refugees

KATHMANDU, Apr 20, 2011 (IPS) - A knock on the door of his home in Bhutan one midnight turned middle-level government official Balaram Paudyal into a fugitive overnight, after he managed to elude policemen arresting him for "anti-government activities", and then fled the country.

Twenty-two years later, Paudyal is living in a refugee camp in Nepal, along with thousands of fellow Bhutanese driven away in the 1980s. Last week, Bhutan agreed to resume talks to have them repatriated, raising hopes of a possible homecoming. But those hopes were dashed the next day, when the government insisted on screening the refugees, and verifying their identities.


The refugees have reacted with anger, saying Bhutan is simply stalling. "Nepal and Bhutan jointly verified refugees of Khudunabari, one of seven camps, some years back," says T. P. Mishra, the 28- year-old editor of the Bhutan News Service (BNS) that operates from exile. "Though most of them were categorised as genuine Bhutanese, not a single refugee has been repatriated."

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Some one-fifth of the [Bhutanese] population were driven out, most of whom reached Nepal in the 1990s after wandering through India, which stands between the two tiny Himalayan nations. As the trickle of ref- ugees became a flood, an alarmed Nepal asked the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) for help and in 1992, UNHCR launched a major emergency assistance programme with the World Food Programme and other non-governmental partners.

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Though Nepal allowed the refugees asylum, it does not allow them to work or run businesses, fearing increased competition for locals.

"Refugees have the right under international law to their own country," says HRW. "However, in a flawed process that was widely discredited by international observers and refugee experts, Bhutan and Nepal instituted a joint verification process to determine which refugees would be able to return."

The camp residents were to have been classified into four groups: bona fide citizens; those who had surrendered their citizenship and would have to apply again; non-Bhutanese, who would not be al- lowed to go back; and criminals, who would face trial once they went back. Despite the verification process, no one was allowed home.

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Last week, Bhutan’s Prime Minister Jigmi Thinley arrived in Nepal on a three-day state visit, and said his government was ready to resume the repatriation talks halted eight years ago. However, he added that there should be a fresh "study" or "investigation" of the "people living in the camps."

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"Each time the Bhutanese PM visits Kathmandu, he continues to say that Bhutan is serious about the repatriation of Bhutanese refugees," said Mishra, who last year accepted resettlement in North Caroli- na and now works for a resettlement agency assisting Bhutanese refugees to assimilate locally. He also continues running BNS, which is a matter of pride for the refugees.

"It is nothing but a tactfully played game to hoodwink the international community," he added.

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Bhutan People’s Party (BPP), the party founded by the refugees, has delivered an ultimatum. "We are asking Bhutan’s new king, Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, to learn from the democratic trans- formations around the world and resume repatriation talks by 2011," said Paudyal, BPP chairman. "Otherwise, we will plan tougher measures." MORE

Lhotshampa eclipse?

Its numbers increasingly scattered across the globe, Bhutanese Nepali-speakers are wondering how to ensure the continuation of their unique lifestyle.

Bhutanese-Americans: The newly resettled Pradhan family, North Carolina, August 2010 CWS

The Lhotshampa, the residents of the southern Bhutanese foothills, are an integral part of the Nepali-speaking social commonwealth spread in Nepal, Bhutan and India. For the past quarter century this community has been in turmoil, resulting from their expulsion by the Bhutanese government in the early 1990s, when more than 75,000 Lhotshampa refugees were forced to take shelter in Nepal, eventually in several UN-run camps in the east of the country. Over subsequent years, while the UN’s refugee agency, UNHCR, pushed for repatriation to Bhutan, Kathmandu and Thimphu engaged in a dozen and a half rounds of talks. By 2008, however, none of these attempts had arrived at any solution; meanwhile, some 108,000 refugees, grown significantly since the initial expulsion, continued to languish in the Nepal camps.

It was against this backdrop that the US government proposed to resettle a minimum of 60,000 Lhotshampa; several other Western countries, including Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Britain, Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands, followed suit. This move led to acrimonious debate among the refugees, however, as the first priority for many in the community had long been to go back to Bhutan. Nonetheless, since early 2008 some 40,000 have indeed left the camps to be resettled in the West, leading to some initial euphoria in making such a significant move. As time has passed, however, some have begun to sense a new problem: In this new context, what will happen to their culture? What will happen to their language, their religious ceremonies – how will they cremate their dead? Such a churning has gained energy among the Lhotshampa intelligentsia, chiefly those in exile, but clear answers are yet to be found. The situation today is one in which the Lhotshampa cultural identity itself is at stake.

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