The Youth Organization of Bhutan (YOB) has raised the issue of exiled Bhutanese in a three-day regional meeting of the Asia Pacific Committee (APC) of the International Union of Socialist Youth (IUSY) that concluded on February 20.
A press statement issued by the Organization said that its President Rajen Giri from California of America attended the meeting in Jakarta, the capital city of Indonesia.
Dozens of youth leaders from Burma, Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia and Australia among others were present during the meeting.
In the meeting, YOB sought the solidarity and presented the country report and proposed immediate start of repatriation process for the Bhutanese refugees, adopt reconciliation approach and pave ways for human rights and political organizations to participate in the ongoing democratic transition, and revisit the noble concept of Gross National Happiness (GNH), according to the statement.
“In the meeting, President Giri also distributed the campaign materials and asked fellow attendees to strongly question the much hyped so called Gross National Happiness (GNH) Campaign of Royal Government of Bhutan vis-à-vis the generation of refugees with notorious census of 1988 targeted for ethnic cleansing of ethnic Nepali-speaking people living in the southern Bhutan,” the statement said.
