Merger of verified camp Khununabari kicks off

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Consolidation of the only verified camp Khudunabari has kicked off from Thursday by brining 20 households in Beldangi-II and Beldangi-II Extension camps.

New arrivals from Khudunabari at the reception center in Beldangi-II (Picture : Moses Lagoon)

The Joint Verification Team (JVT) formed by Nepal and Bhutan had verified all residents of this camp in 2001. The camp was housing 12,500 individuals at that time.

According to the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) Nepal, which has been shouldering the task of camp merger, the shifting would take more than a month, as it has to transfer some 7,000 persons. Around 6,000 have already been resettled to various countries from this camp.

Speaking at a farewell program held at Khudunabari camp, LWF Nepal’s Easter Region Project Director, Dhrubha Raj Pandit, mentioned three Beldangi camps would receive 677 households.

“Of this, some 300 families will be relocated in Beldangi-I camp and another 300 in Sanishare,” he said.

Representatives from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and government officials were also present in the camp to see off exiled Bhutanese of those 20 households.

Meanwhile, various agencies and camp management committee of Beldangi received the new arrivals amidst a welcome ceremony yesterday afternoon.

(Reported by Deo Kumar Tamang from Khudunabari with inputs from Moses Lagoon from Beldangi)

Four movies on pipeline for screening within this year

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At least four movies, including two documentaries, based the Bhutanese refugees are on the pipeline for releasing within this year.

The Organization of Bhutanese Community in America (OBCA) is reportedly releasing Suruwat in a couple of months. Being planned to start screening from the United States of America, this is the first movie produced by the resettled Bhutanese.

Similarly, two documentaries on the pipeline for this year are Forgotten Exiles From Bhutan by a Dutch NGO Empowerment Foundation, and the Bel City by a British Charity, Home Where There Is Heart (HWH), both in collaboration with the Bhutan Media Society.

Promoted under the banner of Headwind Film, the Forgotten Refugee has highlighted resettlement of exiled Bhutanese in the Netherlands with a clear focus on the camp life, according to its Director Alice Verheij. A fiction book ‘Headwind’ will also be released along with the film.

While, the Bel City intends to inform the westerners about crux of the Bhutanese refugee problem and day-to-day life from the refugee camps, informed Justin Ash of the HWH.

Trailers of both the documentary films have already been released, while the production teams are currently engaged in fund raising for accomplishing the projects, which have investments mostly from individuals involved.

From left, Director Upreti, Actress Mina Rai and Actor A.B.Rai (Picture : Vidhyapati Mishra)

Meanwhile, it is learnt that production stage of a Christian movie, Pabitra Bandhan, has almost come to an end.

Directed by exiled artist Kedar Upreti (U.K.), who has already played various roles in over a dozen of movies, the film is based on cultural marriage under practice among the Christian communities in Nepal and refugee camps.

“We are currently working with two songs used in the film,” Director Upreti told Bhutan News Service. “We are done with the rest.”

Produced in the banner of Bhutanese Christian Connection, the film will have an overall investment of Rs 1 million, according to its Producer Balidan Ghimire.

“Though our market is limited, we are hopeful of making some profits as artists from both the refugee and host community have invested in the film,” said Producer Ghimire.

890 students appearing SLC exams this year

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Altogether 890 students, including 15 exempted, are sitting for the School Leaving Certificate (SLC) examinations this year.

The Office of the Controller of Examinations (OCE) said that the 10-day exams will begin from March 20.

Pancha-oti English School has been allotted as an exams center for the students from three Beldangi camps, Timai and Goldhap, according to the Caritas Nepal. Students from Khunabari and Sanischare will go outside the camp for writing their examinations.

According the OCE, students will have to take the Compulsory English exam on the first day followed by Compulsory Nepali on March 21.

Similarly Mathematics exam will be conducted on March 23, Science on March 25 followed by Social Studies. The students will have to sit for Environment, Health and Population on March 27 and the optional first paper and second paper on March 28 and 29 respectively.

Source: The Refugee Herald

Over 5,000 people received lands owned by exiled citizens

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Altogether 5,088 people from various other districts have been resettled in farms and lands, which were previously owned by Southern Bhutanese in exile, between 1997 and 2008.

District map of Bhutan

Of this, Samtse suffered the largest resettlement as the National Land Commission (NLC) offered lands to 2,194 individuals, offering five acres of land for each resettled.

Likewise, 1,585 people were offered lands in Sarpang followed by 859 persons in Tshirang. Dagana received the least number of 450 resettlers, according to NLC.

The resettlers are mostly Sarchops from the East. However, the Commission has issued lands to landless citizens from other parts of the country as well.

Meanwhile, the Commission last week notified all resettlers that if they failed to occupy or cultivate the allotted land it would not be registered.

It has also warned of nullifying the registration of those who have stopped cultivating the farms offered to them.

Unverified reports have claimed that new settlers in the South have been threatened of physical actions from some underground outfits for agreeing to cultivate the farms and lands abandoned by exiled Bhutanese.

11th SAARC Secy from Maldives appointed

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The 11th Secretary General of the SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) has been appointed.

Secy General

According to the SAARC Secretariat, Ahmed Saleem of Maldives has succeeded Fathimath Dhiyana Saeed. The outgoing Secretary General was also from Maldives.

He joined the Maldivian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1968 and served for over 26 years. He served at the High Commission of Maldives in Sri Lanka and the Permanent Mission of Maldives in New York, according to the Secretariat.

Saleem is also said to have served as the Maldivian Government’s first Alternative Governor for the World Bank and Asian Development Bank.

He assumed his office in Kathmandu three days ago.

YOB, Danish community support fire victims

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The Youth Organization of Bhutan (YOB) and Association of Bhutanese Communities in Denmark (ABCD) supported recent fire victims of Beldangi-II camp, Sunday.

A fire victim shows cash donation that he received from the Program Deo Foundation

YOB distributed 46 sets of mosquito nets and bedsheets for affected households, according to N.B.Karki of the organization. The organization donated NRs 23,000 for the same.

The ABCD provided cash support to the fire victims through BRAIN (Bhutanese Refugees Association of Intellectual Novas).

According to BRAIN Coordinator Basu Khanal, the donation was mobilized by grouping all affected households into burnt families and dismantled families.

A cash amount of Rs 1100 was provided to each burnt hut while damaged hut received Rs 850 each from the Danish Bhutanese community. The fire victims received 3,550 Danish Kroner in total from ABCD.

Chairperson of Danish Bhutanese community Thugten Drukpa said, “We are deeply saddened to hear the devastating fire accident in Beldangi-II Camp. We have no words to adequately express our sympathy for the annihilating loss that our people must be feeling.”

The BRAIN volunteers distribute cash donations from the Danish Bhutanese community ( Picture : Shekhar Rizal)

He further said, “We also understand that our people are staying temporarily in a difficult situation. Our prayers and thoughts are with you all during this difficult time. The community from here remembers, cares and stands by the side of fire victims, and wishes good luck in getting things back to normal condition as quickly as possible.”

Meanwhile, Program Deo Foundation from Texas also provided Rs 2,000 each for 46 households affected by the fire mishap.

The donation was mobilized by the Refugee Herald Team and school teacher L.B.Pakwal of Beldangi-II.

Bhutan Media Society starts donation drive for existence

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The Bhutan Media Society (BMS) has said it has initiated a donation drive involving resettled Bhutanese and well-wishers from March 8.

The collected donations will be used for effective operations of BMS and its associates, according to Society’s Manager Vidhyapati Mishra.

“It is a matter of pride for BMS and its affiliates are soon becoming community-based media. Several from the Bhutanese diaspora have been expressing their financial commitments to support survival of the Bhutanese media in exile. More helping hands are likely to join us very soon,” said Mishra in a circular, Thursday.

Last week, the Society made a circular among resettled Bhutanese  informing them of possible shutdown of BMS and its associates from March 10, 2012. However, in no time, dozens of community members responded stating that they do not want to see the decade-long media history in exile dying in lack of operational budgets and even committed their financial supports.

“We are receiving a number of similar responses everyday. And, we are certain that this will go up in the days to come since even friends of BMS have already heard about our fate. They are, indeed, sad to know about this. Some of them have already declared their commitments,” added he.

According to Manager Mishra, direct supports from the community do expect professional content generations in return, for which the Society is committed.

He further said that friends and well-wishers want the media in exile to be more responsible, professional and strongly committed to information dissemination on time.

The Society has also asked every Bhutanese to be a part of the mission by extending helping hands to transform BMS into community-based media. “We even want to request our well-wishers and friends to make donations at will for our survival,” he added.

(Click here to submit your donations)

Meanwhile, BMS said it will shutdown all of its associate media from March 10 stating that development of a comprehensive news site would begin from the same day. However, Bhutan News Service will continue feeding news from www.bhutannewsservice.com until the new site becomes ready, which is expected by the end of March.

Repatriation is no longer possible : OL

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Just a few days after the Prime Minister reiterated the government’s position in accepting “genuine citizens” for repatriation, Opposition Leader Tshering Tobgay flayed the PM’s statement. 

However, his explanation on bringing the longstanding refugee imbroglio to a logical conclusion has clearly depicted his “childish political ideology”. Indeed, a few comments posted on his post do explain the “political maturity level” the OL leader has.

The Prime Minister Jigmi Y Thinley on March 1 said that the government might bring back some of the “people living in camps” in eastern Nepal if they fulfill the criteria agreed upon earlier by the governments of Bhutan and Nepal. He is a short interview with him on this issue:

What is your overall view on the issue?

OL Tshering Tobgay
Tshering Tobgay

I don’t understand how the prime minister can even consider repatriation. In 2001 the Bhutanese and Nepalese governments began a joint verification of the people in Khudunabari camp. That verification process came to an abrupt end after the Bhutanese team was attacked and beaten up violently in 2003, just before they completed the joint verification of the people in Khudunabari camp. The joint verification process did not resume after that unfortunate incident. Therefore, I don’t see on what basis, on what criteria, the prime minister could even consider repatriating people.

Does PDP support repatriation?

No. Repatriation is no longer possible. Repatriation of some people was a genuine possibility 10 years ago, but even then, only if the verification process was honest and complete. That didn’t happen. Now it’s more than 20 years since people settled in the camps, plus most of them have opted to resettle in third countries. If repatriation was not possible 10 years ago, in spite of the best efforts of the governments of Bhutan and Nepal, I don’t see how the prime minister can even talk about it as a possibility now.

At a time when most of the camp people have accepted resettlement in third countries, some observers feel that the prime minister should not have spoken that the government “will bring” some of the people back as the PM’s speech might disturb the resettlement programme in third countries. Please comment.

I fail to see the logic in the prime minister’s statement. How can he commit to repatriate people if we now don’t have any basis of even identifying whether a person is a genuine Bhutanese or not.

What is the best solution according to you?

I am grateful for, and support resettlement in third countries, especially since the people in the camps themselves prefer to settle in third countries. In addition, I strongly support honest dialogue between the governments of Bhutan and Nepal to consider workable ways of bringing closure to this difficult problem.

Courtesy: The Bhutan Today

OL irked at PM’s remarks on repatriation

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Tshering Tobgay, a Member of Parliament representing Sombaykha Constituency in Haa and the Leader of the Opposition party in the National Assembly, has criticized Prime Minister Jigmi Y Thinley for speaking on the favor of exiled Bhutanese.

OL Tshering Tobgay
Tshering Tobgay

Just a few days after the Prime Minister reiterated the government’s position in accepting “genuine citizens” for repatriation, OL Tobgay flayed PM’s statement.

“I fail to see the logic in the prime minister’s statement. How can he commit to repatriate people if we now don’t have any basis of even identifying whether a person is a genuine Bhutanese or not?” Tobgay, who is also a top ranking blogger in the country, wrote in his blog Tuesday.

However, his explanation on bringing the longstanding refugee imbroglio to a logical conclusion has clearly depicted his “childish political ideology”. Indeed, a few comments posted on his post did explain his “political maturity level”.

According to his claim, repatriation is no longer possible stating that acceptance of some citizens was a genuine possibility 10 years ago, but even then, only if the verification process was honest and complete.

“That didn’t happen. Now it’s more than 20 years since people settled in the camps, plus most of them have opted to resettle in third countries. If repatriation was not possible 10 years ago, in spite of the best efforts of the governments of Bhutan and Nepal, I don’t see how the prime minister can even talk about it as a possibility now,” he wrote.

Without accepting the responsibility of his People’s Democratic Party in pressurizing the House to resolve the refugee crisis in a moral ground, Tobgay, however, thanked the international community for accepting exiled Bhutanese for resettlement.

He also remembered to accuse citizens in exile of preferring to resettle in the third countries.

“I am grateful for, and support resettlement in third countries, especially since the people in the camps themselves prefer to settle in third countries,” added he.

Meanwhile, he said his party would also support honest dialogue between the governments of Nepal and Bhutan to consider “workable ways” of bringing closure to the refugee problem. However, he didn’t elaborate.

Should you wish to comment on his position on repatriation, he can be reached at [email protected].

Those fulfilling set criteria will be accepted back home : PM Thinley

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Prime Minister Jigmi Y Thinley on Thursday told media persons in Thimphu that his government was positive about solving the long running problems of “people in camps in Nepal” that has persisted over two decades.

He told that the government serious to find a solution to the problem of people in the camps in Nepal that has often been blamed for taking Bhutan-Nepal relations into ransom, reports from inside said.

The Prime Minister expressed the government’s concerns over the people in the camps being one of the biggest problems, which continue to threaten the peace and stability of the country.

PM Thinley

“Presently the position of the government is, we will take back anybody who fulfills the criteria agreed upon between Nepal and Bhutan in the bilateral discussion,” online edition of the Business Bhutan quoted the PM as saying.

He also reinstated that the bilateral talks on the repatriation between the governments of Nepal and Bhutan were stalled after a Bhutanese delegation was assaulted by the mob in the camps.

However, during the press meet, the PM also claimed that Bhutan is interested to initiate bilateral talks with the Nepal government soon.

“We need to resolve the issue quickly but a solution has not been easy to find as the two countries have struggled to find a solution for many years,” he said adding,” Almost a decade after the two governments broke talks on repatriation of people in the camps.”

According to Thinley’s claim, it was he who asked his Nepalese counterpart Dr Baburam Bhattarai to resume discussions on exiled citizens

“Now it appears that the majority of people in the camps have already registered for resettlement in the third world countries,” added the PM.

Interesting he maintained that whatever the status, background or the rights or the lack of rights of the people might be, the fact is because Bhutan is directly associated with the huge population in the camp, it has very strong security and political implications for Bhutan.

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