Bhutanese Community Resource Center (BCRC) elected 27 community members for the board of BCRC 2011-12, with a community gathering on Sunday.
BCRC is a community organization based in Washington which includes six different cities namely Everett, Tukwila, Burein, Seatac, Kent and Ranier where Bhutanese people are resettled.
New BCRC Board members. Photo/Damber Chapagai
Tanka Dhital and Yug Dabadi were re-elceted for the post of chair and vice chair while Dhanapati Nepoaney and Biren Khadga were elected for the post of Secretary and Treasurer respectlvely. The new board and the executive committee is functional from July 3.
A nine member independent election team headed by Nandu Pokhrel facilitated the election.
BCRC chairman Tanka Dhital expressed that his top priority is to expedite the search of the three missing boys from Washington. The first meeting of the new board approved his decision to help the families in search operation.
Bhutanese Community Resource Center (BCRC) has a provision in its bylaws to elect the board and the executive committee every year.
Association of Bhutanese in America (ABA) concluded its fourth annual convention amidst special function in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, Sunday.
The strategic planning session, which concluded in a closed door meeting on Friday, amended the mission statement of the organization. ABA has also decided to extend its Executive Board members.
Hari Acharya, Executive Director of ABA, presented an annual report focused on a project launched by ABA in Baltimore, Maryland. ABA, in collaboration with the International Rescue Committee (IRC) has been launching a project in Maryland.
“We would like to extend our gratitude to all those who volunteered in the project,” Acharya said. ABA also handed over the letter of appreciation to individuals and communities who assisted Bhutanese Community in Pittsburg.
Participants in cultural program. Photo/Tek Mishra
The second day of convention endorsed the proposal of the amendment of the mission statement. Majority of the participants expressed their concern regarding the unity of the two claiming to be national organizations, Association of Bhutanese in America (ABA) and Organization of Bhutanese Communities in America (OBCA). Answering to the queries, ABA representatives mentioned that the issues such as changing of the name and dissolution of ABA had been significant issues that hinder the unification.
Recently, from June 10-12, OBCA concluded its second convention with a grand function in Nashville, Tennessee. As mentioned earlier by OBCA’s chairman, in a radio talk with BNS, Yam Kharel and Naresh Dahal participated in this convention of ABA, representing OBCA.
The convention concluded along with the third day cultural programs which included Sangini, folk and modern dances.
Registered as Non-Profit organization in Washington DC, ABA was formed in July 2007.
I would like to start with two very big “Thank yous”. The first one addressed to the government of Nepal and the host communities in Jhapa and Morang districts who have welcomed, in a very generous manner, and for 20 years, the refugees from Bhutan. Even when there is substantive contribution and unrestricted support from the international community, hosting refugees has a cost for the country and the local communities. It has a cost on the environment, on the infrastructure and social services, and more generally on resources which are limited and not renewable.
My gratitude also goes to the international community, in particular the eight members of the Core Group of resettlement countries, the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom; the countries which have earmarked funds for the refugee operation in Nepal. Funding has alleviated a significant part of the burden on Nepal while resettlement has been the key to unblocking the situation and finding a durable solution to the situation. Let’s be frank, without resettlement, we would not be here today. Resettlement has completely changed the equation. While in too many countries, refugee situations become protracted with no hope in sight, Nepal is quite unique as the resettlement option is open to virtually every refugee. There is no other example in the world of such an incredibly generous offer from resettlement countries.
Capitalising on completely new dynamics and a rapidly decreasing refugee population, the Government of Nepal and UNHCR have moved forward together to consolidate some of the camps, close some others and prepare for a long term strategy.
Speakers during the workshop session in Kathmandu/Vidhyapati Mishra
At the peak, some five years back, we had some 108,000 refugees accommodated in seven camps. Today we have slightly less than 67,000 refugees in four camps. Out of this number, some 25,000, i.e. 37 per cent, were born in the camps and have never been to Bhutan. Some 46,000 refugees have departed for a third resettlement country.
Camp consolidation and camp closure is one element of the long-term strategy. The second one—community based development—is more ambitious. It is principled and there is no doubt in my mind that this is the right path to take. I am conscious that it entails the considerable risk of raising expectations with the possibility of not being able to fully deliver. But we are ready to take calculated risks and put in place mechanisms to properly address those risks. What we are proposing is the only way to close the Bhutanese refugee chapter in a respectful and dignified way. Our Community Based Development Programme (CBDP) aims to work towards the inclusion of humanitarian needs in the development agenda, in order to ensure sustained and quality interventions for a much reduced number of refugees from Bhutan and for the surrounding local communities under the leadership of the Government of Nepal and the UN Country Team.
According to our projections based on reliable resettlement departures, mid-2015, there will be “only” 10,000 refugees, while the surrounding impacted local communities will amount to some 325,000 persons. The total number of refugees may even go further down in 2015 and beyond. With these completely changed figures in mind, we believe it is our responsibility to promote through this initiative the peaceful coexistence between refugees and host communities, to call for equal access to public services by both communities and to mainstream refugee issues into the planning cycle of the government. A number of cardinal principles will need to be adhered to: non-discrimination, gender equality, inclusiveness, capacity building of local partners and community participation.
Let’s admit that this CBDP initiative is still very much in its draft form. A number of important steps have been taken but a lot still needs to be done. The main achievement is the completion of the five Joint Needs Assessments which took place between February and May 2011 and have identified some development needs in the refugee impacted areas.
The Joint Needs Assessments were a remarkable inter-agency work, involving all relevant ministries under the leadership and active engagement of the Chief District Officers of Jhapa and Morang, bilateral development agencies, NGOs as well as the UN Country Team. They were also participatory with both refugees and host communities being consulted throughout the process.
The initial list of tentative projects must now be translated into clear priorities and a coherent programme with well-defined benchmarks.
If successful, this initiative will become a model of transition between a humanitarian operation and development work. In that regard, Nepal is quite unique and this is why our Headquarters in Geneva are telling us there may be genuine interest to support the future programme in a number of capitals. Nepal is unique because the Government of Nepal has been engaged during all phases of the operation, first by endorsing resettlement and secondly by moving forward on the initiative. I am proud to say the level of trust and cooperation between the Government and UNHCR is truly outstanding. This operation is also unique because Nepal is the only country where the commitment of resettlement countries is so massive and unrestricted, thus opening the door for a lasting solution to the refugee situation.
You will have noticed that I have not yet mentioned voluntary repatriation to Bhutan. The solution, which many refugees would like to be promoted more forcefully, is also the most elusive one.
We do have a collective responsibility to talk to the Bhutanese authorities and remind them of their obligation. It is not easy and the result so far has been disappointing. But we must continue our efforts and be united. We must coordinate our efforts in the interest of the refugees and support Nepal in that respect.
(This is a speech delivered by UNHCR’s Country Representative Jaquemet on June 13 at a workshop in Kathmandu. The workshop was a Joint Assessment Needs for a Community Based Development Programme (CBD) for the exiled Bhutanese organized by the Ministry of Home Affairs and UNHCR.)
The Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) of Nepal Police has arrested three persons involved in conning people with promises of sending them to the US and Canada on fake Bhutanese refugees cards.
The Ekantipur on Monday reported that a special squad of the CIB caught three members of the gang from Old Baneshwor after receiving a complaint that Nepali people had been issued Bhutanese refugee cards for sending them to Western countries.
The first refugee family to receive the identity card in Sanischare camp in eastern Nepal.Picture Courtesy : UNHCR
The arrested trio has been identified as Sujan Dahal, 31, of Biratnagar, Lok Bahadur Bista, 40, of Dadeldhura, and Narendra Bhandari, 40, of Syangja, who had been operating this racket through ‘American European Education Council Pvt. Ltd.’ located at Old Baneshwor.
Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Police Rajendra Singh Bhandari, Director of the CIB, said the brain behind the racket is Bishnu Karki, who is doing time in Dillibazaar-based jail in connection with committing similar crimes for the last one year, according to the report.
It further reported that the CIB said the modus operandi of the racket members was to approach gullible foreign job aspirants, show them fake documents of UNHCR, and ask them to deposit over Rs. 1.2 million each in their bank accounts before procuring the forged cards of Bhutanese refugees.
The con job was a technically clever affair, with the fraudulent Bhutanese documentation being produced through software, scanning and photocopying machines, added Ekantipur.
The trio would scan original cards of refugees and delete the photo and other details using Photoshop software. The forged documents looked startlingly like the real thing.
Investigation has led CIB to believe that three to four persons may have entered Western countries on forged papers. However, the Bhutan News Service couldn’t verify the claim immediately.
Bank transactions show the fraudsters amassed over Rs. 23 million through their racket.
Preliminary investigation shows at least 16 people were duped, said DIG Bhandari.
Police suspect there could be other victims who have not stepped forward to lodge complaints. Each victim was found to have deposited Rs. 1.2 million in his/her bank account under American European Education Council at Kumari Bank. After pocketing the money, the trio would produce forged Bhutanese refugee cards.
Police have also confiscated a forged ‘Canada For UNHCR Refugees Identification Card’ issued in the name of Mukunda Singh from the fraudsters. CIB is trying to determine if the arrestees have other co-conspirators, said the report
Chairman of the Bhutanese Refugee Representative Repatriation Committee, Dr Bhampa Rai, informed the south Asian delegates for the need to find the durable resolution to Bhutanese refugee issues. He opined that the third country resettlement was not solution. He rather termed it, “dignified human trafficking”.
In same breathe, he stressed on the right to return of all Bhutanese who had opted for third country resettlement because they were offered a Hobson choice.
The Bhutanese citizen’s right to repartition is paramount and international community must pressure the Bhutanese regime to initiate repatriation, according to him.
He was co-chair in one of the thematic sessions during the Regional Conference on Challenges and Way Forward for Democracy and Peace in South Asia organised by South Asia Alliance for Poverty Eradication (SAAPE) held on 1-2 July, 2011 in Kathmandu.
Nepali Deputy Prime Minister Mohan Adhikari inaugurated the conference. The other dignitaries present during the conference were Mani Shanker Aiyar, Member of Rajya Sabha, India, Bam Dev Gautam – Vice President – CPN-UML , Prof. Selvy Thiruchandran, Sri Lanka, Hridayash Tripathi – Vice President -TMDP, Ms Chitra Lekha Yadab – Treasurer – NC, C.P. Gajurel – Secretary – UCPN-M.
Karma Duptho, secretary of Druk National Congress was other Bhutanese delegate present during the conference.
In the first part, you can listen to an interview with Parsu Luital who has reached to the Netherlands after participating in UNHCR high-level meetings in Geneva. In the second part, you can listen to a talk with our Buffalo based correspondent, Bhakta Ghimire, regarding Thal Khanal who was found dead in Niagara River on Wednesday. Khanal was missing since June 24 from his apartment at Fargo Avenue, Buffalo, New York.
Bhutanese resettled in different provinces of Canada participated in Canada Day Celebration, Friday.
Canadian Bhutanese of Newfoundland performed dances in the eve of Canada day at confederation Building located in St. John’s city. A group led by Ganga Neopaney presented Nepali folk dance Shangini and Bhutanese student of Holly Heart , Holly Cross, Brother Rice presented Nepali dance Pani Mitho Mero Hajur, Renuka Adhikari reported over telephone .
Bhutanese Participants. Photo/Yadap Neupane
“This is the first time I participated in Canada Day Celebration”, Dawa Tamang, a newly arrived participant said. “It is important that we preserve our culture through such programs”, he added. Cultural dances from China, Malaysia ,India , Republic of Congo and Ethiopia were presented .
Canadian Bhutanese of Saint John, Newbrunswik also celebrated Canada Day in Saint John uptown . “Bhutanese participants, who were carrying Canadian flag, were seen happy”, Damber Osti , from Saint John said.
Trevor, Minister for Tourism and Parksalso, Minister for Wellness, Culture and Sports shared Canada day cake to all the participants.
Canada Day is celebrated on the first day of July every year.
It is identified that the dead body found in Niagara River on Wednesday afternoon is of Mr. Thal Khanal who had been missing from his apartment at Fargo Avenue, Buffalo, New York, since 24th June 4 P.M.
According to the sources a boatman working in Niagara region saw a human dead body floating on the surface and soon called the police. After autopsy done in ECMC hospital in Bufffalo, the dead body was identified by his family members who were called there to confirm it by the hospital authority. The cause of the death is yet not confirmed.
Until the filing of this news, the dead body has been kept in a funeral home at Summer-Delaware crossing, near downtown of Buffalo. Cremation of the dead body is scheduled at about 10 A.M. on Saturday.
The new bridge under construction at Samdingkha, Punakha broke under the weight of the machine, which was working on it. Machine took along the contractor and three other workers. One of the workers was rescued and taken to hospital under critical condition and other three were feared drowned.
Bhutan, so-called last Shangri-La cannot forget the bitter experiences of challenges that continue to haunt the people by those horrendous episodes of the 1990s and the 1997. It sometimes traumatizes people who were the eyewitnesses and victims of the oppressive regime that launched the merciless crackdown first on the Lhotshampas followed by Sharchops community.
Both the communities demanded a simple change in the political system so as to acclaim the rights ensured globally by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It is also very clear that the demand of the people was nothing different or bizarre from rest of the world that enjoys the values of democracy. It is however a pathetic story for every Bhutanese to realize that not an inch has been moved from absolutism despite proclamation of so-called democracy in 2008.
The entire nation is deprived of their basic rights and fundamental freedoms in absence of true democracy as the ruling regime evolves with a crucial move of developing a network of elites firstly by marrying Prime Minister’s son to one of the princesses followed by another princess marrying the son of senior bureaucrat Kipchu. Yet another surprise has been marrying third princess to the son of Kinley Wangchuk, who happens to be nephew of Kinley Wangdi, ex-husband of eldest queen Dorji Wangmo.
The world community remains lip-locked when it comes to expressing critiques to Bhutan’s system of democracy as the legacy of Wangchuk dynasty’s dynamics of charming the people has been prodigious.
The fourth monarch, who evolved into being the political woe initiator on the guidance of Rajiv Gandhi in the mid-eighties, sand-witched by his four queens, had to give up the power in favor of his eldest son crowning him the fifth King and proclaiming the so-called democracy under constitutional monarchy in 2008. Not realizing the reality of being geo-physically sand-witched between the two mighty Asian giants—China in the north and India in the south, signed yet another Indo-Bhutan Treaty 2007 annulling the spiritually comfortable provisions enshrined in the 1949 treaty.
The aftermath saw the new pseudo democracy reducing the area of Bhutan from 46,500 square kilometers to 38,000 square kilometers with no explanations given to the people. Should we call it the loss due to exclusion of India’s representation in the northern border talks? If not, is it a shift or change in the partnership after such a long period of dependence to the south? Bhutanese may not like to suddenly shift their religio-cultural and trade relationship to transfer to the north with which Bhutan has no link what so ever until this day. Particularly, with Tibet absorbed into the Chinese domain, Bhutanese people have never looked upwards for any kind of social, cultural or religious benefits.
Following eviction of the Lhotshampa en masse and mass asylum seekers from other parts of Bhutan, who escaped the brutal hands of the regime ensuing peaceful movements for democracy, the refugee community as well as the political groups explored every possible avenues in the Indian arena for support and mediation to justly resolve the entanglement. However, India remained a mere spectator despite being a key partner of Bhutan’s overall developments and largest democracy of the world.
Having failed to avail any support, the ever-weary refugee community decided embracing the proposal of third country resettlement offered as burden-sharing solution by a group of core countries led by the USA. Exiled people at least thought it wiser to opt for a long term planning by taking up the offer in the interest of gaining exposure and learning from the developed world community.
The resettlement program has given the community not only relief from the throbbing life under bamboo huts, but also gives an opportunity for their children to be educated in the western world and equip themselves for a better future both in terms of political and economic strength so that they could be well equipped to shoulder the greater responsibility of carrying out the mission of true democracy and development in Bhutan.
It is a matter of high appreciation to the core countries for accepting a progressive demography of the Lhotshampa community under resettlement program, which perhaps will be gradually followed by family members from other community from other parts of Bhutan. The urge for repatriation being miles away from people’s hope and the conducive atmosphere in Bhutan not visible owing to it’s reluctance to accept any refugees to return home at least in the immediate future, it would be perhaps a compelling moment for the Sharchops or even the Ngalong community members if any in exile to opt for third country resettlement option as a temporary measure while continue to maintain the identity of being a Bhutanese in whichever the country they decide of getting resettled.
In this context, opting resettlement by the communities other than Lhotshampa community would mean achieving multiple mileages of internationalization of our movement for democracy as a Bhutanese and help unfold the true face of the regime’s inhumane character of victimizing their own citizens. The regime’s position of stating ethnic cleansing would be proved wrong as the regimes own ethnicity too will be exposed to the outside world.
In fact, how much it is true of the victimization of diverse ethnicity and the presence of feudalistic rules will be exposed with utmost clarity. If Sharchops, struggling for democracy and human rights get opportunity to be resettled and educated from western world, it will certainly help to bring the entire movement into a central alliance, which becomes more rational to intensify the movement vigorously. On the other hand, the Sharchops community, currently languishing in the camps given the disadvantages being unable to have free access to the Buddhist society outside the camps, accepting local assimilation will not be a relief and thus would be more beneficial should they get resettled in a third country given the advantage of mass Buddhist establishments of Tibetan refugees communities.
It is believed that the US government as the oldest democracy will help convince Bhutan to create a conducive situation for all the aspiring refugees to return home in safe atmosphere as has happened to several other countries, where too refugees had once sought for the third country resettlement as a temporary measures to give humanitarian support until a favorable situation was developed in their original homeland.
Meanwhile, it is high time that we forget the past and emerge with a new vision to centralize the movement under a strong leadership who could be able to campaign world community against the regime’s policy that left more than one hundred thousand of us displaced and suffering for the last over two decades.
(Chhoejay is President of the Druk National Congress (Democratic)-affiliated Druk National Youth Congress. He can be reached at: [email protected])
