Kathmandu, August 15, 2009: Dr. DNS Dhakal, Acting President of Bhutan National Democratic Party (BNDP) and Karma Duptho, Secretary of Druk National Congress (DNC) submitted the application to Nepalese Home Minister Bhim Rawal at latter’s office in Kathmandu drawing attention of minister to expedite the process of issuance of Bhutanese refugee identity card.
According to Duptho, Minister Rawal promised to look into the matter seriously.
The Government of Nepal and UNHCR jointly conducted census of exiled Bhutanese in 2006-2007 following which the identity cards were issued. Some several hundreds of them haven’t received their identity card until now.
In addition, they, along with S. B. Subba, Harka Jung Subba, Radha Adhikari and Nirula Rai attended the SAAPE conference in which Bhutanese political and refugee issues was apprised to the members of civil societies from EU and India to pressurize their respective governments for the repatriation of exiled Bhutanese and early resolution to political crisis.

New Delhi, August 15, 2009: Druk National Congress (DNC) has asked the government to withdraw cases and sentences against all Bhutanese prisoners who are facing or have been convicted of political offences, offences of political nature and charges made with a view to punish them for political offences, and release them immediately.
In a memo sent to Prime Minister Jigmi Y. Thinley, the party also urged to speed up the establishment of an independent judiciary and the requisite infrastructure to freely enable the public to seek immediate redressal of their grievances and disputes.
It has also demanded to allow registration of all political parties that are interested to participate in Bhutan’s political process.
The memo signed by party president Rongthong reads, “We placed great hope and expectation on the new administration under your leadership to take special duty in initiating efforts towards a resolution of all outstanding political and other issues. Yet, despite repeated calls for due attention to be given, there is complete silence on various pending issues. We express our disappointment at this indifference.”
The party reminded that it would be a tragic assumption on your part to conclude that the sort of “democracy” instituted within Bhutan has or will automatically solve all outstanding political issues by itself, or that maintaining a quiet status quo on the fundamentals of past policies under the veil of democracy will be the solution to Bhutan’s problems.
The last few decades of experience has proved the contrary, and has shown that the only way out for us is to move judiciously forward in the true spirit of democracy, the memo reads.
The party has also reminded that the democracy is still only symbolic because of the absence of appropriate institutions, processes and practices that should be in harmony with a participative, vibrant and meaningful democracy.
“Due to the continuity of policies and restrictions of the pre-2008 era in Bhutan, political prisoners continue to languish in Bhutanese jails and democratic political parties are still forced remain in exile and out of the political process, and ironically all of them have been instrumental in initiating and precipitating the current democratic changes in Bhutan,” Rongthong said.

Tek Nath Rizal and Balaram Paudyal yesterday met the Nepali Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal and requested to grant political asylum for exiled political leaders and human rights activists in Nepal.

In a letter addressed to the PM, the duo has asked the government to form a permanent task force to handle the long-standing Bhutanese issue.

The next demand included bringing Indian government’s involvement in resolving this crisis.

“Prime Minister has assured us that he’d discuss the issue seriously with his counterpart during the upcoming visit to India”, said Balaram Paudel quoting the Nepali PM as saying.

Meanwhile, Druk National Congress (DNC) in a separate letter to Jigmi Y Thinley reminded him to take necessary steps to resolve the exile issue.

Considering the Bhutanese democracy as just symbolic, DNC said that still hundreds of political prisoners are inside iron bars and should be released to protect democratic norms and values.

One refugee girl was robbed by a group of three people yesterday at around 12 AM local time in Stone Mountain city in Georgia on August 7.

Anupama Koirala, a former refugee from Timai camp, sector B/2, Hut no 19, was returning from her job along with her friends and a brother when the incident took place in front of her own apartment. They were being followed by three men as soon as they stepped in on Marta, the local bus that runs in the city.

After they got down at CVS pharmacy and headed towards Wyn View Apartments, where they live, they followed them further about 10 minutes before one of them pointed a gun at Shanti Ram Dhungel, a friend of Anupama. Then they snatched the purse from the girl and fled the scene before the police arrived.

This is one of the incidents of attacks on the resettled refugees in row. Lately the refugees have been living in intimidation; and it appears that those who work at night and who do not own car have been targeted more.