Bhutanese political organizations in exile have jointly requested the Nepalese prime minister to raise Bhutanese refugee issues with his Indian counterpart.
Bhutanese Movement Steering Committee, Druk National Congress and Bhutan People’s Party sent an appeal to Nepalese Prime minister Dr. Baburam Bhattarai who is on his 4 day long visit to India, requesting him to include refugee agenda with ‘some merit’.
In a joint appeal sent to PM Bhattarai, the political organizations have held the lack of commitment from Bhutan responsible for the failure to resolve the refugee stalemate through bilateral talks. They have also criticized the resettlement programme calling it a factor effecting the long movement and efforts of most of the refugees to repatriate to home country.
In the appeal letter, the political organizations have labelled the refugee issue as an important part of peace process of Nepal.” Since this is not a bilateral issue alone between Nepal and Bhutan, we are highly optimistic that this visit will win the confidence of India to ensure their sincere involvement to resolve the long outstanding refugee issue for repatriation to home country”, reads the appeal.
Tek Nath Rizal, Balaram Poudel and Kezang Nedup have singed the appeal on behalf of BMSC, BPP and DNC, respectively.
