KATHMANDU: By the looks of it, Maoist fever is not confined to Nepal only. Many other countries in the Himalyan range are showing signs of it, hinting that they might have to go through their own version of Jana Andolan (people’s uprising) soon, because of a slow but certain shift in the political tectonic plates. The region has assumed great strategic significance especially after the opening of the Beijing-Lhasha rail link and removal of the barbed wires on the Indo-China border in Sikkim. At least that was the feeling I got while taking to Bhutanese refugees living in Nepal who seem to be distinctly influenced by Maoist ideology.

It was a bright Monday afternoon after a cloudburst in Katmandu early this month when some of the participants of the South Asian Alliance for Poverty Eradication conference walked up to the Saarc Secretariat to express solidarity with a handful of Bhutanese who had staged a sit-in to draw attention to grievances of thousands of their countrymen forced to live in exile.

The feeling that many Bhutanese were weighing the option of armed struggle for their rights was reinforced during talks with Mohan Tamang, President of the Democratic Youth of Bhutan, the youth wing of Bhutan National Democratic Party, at the demonstration.

When I asked him how the Maoist uprising in Nepal has affected the thinking of the Bhutanese refugees and whether there had been any connection with them, Mohan Tamang sounded evasive, perhaps deliberately.

“I can’t say categorically that they have established relations. But it is very obvious that people in the refugee camps have been influenced by the Maoist insurgency in Nepal,” said Tamang who emphasized that the whole camp vicinity was Maoist-infested.

“There is a good hold of the Maoists. So obviously the camp people have been influenced by the success of the Maoists and Jana Andolan in Nepal,” the Bhutanese youth leader said.

Tamang offered some hint when he said that “from the media we are hearing that some people, including Bhutanese Maoists, had meetings in Nepal in the refugee camps. But we are not sure that with this philosophy they will be able to achieve anything”.

He was expressing the view that it was not necessary for others to copy the Nepalese uprising and that they should take stock of their own ground realities and learn from the mistakes of other countries of the region.

Be that as it may, one thing was certain that bad and autocratic governance in the region was not only depriving people of their political and economic rights, but was also a constant threat to peace and stability. It also underscores the urgent need for addressing these problems and also of the return of refugees to their own country as soon as possible.

Tamang blamed the government of Bhutan, the international community, including India, for not addressing the issue on an urgent basis. He was of the view that “India has a role to play and if New Delhi had sincerely embarked on resolving the issue, by now it must have been resolved”.

Democratic Youth of Bhutan, which is the youth wing of Bhutan National Democratic Party, was established in 1992 and has since been working inside and outside Bhutan. Participants of the sit-in said that for the past 14 years, 106,000 Bhutanese refugees were languishing in the UNHCR-managed camps in eastern Nepal.

Many of them were flushed out of Bhutan because in 1992 they had tried to raise voice against the government’s ethnic laws. This was in reaction to a citizenship law, passed by the Bhutanese assembly, which was targeted against the Lohtshampa community of Nepalese origin who constitute 40 per cent of the population and are mainly dominating south of Bhutan.

Tamang explained that there are three major ethnic groups in Bhutan. One is Ngalong, the ruling elite comprising 25 per cent of the population, mainly in the west of the country, and they have customs and traditions similar to the Tibetans. The other is Sarchop in the east, constituting about 30 per cent of the population.

The 1985 Citizenship Act, debarring the Lhotshampas from getting the national citizenship card, was termed a mala fide act of the Bhutanese government to disenfranchise the Bhutanese of Nepali origin and deprive them of their political and economic rights as Bhutanese.

Like a seasoned rights activist Mohan claimed “there isn’t still any constitution and there is complete absence of human rights, and there was nothing like equal treatment.”

In such a situation, according to Tamang, the Bhutanese now living mostly in exile in Nepal raised voice against the King because they believe there should be human rights and democracy in Bhutan.

In reaction to that the King, according to Tamang, deployed the army, and many people were shot dead and evicted, their houses burnt down and their property looted. A large number of dissidents had to leave the country.

According to Tamang, when the fleeing Bhutanese crossed the border into India and tried to settle there as refugees they were unfortunately refused that status by the Indian government which claims to be the largest democracy. Bhutanese refugees were pushed into Nepal by the Indian military and the police, claimed Tamang.

His effort since then has been to raise this issue of ethnic violence with the government of Nepal.

“We are trying to awaken the international community, to solicit support of Saarc countries in pressuring the government of Bhutan to take back at least ‘genuine’ Bhutanese and restore their properties which were allegedly looted by the government of Bhutan.

But just like the snail pace of glaciers, there has been no significant move forward despite 15 rounds of bilateral talks between the governments of Bhutan and Nepal. “It is a very frustrating situation and the people, especially the younger people, feel they have no other option but the armed rebellion, though until now they have remained peaceful and struggling for their rights,” emphasized Tamang but pointed at the looming danger, adding that “they are getting restive and if nothing happens, then the young mind might go for the alternative option.”

Life of the Bhutanese refugees in Nepal must be very difficult because they are not allowed to work there nor they are given any other privileges by the Kathmandu government. Nepal has just given them shelter. Whatever food assistance they are getting, it is coming from the UNHCR and other international NGOs like WFP and many other organizations. Many international organizations are pulling up their projects and Nepal has not been able to deliver to the extent as was expected.

The Bhutanese youth leader claimed that Nepalese government should have insisted that the Bhutanese government must take at least those refugees back about whom it had agreed in the 15 rounds of bilateral talks in which the refugees had been categorized in four segments. At least 77 per cent of the people were found to be voluntary migrants. In fact they were not uprooted by the government of Bhutan. But still those people, whom the government of Bhutan had agreed to take back, have not been taken back yet.

According to Tamang, out of 12,000 refugees, the government of Bhutan had found 287 as genuine witnesses who were forcefully evicted from Bhutan. The government of Bhutan wanted to take back voluntary migrants also who constituted 70 per cent of the population.

The verification of refugees in the camps started in 2001 and it has almost been five years. The result was declared after two years.

Representatives of Nepal and Bhutan visited the camps in 2004 and declared the result but not a single refugee has been able to return.