Bhutan: Inviting International Attention

Tek Nath Rizal and Thinley Penjore, Bhutanese nationals
The historic records of Bhutan reveal government’s gesture of gratefulness paid either on the edge of sword or prison. The several reincarnate of Bhutan’s unifier, the Zhabdrungs, ended up theft lives in the hands of King’s appointed assassins in 1931 and 1953 while, the first Prime Minister of Bhutan, Jigme Palden Dorji, the farsighted national personality ended up his life in the hands of military assassin in 1964.
One of the politically conscious Southern Bhutanese Garjaman Gurung, who spoke in support of the Zhabdrung, was allured into the royal palace at Paro on the pretext of sorting out differences amicably and was assassinated by putting him into boiling oil in a large frying pan. Another person, Mahasur Chettri of Tsirang, who spoke against Zhabtog Lemi (Forced Contributory Labor), was arrested in public. His family members and the village community were called to witness the punishment being awarded to Mr. Chettri. Against the principles and ethos of Hindu Religion, a cow was slaughtered and its fresh hide wrapping him, was thrown alive into the Sunkosh River.
Similarly, loyal, grateful and innocent people landed up in prison cells framing them of being supporters of the fabricated Bhutan -Tibetan internal royal conflict of 1974. Many succumbed to prison torture while those released after decades of imprisonment continue living under strict surveillance. Upon royal amnesty or release from the prison, they found their families either displaced or their properties registered in the name of senior government officials.
A loyal Royal Body Guard who escaped the royal atrocities was chased and killed at gun point at his home to in Saleng in Mongar district of east Bhutan by a senior bodyguard officer following the 1974 incident. His brother, who joined the pro-democracy movement was abducted from Siliguri in the Indo-Nepal border on fabricated charges and incarcerated for life in Bhutan. His family members, an ailing wife and children have been missing from the refugee camps since 2005. The heinous crimes committed by the regime can go endless as the ink may run out of stock but the stories of atrocities are endless.
During Bhutan’s infrastructural building, the female workers were mobilized to work for the period extending beyond one month at a time. In Hindu culture, daughters or wives are not separated from the house for such long periods of time. Due to coercion against the culture, the entire community of Danishey Kali Gaon of Tsirang had to flee the homeland for freedom and safety. In the name of decentralization, regime used government forces to mobilize people to work under Zhabtog lemi with no wages. In the same way, the present refugees languishing in Nepal have been evicted as their reward of being grateful for their hard labor in the road construction and administrative infrastructural building of modem Bhutan. Large sections of these people are branded either as illegal migrants or anti-nationals.
Democracy and Human Rights in Bhutan is a Farce
The making of its own citizens stateless and refugees is due to absence of democracy and human rights with Bhutan’ s insincerity to follow the provisions of the United Nations on various rights of its people. Bhutan does not have right to: Freedom of Speech and Expression; Peaceful Assembly and Union; Justice, Due Process of Law and Equality before Law; Vote Freely and Fair Elections; Freedom of Religion
• Freedom of Press, Publicity and Printing; Oppose and Choose the Government; Form Unions, Associations, Organizations and Political Parties; Social and Cultural Rights; Right to return to our country.
There is a complete ban on the formation of unions, associations, organizations and political parties. In the absence of the Constitution or Basic Law or the Bill of Rights, people do not enjoy even the basic human rights. Dissidence and opposition to the Government is treated as treason and punishable according to Thrimzhung Chhenpo and Tsa-Wa-Swn. Without transforming absolute monarchy into constitutional democracy, rule of law and human rights are not guaranteed in a feudal society. The door to peoples’ participation in the nation’s political, social, economic and cultural domain remains under lock and key. So, it will be through the transition of polity into democracy that the people of Bhutan will have greater say in the affairs of the state, especially in terms of accountability and transparency of the government, which, at present, is totally missing.
The establishment of representative and participatory democracy, rule of law, secular political and social order, end of racism and inequity, promotion of true decentralization, balanced and uniform economic growth and development, release of political prisoners, declaration of general amnesty, repatriation of Bhutanese refugees are some of the vital tasks that need to be achieved.
The September eleven episode brought about millennium drive against terrorism bulldozing and chasing Bin Laden all along the deserts and mountains ultimately ushering among others, substantial social change in the Afghan governance and at the same time reminding the rest of the world to help support the eradication of world terrorism. The arrest of Saddam is yet another example of success in the transformation of the military rule to democracy. But flushing out of the Indian insurgents in December 2003 in the Himalayan kingdom only tormented the families of scores of Sharchhokp ethnicity who were taken into prison under fabricated charges as being responsible for helping these elements in the Bhutanese soil.
In our crusade for the:
Establishment of Constitutional Monarchy with multi-party Democracy, Parliamentary system of government and Independent Judiciary; 2. Establishment of National Human Rights Commission for the compliance and effective implementation of provisions of the UN charters, declarations and covenants, including rights of linguistic, religious and cultural minorities; 3. Promotion and strengthening of harmony and goodwill amongst multi-ethnic society of the multi-racial, multi-religious and multicultural groups in Bhutan; Institutionalization and consolidation of civil society to create a vibrant, stable and functioning democracy; Drafting of a written Democratic Constitution, which shall be the basic law of Bhutan with the rule of law as the foundation of the democratic process; The political, economic and social stability, security and well being of Bhutanese nation; Creation of a conducive environment for refugee repatriation;
The people of Bhutan seeks support and solidarity to liberate citizens from the existing bonds of suppression and pave way to equal opportunity coexisting with the main stream of the global family and live in a free society having dignity and honor of a human being.
In the present context, Bhutan is completely run by an absolute monarchy. There are no private organizations, institutions or any political parties, even social organizations. The government bars people from criticizing the acts of the government or raising question on Royal family members and King. The Driglam Nam Zha (its so-called dress and language code) and such other traditional laws define any one as terrorists or anti-nationals if found speaking against the government or the royal family members. Government officials censor the news. Even other programs of the radio and television and most of the articles on the newspaper are administered by government. Government not only discourages private publications but also imposes serious penalty on such attempts.
According to the provisions of the Rule on the administration of the National Assembly vide Rule no. 11, drafted in 1953; every member of the legislature shall have the full right and privilege to express his thought in the Assembly. No rule or law can interfere with the member’s freedom of expression.
But according to the Citizenship Act 1958, amended in 1977 states, “Anyone having acquired Bhutanese citizenship involve in the act against the king or speaking against the royal government or being in association with the people involve in activities against the Royal government shall be deprived of the citizenship. Similarly, Citizenship Act 1985 says any citizen of Bhutan who has acquired the citizenship at any time, if the person has shown by act or speech to be disloyal in any manner whatsoever to the King, Country and People of Bhutan, his citizenship will be seized.
People never demanded press freedom nor did they try for private publication in the past. It was only after 1990 that freedom of press and right to information has been felt. Bhutan People’s Party staged peaceful demonstration demanding establishment of democracy and human rights which could only guarantee freedom of press and expression in 1990. The Druk National Congress also peacefully demonstrated in east Bhutan. It covered capital and major towns with demand for fundamental rights in 1997 and ended up shooting a monk at point blank range killed in cold blood while a Chief Monk was incarcerated for eight years merely for asking for freedom to practice their own religion which is Nyingmapa Buddhism, one of the sects of the dual system of Ka-Nying. Other political parties like Gorkha National Liberation Front continued with their peaceful demands for the establishment of democracy in Bhutan.
In the name of press and right to information of the Bhutanese people, a radio, a television (both run by Bhutan Broadcasting Service owned by state) and a weekly newspaper (Kuensel, published by state owned Kuensel Corporation) exist whose contents are censored by the government. They carry the voices of the government and the prominent figures that support the absolute rule. There are neither any private publication houses nor any organization working in the field of right to information. Specifically, no person is permitted to start any private organization or the publication house. As such any one speaking against the government, king or the high profiled bureaucrats face serious physical punishment. A hundreds of thousands people were banished from their homesteads while staging for the right to organization, speech and culture in 1990. Even then, a large section of the Bhutanese people feel the need of a private publication house or any organization working for their right to speech and expression in Bhutan. The Right to speech should be guarantee to its citizens.
Bhutan has lately been advocating transformation of itself into a democratic kingdom under the leadership of its king Jigme Singye Wangchuk. The recently drafted constitution vide Article 16(e) “The Druk Gyalpo, in exercise of His Royal Prerogatives, may Exercise powers relating to matters, which are not provided under this Constitution or other laws”, does not give power to the parliamentarians which are not in tune with the democratic norms whereby the constitution only becomes supportive to autocratic role. Similarly, Article 2 (26) — “Parliament shall make no laws or exercise its powers to amend this Constitution so as to affect all or any of the provisions of this Article”-this cripples entire democratic values in the parliamentary democracy with written constitution. There is also no apt provision for the development of journalism and freedom of press. The government has said that two weeklies have been registered. One of them Bhutan Times has begun its publication from April 30. The other Bhutan Observer is yet to be seen.
Electronic Media
Bhutan Broadcasting Service, established in 1973 and given its current name in 1986, operated under the auspices of the Department of Information; it began with Sunday programs and increased to thirty hours a week of shortwave radio programming in Dzongkha, Sharchopkha, Nepali, and English. There was daily FM programming in Thimpu and shortwave reception throughout the rest of the nation in the early 1990s. In 1991 there were thirty-nine public radio stations for internal communications. There were also two stations used exclusively for communications with Bhutan’s embassies in New Delhi and Dhaka and thirteen stations used by hydrologists and meteorologists. There were no television stations in Bhutan in the early 1990s, and a 1989 royal decree ended the viewing of foreign television by mandating the dismantling of antennas. The government wanted to prevent Indian and Bangladeshi broadcasts from reaching Bhutan’s citizens.
While television was banned in Bhutan, foreign cable lines continue restricted circulation as the free access to foreign television is considered a threat to the national identity and culture. In 1989 king banned private satellite dishes and dismantled 28 privately owned dishes. At that time people mostly viewed Indian and Bangladeshi channels. The most favorite was STAR television network. Audio-visual program started in 1981 with DSCD. It made films and documentaries on life, culture and religion (development oriented). But the program was stopped in 1996.
Re-Registration of Refugees
In Nepal, during the time of initial registration of asylum seekers, many people were excluded. They could not report on time as they were out looking for food. When they approached for registration, the screening posts were found closed. Such persons and those unaware of the facilities accounting approximately fifty-thousand have been living in different parts of India under displaced condition. Therefore, parents and children are separated. In some cases, husband and wife are separated. It has become difficult for us to locate their whereabouts.
In line with the expectations of Bhutan, gradual reduction of humanitarian assistance to the refugees in the areas of education, medical, food items and basic amenities like cooking fuel and shelter maintenance were brought to the camps in recent times. The UNHCR on the other hand as coordinating agency of the UN assistance to the refugee community show their concern for early dismantling of the camps due to donor fatigue, which however, indirectly supports the interest of Bhutan whose main target is to shy away from accepting repatriation and resolving the refugee imbroglio.
With regard to recent development of Nepal’s policy towards re-registration of the refugees, Nepal must review its policy before it is implemented. At the time of bilateral talks which dragged for fifteen rounds, refugee leaders were not consulted. Despite bowing that the refugee issue is a political issue between the people and the regime, Nepal carried on as a bilateral process. Nepal also at the same time did not approach India for their intervention. It would have been appropriate for Nepal to have proposed to India for their intervention at the beginning of the process where Nepal could have facilitated for regime-refugee dialogue.
The families from outside Lhotshampa community who do not have the capacities to communicate or socialize with other than their own community have fallen victim to non availability of screening post and registration facilities. In the process, many are learnt to have entered Kalimpong and Darjeeling in the state of North Bengal and Arunachal Pradesh in the north east; besides, several of them are wandering in different parts of Nepal. Therefore, re-registration of the refugees without accommodating these people into the mainstream of the asylum seekers in Nepal would be a serious injustice to the displaced and suffering people who are the victims of regime atrocities. In this context, Nepal should not be focusing and concentrating only on the Nepali speaking community of the Lhotsham region. These people from the Sharchhokp, Ngalong and Kheng region, who lived in complete peace and harmony, have become political victims only because they realized the inhumane treatment meted to the common people and left Bhutan to join hands with the Lhotshampa.
Many of their relatives continue suffering in jails in Bhutan while monks were killed during military crack down in east Bhutan. This community has become vulnerable in the refugee camps due to difference in language and culture. Many of the victims of crackdown were not registered as Nepal government took more than six years to decide on their registration. The kith and kin of this community also equally suffer discriminatory policies of the regime and undergo social out caste in their home town in Bhutan. These vulnerable groups do not have any relatives and adaptable communities in Nepal to whom they could approach for help and support. It therefore becomes Nepal’s responsibility to look at the refugee community with broader perspectives rather than perceiving them only as a Nepali speaking community.
Ever since the time of entry of asylum seekers into Nepal, the refugee leaders urged Nepal to seek international assistance for the assessment of properties that were left behind at the time of eviction. Every time the new government was formed in Nepal, appeals were submitted in written for consideration to facilitate assessment of the refugee properties. By now, Bhutan regime has resettled people all over the region and Nepal is out for re registration of the refugees. It is urged to make provisions to accept registration of the refugee properties along with the people so as to be convenient at the time of making assessment of the properties for justice upon repatriation.
Excerpts only from the author’s book entitled Unveiling Bhutan. The full text of the book is in our website telegraphnepal.com (see inside Nepal-World)-ed.