To Bhutan Government

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His Majesty,
The King of Bhutan,
Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck,
Tashichhodzong, Thimphu,
Bhutan.

Your Majesty,
With profound sense of loyalty and dedication to the king, country and the people of Bhutan, I am responsible, loyal citizen of Bhutan, Royal Bhutan Army Officer and an Engineer by profession, enduring agonized refugee life after being evicted from Bhutan without any crimes and reasons because of some subversive appointee victimized me during the 1990’s unexpected public situations, implore Your Majesty to review the contemporary Bhutanese refugee scenario prevailing in the world and around “The Dragon Shangri-La”- a haven of serene and tranquility not so long ago for the future of Bhutan, for the joyful restoration of peace and harmonious living of all the Bhutanese people.

We, the Bhutanese refugees have spent many years in exile in the refugee camps in Nepal expecting Your Majesty to comprehend the conscientiousness of great magnitude to repatriate us to our homestead and endorse reconciliation in our country but, decades passed nothing came to light only the sorrows, humiliations, starving and deaths waited for us in the unfamiliar refugee camps. Over these decades, many precious lives have been lost for good and many are added to face the worst. We experienced that death at least is better than being refugees without destiny and destination. With no solution in sight, the senior refugees have become frustrated, the youths have been politically exploited, the students and children have become vulnerable to ‘ills’ in the society. As decades past appealing for justice to return back to own terrestrial in Bhutan but, our appeal has not been heard. And today, when all physical and psychological power of enduring the pain exhausted more than 116000 Bhutanese were compelled to resettle in the third countries, so as to state Your Majesty that our Government of Bhutan stood adamant to its unbending policy of not complying with the call of the own Bhutanese people languishing in the refugee camps. There are still some refugees left in the camps in Nepal and residing in Indian states who wish to return to Bhutan despite of prevailing odds.

Your Majesty, we want Bhutan change from conceited system of governance to the altruistic independent statute with equality and liberty of all the people enshrined to the constitution which is guided by Your Majesty and designed and drafted by the people of Bhutan for our country. And in view of that Bhutanese refugees should get justice. We aspire ‘Justice to Justice’ must triumph to set right our wrongs and for everything we do, to make real peace, happiness and prosperity of our nation. Time is still there to heal the wound. Your Majesty should reverse the unwarranted policy and embrace the idea that the country’s future will be best protected by promoting diversity – economic and ethnic equality.

Bhutan is a multi-racial and multi-lingual society. And the Ethnic-Nepali or Lhotshampas like any other communities are integral community of Bhutan in theory and in practice. The people of Bhutan, irrespective of caste, creed, color and religion have remained unified throughout and contributed for the good of the country. There are many ethnic minority communities living in Bhutan since many centuries ago even before Bhutan came into existence. They all need to be protected and treasured as equal citizens of Bhutan. To talk honestly and sincerely most of the ethnic communities of today’s Bhutan Ngalungs, Khengs, Kurteps, Brokpas, Sharchops, Aryans, Ethnic-Nepali-Lhotshampas, Doyas, Monpas, Olep, Adivasis, Asaamtsa etc. all came to Bhutan at different time intervals. It is not the question who came first and who came later. And these communities were there in Bhutan long before the establishment of Monarchy in 1907.

The evicted refugees from Bhutan who are mainly from Nepali-Ethnicity-the Lhotshampa and some from Sharchop and Ngalung communities are now drawn into a stupid political game between Nepal and Bhutan. In actual fact, the answer to which unambiguously lies with Your Majesty’s Government of Bhutan. The Lhotshampas have their own identity and a distinct culture with a specified code of conduct. The hefty, sturdy, fair, loyal, kind and decent Lhotshampas have always maintained their being on Bhutanese soil. The unquestionable loyalties of the Lhotshampas towards the Royal Family have remained unchallenged throughout the ages. As follows, no words can express our real affinity with Bhutan and with the people of Bhutan. Throughout history, Lhotshampas have contributed a lot for the socio-economic development of the country. We have shed our blood and sweat to make Bhutan of today. We have made fatal malaria county to beautiful villages and towns in southern Bhutan.

In the light of events taking place in Bhutan since 1990, chronologically establishment of democratic system of government and with the political consciousness of all the people the Sharchop, the Lhotshampa and the Ngalung communities the stage is all set for Your Majesty to enact a methodology for the future of the nation. The empty fields, that once used to be the grain bowl of Bhutan, are now covered by thick under growth. During the period when Lhotshampas were living there our Bhutan used to export cardamoms, oranges and other food grains to Bangladesh and India and even to other countries earning national revenue are all closed down today.

Lhotshampas have always strived to fortify the national economy and glorify its image of Bhutan in the world. On the contrary, today we feel very sad for such misfortune and dilapidation happening to our progressing nation. Those fields that had housed Nepali-Ethnicity people the Lhotshampas for generations and those glorious days of Bhutan are waiting for the return of their true owners who in all honesty have sweated and shed blood and have felt the scent of that soil.

Your Majesty, I believe all the Bhutanese people mostly Lhotshampa refugees and some escaped from Bhutan due to fear of being prosecuted without any reasons or crimes including Ngalungs communities who are resettled in third countries and have acquired citizenship of the respective countries are also willing to visit Bhutan for they love Bhutan they cannot forget Bhutan. It would be an internationally appreciated step for the Government of Your Majesty to work out an appropriate consular avenues for them to visit Bhutan on tourist visa or whichever way is admissible so that we all the Bhutanese become happy and together we would make our Bhutan beautiful and peaceful.

These Bhutanese refugees who are resettled in third countries and have acquired the citizenship of the resettled countries are not by their choice but due to the insurmountable situations they have been facing since they were evicted from the country or left Bhutan due to insecurity to their lives. In the same way, there are some refugees in the refugee camps in Nepal who want to return to their homestead in Bhutan. I am of the convincing understanding that it would be a magnanimous demonstration and a very much upstanding providence on the part of Your Majesty to take these two forward steps about the exiled Bhutanese people and solve the problems.

I am writing this open and sincere letter with my trust and confidence in Your Majesty and with utmost loyalty as a responsible citizen of the country and love for my country Bhutan, and for the well-being of Your Majesty to guide and lead our people and glorify our dear Bhutan. Your Majesty’s concern for peace, security and prosperity of the nation can be achieved once we understand the humane peace. Peace is when the heart is no longer in duality, when the struggle for animosity and power within us has been resolved. When peace comes to the heart, serenity follows, and loves for people come flooding in, uncontrolled and in abundance. That is the peace and that will be felt, and then only we all feel joy of living together as equal human beings. And I am looking for such spirit and this type of affection in Your Majesty, in my King of Bhutan. Thus, I have both devotion and conviction in the overall guiding responsibility of Your Majesty will govern our nation as reasonably as possible in the interest of the citizens first and the nation.

It is the duty of all the intellectuals, academicians and general people of Bhutan in the process to keep well-informed to Your Majesty and the Government about the thoughtful relates of the nation, to heed Government, to keep mind and judgment open, so as to resist the insidious spell of bad omen. I believe if the apprehension and cognizance of Your Majesty is open enough to perceive that a given policy is harming the people and the nation rather than serving self-interest, and self-confident enough to acknowledge it, and wise enough to reverse it that is a summit in the art of good governance.

In the meantime Gelephu Mindfulness City (GMC) a Special Administrative Region in Bhutan, set to be an economic hub for Bhutan envisioned by you will be successful and beneficial only when you encompass those citizens evicted from Gelephu and other regions of Bhutan and give justice.

Only those who really love Bhutan and future of Bhutan write to you positively and confidently appeal you to take care of citizens who are compelled to resettle as citizens in third countries and few living as refugees waiting for reunion with their Bhutanese brothers and sisters.

Your Majesty, no matter what anyone says, neighbor or mediators may assure you anything but, the fact is that Bhutan has transgressed injustice to its citizens has become disgraceful issue in the world. Such disgraceful issues about our country and your majesty’s government must end.

Your Majesty, “Give justice to Bhutanese citizens who have been exiled and made refugees.” You will not only gain your world image but, Bhutan will arise to its glorious future, as we all will work for glorious image of Bhutan.

Submissively,

N B Giri,

Royal Bhutan Army Officer.
NDA/58/RBA-720
An Engineer,
My last posting was ‘ME, Deputy Director, Road Mechanization Project, Central Workshop Gaylegphug (Gelephu), Bhutan.
Email: nbgiri@yahoo.com”
Website: www.nbgiri.com

This is from well-wishers of Bhutan and Bhutanese people. It is sent to the King of Bhutan a request to be kind, judicious and righteous with the people who are victimized.

The Pulitzer Prize is an award administered by Columbia University for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition in the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made his fortune as a newspaper publisher.[2] Let the International Community know about this injustice Last week my attention was drawn by Kai Bird's reprinted article published in his blog. It talks about Bhutan's brutal acts of ethnic cleansing that have made a long history of inhuman deeds. And the international community is silent. Kai Bird is one of the great writers of the twenty-first century. This Pulitzer Prize-winning scholar of 2006 has written on Bhutan. To his credit, there are many books. But one book coauthored with Martin Sherwin titled American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J Robert Oppenheimer is a masterpiece. It is on Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the atomic bomb, hailed as American Prometheus. In his article titled Enigma of Bhutan (2012), the world-class scholar, as well as humanitarian writer, says "By any definition, what happened in Bhutan in the years 1989-93 was ethnic cleansing. The Bhutanese government denies this and has refused to repatriate any of those forcibly expelled." But the act of ethnic cleansing is ignored and fabricated in such a way that nothing has happened in the kingdom of total happiness. But since then the international community is pointing out the cases of injustice met out upon innocent people of Nepali origin. There are many internationally renowned scholars who are writing on the oppressive steps of Bhutan since then. One among them is Prof Michael Hutt whose book titled Unbecoming Citizens presents a vivid analysis of the King's steps taken towards the innocent citizens' expulsion from the kingdom. The 2005 publication of Hutt has been introduced in these words: This book recounts the plight of some hundred thousand refugees of Nepali ethnic origin (also known as the Lhotshampa or ‘Southern Border-lander’) who claim to have been wrongfully evicted from Bhutan. None of them have returned to Bhutan after their eviction in the early 1990s. The author begins his examination of their plight by discussing the history of Bhutan as it appears in British colonial archives and in current standard national narratives. He then discusses the history of Bhutan from the point of view of ‘Bhutanese’ refugees (housed in camps in Nepal) presented to him as a foreign researcher. After reviewing Lhotshampa society in Bhutan during the first half of the twentieth century, the book presents the encounter between the culturally Nepali southern part of Bhutan and the Bhutanese state. In its drive towards modernization and development after Indian independence and the Chinese invasion of Tibet, new legislation on citizenship and a homogenizing nationalism lead to Lhotshampa dissidence and the ‘demotion’ of the Nepali in Bhutan. The book then elaborates how the Lhotshampa became refugees, and why they continue to live in camps in Nepal even at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Many scholars have documented the turmoil the People of Nepali origin in Bhutan underwent. One such book to record the former king's cruelty is New Diasporas (1988) of Nicholas Van Hear. It shows how the Burmese and Bhutanese people were expelled from their country and were left stranded between the borders of Bangladesh and Assam of India. But India, as a leading democratic country of south Asia was kind enough to welcome injustice meted out upon citizens uprooted from their homeland. It transported them up to the border and download them on the no man's land in such a way that they couldeasily enter Nepal never to claim for a return to their homeland nor could claim justice. The refugees have been distributed among several destinations in such a way that they cannot return, they cannot demand justice nor can they unite. Shorn of any clear identity these Bhutanese people are singing the songs of sorrows in the wilderness. These double diasporas are rendered like the Jews expelled from their homelands three thousand years ago. Bhutan is brewing all sorts of conspiracy shamelessly and the world pretends not to see them and hear the voices of those stranded including in Nepal. The world should never expect mercy from dictators. Throughout the whole year, Bhutan rulers keep themselves busy creating illusions by masking democracy through shams and hoaxes. India is in great support of brewing such democratic steps. Let the international community hear the voices of the Bhutanese people evicted from the homeland for no reason. At this moment the world is observing the steps that the King of Bhutan takes towards the evicted citizens of the kingdom. There are more than seven thousand citizens spending their lives still in the Refugee Camps of Nepal. These stranded citizens are living a life at no man's land losing their identity. They are neither Bhutanese nor Nepalese even after more than thirty of their years of exile. Secondly, the Bhutanese citizens scattered in eight destinations of the world are forbidden to visit Bhutan. They had left their native place and their love for the king and the country is no less, with their property farmlands houses and gardens leaving behind. A recently completed research work published throughout the media has shown that some citizens charged with revolt or some other points are locked up in jails for the last forty years. These are quite inhuman acts of the Bhutan government meted out at the King's signal. But it is the twentieth century and lies and pretensions will fail to support a dictator's sheer wishes. Sooner or later people will have to fight for freedom. And they are supported by a humanitarian world. Therefore on behalf of these people suffering around the world, I appeal to the king and the judiciary system of the kingdom that at least three things are done in favor of those evicted people Let them visit their native land, let the stranded seven thousand cases be handled with humanitarian, and let those who are imprisoned without trial and justice be released so that the king's democracy will be materialized or it will be just a farce. I congratulate the team of the Bhutanese organization "Tshiyen Meto" for initiating to write this book titled "Journey to Bhutan for Justice" with the aims and objectives to reach the King of Bhutan and the world community for justice to the Bhutanese refugees. I am hopeful people will extend help. This is the voice of the world community. Prof Govinda Raj Bhattarai Note: Prof Govinda Raj Bhattarai is renowned writer/critic/professor of Central Dept of Englsih Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal

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