Please accept my and on behalf of all the hapless exiled Bhutanese a heartfelt congratulation and well-wishes for successfully organizing the 16th SAARC summit in Bhutan and gracefully presiding over it for the first time after Bhutan embraced quasi-democracy. Also, I wish your tenure in the office would prove successful.
I do not need to repeat here as you are cognizant of our contribution in nation-building and judicature reform. Having been exiled on the ground on false charges despite our dedication and allegiance to the nation, the king and the law, we have been hoping to receive justice hitherto from more than two decades. It is not hidden from you the sufferings and torments of about one 150,000 of us only due to the provocation and anathema of a handful of people there.
Bhutan had has reiterated time and again its commitment to resolve the refugee problem through dialogue with Nepal. With the enactment of the melodrama of the third-country settlement, we had been hoping that our return to the homeland will ensue. The refugee problem was the product of the policy adopted when you were the home secretary and since then it has remained entangled, and unattended in the recent past. Coincidently, you are the prime minister and also the chairperson of the SAARC countries at present. As a knowledgeable person you are, you know the root cause of the problem and thus certain initiative on your part, for the justice compatible to the policy, should be taken to create a congenial environment for the solution of the problem. I also wish that you would prudently look into the way for unconditional release of political prisoners incarcerated in different jails of the nation unjustifiably without any cogent reason.
More than two years have already passed since the election – though it was just for a showcase democracy – was concluded, Bhutan has not taken initiative though it has made promises several times in the world forum for the resolution of the refugee problem. How long will Bhutan keep the skeletons hidden in the closet from the world community and deceive them by giving an impression that, on the home front, all is well? Earlier, Nepal and India only knew the home truth about Bhutan’s ethnic cleansing policy. Now, with an inane third-country settlement, Bhutan itself insinuated, the incontrovertible proof of the arrière pensée is dissipating all over the world. Where does the nation’s credibility stand? Should we not learn lesson from what happened in Geneva in front of the world community?
As one of the forerunners during the refugee crisis you were game with it, resolution of the problem with your leadership will certainly clean your flawed image. Did not your conscience haunt you at the sight of killings of hundreds of our own citizens, innocent women being raped and thousands of houses gutted by fire in cognizance with the regime? When you are in solitude, don’t you hear the whining jeremiad of these innocent faces and feel ill at ease? On account of the aforementioned crimes, no sane person would ever feel elated even if he wins laurels as executive head of a nation. If not today, the spooks of those innocent soles will definitely haunt you in your later life. It has happened in the past with most of the perpetrators and will not spare you as well. But at that time it will be too late to remorse. Therefore, have you ever thought of cleaning your misdemeanor in due time with the right moves so that your future successors would be able to hold their head high and live with honor and dignity? This will inculcate a sense of reverence among us instead of hatred toward our predecessors.
Those who are the scriptwriters of this crisis have strong hold on the state authority now. You have succeeded in bidding the former king adieu. However, it will be a folly on the part of the Druk regime to think that it has been able to put a muzzle on the refugee issue by pushing the former king, Jigme Singey Wangchuck, on the sideline. Only a naïve and greenhorn politician will wallow in that thought.
"As a knowledgeable person you are, you know the root cause of the problem and thus certain initiative on your part should be taken to create a congenial environment for the solution of the problem."
It is said that a man matures and becomes responsible with the positions he holds. This saying may equally hold well in your case too. Perhaps, if you had visited the SAARC nations as its chairperson showing your shenanigans about the refugee issue, Bhutan would have been seen as a bigger burlesque and its leadership a prank. But, apparently, you had succeeded in demonstrating Bhutan’s concern about the refugee issue. When dignitaries like you commits in the world forum to resolve the refugee problem and then avoids it, it only shows how big a hypocrite the Druk regime is.
I want you to recall how the Bhutanese members of the Joint Verification Committee (JVC) left the meeting venue in a huff without informing the host ignoring all diplomatic etiquettes. Following that, your team fired a volley of baseless charges on the Nepali government. Why was Nepal blamed when she has no role in starting the refugee problem? Bhutan can fool some people sometime but she cannot fool the world always.
As a well-wisher of the country and the king, I wish you a successful tenure in creating an environment where you will be able to unravel the knots of the refugee problem. I have deep conviction that you would cherish these feelings of mine as the collective feelings of the refugees, not otherwise.
With sincere thanks,
President, Bhutanese Movement Steering Committee