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An
estimated 115,000 persons from Bhutan were living as refugees in
neighboring countries in 1998, including 100,000 in Nepal, and more than
15,000 in India.
Lhotsampa
All but a few hundred of the refugees from Bhutan are Lhotsampa,
Bhutanese Hindus of Nepali origin who lived in the southern plains of
Bhutan. Most fled to Nepal and India between late 1990 and 1992 to escape
what refugee leaders called an "ethnic cleansing" campaign by the
Bhutanese authorities. Bhutan, an isolated Himalayan kingdom, is ruled by
Buddhist Drupkas who live mostly in the country's mountainous north. The
Drupka historically excluded the Lhotsampa from the country's political
and economic mainstream.
The refugees complained of being denied citizenship and political
rights, prevented from studying in the Nepalese language, and forced to
wear traditional Drupka clothing. They also said they were subjected to
widespread human rights abuses. The Bhutanese government not only denied
the refugees' charges, but it also claimed that most of the refugees were
either illegal immigrants to Bhutan or not from Bhutan at all.
Since 1993, there has been a stalemate between Bhutan and Nepal over
the refugees' future. The two governments have held numerous talks, but
with no concrete results. Although the flow of new refugees slowed to a
trickle after 1992, discrimination in Bhutan did not end. In January 1998,
Bhutan adopted a resolution dismissing 219 Lhotsampa government workers
from their posts simply because of their ethnicity. The Bhutanese
authorities have also resettled hundreds of Drupka families onto land
belonging to the refugees.
In June, Bhutan's King, Jigme Singye Wangchuk, introduced several
measures that limited his own power and introduced more democracy into the
political process. Although some observers thought that might signal hope
for the refugees, other expressed doubt. The New Delhi-based South Asia
Human Rights Documentation Center (SAHRDC) said that the changes might not
be as significant as they appeared, and that the King was probably only
making them as "political concessions [to domestic political opponents] in
order to preserve the monarchy." SAHRDC added that the King and the
Bhutanese government still appeared intent on preventing the return of the
refugees.
Sharchops
Beginning in late 1997, several hundred ethnic Sharchops (or Sarchops)
from eastern Bhutan fled into Arunachal Pradesh in India. Although their
number was small, the exodus of a second group of refugees from tiny
Bhutan called attention to what SAHRDC called "another of the [South Asia]
region's subterranean 'hot spots.'"
In a 1998 report on Bhutanese refugees, SAHRDC said that the exodus was
the result of Bhutan's political persecution of Sharchops, Bhutan's second
largest ethnic group. The government crackdown was aimed at stifling
political opposition among Sharchops for the Druk National Congress (DNC),
a political party seeking more democratic reform and human rights
protection in Bhutan. The Bhutanese authorities arrested scores of
Sharchops in 1997, including community leaders, monks, and relatives of
exiled DNC leader Rongthong Kunley Dorji. Coincidentally, the authorities
in India also arrested Dorji in 1997, though they released him on bail in
June 1998.
Little was known about the situation for the Sharchop refugees in
India.
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