Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
03KATHMANDU322
2003-02-24 10:10:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Kathmandu
Cable title:  

GARLANDS AND PETITIONS: AMBASSADOR VISITS

Tags:  PREF PHUM EAID NP BT 
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This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 KATHMANDU 000322 

SIPDIS

STATE FOR SA/INS AND PRM
LONDON FOR POL - REIDEL
GENEVA FOR RMA

E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/23/2013
TAGS: PREF PHUM EAID NP BT
SUBJECT: GARLANDS AND PETITIONS: AMBASSADOR VISITS
BHUTANESE REFUGEE CAMPS

REF: A. GENEVA 580


B. KATHMANDU 287

C. KATHMANDU 228

D. 02 KATHMANDU 2207

Classified By: DCM Robert K. Boggs for reasons 1.5 (b) and (d).

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 KATHMANDU 000322

SIPDIS

STATE FOR SA/INS AND PRM
LONDON FOR POL - REIDEL
GENEVA FOR RMA

E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/23/2013
TAGS: PREF PHUM EAID NP BT
SUBJECT: GARLANDS AND PETITIONS: AMBASSADOR VISITS
BHUTANESE REFUGEE CAMPS

REF: A. GENEVA 580


B. KATHMANDU 287

C. KATHMANDU 228

D. 02 KATHMANDU 2207

Classified By: DCM Robert K. Boggs for reasons 1.5 (b) and (d).


1. (U) Summary: Ambassador Malinowski visited
UNHCR-administered camps in eastern Nepal during the weekend
of February 15-16 to assess the situation of the Bhutanese
refugees and to monitor the provision of food and other
assistance from donor countries including the United States.
The high-level delegation, including Ambassadors from the UK
and AUSTRALIA, toured the camps, reviewed new administrative
procedures, and accepted petitions from refugee groups,
requesting donor pressure on Thimpu to take back the
refugees. The meetings followed a visit by the DCM in
December. End summary.

APPEALS FROM THE REFUGEES
--------------


2. (U) Joined by Ambassadors from the UK and AUSTRALIA, as
well representatives from France, Germany, Norway, Finland
and the European Commission, Ambassador Malinowski toured
UNHCR-administered Bhutanese refugee camps in Eastern Nepal
on February 15-16. The arrival of the eight-member
delegation was heralded with traditional Bhutanese trumpets
and garlands of flowers, but refugee leaders soon got down to
more serious business at a roundtable meeting in one of the
camp's community rooms. Under handwritten signs saying "I
love my mother country Bhutan," and "Please consider our
plight," representatives presented several petitions, each
requesting that future financial aid to Bhutan be predicated
on demonstrated respect for human rights, and seeking
international efforts to persuade Bhutan to "take back its
citizens."


3. (U) Petitions from women's rights groups and the general
camp population included additional appeals, ranging from
cessation of allotment to other Bhutanese of land formerly
owned by refugees, to adoption of only two
categories--Bhutanese and non-Bhutanese--for use in the
verification process. The latter issue is a particularly
sensitive one for many in the camps, who see the adoption of
four categories (those forcibly evicted from Bhutan, those

who left Bhutan voluntarily, criminals, and non-Bhutanese)
(ref C) as a ploy by Bhutan to avoid repatriating significant
numbers of refugees. Citing India's "better position" to
negotiate with Thimpu, the petitions also called on the
delegation to "persuade the government of India to use its
good office to resolve the crisis."

STATE OF THE CAMPS
--------------


4. (U) Administration of the camps has undergone significant
changes following accusations of sexual abuse of refugees by
NGO workers (ref D),and the condition of the camps is good.
In general, the demeanor of the refugees is peaceful, with no
sign of hostility or agitation. Refugee services are
well-organized, and the camp residents are well-fed and
clothed. At the food distribution point, weekly and
bi-weekly schedules are posted on large signs, and the
distribution process is orderly. The warehouse is
well-stocked with pallets of rice and other supplies. Though
employment inside the camp is minimal, a small textile
factory was operating during the delegation's visit, and some
women were engaged in the small-scale manufacture of
traditional fabrics.


5. (U) Touring the camp, the Ambassador also visited a
children's play area, a school for the mentally challenged,
and a small elementary school with a burlap-covered floor,
where students, surrounded by pictures of birds and animals,
were boisterously participating in a language lesson.
Facilities for the children appear adequate, especially by
Nepali standards.

CONSIDERING THEIR PLIGHT
--------------

6. (U) Despite the well-mannered population, the well-ordered
services and the well-stocked warehouse, life in the camps is
not without frustration. The weavers working busily at their
hand-looms are prohibited from selling their products outside
the camps. Employment opportunities for working-age refugees
are extremely limited, and children are deprived of any
chance for higher education. After thirteen years of delay
and perceived duplicity by the Thimpu government, the
majority of refugees want to return to their homeland as
expeditiously as possible. Impatience and dissatisfaction
are not far below the tranquil surface. "We want to be
repatriated by 2003," read one of the signs at a rally of a
reported 35,000 refugee women on the day of the delegation's
visit. Children's rallies, bicycle rallies and relay hunger
strikes are also planned by the refugee community as part of
a protest program to try to persuade donor countries to put
financial pressure on the GOB. "We would like to urge your
Excellency to make sure that... financial aid to Bhutan is
being used for the welfare of its people," wrote 200 students
in grades three through ten. Many of the children have lived
their entire lives in the camps, but still hope to "return"
to Bhutan. "We urge you all to help us go home."

PREVIOUS VISIT BY DCM
--------------


7. (U) The Ambassador's observations were supported by those
of the DCM, who accompanied Senior Senate Staff Member Jonah
Blank on a tour of three of the refugee camps in December.
The DCM and Blank found the camps impressively well organized
and self-governed, despite the recent revelations of sexual
abuse by several refugee employees. Visits to a number of
randomly selected refugee homes suggested that many
(reportedly most) families have documents proving that they
had been legal citizens of Bhutan prior to 1990. In meetings
with the governing councils of the camps, DCM and Blank
sounded out camp leaders on what possible solutions they
envisioned to their plight as refugees. In every camp such
questions provoked confusion--if not incomprehension--about
any solution other than return to Bhutan. Permanent
settlement in Nepal was a distant second choice, and
resettlement abroad appeared unimaginable. Clearly, the
culture of the camps has preserved intact the notion that
every refugee would someday return to his/her homeland of
Bhutan. Several refugees explained that their families had
been living in Bhutan for generations, since the grandfather
of the present king invited them to emigrate from Nepal to
settle Bhutan's lower hills, where up-country Bhutanese
ethnics refused to live. Like the Ambassador, the DCM and
Blank found that the schools still teach Dzongka (Bhutan's
dominant language) and Bhutanese history although everyone in
the camps speaks Bhutanese-accented Nepali. The notion that
Bhutan was their "home" was shared even by the 22 percent of
the refugees who were born in the camps.


8. (C) The DCM and Blank held long discussions with
locally-based UNHCR staff and with the acting Country
Director, Abraham Abraham. The UNHCR officers confirmed our
impressions that the camps are exceptionally well-managed and
quiescent by world standards. Abraham explained, however,
that the completion of document verification among the 12,000
residents of the camp at Khudunabari over a year ago with no
obvious progress toward repatriation had raised levels of
impatience and frustration in the camps. The current hunger
strike in Khudunabari is just one symptom of growing
restlessness. UNHCR security staff disclosed that Maoist
militants are believed to have transited several of the camps
under cover of darkness and may have spent the night in
refugee houses. Youthful unemployment and frustration, they
warned, were likely eventually to make the camps receptive
recruiting grounds for the Maoists. None of the UNHCR
officers believed that India would apply pressure on Bhutan
to accept at least some of the refugees. They urged the USG
to work with Bhutan's international donors to expedite the
current bilateral negotiating process and press for early
implementation of a formula that would involve refugees being
settled in both Bhutan and Nepal, and possibly third
countries. Abraham Abraham expressed repeatedly his anxiety
that growing funding fatigue among UNHCR's donors would soon
render the camps economically unsustainable.

COMMENT
--------------


9. (C) We share the view of local UNHCR officers that the
Bhutanese refugee camps are likely to become growing sources
of political agitation in the tri-border area of Nepal,
Bhutan and India if concrete steps toward a resolution of the
problem are not taken soon. Although the Foreign Ministers
of Nepal and Bhutan appear to have made some progress during
their recent meeting in Kathmandu (Ref B),it is still not
clear that the bilateral process will move fast enough to
prevent the emergence of an increasingly explosive situation.
The bilateral process is essential, but international
pressure is necessary also to persuade the Bhutanese
Government that it can no longer evade its responsibilities.
Post looks forward to a full readout on the Bhutan donors
meeting in Geneva and the promised paper by UNHCR (Ref A).
MALINOWSKI