KHUDUNABARI, JHAPA, DEC 18 - The Bhutanese refugees in this camp, who are eligible for repatriation as per the latest Nepal-Bhutan talks, have once again put forth four conditions to the Damak-based UNHCR office to be fulfilled by the Bhutan government for impartial, longstanding and legitimate solution to the decade-old refugee crisis.
The four preconditions submitted to the UNHCR office by the eligible refugees include guarantee of citizenship certificates, return of their seized lands, homes, guarantee of security, and UNHCR’s involvement in the verification, repatriation and rehabilitation processes and guarantee of pursuing their socio-economic activities and linguistic development without any ethnic prejudices.
They submitted the appeals incorporating these stipulations to the UNHCR office in Damak today.
The refugees also expressed satisfaction over the understanding made during the 15th round of talks between Nepal and Bhutan over their crisis that is more than a decade old.
The Bhutan government had agreed to repatriate its refugee citizens of all categories, except for non-Bhutanese, during the latest round of talks held in the Bhutanese capital of Thimphu in the second week of February this year.
A Joint Verification Team (JVT) comprising officials of both countries had verified a total of 12,183 refugees and had classified them into four categories: bona fide Bhutanese, Bhutanese who emigrated willingly, non-Bhutanese, Bhutanese with criminal records.
Refugees who were dissatisfied with the report appealed again to the Damak-based JVT office within the set deadline, which is now reconsidering their appeals as per the agreement reached at during the 15th round of talks.Posted on: 2003-12-19 04:09

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