KATHMANDU, JAN 11 - The foreign ministers of Nepal and Bhutan are holding informal discussions to bring the derailed Bhutanese refugee repatriation process back on track.
This was revealed by Bhutanese Prime Minister Jigmi Thinley and Nepal’s foreign secretary in Thimphu and Kathmandu respectively.The process leading to repatriation had suffered due to the two governments’ exchanging war of words over the December 22 (2003) scuffle between Bhutanese officials and the refugees of the Khudunabari camp.According to the online editon of Bhutan’s newspaper Kuensel today, Thinley said, "The two governments will conduct a thorough investigation into the incident. The two foreign ministers will start discussions to clarify the situation so that we can resume the good progress we were making." He added that the incident had taken place "while Bhutan was going through a difficult period so the government had not had time to study the situation".Although Foreign Secretary Madhu Raman Acharya said he was not aware of any joint investigation into the incident, he admitted that the two foreign ministers (in Nepal’s case, ambassador-at-large) were holding talks over phone on how to resume the derailed process.When asked about the date of resumption, Acharya replied the process would resume after the Bhutanese officials are given instructions by their government.Posted on: 2004-01-12 04:01

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