Abstract:
Bhutan is widely perceived in the industrialized countries as a small Himalayan Buddhist kingdom of peace, beauty, and toleration: a latter-day Shangri-La. Situated along the Himalayan crest between Tibet and the Indian states of Sikkim, West Bengal, Arunachal Pradesh, and Assam, it has a population of about one million. While the Bhutanese Government seeks to represent itself as a country of cultural and religious homogeneity, about 40 percent of its population are Hindu of Nepalese descent. In 1990 the Government initiated a policy of repression against its Hindu (Lhotsampa) minority. By 1993 about 100,000 had fled the country, the majority to refugee camps in eastern Nepal. The degree of brutality employed in forcing this mass evacuation could be considered a crime against humanity. On a per capita basis, Bhutan has produced more refugees than almost any country in the world. In this paper I will describe the trials of the refugees from 1990 to present and outline the frustrating negotiations between the governments of Nepal and Bhutan and the United Nations High Commission on Refugees. My findings are based on visits to the refugee camps and extensive correspondence with camp leaders and Lhotsampas who have refugee status in the USA. I also have reviewed numerous documents and local news media reports. The on-going unrest is assessed as part of the region-wide instability that includes the Maoist Insurgency in Nepal and the long-sustained insurgencies across much of northeastern India.
