US embassy cable - 04NEWDELHI6976

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 NEW DELHI 006976 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/26/2004 
TAGS: PREL, PHUM, PREF, IN, NP, PHUM, PREF, IN, NP, BT, UNHCR, India-Bhutan 
SUBJECT: BHUTAN MOVING TOWARDS REPATRIATION OF CATEGORY ONE 
 
REFUGEES 
 
THE FOLLOWING IS A REPEAT OF NEW DELHI 6920, DATED 10/29/2004, 
SENT ACTION SECSTATE, INFO BEIJING, COLOMBO, DHAKA, ISLAMABAD, 
KATHMANDU, LONDON, MOSCOW, TOKYO, CALCUTTA, CHENNAI, MUMBAI, 
USPACOM HONOLULU, USCENTCOM MACDILL, PACOM IDHS HONOLULU, 
GENEVA, AND USUN NEW YORK - BEING REPEATED FOR YOUR INFO. 
 
QUOTE 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/26/2014 
TAGS: PREL, PHUM, PREF, UNHCR, IN, NP, BT 
SUBJECT: BHUTAN MOVING TOWARDS REPATRIATION OF CATAGORY ONE 
REFUGEES 
 
Classified By: A/DCM Walter E. North, Reasons 1.4 (B,D). 
 
1.  (C) Summary: During an October 24 meeting with PRM A/S 
Dewey, King Jigme Wangchuck of Bhutan agreed that Category 1 
refugees from the Khudunabari Camp could be repatriated and 
that the Government of Nepal (GON) and the Royal Government 
of Bhutan (RGOB) should exchange a letter specifying the 
modalities.  King Wangchuck also commented, off the record, 
that this refugee situation is unique because Nepal and 
Bhutan have an open border with India and that many of the 
refugees are Indian.  He stated that in private negotiations, 
the GON has not been overly concerned about the refugee 
situation.  Third country resettlement is not an important 
part of the solution, according to the King.  He said the 
conditions of return had been stipulated and are in line with 
Bhutanese citizenship law.  The willingness of the King to 
move on the Category 1 refugees in Khudunabari Camp who had 
already been verified by the Bhutanese and Nepalese Joint 
Verification Teams departed significantly from the message 
A/S Dewey had heard previously from senior RGOB officials who 
held that all the Categories from all the camps must be 
considered before repatriation could start.  End Summary. 
 
An Open Door for Category 1 Refugees? 
------------------------------------- 
 
2.  (C) In an October 24 meeting, A/S Dewey appealed to King 
Jigme Wangchuck to help break the impasse over the refugee 
situation in southern Nepal by agreeing to take back Category 
1 refugees from the Khudunabari Camp.  The King agreed to the 
proposal, but stipulated that the GON and the RGOB must first 
draft a letter setting forth the modalities of how 
repatriation would take place.  He promised to instruct his 
Ambassador to India to work with the Nepalese Ambassador to 
draft the letter, and after the language was finalized, the 
GON would send the letter to Thimphu.  King Wangchuck stated 
that the process must be portrayed as a bilateral initiative 
) and not as a proposal advanced by an outside party.  He 
emphasized the need to inform India of this initiative, and 
asked A/S Dewey to request that Ambassador Mulford brief the 
Indian Ministry of External Affairs.  The King requested that 
Ambassador Moriarty similarly inform Minister of State Mahat 
in Kathmandu and support this initiative with Nepal.  In a 
meeting with Foreign Minister Khandu Wangchuk after a lunch 
hosted for the U.S. delegation by the King, the Foreign 
Minister was instructed to oversee the joint drafting of the 
letters with Minister Mahat. 
 
Indian "Refugees?" 
---------------- 
 
3.  (C) The King also asserted that a large number of camp 
residents are Indians and that the camps serve as a magnet 
due to the high quality of services UNHCR provides compared 
to surrounding areas.  He professed surprise that the number 
of refugees was not higher than 100,000, because of the 
discrepancy in services offered inside and outside the camps. 
 He argued that the international community should stop 
providing services in the camps that are not found in the 
surrounding area.  The King also criticized UNHCR policy of 
requiring refugees to obtain daily passes to leave the camps, 
stating that it limited the free movement of people between 
Nepal and India.  He mentioned that the RGOB knows of 2,000 
people who have voluntarily left the camps, without receiving 
passes, to work and visit family members in India.  These 
people should be allowed to chose where they work and travel, 
he argued, because immigration laws of all three countries 
allow it. 
 
Nepal-Bhutan Talks 
------------------ 
 
4.  (C) Private talks between the GON and RGOB have been very 
good and there has been a frank exchange of ideas, commented 
King Wangchuck.  While the official GON line is that all the 
refugees are Bhutanese, the GON knows they are ethnic 
Nepalese and has no reservations about them staying in Nepal, 
he added.  Two to three million people from Bihar currently 
live in the region of the camps, and the GON would prefer the 
100,000 refugees settle there, because it would increase the 
Nepalese percentage of the population.  However, the GON 
cannot admit this, he continued because it is politically too 
risky, and no government in Kathmandu has come to power 
supporting a mandate on a controversial issue.  Also, with 
all the problems Nepal is facing, the government can at least 
boast that it is taking care of 100,000 refugees, even though 
it is not paying for any of the services, commented the King. 
 
5.  (C) King Wangchuck stated that the GON goal soon after 
the refugee crisis began was to increase the numbers of 
people in the camps from 6,000 to over 100,000 to ensure that 
UNHCR would have to get involved and provide support.  The 
King then reiterated the Bhutanese complaint that UNHCR had 
compounded the problem by not adequately screening refugees. 
He doubted they could remain neutral after 12 years as "judge 
and jury" and consistently calling the people in the camps 
"Bhutanese Refugees."  He added that while the RGOB has had 
problems with the UNHCR, there was no point in "harping on 
the past" and that it was time to move forward.  If the UNHCR 
stopped funding the camps it would not be a large problem, 
because those refugees who could not find jobs in Nepal could 
do so in India, he stated. 
 
Third Country Resettlement 
-------------------------- 
 
6.  (C) There is no need for third country resettlement, 
which is only a "hypothetical solution," the King maintained. 
 The refugee situation is "very unique, but very simple," he 
argued, because all the refugees are from India, Nepal and 
Bhutan and therefore only those three countries are needed 
for a solution.  The refugees are free to live and work in 
India, Nepal and Bhutan, but only under the citizenship laws 
of each country, he remarked.  Because the people in the 
camps are from one of the three counties, the refugees would 
only become stateless by deciding to go the third country 
resettlement route.  While he welcomed that option, it was 
not necessary. 
 
Conditions of Return 
-------------------- 
 
7.  (C) King Wangchuck stated that the RGOB had given UNHCR 
and the GON the conditions of return prior to the December 
2003 attack in the Khudunabari camp.  Any issue involving 
disbursement of land would be covered under Bhutanese law. 
If a person had sold his land before leaving Bhutan, that 
person would not be eligible to get it back or be given any 
free acreage from the RGOB.  However, the king noted that 
those who had been illegally evicted would have the right to 
get property back, and he fully expected that some returning 
category 1 refugees would file cases to do so.  The Joint 
Verification Teams (JVT) had agreed to a liberal 
interpretation of the law, but stressed they would not go so 
far as to change property or citizenship laws, he commented. 
 
8.  (C) King Wangchuck assured A/S Dewey that there would be 
no risk for return of Category 1 refugees, that they would be 
fully protected by Bhutanese citizenship laws, and that the 
numbers of returnees does not matter, as long as they were 
bona fide Bhutanese citizens.   A/S Dewey raised this again 
with the Foreign Minister at the dinner he hosted in the 
evening of October 24.  The Foreign Minister reiterated 
opposition to UNHCR or any international direct monitoring 
saying, "you will have to trust us.  But we would not dare 
violate their citizenship rights given the number of UN 
agencies accredited in Bhutan that will be watching." 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
9.  (C) The King's decision to accept Category 1 refugees 
from the Khudunabari camp, prior to completion of the JVT 
surveys of the other camps, was a surprise response to A/S 
Dewey,s personal appeal to try to find a way around the 
seemingly impenetrable "swamp," rather than to keep 
revisiting it.  It was also a change from the message A/S 
Dewey heard from other senior members of the RGOB, including 
Prime Minister Yeshey Zimba and Minister of Foreign Affairs 
Khandu Wangchuck.  The two ministers repeated old RGOB 
positions and focused on the history of the refugee 
situation, the need for Bhutan to protect its national 
security, the violence committed against the Bhutanese JVT 
members, and a desire for recognition from the US for 
Bhutanese support on Iraq and Article 98.  The King clearly 
took the matter in his own hands to set out a formula to get 
by the impasse.  He defined the concept, then instructed the 
Foreign Minister to work out the details so that repatriation 
of this discrete group could begin. 
10.  (U) A/S Dewey has cleared this cable. 
MULFORD 
UNQUOTE 
MULFORD