US embassy cable - 03KATHMANDU322

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, Bhutanese Refugees 
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