Call to stop third country resettlement

Source: The Kathmandu Post

DAMAK, Nov. 7 (PR) - Bhutan Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist-Maoist), waging armed struggle in the Druk kingdom for the repatriation of Bhutanese refugees, has demanded Nepal government to stop third country refugee resettlement program by the end of this year. The party has also warned of launching agitation from within the refugee camps of Nepal if third country resettlement program is not scrapped as demanded. Addressing a program held clandestinely to mark the party's eigth anniversary in Jhapa on Friday, the party's military commission representative for Nepal Nirmal said the Maoist led government ignored the party's repeated calls to put an end to the third country resettlement program. "The party will begin struggle from the refugee camps if the resettlement program is not scrapped by January 2009," warned Nirmal.

Communist Party of Bhutan (MLM) denies shooting

Source: Apfanews.com

Kathmandu, December 14: The Communist Party of Bhutan (MLM) has denied the charge that it shot Arun Subba of Beldani-I quoted Nepalese daily The Himalayan Times.

Subba over a telephone interview with Saranarthi Sarokar from hospital bed has claimed the involvement of CPB (MLM) in shooting. “The incident was the result of the warning that we received in last pamphlet” he told.

His condition is out of risk. Security chief of UNHCR, representatives of aid agencies and chief district officer, Jhapa have visited the LifeLine Hospital to inquire the condition of Subba.

The daily quoted that in a press statement today, in-charge of the party’s rehabilitation coordination committee Muna refuted the charge levelled against the party.

The release said that the incident was the “extreme injustice meted out by the Nepal government and UNHCR on the refugees.” The release alleged that the UNHCR was responsible for the worsening situation in the refugee camp. Regretting the shooting incident, Muna said the party was formed to wage a struggle in Bhutan.

Meanwhile, security has been beefed up in all three camps in Beldangi.

Pamphlets, claimed to be posted by the Communists Party of Bhutan (CPB-MLM)-affiliated All Bhutan Revolutionary Students Union and Bhutan Republican Youths Organisation in Beldangi-I camp in Novermber 'blacklisted' at least 12 individuals and carried warning to take people's action against them. Subba was one in the list.

The pamphlet had also issued ultimatum that the accused ones should either leave camps within 15 days or apologies before CPB-MLM.

30 people sentenced for planning seditious activities

Source: Kuenselonline

After five months of exhaustive court proceedings, 30 people, who had joined the Communist Party of Bhutan (Marxist-Leninist-Maoist) based in Nepal, were sentenced to prison terms ranging from five to nine years for conspiring to carry out subversive activities against Bhutan.

According to officials of the Samtse district court, the accused were sentenced in accordance with the provisions of the National Security Act of Bhutan, 1992, and the Penal Code of Bhutan, 2004. The court had found that, using a religious façade called the Srijana Sanskrit Sangathan, the group had held several meetings to discuss Maoist ideology and to collect money and food grain for the Communist Party of Bhutan. People who attended the meetings were made to fill up membership forms, a court official said.

Seditious meetings were conducted in Katarey and Ugyentse in Samtse, during which the participants planned to recruit local people, set up camps in the forest for the terrorists belonging to the Communist Party of Bhutan, and to train locals in the use of weapons and explosives to start an armed rebellion against the government.

Some of the accused, including two Class XII students, had gone to the refugee camps in eastern Nepal to attend briefing sessions on “Political and Ideology Training” conducted by the cadres of the Communist Party of Bhutan, the Nepal Maoist and Communist Party of Nepal, Bhutan Peoples’ Party, Druk National Congress, and Bhutan Gorkha National Liberation Front. The Communist comrades briefed them on the collection of arms.

According to the court statement, some of the defendants were found guilty of aiding and abetting the ngolops, and forming secret groups like Pragathisel Sanskriti Pariwars, Srijana Sanskriti Pariwars and Saipatri Sanskriti Pariwars to strengthen the Communist Party of Bhutan in its seditious activities against the Tsa-Wa-Sum.

Two women cadres from the camps in Nepal had met 13 of the accused at the Indian border town of Luksan in Jalpaiguri district, West Bengal, and instructed them to form a separate women’s group to start a door to door awareness campaign of Communist ideology, to recruit party workers at the community level and to be prepared to undertake training in arms and explosives.

The Royal Bhutan Police believe that their main aim was to nurture and expand the Communist Party cadre so that they could set up camps inside Bhutan in collusion with the Maoist cadres of Nepal and ultimately start an armed rebellion against the government.

The Communist party of Bhutan is closely associated with the Maoist Party of Nepal. The Bhutan Tiger Force, which is the militant wing of the Communist Party of Bhutan, was responsible for planting several explosive devices in Phuentsholing town this year.

All the convicts were apprehended by the Royal Bhutan Police in Samtse in May and June this year and the cases were forwarded to the dzongkhag court on June 29. Police recovered detonators and other materials used for making improvised explosive devices, membership forms of the Communist Party of Bhutan and All Bhutan Revolutionary Student Union, note-books containing revolutionary lyrics and coded membership lists, coded names and addresses of donors and five numbers of Nepali textbooks on Communist Party from the group.

According to the court, a few of the convicted are appealing against their sentences, while most have confessed to their crimes and are appealing for pardon.

Bhutanese refugees flee camps in droves

Source: eKantipur.com
BY CHETAN ADHIKARI

DAMAK, Aug 27 - Owing to lack of security due to frequent riots inside the refugee camps here in Beldangi of Jhapa, incidents of Bhutanese refugees leaving the camps have increased recently.

The refugees started fleeing since May when riots initially began inside the camps. Further, the exodus has intensified significantly since the past two weeks after three of the camp secretaries in Beldangi refugee camps were beaten up by refugee youths who are against accepting the option of third country resettlement.

Among the escapees are Beldangi camp sector III secretary Manorath Khanal, his family and neighbor Homnath Baral's family, the then acting camp secretary of sector II Pingala Dhital and his family. The three families were displaced after an angry mob demolished their huts inside the camp and beat up Khanal.

Although there is no specific data available about the those who have left camp, local refugees said that almost 100 petrified refugees from all the three camps in Beldangi of Jhapa have fled the camps so far. The refugees staying back in the camps are terrified as well.

According to a refugee Tek Bahadur Mainali, many of the refugees are taking shelter in other camps or nearby villages outside the camps.

Refugees have been living under insecurity following strong differences between those supporting third-country resettlement and others opposing it. Furthermore, rebellious parties, including Bhutan Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist-Maoist) and Bhutan Tigers' Front have intensified their activities inside the camps in the recent past, adding to the fear among the refugees.