Unknown gang killed one refugee

An unknown gang killed one refugee youth of thirty years old in Bhutanese refugee camp Beldangi-II on Thursday evening.

According to the source, the deceased was residence of Sector E/3 of Beldangi-II named  Nar Bahadur Subba of Sector E/3 and was declared dead after being taken to the AMDA.

As per the neighbours of the decease, he was playeing Deusi with his friends some minutes prior he was found lying helplessly on the ground near his hut.

The camp-based Armed Police Force (APF) of Beldangi II arrested at least seven persons in connection to murder of Nar Bahadur Subba. Further, the investigation is under-process.

Best Child Singer Competition kick-off

Tanka Maya Baral

Bhutanese Refugee Children Forum (BRCF) conducted Best Child Singer Competition on Saturday under the funding support of Lutheran World Federation (LWF).

Uttam Rai, Prabeen Darjee and Gopal Karki were awarded as  First, Second and third respectively, Secretary of BRCF Beldangi Semi-Khawoth Subba informed.

BRCF co-ordinator, Bhim Monger said, “Seventeen children from various camp-level schools participated the competition and really this shows that there are still talent children are in camp; they need to be encouraged to participated in creative works”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

World Refugee Day marked in camps

The Bhutanese refugees  of Jhapa and Morang celebrated the World Refugee Day (WRD) by organising various programmes in their respective camps, Monday.

According to Kumar Poudyel(one refugee from Beldangi), hundreds of refugees from camp and representatives of various aid-agencies took part in the rally and formal programmes this afternoon.

This Marked for the first time in 2000, the WRD is celebrated each year on June 20 in a bid to remember millions of refugees of the world.

Many exiled Bhutanese, who are soon leaving the camps for resettlement, said they celebrated the event as a last refugee day. However, the participation in the event was less as compared with past years, according to the one elder refugee Tika Maya Adhikari.

Speaking at the function, various officials praised the refugee mass for celebrating the WRD.

On June 20 every year, WRD celebration was initiated from 2000. It is celebrated with a view to remembering millions of refugees in the world.

Fourth Edition of TRH is online now

Fourth Edition of The Refugee Herald (TRH) is online now.

As per the TRH team, team is highly regretted for inconvenience for readers as it is lately published due to lack of access in resources.

You can click here to download or view Portable Document Format (PDF) of TRH online or in your free time THE REFUGEE HERALD.

Electricity still banned in refugee camps

By: HK Dahal

Since there is no any written international law to prohibit refugees to get access of electricity, but also Bhutanese refugees in Beldangi are totally prohibited to get access of such infrastructure of development.

As exiled Bhutanese students are studying in school that for appropriate development there should be the adequate Education, health, transportation, communication and electricity facilities. Slightly our exiled Bhutanese people are getting access of education, health, communication, transportation but mainly electricity is totally prohibited here in camp. No Bhutanese knows what is the main reason behind that.

Before some months, hardly exiled Bhutanese connected electricity from host community but within few months Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) of Damak disconnected and seized all the connecting cables and meter box forcefully.
As exiled Bhutanese were not using it in free, they used to pay Rs.20 per Unit as local consumers only pay Rs.9 per Unit. Last time local consumers had collected Rs.5000 from each exiled Bhutanese consumers, which they haven’t returned till now.

Mainly the lack of electricity, exiled Bhutanese students are forced to study in dark at night in absence of proper light as there is no any other light facilities.

Protected: Fire safety awareness rally(Photo Collection)

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Third edition of TRH published

Front view of third edition

The third edition of Bhutanese refugee based English newspaper “The Refugee Herald” (TRH) is published and circulating in camp.

If you want to read this newspaper online click here to download.

The first edition of TRH is published on 14 January, under the private circulation of Bhutanese refugee students under parenting of Chief Editor: Vidhyapati Mishra and Managing Editor: Mona Rath Pokhrel.

TRH is one and only English newspaper left that is alive in Bhutanese refugee camp.

Over 5,000 people resettled in lands owned by exiled citizens

Altogether 5,088 people from various other districts have been resettled in farms and lands, which were previously owned by Southern Bhutanese in exile, between 1997 and 2008.

Of this, Samtse suffered the largest resettlement as the National Land Commission (NLC) offered lands to 2,194 individuals, offering five acres of land for each resettled.

Likewise, 1,585 people were offered lands in Sarpang followed by 859 persons in Tshirang. Dagana received the least number of 450 resettlers, according to NLC.

The resettlers are mostly Sarchops from the East. However, the Commission has issued lands to landless citizens from other parts of the country as well.

Meanwhile, the Commission last week notified all resettlers that if they failed to occupy or cultivate the allotted land it would not be registered.

It has also warned of nullifying the registration of those who have stopped cultivating the farms offered to them.

11th SAARC Secy from Maldives appointed

The 11th Secretary General of the SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) has been appointed.

General Secretary

According to the SAARC Secretariat, Ahmed Saleem of Maldives has succeeded Fathimath Dhiyana Saeed. The outgoing Secretary General was also from Maldives.

He joined the Maldivian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1968 and served for over 26 years. He served at the High Commission of Maldives in Sri Lanka and the Permanent Mission of Maldives in New York, according to the Secretariat.

Saleem is also said to have served as the Maldivian Government’s first Alternative Governor for the World Bank and Asian Development Bank.

OL irked at PM’s remarks on repatriation

Tshering Tobgay, a Member of Parliament representing Sombaykha Constituency in Haa and the Leader of the Opposition party in the National Assembly, has criticized Prime Minister Jigmi Y Thinley for speaking on the favor of exiled Bhutanese.

Tshering Tobgay

Just a few days after the Prime Minister reiterated the government’s position in accepting “genuine citizens” for repatriation, OL Tobgayflayed PM’s statement.

“I fail to see the logic in the prime minister’s statement. How can he commit to repatriate people if we now don’t have any basis of even identifying whether a person is a genuine Bhutanese or not?” Tobgay, who is also a top ranking blogger in the country, wrote in his blog Tuesday.

However, his explanation on bringing the longstanding refugee imbroglio to a logical conclusion has clearly depicted his “childish political ideology”. Indeed, a few comments posted on his post did explain his “political maturity level”.

According to his claim, repatriation is no longer possible stating that acceptance of some citizens was a genuine possibility 10 years ago, but even then, only if the verification process was honest and complete.

“That didn’t happen. Now it’s more than 20 years since people settled in the camps, plus most of them have opted to resettle in third countries. If repatriation was not possible 10 years ago, in spite of the best efforts of the governments of Bhutan and Nepal, I don’t see how the prime minister can even talk about it as a possibility now,” he wrote.

Without accepting the responsibility of his People’s Democratic Party in pressurizing the House to resolve the refugee crisis in a moral ground, Tobgay, however, thanked the international community for accepting exiled Bhutanese for resettlement.

He also remembered to accuse citizens in exile of preferring to resettle in the third countries.