[LINK] "Bhutanese refugees tell dark side of Himalayan kingdom"

[rfmcdonald]

The National Post's Tom Blackwell has an ">article describing one of the flip sides of the seemingly Orwellianly happy Kingdom of Bhutan.

Refugee sagas usually begin with an infamously despotic leader, or with years of war and strife. This one unfolded differently. Jigme Singye Wangchuck, Bhutan's king until recently, has been widely praised for lifting his people from near-medieval conditions, beefing up public education and health care and opening the window to the outside world. He also promoted Gross National Happiness, a creed which holds that material wealth should not come at the expense of spiritual wellbeing, the environment or culture.

Two years ago, the hugely popular king converted Bhutan into the world's newest democracy and abdicated in favour of his Western-educated son. Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck was crowned just last month, earning glowing press coverage as a handsome and charismatic monarch of the people.

Almost forgotten was a period in the late 1980s and early 1990s when more than 100,000 Bhutanese of Nepalese origin -- a sixth of the population -- departed the country, leaving Bhutan largely to the majority Kruk people.

According to a 2006 article by the UNHCR, the United Nations' refugee agency, "tens of thousands" were evicted, often after being made to sign "voluntary" migration certificates. An Immigration Canada spokeswoman said the camps' residents were "forced" to leave Bhutan, while a 2007 Human Rights Watch report states that most, if not all, the refugees in Nepal have a right under international law to return to Bhutan.

A spokesman for the Bhutanese government, however, argued on Tuesday that few of the refugees are actually from his country, suggesting that many impoverished residents of the region settled in the camps to take advantage of services funded by the international community.

Bhutan has no ill feelings toward its remaining Nepalese minority, with some even serving now as cabinet ministers, added Tshewang Dorji, counsellor with Bhutan's mission to the UN.

"Nobody was forced to leave ... The government didn't want the [ethnic Nepalese] people to leave," he insisted. "People who have ill feelings toward Bhutan have blown this issue out of proportion."

Canada will be resettling many of the expelled Bhutanese, as part of a new program aimed at helping refugee blocs find home. Many of the Bhutanese in the cmaps don't want to go, still hoping to return to their homeland and spreading rumours about harsh conditions awaiting the resettled in Canada, like their supposed destination in work camps on the Arctic Circle.