CPM takes up Bhutan refugee issue with Nepal

Moving ahead with its concern over the Bhutan refugees in Nepal, the CPIM is taking up the issue at the highest level with the Nepal Government.

Moving ahead with its concern over the Bhutan refugees in Nepal, the CPIM is taking up the issue at the highest level with the Nepal Government.

The party Politburo member Sitaram Yechury, who is in Kathmandu, will be meeting Nepal Prime Minister GP Koirala and Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister K P Sharma Oli. He will be taking up the issue during these meetings.

Yechury who is also making an assessment of the situations with regard to the constituent Assembly elections in Nepal and the peace process. He also met with Prachanda, Chairman of the Communist Party of Nepal Maoist, and Baburam Bhattrai on Monday.

There have been demands from various quarters about India8217;s intervention on the subject of Bhutan refugees in Nepal. 8220;This issue is an important one and I will be raising it8221;, Yechury told The Indian Express.

This issue also has a domestic angle in West Bengal, incidentally a Left-ruled state. Some of the refugees who had crossed over had demanded that they be allowed to go to Bhutan through the West Bengal border, resulting in tensions and police firing in May. In fact, the refugees can cross the Mechi river that marks West Bengal8217;s border with Nepal. The CPIM has good relations with the present ruling dispensation in Kathmandu.

It may be recalled that earlier this month, during Yechury8217;s visit to Kathmandu, a delegation of Bhutanese refugees representing around one lakh of them in Nepal, submitted a memorandum to him, requesting the CPIM leader to seek New Delhi8217;s intervention on their behalf.

Their main complaint was that 8220;Indian authorities stop them when they try to escape from Nepal to Bhutan through India8221;.

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Such refugees have been living in seven camps in eastern parts of Nepal for some 15 years now.

A three-member delegation of the Bhutan National Front for Democracy BNFD, which visited India this month, had met Yechury with the same demand, insisting on a tripartite dialogue among India, Nepal and Bhutan to resolve the issue.

During its two-week-long stay in New Delhi, the Bhutan leaders had also met with the international affairs head of the BJP Surendra Singh Arora, and CPI National Secretary D Raja.