The Bhutanese Government's claim that the security forces have maintained an extremely low profile absolutely holds no truth. The Southern Bhutan in fact was literally dotted with study looking soldiers in full battle fatigue. Most of the soldiers were withdrawn from the border areas in the north and east and were mobilised in the south to carry out the Bhutanization programmes with flashed bayonets; heinous murders, multiple gang rapes, and third degree torture to the innocent civilians and prisoners. The glaring instances of torture and harassment practised by the security forces in the cells in Bhutan are clearly recorded by the Peoples Forum for Human rights, Bhutan (PFHR-B) where the victims have clearly brought out the existing violence in the Bhutanese prisons. An Army officer in exile, wishing to remain anonymous was arrested on 20 December 1990 by twelve army soldiers, a police officer and an army officer commanded by Lt. Col. Sonam Rinchen, all fully armed and in battle fatigue without any rhyme or reason and without any arrest warrant. He was released on 04 Feb 1992 and was told to flee away to Nepal. He gave the following accounts to PFHR-B. "The treatment received was horrible. Every night they used to kick us, beat us and hit us with rifle butts. They would shout at us, use abusive and dirty language and threaten us. One day Samchi Dzongda, Lhakpa Dorji came and threatened all the distinguished persons in the cell. Col. Batoo Tshering of Royal Bhutan Army (Present Army Chief) also came and interrogated me but none of these visitors would look humane. On 15 Nov 1991, Lt. Col. Sonam Rinchen came to prison cell. He ordered my shackling and took me to a room. I could see blood stains all over the wall. Later I realised that this was the torture chamber where many prisoners had succumbed to torture previously. Once in the room-my hands and feet were tied together and they tossed me around. Then the colonel started beating me all over the body with a stick. I could remember seven to eight blows then I fell semi-unconscious. They stopped hitting because the stick broke. He then ordered for another cane this time he ordered another soldier to beat me as he was too tired. This soldier showed some soft corner while beating me. At this he snatched the cane and hit the soldier. They continued beating me until the cane broke again. In the evening I found myself in my room. I was bleeding profusely all over my shoulders, legs, back and ankles".
Another victim, Bhim Prasad Tamang, a villager of Kado Block, Nainital, Samchi district was arrested on 08 August 1990 by the Royal Bhutan Police constables, Sonam and Khado without any reasons or arrest warrant. He was released from prison on 19 August 1994 and told to leave Bhutan at the earliest. He narrated his prison experiences to PFHR-B in the following ways: - "My handcuffs were removed. They asked me to stretch out my hands and hit my palms with bamboo sticks. I was also hit on the head. Both of them hit me seven to eight times. I was asked to sit on the floor and stretch my legs. They then hit my soles several times. The Dungpa kicked me on the chest. He tried to pierce my finger with a needle but the Dzongdag stopped him. Next day police officer Major Naina Mani Pradhan asked me to lie down on my back. Then he hit me on the soles twice he hit me with the rifle butt. On 9 August 1990 at 3.00 pm Major Pradhan told me that my son had died due to bullet injury. In the same evening, another police officer, Jaman Singh Gurung beat me with a huge stick which looked like the rifle butt. One blow hit my lower stomach and I fell unconscious. I was dragged to my cell then. I could not sleep whole night".
Ganga Prasad Pradhan of Ghumauney block, samchi district was arrested in Phuntsholing on 22 Sept. 1990 by combined forces of army and police led by Captain Kipchu Namgyel of Royal Bhutan Police (RBP) without an arrest warrant. He was released from prison on 22 Feb 1994. He gave the following account to us. "Major I. B. Pradhan and Major P.t. Dorji, RBP tortured me, they applied 'Chepuwa' on my both legs for more than 4 hours on the first day and repeated it many times after intervention of one week or fortnight. (Chepuwa is traditional torture device under which the thigh of prisoner is placed under two wooden rods and pressed which excruciates extreme pain). They beat me on my back several times. Then they put me in the confinement room. There was no window, and ventilation and no bedding. I was kept there for 15 month". He further states that "One detainee Satyanarayan Kalwar from Chengmari died due to torture on 12 August 1991. He was in the next room. They used to photograph some of us while torturing. Satyanarayan disappeared soon he was given enough treatment.”
These glaring misuse of authority and power by the security forces is a slap on the very faces of those, who try to hide the wrong deeds in a glorified way. The past and the ongoing actions of the security forces in Bhutan cannot be termed "an extremely low profile action".
The regime of King Jigme cannot decide just from unjust. Right or wrong, the government by issuing vague charges about its own populace has nothing to gain in the long run. The government has failed to battle with its own people in many counts. Even a fool or a muddle headed man cannot be made to believe a cheap propaganda that too from the top bureaucrats in the country. The government went on record to issue mean statements like the citizens of southern Bhutan are a migratory race, these farmers do not have a symbiotic relationship with the land like farmers in other countries and that Nepalis as a rule do not built large houses and no matter how well-off they are. The government's statement became even cheaper, when it stated that the Nepalis keep all their earnings in cash or in gold and silver hidden in their houses. How can a system meant to safe-guard the interest of the country and its citizen’s stoop so low by mean and cheap gossip that even its own citizens feel embarrassed to retaliate? The highly sensitive and educated communities of the world would not believe even a fraction of the false gossip. It is not only the Bhutanese who are ready to sell their property and leave their country at short notice for better economic prospects elsewhere. It is a world-wide phenomenon. Almost all the countries in the world are populated by immigrants. However, such was not the case with the Lhotsampas, who though immigrants were the bonafide Bhutanese citizens until the brutal Wangchuk regime made them flee by annexing their landed properties both movable and immovable. One's blood pressure really shoots up with the government on the issue the Bhutanese people in the refugee camps are they really thriving economically if they lad left Bhutan for economic prosperity? The Government of Bhutan, must therefore, provide suitable and convincing answers to these queries, so that we are convinced and the world body to get convinced.
Did the Government of Bhutan ever carried-out an opinion pool among the Lhotsampas to assess as to how many of them had ever considered Nepal as their motherland? The Ex-Foreign Minister Dawa Tshering would perhaps provide a suitable answer to this particular query. He appears to have an exaggerated image of his power in the Ngalongs echelons forgetting his ethnic background. Tshering is the son of a Kalimpong based Chinese and was brought up in a Nepali household there. After graduating with law degree, he worked as a hotel superintendent in Kalimpong before he landed it big in Bhutan with under tutelage of late Prime Minister Dorji. If the other citizens are immigrates so is he. Even King Jigme in this context is an outsider for his mother is Sikkimese by birth. The Government must learn from its own mistakes and refrain from issuing statements that harms the interest of the country and the people.
The Government is fully aware that Bhutan itself is made up of migratory population. Today if an opinion pool is initiated vigorously with security threats; to the ruling class; the findings would also be otherwise. Can the Home Ministry issue statements regarding the true motherland of the ruling class then?
The demolished houses of the people simply demonstrate the wrong from the right. In Southern Bhutan particularly in Sibsoo, Dorokha, Chirang, Sarbhang, Surey, and Dagana, the people have built very large and concrete houses and in most of the towns like Phuntsholing, Samchi, Damphu, Gaylegplang and Samdrup-Jongkhar. The people have modern residential buildings and apartments. Therefore the Government's claim "that the ethnic minorities other than ruling class do not build large houses" has no room to accommodate the unbelievable false propaganda. The few concrete houses in and around Thimphu, Punakha, Wangdi, Paro, Haa, Bumthang and Tongsa might have impressed the government to compare these buildings with that of south and as a face saving measure compared the largeness of houses. It is indeed a silly approach to expose the illogical facts without any reality that are irrelevant and indigestible. Largeness of houses is not the result of racial background but is a desire and compulsion made so by economic prosperity. A town to eastern Bhutan and in other remote areas in the country will justify "the largeness of house" issue and would provide the required answer to the Regime whether only the inhabitants in the south are the true migratory people. In most places the situation is no better than what it was centuries ago. In some of eastern Bhutan, people still live together with animals, in one room houses which have leaves roofs. This is more common in Taba Damtse, Kheng district and the areas of Panbang, Ngamlang, Dechling and Kulikatta and interiors of Deothang, Orang, Gomdar, Marsala and Shingkharlauri between Gaylegpheg and Bhangtar. Therefore, the government must think its own housing problems at home instead of floating impertinent documents comparing issues like houses which will not only embarrass the country but its population too vis-à-vis the global inhabitants.
The Father-king Jigme and his coterie of confidants should have thought deeply before accentuating "war of words diplomacy" with the Nepal Government and the Bhutanese refugees. Even the refugees are surprised to the approach the Government of Bhutan has taken its propaganda drive. To a raw outsider, the Thimphu "diplomatic game" might appeal and enable him to draw praiseworthy comments about the efficiency of the bureaucrats but not to the people of Bhutan "who know the ins and outs" of the so-held efficient bureaucrats; and not to the likes of Ravi Nair, the Delhi-based human rights activist, who has followed issue since the first image has shattered among those who follow the politics of South Asia. People have understood what the Bhutanese game is".
As the Bhutanese taking refugee in Nepal, the Bhutanese regime got the entire pretext it wanted to degrade Nepal with issues like Nepal Government's keen interest to fence the refugee camps and the Nepal Government as collaborator to the dissidents move for converting Bhutan as a Nepali dominated state and the ultimate political seize a blatant lie indeed. Nepal is held primarily suspicious by Bhutan and all the good intentions of the Government of Nepal to settle the "Bhutanese refugee issues" amicably and in the most suitable approach is wrongly conceived by the almighty Regime just because Nepal happens to be the ancestral land of these ethnic refugees. "How could have the Bhutanese government reacted to Bangladesh and India if the refugee had taken asylum in these two countries other than Nepal? Perhaps, the Bhutanese government would have then termed the same refugees from Bhutan as the original inhabitants of Bangladesh and India. It is a guess, but carries enough weight and sense.
