![]() ![]() However, harassment from the Indian police forced them to move on to southeastern Nepal. Initially, refugees fled overland to West Bengal and Assam in India. 13 Some households were given compensation for their property, but often these amounts did not equal the value of the land. Before they crossed the border into India, the Bhutanese government forced many to sign voluntary migration certificates, thus surrendering their rights to Bhutanese citizenship under the nationality laws. Tens of thousands of people fled these abuses in Bhutan or were forcibly deported by 1992. Government forces also destroyed houses and forced many ethnic Nepalese off of their lands. Members of the Bhutanese police and army imprisoned, raped, and tortured many of those who were directly, indirectly, or accidentally associated with the demonstrations. 11 Schools and health services were suspended in southern Bhutan. 10 Some ethnic Nepalese were involved in violent activities, such as the burning of schools and attacks on government officials. 9 In the early 1990s, the Bhutanese government crushed resistance by ethnic Nepalese and others who protested the policies, which included large public demonstrations and the formation of a political party calling for a multi-party democracy in the early 1990s. The government of Bhutan soon introduced other ∻hutanization measures like the 1989 one nation, one people policy that forced the practice of Drukpa culture through a compulsory dress code and the termination of Nepali language instruction in schools. 7 The census was implemented only in southern Bhutan, and reports suggest that local government officials made arbitrary census classifications designed to push the Nepali-speaking community out of Bhutan. 6 The government began enforcing the 1985 act through a census in 1988 that resulted in the mass denationalization of many Lhotshampas. Bhutan Citizenship Act included provisions for the revocation of citizenship, including for those who have shown any form of disloyalty to the King or country, that are arbitrary and discriminatory in violation of international human rights law. ![]() In particular, two Citizenship Acts, one passed in 1977 and one in 1985, tightened the requirements for obtaining and retaining citizenship. 3 Beginning in the late 1970s, the government of Bhutan introduced a series of progressively discriminatory measures focused on the political, economic, and cultural exclusion of Nepali-speakers (Lhotshampas). 1 However, their growing numbers and the formation of a political party were perceived as a threat to the cultural and political order of Bhutan, 2 ruled by the Ngalongs, descendents of Tibetan Buddhists. Ethnic Nepalese began migrating to southern Bhutan in the nineteenth century and many were granted Bhutanese citizenship by the 1958 Nationality Law. Background History of the Bhutanese Refugee Situation in NepalĮthnic and political tensions play a central role in the current Bhutanese refugee situation in Nepal. We Dont Want to Be Refugees Again: HRW Briefing Paper for the Fourteenth Ministerial Joint Committee of Bhutan and Nepal: II. ![]()
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