The farmers go sleepless for many months every year keeping eye on tuskers who ravage farms and destroy crops over­night.

The local authority is organizing a three-workshop in Lobesa, Wangduephodrang from March 4-6 to share ideas for prevention and mitigation of conflicts between the farmers and tuskers. Educators, foresters, field staff, community leaders and youth group are attending it.

The effort to keep the tuskers away with traditional mentions like solar, fencing, electric wiring etc have all failed. The government had paid little attention to this problem, in addition to less priority to south.

Bhutan has an estimated elephant habitat of around 2,000 square kilometers with a resident population of 60-100 elephants. They are found confined mostly in the southern belts of Bhutan. However there is limited information on elephant status and distribution in the country in the absence of scientific surveys.

One of the reasons of eviction Nepali-speakers in early 1990 was our endeavour to widen the scope of Nepali language, Nepali culture in that tiny Himalayan kingdom. Since culture forms the basic ingredient for literary creations which in turn bring waves of renaissance, it was obvious on part of the Druk regime to carve out strategies to limit expansion of Nepali literature.

The early years of settlement as refugees in Nepal, under misery forming sky as the roof, cramped literary talents of the suppressed and oppressed Bhutanese community in exile. The formation of Nepali Bhasa Parishad, Bhuta, (later renamed as Nepali Sahitya Parishad) and its followers injected emotions, enthusiasm, love and above all greater attachment to Nepali literature among Bhutanese exiles.

Technical backwardness and financial constraints were major causes behind lack of accelerated progress in Nepali literature in the exile Bhutanese community. Very few publications born but fade out to vain and others lost battle of survival in the span of nearly two decades in exile. The empty bellies, naked bodies and absence of a good platform ruled the society and thus squeezed the creative talents within huts to shut up their imaginations.

The resettlement and subsequent exposure to technology has opened up doors for the show. The older generation might face it tough to adjust but a array of youngsters is on the battlefield to revive the fading image of Bhutanese literature. An example to this front is the bhutaneseliterature.com, operated from Norway. Few years back, writers preferred publishing books and were reluctant to the call for online publications. I personally experienced ignorance or ‘no response’ from many new talents or leading littérateurs of the community when I called them to contribute their creations to start a literary site. It was certainly a lack of exposure and knowledge of the impact that internet superhighway has in modern society.

Ramesh Gautam, one of the founders of the forum

However, it is good beginning that Bhutanese Literature is doing at this hour. Under the loose network, the founders of the forum – Dona Acharya, Ramesh Gautam, Rup Narayan Pokhrel, Sanchaman Khaling and Yati raj Ajnabee – see the rays of hope at the end of the tunnel. The early responses are overwhelming and encouraging.

“BL aims at being a global platform for literature from Bhutan, for writers, readers and the lovers of literature,” says Ramesh Gautam.

The forum has the challenges as well. With similar sentiments and same stories the resettled Bhutanese are obvious to join this movement. The tough would be – how will it bridge gap created among Nepali speakers of Bhutan and those living in exile, during the last two decades. The founders say, they hope things will change with time.

In my conversation with many Nepali speakers in Thimphu, Phuentsholing, Samdrup Jongkhar, Paro, Gelephu and other southern districts, I learnt that status of Nepali language is far below than we can imagine in Bhutan. A whole set of new generation perfectly does not know how to read Nepali. Nepali as a language in Bhutan has just turned like a dialect – people speak but it has no script. The yarn for learning Nepali language may take some years as love for English has ever grown to apex, being the only communicable language in this multi-lingual country.

Bhutan Literature will face tough time to get connected with Bhutanese Nepalis in Bhutanese – and getting literary creations from them would be a tedious travel. The sustainability of BL as pure Bhutanese literature site will be determined by the response it gets from within Bhutan.

“Bhutanese Literature now hopes to transform itself into a FOUNDATION which will eventually function well for the promotion of literature. We hope to work for the preservation of language and culture too. We need to remember that the children growing in abroad may soon forget the language; the children who are born there will be learning no Nepali if we don’t take initiative to take care of it. In a long run BL too will try to reach it,” they say.

In essence, BL anticipate contributing in other language – English and Dzongkha, the other two prominent languages spoken in the country. Tshangla without any script obvious will be left out of the forum.

“We have been publishing the articles on the two languages and we hope to start it in Dzongkha once we have someone to work for,” Gautam said.

“English articles should be good options to be accepted from inside Bhutan but we expect that we should work for Nepali language there too. Road map is not ready.”

Literature has germinated beyond borders and is well fed in primary phase. But it is the need of the hour that it takes extraordinary efforts to inject love for literature inside Bhutan and keep itself as a pure Bhutanese literature promotion forum.

In his on-foot tour, King Khesar visited the flood affected people and talked to them about the problem, besides inspecting the damages flood caused to physical infrastructure. 

He walked from Umling (Lalai) to Manas area in Gelephu, looking the situation of the Mochu, Taklai, Lankhar, and other rivers, and villages in between them. These are the areas where resettlement took place in 1997 and 98 and rarely any Nepali-speaking people live. He avoided Chhuzagang (Danabari) where large Nepali population lives.

He then moved through Panbang through Drangmey and to see Tungkudemba, Gerong, Rebati and other villages, camped along the Darangchu for a night before heading to Shilangtoe village where he talked with students as well.

While returning to Thimphu, he visited the Sunkosh township in Dagana and flood-affected people in Wangduephodrang and Punakha.

Koirala releasing the book

“I have deeper sentiments with the Bhutanese issue”, said Koirala on Thursday in a program hosted by Oxford International Publication at Hotel Shangri-La in Kathmandu. “Until I live, I will have all forms of supports to the Bhutan’s democratic movement.”

He further said, he has talked with Bhutanese king and the prime minister several times for repatriation of exiled Bhutanese. “Though they responded positively, they never executed their words,” he said.

He highlighted the important role that India should play for repatriation of the exiled Bhutanese.

C. P. Gajurel, a central committee member of the ruling Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoists), who also heads the party’s foreign relation department, strongly criticized the resettlement process offered by the United States of America and other countries. “I have not understood how kind the Americans are to give citizenship to the Bhutanese who have never demanded for it”, said Gajurel.

Saying that India has role in solving this two decade long crisis, Gajurel said his party also failed to pick up the issue despite being in government leadership.

Participants at the function

However, Madav Kumar Nepal, the former general secretary of Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist, Leninists) said that it makes no difference on the feeling towards democratization and human rights establishment in Bhutan even if all the exiled Bhutanese get relocated to third countries.

According to Nepal, no one can suppress the movement of the Bhutanese citizens, rather they become stronger and more potential in such countries.

This second book by Rizal features how the most trusted character of the fourth King Jigme Singye was forced to go to prison, where he received inhuman torture for a decade.

Speaking about the book, Rizal said that the book was a vivid example of how Nepali-speaking Bhutanese were treated by the regime in the past.

The first width cutting of 50.56 km up to the suspension bridge at Phurbhay – a two-hour walking distance from Phuentsholing – has been completed.

Works on retaining walls and culverts are underway. Begun in February 2005, Samtse-Phuentsholing highway is expected to complete by 2012 wit total budget outlay of Nu 811 million.

About 12 km of track construction for the Halhaley-Dorokha has been completed since it began in February 2007. Halhaley is 25 km away from Samtse along the highway. The road section is expected to complete before this monsoon.

On January 23 at midnight at the residence of the officer Dawa near the Ghumaoney Basic Health Unit (BHU), the army officer Kuenga came along with some people and beaten up the health worker. The health officer was dragged outside the house. Family members say Dawa’s vision of left eye has been affected.

Dawa was punched on the neck and other parts of the body mercilessly forcing him to call himself as Basic Health Worker (BHW). Dawa’s family reported the case immediately to police but police officers ignored. 

In a compromise reached following day, Dawa was compensated Nu 3,000. However, family members rejected the compromise and took the case to the court.

The company, which was permitted only collecting talc left on the surface during the construction of the Samtse-Phuentsholing highway, was found engaged in illegally extracting minerals outside the permitted areas. The company is learnt to have begun excavation from areas where talc residues were found in abundance.

The department said minerals collected from outside the prescribed areas would be seized but has not furnish details how it would distinguish talc collected from the road surface from the excavation site. 

The company had already faced a corruption charges while trying to get contract for mining in the same district. It was only after ACC intervened that department took action against the company this time.

After some futile attempts of igniting violence, the communist group almost retreated to zero level party activity in Bhutan. The party cadres are apprehended from various operation spots are now lodged in prison cells, while some of them have been reported to be killed during military operation.

Govinda Nirola and Khagendra Khanal were living in sector D of Timai camp before being arrested in Sarpang district by Royal Bhutan Army. Both eighth grader drop-outs from camp school, they were involved in the party activities without the knowledge of their families. Birkha Bahadur Chhetri of Khudunabari camp has the same story behind his arrest. A plus two student, Birkha was the grown-up child of illiterate parents and looked after the family responsibly. Birkha’s parents are so much ignorant of his arrest that they could say nothing of their son. The parents of these jail-birds knew of their arrest only through the local FM radio in Jhapa.

Kumar Gautam, 20, is originally from Taklai block of Sarbhang district, and current resident of sector C-1 of Goldhap camp. Kumar was arrested from Singi block of Sarpang district on February 5, 2008, according to the family. He was arrested during the publicity campaign of CPB (MLM) along with some publications of the party. However the family of Kumar knew of his whole time involvement in the party since 2003. Kumar is skilled in electrical wiring. The Gautam family has been desperately making efforts to contact ICRC through Nepal Red Cross to know the whereabouts of Kumar. Interestingly, Kumar’s ration was suspended without the confirmation of his arrest. 

Omnath Adhikari, the only son of his mother Damber Kumari, was arrested in Samdrup Jongkhar district and taken to the district jail where he faced severe torture for five months. Hasta Rai and Chaturman Tamang, also caught up along with Omnath, shared the tortures like beating with boots and iron rods; handcuffed, blindfolded and locked up in toilets; made to sleep in cold floor etc. Chaturman, 24, is eldest son of the family now living in Sector C-2 of Beldangi – I camp. Chaturman sneaked away from his hut early morning pretending to go for a wage labor. His mother had given him NRs 500 the other day. The family knew that Chaturman was taken to Chemgang jail from Man Bahadur Moktan who was released along with D. K Rai on November 1, 2008. While Omnath’s mother was able to visit her son in Chemgang on second week of December, Chaturman’s mother has not got any response from ICRC yet, for the ‘pass’ to see her dear one in jail. Same is the case with Sukman Magar of Beldangi-2 extension, Sanman Gurung and Nandalal Basnet of Beldangi-I. Sukman’s innocent baby daughter is unknown about the purpose of her father’s disappearance.

Santiram Acharya of Sector D-1/85 has a different story than above. Hailed from Dagana district originally, Santiram was arrested two years ago from Tashilakha, Phuentsholing. According to the family, Santiram was arrested simply on the basis of false information given by a vigilante. After about twenty days in custody and torture in Phuentsholing he was transferred to central jail. Santiram is presented to the court once which convicted him of being a Maoist activist and declared a jail-term of seven years, six months. But the party refuted Acharya’s involvement in party activities. According to his elder brother Devi Charan, Santiram often gets epileptic fits and has no capacity to serve as a Maoist cadre. Devi Charan visited him in Chemgang on October 8, 2008. While in camp, Santiram served as the reporter for two papers ‘The Bhutan Reporter’ and ‘Bhutan Jagaran’ with contribution to the publication of Bhutanese Refugee Children Forum. 

In whatsoever ways the young boys were snatched from various locations, alleging them to be involved in Maoist activity, the Bhutanese court is not ready to give fair trial. The party that they believed to work practically for changes in Bhutan, has almost left them stranded. They are mostly lodged in the central jail after a heavy torture in unknown locations prior to their transfer to Chemgang. The court in Thimphu seems to announce the jail terms on the basis of report already prepared by the police in the district jails before being shifted to Chemgang.

Nandalal Katwal, 62, now serving jail term of thirteen years and six months in Chemgang has already completed nine years in jail. Arrested in Phuentsholing during the party activity sponsored by Bhutan Gorkha National Liberation Front, Nandalal is brought before the court only once during his four months torturous imprisonment in Thimphu jail.  The court has convicted him of being involved in murder, extortion, loot and plunder. Nandalal’s ten member family is now sheltered in sector G-3/61 of Beldangi II camp. 

Visitors to the jail inmates at Chemgang complained of being carefully detected and monitored during their visit throughout the daylight. Police personnel constantly kept an eye on their actions as the inmates came to see them in the visiting room. 

In the light of ongoing third country resettlement, political prisoners’ sentiments need to be considered as long as they continue to aspire for the political changes while serving the jail terms. According to the family sources, the prisoners in Chemgang do not suggest the family to apply for resettlement as it would jeopardize their conditions of release and safety in jail. Given the prevailing evacuation and dismantling of huts in camps, the remaining families particularly of those prisoners, sense insecurity in later years. These families are put in a dilemma in making a choice between the options of repatriation, third country resettlement and local integration. Neither of the options can be seen favorably suited to them, nor do aiding agencies have any mechanism to provide justifiable outlet to their dilemma. Impeding future of a family just because a member is charged of being a communist cadre is not a justifiable solution in any way whatsoever.