Bhutan's major crisis of the 1980's and 1990's revolved around the plight of ethnic Nepalese living in and near Bhutan. Nepal, like Bhutan, is a Himalayan buffer nation sandwiched between the major regional powers of China and India. However, Nepal covers a larger territory than Bhutan, from which it is separated by a narrow strip of mountainous land belonging to India.
Nepalese people moved into southern regions of Bhutan as early as the nineteenth century. Many of the original immigrants came as laborers and founded new communities in previously uninhabited areas by clearing forests. Because of religious, cultural, and linguistic differences, the Nepalese did not assimilate into Bhutanese society, which is dominated by the Drukpa majority. During the 1960's large numbers of Nepalese were contracted for public works projects, and the ethnic Nepalese population increased when many of these workers remained in Bhutan.
The rulers of Bhutan, having resisted cultural pressures from the West and from the larger nations around them, began to feel threatened by the increasing numbers of Nepalese in Bhutan. Middle-class members of the Nepali community in Bhutan were denied access to positions of power and began to support prodemocracy movements. This was seen by the rulers as a political as well as a cultural threat, especially after a national census in 1980 showed that a large and growing portion of Bhutan's total population consisted of ethnic Nepalese, who are sometimes referred to as "Southern Bhutanese."
In 1985 the Citizenship Act was passed and a new census taken, but only in the southern regions. Citizenship was redefined, and many people, including some who had been legally regarded as Bhutanese, were classified as "illegal immigrants." Thousands of people were forcibly evicted from Bhutan. Conditions for ethnic Nepalese living in Bhutan grew worse in 1989, when they were forced by law to either adopt the clothing and mannerisms of the Drukpa majority or face punishment. The Nepali language was dropped from the school curriculum. Inter-
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National humanitarian organizations, including the International Red Cross and Amnesty International, became involved.
In 1990, after public protests were made against these policies, severe repression followed, including torture, rape, arrests without trial, and other abuses. Most of the schools in southern Bhutan were closed, homes were burned and destroyed, access to health care was denied, and workers were fired from their jobs after having their identity cards taken away. Thousands of people fled to refugee camps in Nepal and the Indian states of Assam and West Bengal. Most of the leaders of the 1990 protests were jailed or exiled.
Nepali Bhutanese living outside Bhutan formed the Bhutan People's Party (BPP), which demanded full citizenship for ethnic Nepalese, the restoration of the Nepali language in the schools, and democracy. The Bhutanese government labeled the BPP a "terrorist" organization. Violent activities, including murder, were carried out by extremists on both sides of the conflict.
Teknath Rizal, an ethnic Nepalese and an internationally known political prisoner, was arrested in 1990 and finally convicted in 1993 under the National Security Act for writing and distributing political pamphlets and attending political meetings. Many lesser-known detainees were eventually pardoned by the king and released.
In 1994 another wave of dissent began, this time in eastern Bhutan. The Druk National Congress (DNC) was founded by Rongthong Kunley Dorji, a member of the Sarchop community (the eastern Bhutanese minority group). After having first been tortured by government security forces and later pardoned by the king after international involvement, Rongthong Kunley Dorji left Bhutan and founded the DNC while in exile in Nepal.
After 1994 the DNC began to operate secretly inside Bhutan, advocating human rights and democracy. Another government crackdown ensued, following the same pattern of arbitrary arrests, detentions, torture, and intimidation seen in southern Bhutan. Most of the arrested were of the Sarchop minority, including Buddhist monks and religious teachers who were suspected of sympathizing with or encouraging the activists.
In September, 1995, activists in the refugee camps in southeastern Nepal established an Appeal Movement Coordinating Council (AMCC). This group sent an appeal to the king of Bhutan, and when there was no response, a protest march was organized. The goal of the marchers was to walk from the refugee camps through the mountains of northern India and into Bhutan to present a letter to the king asking for the release of Teknath Rizal and the initiation of a process of national reconciliation.
The first wave of marchers left the camps in January, 1996. At this point, the Indian government, Bhutan's ally and supporter, became involved, and the Indian police arrested the protesters. On July 4, the Calcutta High Court in India ruled that detention of the 791 detained marchers was illegal, and they were released. Only a handful of the marchers eventually reached Bhutan, from which they were expelled again.
In January, 1997, various political opposition groups joined together. The DNC joined with the Nepalese exiles and other political parties in exile to form the United Front for Democracy (UFD) in Bhutan. Rongthong Kunley Dorji was elected to be its chairperson. When Britain's Prince Charles visited Bhutan in 1998, Amnesty International reported continuing human rights problems.
The liberalization that began in the summer of 1998 was a response to these internal and external problems. Although the king continued to have a great deal of power, the kingdom slowly moved away from absolute monarchy. In 2001, the national assembly passed a legal code that gave greater authority to the nation's judiciary, and the country moved toward establishing a more decentralized system of local administration.
Discussions between Nepal and Bhutan made some progress in the early twenty-first century on the issue of the refugees in Nepal. Bhutan also faced minority group problems of another sort in the southeastern part of the country, where Assamese militants fighting against India had established bases inside Bhutan. Although Bhutan had ordered the Assamese to leave and discussed joint military efforts with India against these militants, Assamese fighters could not be persuaded to withdraw to India.
Alice Myers Updated by the Editors
World History
