1000 times better': Life in Winnipeg is a blessing for Bhutanese refugees

JOHN.WOODS@FREEPRESS.MB.CAEnlarge Image

Seven-year-old Sagar sits with his mother Purna in their St. Boniface apartment. Purna says her kids love going to school in Winnipeg so much they even want to go when they’re sick.

WINNIPEG - Canada is so cold, it will make you infertile.
In Canada, immigrant men are sent up north to take care of the sheep.

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The Biswa family: (left to right) Bal, Sagar, grandfather Suk Bdor, grandmother Suk Maya, mother Purna, father Gopal, and Tirtha moved to Winnipeg a year ago from Bhutan. (JOHN.WOODS@FREEPRESS.MB.CA)

These are just a couple of the rumours the Biswa family heard in their Bhutanese refugee camp in Nepal. But after 20 years in captivity there, they decided to head to Winnipeg -- which they believed couldn't be much worse.
"The focus was on the children," Gopal Biswa said recently, through an interpreter. "Life would get better."

Remaining Bhutanese refugees have right to go back homeland'

 A senior official of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has stressed that Nepal and Bhutan should immediately open talks for the dignified repatriation of Bhutanese refugees to their home country.
Speaking in a news conference held here this afternoon at the end of his four-day official visit to Nepal, Deputy High Commissioner of the UN Refugee Agency T. Alexander Aleinikoff said that since a majority of the Bhutanese refugees have been repatriated to third countries, Nepal and Bhutan should hold talks for repatriating the remaining to Bhutan.
The UNHCR official said that 38,000 of the 48,000 Bhutanese refugees currently living in the two refugee camps in Jhapa have opted for third country repatriation and that the rights of those wanting to return to their home country should be respected.
He also said that the sides concerned should be sensitive regarding resolving the problem at the earliest.
Sixty-five thousand Bhutanese refugees have been resettled in the third countries including in the U.S. as a step taken by the international community to settle the Bhutanese refugee problem which has remained a humanitarian problem since long.
Source:Himalayantimes.com

Satya Mev Jayate June 18th

Nepali Movie BijayaPath

Bhutanese Refugee who Applied for Resettlement to the USA Tortured

Letter by William Gomes Salem-News.com

Human Rights Ambassador William Nicholas Gomes contacts officials in Nepal over police torture and illegal arrest.

Rt. Hon. Dr. Baburam Bhattarai

(HONG KONG) - Policemen denying their identity and operating illegally; it is a problem thatranges from right here in Salem, Oregon, to as we learn, Kathmandu, Nepal, where a young man was recently tortured by police in civilian clothes.

It's nothing like the song made famous by Bob Seger, we could only wish. Instead it is a place where thousands of Nepali-speaking families who have lived for several generations in Bhutan, exist in refugee camps.

Jit Bahadur Subba, 29, is one of the many people in the area living in the Bhutanese refugee camp, Beldangi II. He was picked up by police and tortured, after he had applied for resettlement to the USA. His ordeal began as he was going through the immigration process at the transit office of the International organization for Migrant (IOM) in Baluwatar, Kathmandu.

He was tortured and threatened by police who refused to identify themselves, which is one of the most basic requirements of any law enforcement officer, if for no other reason, than to simply demonstrate that they are indeed police. Tax-paid government law enforcement officers are not granted permission to operate as shadowy, illicit figures.

Besides, according to Nepal's Evidence Act, 1974, statements “extorted by torturing or threatening to placing the accused in a situation in which he was compelled to do so against his will” cannot be used against the accused in court proceedings.

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May 14,2012 Rt. Hon. Dr. Baburam Bhattarai Prime Minister of Nepal Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Nepal Singh Durbar P.O. Box: 43312 Kathmandu Nepal Fax: +977 1 4211 086 Email: info@opmcm.gov.np, bhattaraibaburam@gmail.com Dear Prime Minister of Nepal, I am William Nicholas Gomes, Human Rights Ambassador for Salem News.com. I am writing to voice my deep concern regarding the torture faced by a Bhutanese refugee, Jit Bahadur Subba, at the hands of two policemen in the Central Investigation Bureau, Maharajganj, Kathmandu. According to the information I have received from the Asian Human Rights Commission

Bhutanese refugee held with Nepali citizenship‚ passport

KATHMANDU: The Central Investigation Bureau of Nepal Police has nabbed a Bhutanese refugee in the refugee camp in Beldangi, Jhapa from Baluwatar with a Nepali citizenship certificate and passport.

The refugee, who was arrested on the premises of Baluwatar-based International Organization of Migration (IOM), has been identified as Jeet Bahadur Subba (29).

According to the CIB, he was found in possession of Nepali citizenship certificate (number 041009/1070) dated March 17, 2011 from Jhapa District Administration Office that he obtained by identifying himself as a native of Madanpur, Khudunabari- 2 of Jhapa. It has also been revealed that his father Harkalal Subba had obtained Nepali citizenship certificate from Jhapa DAO.

“During interrogation, Subba said VDC Secretary Bishnu Paudel was bribed to procure the citizenship certificate for him and his father. The father-son duo reportedly gave a bribe of Rs 50,000 and Rs 30,000 each,” CIB informed.

Jeet Bahadur had procured a Nepali passport (MRP) on the basis of the citizenship certificate from the Ministry ofForeign Affairs on December 27, 2011 on the recommendation of Jhapa DAO.

Having come to Nepal as a Bhutanese refugee at the age of nine, Jeet Bahadur was preparing to relocate to the US. Primary investigation suggests that Jeet Bahadur, Jagirman Lama (vice-president of Bhutan People’s Party), Lal Bahadur Rai and Padamlal Mishra were also involved in receiving hefty sums from a number of Nepalis for forging Bhutanese refugee identity cards with the promise of sending them to the US and Canada.

“Jeet Bahadur said his gang had sent 15 Nepalis to Canada by providing them forged refugee identity cards,” CIB informed.

He has been handed to Metropolitan Police Range, Hanumandhoka where he will be charged with forgery. 

Source:Himalayantimes.com