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Bhutan News Service

Bhutan News Service

Chhetri nominated as ABA chairman

Posted: 17 Jul 2010 04:09 PM PDT

Information received late confirmed that members of board of directors of the Association of Bhutanese in America (ABA) nominated Dr. Purna Chhetri as their chairman.

Dr. Purna Chhetri.

Dr. Purna Chhetri.

Shortly after one of the board member's disclosure of information regarding 'nomination of chairman' to BNS on condition of anonymity, the newly elected chairman responding BNS query confirmed about his nomination to the position of chairman. According to this board member, they had nominated chairman on July 11 over phone conference among the board members. The nomination was made on consensus basis.

Talking briefly with a BNS correspondent over phone, Chhetri said that his first priority is to work for unity with Organization of Bhutanese Communities in America. "Our community is seen heading towards fragmentation. There is growing demand for unity, thus, my first responsibility is to work for unity," added Chhetri.  According to Chhetri, some of the positions including vice chairman will be finalized on Sunday.

King addresses fifth session

Posted: 16 Jul 2010 08:02 PM PDT

The King has presided over the closing ceremony of the fifth session of the Bhutanese parliament that began on May 28 and concluded on July 14.

Different Bills, including the much-debated Tobacco Control Bill of Bhutan, Royal Monetary Authority of  Bhutan Bill, among others were endorsed during the session.

The budget for the financial year 2010-2011 amounting to Nu 35, 803.547 million was also endorsed. The Public Accounts Committee  of the NA presented re­view audit reports up to 2006, along with reports of 2007 and 2008. The committee also presented the performance audit report of Bhutan Broad­casting Service Corporation Limited and performance audit report on farm roads.The National Assembly (NA) introduced Financial Service Bill of Bhutan 2010, Water Bill of Bhutan 2010, and Personal Income Tax Bill 2010.

The NC made amendments to the Penal Code of Bhutan 2004 and the Civil and Crimi­nal Procedure Code of Bhutan 2001. The house discussed and made recommendations on the Economic Develop­ment Policy 2010.

The NC  adopted the Anti-Corruption Amendment Bill 2010 and Childcare and Pro­tection Bill of Bhutan 2010. Also, it resolved that employees of constitutional offices shall no more be with the Royal Civil Service Com­mission. The Civil Service Bill of Bhutan 2009 was adopted and voting procedures in NC finalised.

The house also resolved the establishment of Relief Fund of His Majesty the King and revision of taxes to be done by the parliament.

Further, the house decided to submit issues on passing of budget bill to the Druk Gyalpo in view of the deadlock over interpretation of the provisions of the Constitution between the two houses.

Don’t count your chickens

Posted: 16 Jul 2010 05:32 PM PDT

The Bhutanese government expects steady double-digit growth for the next three years—the period the Thinley government will remain in power. The annual budget presented at parliament last week has projected growth based on expanding construction such as hydropower projects. The projection has not taken into consideration the negative impact of inflation in India. The internal market is directly affected by India, and inflation has been taking its toll there.

As speculated by the G20 leaders, another wave of global economic downturn is expected shortly. This will fuel consumer prices in India and thus have a direct impact on Bhutan. Additionally, increasing food prices in India will affect Bhutan which relies heavily on India for its food supply. The food dependence on India will heighten in the coming years as the construction of over a dozen hydropower projects will further reduce the area of agricultural land in Bhutan. When completed, these mega power projects will raise the national growth rate much higher, as high as 27 percent. This does not represent balanced growth of the country, considering the fact that it will not bring any changes in the lives of the common Bhutanese.

The other contributing sector for growth would be tourism. But the government's decision to extort heavy levies from foreigners visiting the country will discourage tourism, thus thwarting plans to host 100,000 visitors annually by 2010. Over-publicity of the north-hill-Drukpa tourism will make Bhutan less attractive to old visitors.

The government's projection of creating more than 75,000 jobs seems like speculation. Construction of hydropower projects is expected to create some jobs for a temporary period. This will lessen the current unemployment rate of 4 percent to some extent for the next few years, but it will go beyond government control after that. As assumed by the government in the budget, service sectors like health care, tourism, agriculture, culture and education are not in a position to create new jobs. Finance, trade, manufacturing, mining and real estate would give some respite. As such, all these factors would drag the country's growth rate down to a single digit.

The growth rate will not diminish the resource gap as current expenditure increases faster than development expenditure and as Bhutan grows to become more donor-driven. The resource gap remains at almost 12 percent even with donors contributing a third of the total budget outlay. This will result in a rise in external debt. Total debt for the new fiscal year is estimated at 62 percent of GDP. In the next two years, it is expected to rise to 64.7 percent and 67.8 percent. Further, the government plans to issue treasury bills this year, thus creating internal debt as well.

Utilisation of all domestic revenue in current expenditure means Bhutan will have to completely depend on donors for development activities. Continuing lobbying by parliamentarians and government employees will increase the ceiling of current expenditure.

Increasing investment in social sectors like education and health is worth mentioning. This is expected to meet the needs of the people in the southern districts where health units and schools remained closed for almost two decades. However, the inability of the government to provide non-formal education for those who failed to attend school during this period will plague the country with illiteracy.

The government has allocated a tangible amount for the anti-corruption campaign. The Anti-Corruption Commission not only needs more funds for expanding human resources but also expertise to control the increasing level of corruption in the country. The commission is unlikely to make any new effort to minimise corruption due to shortage of funds. The commission needs to expand its network to the regional level, if not the district level, to work effectively.

As usual, the government has not set aside anything for the Royal Bhutan Army or the Royal Palace. It's a tricky business, and the common Bhutanese do not know how the expenditures in these two areas are met. While it has been clear since last year that the government of India pays for all the army's expenses, where the money comes from for the royal household's expenses have not been made public.

If the government does not allocate a budget for the royal palace, sufficient grounds are left for suspicion that the royal family thrives on money collected in the Kidu fund. Most of the welfare programmes that the government runs, including emergency donations, are operated through money donated into the Kidu fund that is directly controlled by the king. It is not under the jurisdiction of the Royal Audit Authority. But if the royal family lives with government funding, the citizens of Bhutan must have the right to know what portion of the taxes they pay goes for feeding the royals. The answer remains hidden.

Not all the plans announced last year were implemented. New and attractive programmes are announced to fulfil the people's expectations as promised during the general elections in 2008, but whether they are implemented or not is something else. Looking through this lens, expecting a higher growth rate is another instrument for gaining popularity for the sake of popularity. Real growth remains in the ditch.

(The author is president of the Association of Press Freedom Activists, Bhutan)

BAF advocates for HR, justice: Karki

Posted: 16 Jul 2010 05:18 PM PDT

Earlier this month, a group of Bhutanese refugees arrived at Schiphol after a long journey that brought them from the Bhutanese refugee camps in Nepal to their new home in The Netherlands. One of the first to greet them at the airport was Ram Chhetri, a fellow Bhutanese who made the same journey in 2002. He has been living in the Netherlands ever since and besides being an active member of the Bhutanese community and advocating human rights for the Bhutanese he has been running a restaurant named 'Himalayan' in the centre of The Hague. Marnix van der Beek from Global Human Rights Defence met up with Mr. Chhetri in his restaurant and spoke to him about integration, the Bhutanese living in exile and the recently founded Bhutanese Advocacy Forum.

GHRD: You seem to have integrated into the Dutch society very well, you have your own restaurant, you speak Dutch and you recently received your Dutch passport. What advice would you give to your fellow Bhutanese who are arriving in the Netherlands, in terms of integration?
Karki: Well I have met with almost all the Bhutanese who are brought to the Netherlands for the resettlement programme and the suggestion or advice I would give to them is to concentrate more on the language, the Dutch language and to interact more with the Dutch society. Make friends with the Dutch people, go to their homes and bring them to your homes and offer tea or coffee, go out onto the market and speak Dutch.
And above all, to find volunteer work, "vrijwilligerswerk". Instead of staying at home all the time. I advice them to ask the local authorities to provide them with voluntary work so they can interact with the Dutch people. That is the best way to integrate in a society.

GHRD: In your experience, do the Dutch people know anything about Bhutan or the situation for the refugees, are they aware of these issues?
Karki: No they are not aware of that. The first group of Bhutanese refugees who resettled in The Netherlands were given a place to live in Friesland. Two families, my brothers, were given houses there to live. So what happened, one day somebody threw a stone at my brother's windows. So what I did was make an appointment with the mayor. And I took my brothers to her and we talked about this problem that somebody was throwing stones and that people were suspicious of us and that we were scared to live there. And what the mayor told us was to make an appointment with a journalist. And I even suggested to her to send a local journalist to their homes and write down in the local newspapers about them; who are they? why did they come to the Netherlands? what kind of people are they? what do they eat? what is their religion? Anything!

Ram Karki.

Ram Karki.

So they published their story with pictures and all the descriptions that they came from Bhutan and that they were the victims of human rights violations. That they were brought to the Netherlands by the Dutch government and they didn't come by themselves. So then the people started reading about their history. Nowadays they are feeling very comfortable, all the villagers come to their home, they put flowers, they decorate their house. And the children will take the children to their homes.

GHRD: In general, how are the Bhutanese doing in terms of integration and learning the language?
Karki: Well the Bhutanese resettlement has just started one and a half years back. So all the Bhutanese refugees were tired after living in the refugee camps for 20 years, they were tense and mentally depressed. So now they are just starting their lives, so they haven't started founding jobs yet. They have just started adapting to their new environment.

GHRD: Are you optimistic for the future? Do you think the Bhutanese will be able to integrate well?
Karki: Yes, quite a few of them have started the 'taalexamen 2' which is the highest level of Dutch language course, to get admission into the universities. So 5 or 6 of the Bhutanese refugees are doing that exam, to go for the higher studies and they are doing fine.

GHRD: You are involved in the recently founded Bhutanese Advocacy Forum, (BAF) could you tell us how this forum was established?
Karki: Last year in the first weeks of December, there was a demonstration in Geneva. And the Bhutanese refugees from around Europe, altogether 16 of them were gathered in Geneva in front of the United Nations office to protest the false human rights report presented to the Universal Periodic Review of the UN Human Rights Council by the Bhutanese government. We had a lot of appointments, but every time we go the appointments we are going as individual Bhutanese refugees. That made us quite uneasy, because everywhere we go they ask for visiting card, our designation, which organization we are representing. So we were in an embarrassing situation most of the time and our appointments didn't bear any good fruits. So on the fourth of December 2009 in a hotel room in Geneva we organized a meeting and in the meeting we decided to form a loose human rights forum. That forum is very loose, it constitutes around few refugees, who are like-minded, who wanted to do advocacy work from Europe on a voluntary basis. Our main goal is to advocate the human rights and justice for the Bhutanese people living in Bhutan. Because Europe is such a strategic location for Bhutan with the EU, the UN in Geneva, the Netherlands' government, Sweden, Denmark and Norway, these are the main funding countries of Bhutan, the main developmental partners of Bhutan. So we are here so we could at least advocate for the human rights in Bhutan with these governments, so then those governments will put human rights conditions to Bhutan before they provide any funding.

GHRD: What is the position of the BAF on the UNHCR resettlement programme?
Karki: We want the resettlement programme to go as fast as possible at this moment. We do not want to comment anymore on repatriation. Because the people that have been living in the camps since 1991 are tired. They are living in a very miserable condition for two decades. So we don't want them to stay in the same situation. That is why we don't advocate for the repatriation of the Bhutanese refugees to Bhutan. But our concern is: let the resettlement procedure go in the same way as now, as smoothly as possible.

GHRD: And about the human rights situation in Bhutan itself, what do you think the BAF can achieve?
Karki: We don't have very big ends and objectives, we are just a forum to advocate for human rights and justice in Bhutan by living in Europe. So our objective is to raise awareness in Europe about the discrimination and injustice done to the Southern Bhutanese, to the Eastern Bhutanese and to the Bhutanese in general by the government of Bhutan. And we want to raise awareness among the European governments and the people that the democracy that has been introduced now in Bhutan is not a real democracy it is not inclusive. More than 80.000 people who are living in the south, who are the relatives of the refugees were not given the right to vote in the last 2008 election. So their rights have been grossly violated and if we don't advocate strongly for them then maybe one day or another they will be thrown out of the country like they did to us.

Source: www.ghrd.org