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India says Bhutanese refugee stalemate is 'international problem'

A week after India termed the Bhutanese refugee crisis as an issue between Nepal and Bhutan, Indian External Affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee has said the refugee stalemate has become an international problem.

According to Indian media reports, after a meeting with the chief minister of West Bengal Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Saturday evening, Mukherjee said "it an international problem" and that the government of India was trying to work out a solution.

The 45-minute long meeting in South Kolkata centered on ‘solving’ the Bhutanese refugee issue with Bhattacharjee saying that the stalemate has created problem of law and order in his state.

"Bhattacharjee told me that it was creating serious problems in the law and order situation in Bengal and it was unacceptable to the state government," reports quoted the Indian External Affairs minister as saying.

"Nepal claims that these are not Nepalese citizens and Bhutan is also not ready to accept them. The refugees want to enter Bhutan and they want to pass through Indian territory," Mukherjee said further.

He also told the media that the West Bengal chief minister urged him to initiate a dialogue between Nepal and Bhutan to find a solution to the crisis.

"We are in friendly terms with both countries. The issue of Bhutan refugees cropped up 11 years ago and as far as I know there are about 100,000 refugees in the camps," Mukherjee added.

He, however, claimed that the repatriation of the Bhutanese refugees to their homeland would cause demographic imbalance in Bhutan.

"The population of Bhutan is about 600,000. If these 100,000 people (Bhutanese refugees) enter Bhutan it would create a demographic imbalance," Mukherjee said.

The discussion between Indian politicians on refugee issue comes at a time the US embassy in Kathmandu has invited the agitating refugee leaders for a dialogue this week.

At least two persons had died by the bullets of Indian security personnel on Mechi Bridge when the refugees were trying to cross the border during their Long March, a campaign for voluntary repatriation, two weeks ago. After reaching an agreement with the district official of Darjeeling to put pressure on Indian government for repatriation, the refugee leaders called off their Long March for a period of 15 days. nepalnews.com ia June 10 07