AN APPEAL TO THE PRIME MINISTER OF BHUTAN 1 To, Lyonchhen Tshering Tobgay Prime Minister, Bhutan Request to Release Mr Loknath Acharya and to Stop Further Harassment of Forcibly Exiled Bhutanese Dear Prime Minister, It is with great pain and heavy heart that I am writing this letter of appeal directly to you. You are well aware of the anguish that the forcibly exiled Bhutanese citizens are living with for the past several decades. It is so difficult to explain in words the anguish that we suffer due to the wound we have been inflicted with decades ago. And I must tell you that the recent abduction and extradition of Mr Loknath Acharya has once again opened wide the wound of your fellow Bhutanese in exile. Mr. Loknath Acharya (51) a humble man with basic education was a social worker confined to the UNHCR assisted Bhutanese camp in Beldangi, Jhapa, Nepal. He was born and brought up in Bhutan in a family that was close to the 3th King Late Jigme Dorji Wangchuck. He was a resident of Danabari, Gaylegphug, Bhutan from where he was forcibly exiled two decades back and was languishing in Bhutanese camp in Beldangi II extension, Sector E/3, Hut 44, and was taking care of his aged parents and looking after his wife and two kids. He was meant to fly to the US long time ago, but chose to stay behind to care his aged and ailing parents. No doubt that he rightfully continued working for Human Rights Organization of Bhutan (HUROB) as a peaceful activist, while remaining in the camp, but it appears that your government sadly misread and misinterpreted his action as refusing to resettle in the US despite being offered to do so by the US government. On October 15, 2014 two men went to his hut in Beldangi, Jhapa, Nepal and took him away supposedly to participate in a meeting of Bhutanese people said to be organized in Malbazar in West Bengal in India. He left his family, assuring that he would visit Siliguri for Diwali shopping. It was later confirmed that once in Damak town in Jhapa Nepal; he was drugged and whisked to West Bengal in India. He made his last and unsuccessful phone call from Malbazar to HUROB office to inform about his plight. We come to know from several sources that the people who took him away from Beldangi were the paid informants, who handed him over to three Bhutanese soldiers in waiting for him in Malbazar. On 17th October, he was extradited to Bhutan from Malbazar. He was beaten up, AN APPEAL TO THE PRIME MINISTER OF BHUTAN 2 drugged and rendered unconscious and stealthily taken away to Thimphu, Bhutan. On October 18th he was taken to and incarcerated in Rabuna Central Prison in Wangdiphodrang. Back in the camp, his parents who are 82 and 80 years old are forced to live in the state of abandonment devoid of proper care and support. His wife is in an indescribable trauma and his two agonized kids are forced to remain away from school. As Loknath was the only member managing the family, the other members still in the camp are struggling with great hardship. He has neither committed any crime nor had he a reason or a motive to do one. His decision to stay behind in the camp, even after the approval to fly to the US, was due to the compelling need to look after his aged parents, who were waiting for their resettlement process to be completed. This can never ever be considered as a crime. It is now revealing that he has been taken away by the Bhutanese authority in order to punish him on the ground that he is being reluctant to fly to and resettle himself in the US. Considering your decent family background and education from the world’s prestigious universities, I personally cannot accept and digest the news obtained from the sources that this sinister mechanization of an innocent homeless and act of provoking unrest among the once evicted fellow citizens condemned to most depressing life in the camp is a doing of your government. I wish the news were wrong. I do not want to further delve into details, but strongly urge your office and your government to confirm if Mr Loknath Acharya is kidnapped, extradited and incarcerated. Please do whatever possible to release him immediately, with due respect to his right to liberty and dignity, and to completely stop any further act of provoking the people and unnecessarily rubbing their wounds - obstructing them to heal and scab. If there is any genuine and established evidence of his wrongdoings, please take an immediate action to confirm the news of his arrest and incarceration and present him in the court, either in India or in Nepal, from where he was abducted. Meanwhile, we emphasize on the administration of justice as well as humane treatment to Loknath, who is a human rights activist, and look forward to your prompt and potent action to the above appeal. Govinda Rizal
Posted on: Sun, 30 Nov 2014 03:41:31 +0000