Madam - Your edition of March 8th carried a photograph of a little girl breaking stones. There was no accompanying article, but above the picture was the heading "Dispossessed: plight of Bhutanese refugees in Nepal". The caption read: "A Bhutanese refugee girl cracks stones in the Timai refugee camp in eastern Nepal. About 100,000 Bhutanese of Nepalese ethnic origin who were expelled in 1990 now live in six refugee camps".
I can only assume that your correspondent Lynne O'Donnell did not see this photograph before she went on the trip to Bhutan, which resulted in her articles of April 1st and 2nd. For if she had, surely she would have been curious enough to visit the website of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (www.unhcr.ch), and to discover the background to the exodus of one sixth of the population of Bhutan.
In the mid-1990s, Bhutan was second only to Rwanda in the proportion of its population who had become refugees. Today, Bhutanese people continue to leave in small numbers, compelled by oppression in their own country to seek refuge in the US, Canada, Australia and Europe, including Ireland. The Bhutanese refugee issue is documented in reports by Amnesty International (www.amnesty.org).
The King of Bhutan is far from relegating himself to a symbolic role, as Ms O'Donnell suggests. A reading of the his country's draft constitution would confirm this. He has propounded "Gross National Happiness" as the unifying concept for Bhutan's long-term development. Yet thousands of Bhutanese citizens live in fear and insecurity. And more than 100,000 refugees living in UNHCR-administered camps in south-eastern Nepal are still awaiting a resolution of their plight. Among them is the little girl who breaks stones.
Does this concern us? Yes it does. Irish people have worked in Bhutan and Bhutanese have come to study in Ireland. Ireland has given direct assistance to the Bhutanese refugee education programme in Nepal. The European Union, through UNHCR, contributes money to maintaining the refugee camps. The Department of Foreign Affairs has engaged in efforts to promote a peaceful, sustainable, rights-based resolution to the plight of the refugees.
Official Bhutan gives a glowing account of itself to divert attention from the cold ingenuity with which it has marginalised, excluded and expelled its citizens of Nepalese ethnicity. Let's have informed coverage of Bhutan that will lead readers to understand issues of deeper and wider resonance. - Yours etc.,
BRIGID MAYES, Bhutanese Refugee Support Group, Monilea, Co Westmeath.