Speakers at Bhutan Innovation Forum must persuade Bhutan to free political prisoners, repatriate refugees and address people issues.
By Ram Karki
The much-hyped three-day-long Bhutan Innovation Forum is kickstarting today, 1 October 2024, at Paro Bhutan. Several Nobel Laureates, Mindful Entrepreneurs, Sustainability Experts, Innovators & Conscious Leaders and other renowned personalities from around the world are already in the country as keynote speakers and as speakers. 18 Delhi-based diplomats from 18 European Union member countries are also in Bhutan.
The Bhutan government pretends that everything is fine in the country and that the Bhutanese people are happy. However, in reality, the country has been plagued by severe human rights violations. Here are a few grave issues that any sensible person must pay attention to and try to persuade the government to address.
Since the 1990s, several dozen political prisoners have been serving long-term, mostly life sentences, in several prisons of Bhutan for their participation in the peaceful movement for Human Rights and Democracy in the country. Human Rights Watch has verified 37 of those, of whom three were released recently after completing their 29, 32, and 14-year prison sentences. Their families living outside as refugees are denied contact or visit them in the prisons.
More than 6,500 out of those 120000 forcefully evicted Bhutanese are still living as refugees in refugee camps in Nepal. Many are waiting for repatriation to Bhutan with honour and dignity. Those 113,500 Bhutanese resettled in 8 different countries and possess overseas passports are denied tourist visas to visit Bhutan to meet their separated spouses, parents, families and friends.
Many inhabitants and landowners of the proposed Mindfulness City area need clarification. They are still uncertain about their future, as the government refuses to divulge its plan for compensating and relocating them. Many evicted citizens from proposed Mindfulness City areas, those living outside the country as refugees, fear that the government might use their land without their approval for the proposed Mindfulness City.
Many Bhutanese citizens (mostly ethnic Nepali speakers) became stateless during the 1990s after the government revoked their citizenship and have yet to regain it, depriving them of the rights of citizens in their own countries.
Therefore, I request all Nobel Laureates, Mindful Entrepreneurs, Sustainability Experts, Innovators, conscious Leaders, politicians, academicians, and other renowned personalities present in Bhutan to speak at the Bhutan Innovation Forum to discuss the above issues with the Government of Bhutan and help resolve them to clear ways for making Bhutan a healthy, sustainable, and happy country with a great Mindfulness City in future.
