This is an update on the Bhutanese refugee issue.

        TO              Bhutan watchers

        FROM            Jesuit Refugee Service Asia/Pacific

        DATE            22 April 1996

        REGARDING       Bhutanese Peace March Update- 22 April 1996

Please distribute this report:

The peaceful march to Bhutan of Bhutanese refugees living in Nepal has been
suspended temporarily, according to the organizational group, the Appeal
Movement Coordinating Committee (AMCC).

The AMCC announced on 18 April the suspension of the marches, attributing
it to the "repeated interception-arrest-incarceration-release and re-arrest
of the Appeal marchers by the Indian administration."

The AMCC is now undertaking a "Campaign for Free Passage", and is
requesting international support in their efforts to gain India's
cooperation in their efforts to return peacefully to Bhutan.  The AMCC has
sent letters of appeal to various embassies and agencies, encouraging them
to pressure India into hearing their plea for free passage.

In a related update, the Asian Center for the Progress of Peoples Hotline -
Asia, has released an urgent appeal for India to release unconditionally
all Bhutanese Appeal Marchers, and to allow them free passage according to
the 1949 Indo-Bhutan Friendship Treaty.

Meanwhile, 110 of a group of 454 marchers detained in Berhampur Central
Jail in West Bengal were denied unconditional release, and have been told
their release is pending their signing a personal release bond that
effectively ends their march.  This group of marchers, according to AMCC,
were denied food for entire day of their hearing.

Every group of marchers has been arrested and detained inside India, only
to be released after court rulings that their detentions were illegal.
After re-arrests, the Indian authoritites seem to be harassing the marchers
by postponing their court hearings.  According to the AMCC, "the court
hearing of the detained refugee marchers have continually been postpones.
The hearing on the 150 and 188 who were arrested while resuming the march
from Siliguri on March 17 and 19 respectively was scheduled to take place
on April 16 and the 17th.  But it has, under an arbitrary decision of the
jalpaiguri administration been postponed for May 20 and 21 respectively."
Declaring this, the Executive Magistrate Mr. G. Kabriyar, has stated that
if the marchers were released unconditionally, there would be every
possibility of breach of peace."

Currently, 792 marchers are being detained in Indian jails of Siliguri,
Jalpaiguri, and Berhampur.  The conditions in the jails are characterized
as poor, and several marchers have required hospitalization, with dysentry,
diahrroea and more serious illnesses.  Many of the marchers have been
detained for three months now.

The Bhutanese refugees were pushed out of Bhutan in beginning in 1990,
after the ruling minority Drukpas began to enforce a "One Nation One
People" policy that effectively excluded the ethnic Nepalese from
citizenship.  Now around 100,000 Bhutanese, 1/6 of the total Bhutanese
population, live in exile in Nepal.

The marchers, frustrated by years of unproductive bilateral negotiations,
began to walk back to Bhutan in January, but have been repeatedly detained
by Indian authorities.

Gil Carroll
jrsap@comnet2.ksc.net.th
24/1 Soi Aree 4 Phaholyothin Road 7 (South)
Bangkok 10400 Thailand
tel. 66-2-271-3611, 279-1817
fax. 66-2-271-3632