Campaign to release political prisoners in Bhutan
Coinciding with the 71st International Human Rights Day, resettled Bhutanese communities in 6 resettled countries around the world submitted a common petition on 10 December 2019 to their respective host governments, international Human Rights Bodies, King of Bhutan and other concerned bodies appealing for their support for the early release of all the Bhutanese political prisoners languishing in various prisons in Bhutan.
In Hague, a delegation from Bhutanese Community in The Netherlands (BCN) comprising of Ram Karki, Khada Nanda Ghimere and Devi Charan Basnet and BCN supporters Ariette Prince Hekman and Rita Thapa met and submitted an appeal to the Dutch House of Representative Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Pia Dijkstra and her colleagues.
On the occasion, Karki highlighted in detail about the background of Bhutanese peaceful movement of early 1990s, origin of Bhutanese refugees crisis, present refugee crisis in eastern Nepal and about the situations of Bhutanese political prisoners. He further requested the chairman to use the strong diplomatic relationship between Netherlands and Bhutan to persuade the authorities in Bhutan to release the political prisoners without further delay so they could spend the rest of their precious life peacefully with their families.
Former Bhutanese refugee and activist Suraj Budhathoki from United States of America submitted petitions for 24 various US Government bodies and International Bodies based in United States of America. C M Nirola from USA also submitted the petition to the local city mayor for her further action. In Canada, Prakash Gautam – a family member of one of the political prisoner – submitted the petition to Canadian Foreign Ministry. In UK, Durga Giri and Prem Giri – chairman of the Bhutanese Welfare Association (BWA) submitted the petition to British Foreign Secretary and Amnesty International headquarters in London.
In Denmark Purna Dahal the president of The Association of Bhutanese Communities in Denmark (ABCD) submitted the petition to Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In Australia Cairns Bhutanese Community Inc, Bhutanese Australia Association of South Australia and Association of Bhutanese in Australia – Sydney submitted the petition to both state and federal MPs, Foreign Minister of Australia, Shadow Foreign Minister Penny Wong, Joint Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights, Joint Parliament Committee on Foreign Affairs and Senate Committee on Human Rights at the initiation of Prahlad Dahal, Sushil Niroual & Indra Adhikari and Devendra Gautam respectively.
The online signature campaign which was started to alert the ongoing situation of political prisoners in Bhutan and have been signed by all walks of people from all around the world. This campaign will end after all the signatures with an appeal has been submitted to UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva sometime early next year.
The petition campaign was coordinated by Ram Karki from The Hague with support from Indra Adhikari, Sushil Niroula and Suren Ghaley from Adelaide (Australia), Gopal Gurung & Aiman Samal from The Netherlands, CM Nirola, Hari Subedi, Suraj Budhathoki, Rom Bista & Lila Mishra from United States of America, Durga Giri & Prem Giri from UK, Purna Dahal from Denmark, Prakash Gautam from Canada, Prahlad Dahal in Cairns (Australia), Devendra Gautam & Suman Chhetri from Sydney (Australia) and Sudharsan Adhikari, Deven Sapkota and Netra Prasad Sharma from New Zealand.
The petition for the release of Bhutanese political prisoners along with signatures and list of prisoners was also sent to King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck in Thimphu as a follow up from the earlier petition sent in October which the palace secretariat acknowledged the receipt on 14 October.
If you want to sign the petition further, click here. It will remain open until next month.
