TIMAI REFUGEE CAMP, Nepal - As the isolated Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan prepares for historic elections, many of the 100,000 refugees languishing outside the country are appealing for the chance to return and take part.
On Saturday, Bhutan takes a big step towards ending a century of absolute royal rule by staging a mock election, a dress rehearsal with dummy parties, for the real thing in 2008.
A Bhutanese refugee rests inside the Timai refugee camp in Nepal April 15, 2007. As the isolated Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan prepares for historic elections, many of the 100,000 refugees languishing outside the country are appealing for the chance to return and take part. (REUTERS/Desmond Boylan)But Bhutan's version of democracy will be a tightly controlled affair, critics say.
Ironically the very people who led demonstrations in favour of human rights and democracy in 1990 have been exiled en masse. More than 105,000 live in desperate poverty in seven refugee camps in nearby Nepal.
"Democracy in Bhutan is like a crocodile shedding tears," said Parsu Nepal in the crowded Timai refugee camp.
"Bhutan is playing an untrue game. It will be a democracy under an autocracy, all in the interests of the regime."
Almost all exiles are known as Lhotshampas, the mainly Hindu ethnic Nepalis who started arriving in southern Bhutan in the late 19th century, only to be evicted after protesting against attacks on their culture and religion in 1990.
"What type of democracy is it, when we 100,000 people are here in exile?," asked 78-year-old Dorba Lal Acharia, outside his bamboo home in the camp, who says four generations of his family were born in Bhutan.
He fled when soldiers accused him of supporting the protest movement, his wife followed a year later after being beaten and raped by soldiers, the family said. Yet, like many refugees, they dream of returning to their 26 acres of land.
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Bhutan is a country of just 635,000 people, still with only a foot in the modern world.
Television only arrived in 1999, national dress must be worn at work and at public events, and the king draws on Buddhist values to promote Gross National Happiness instead of rampant materialism.
But back in the 1980s, the Buddhist elite saw the growing population of ethnic Nepalis as a threat to the country's cultural identity and to their own control.
Ethnic Nepalis had helped overthrow the Buddhist rulers of neighbouring Sikkim, annexed by India in 1975.
Memories of China's invasion of Tibet were still fresh and Bhutan's rulers were determined to protect the world's last Himalayan kingdom, at any cost.
Nepali books were burnt, the language banned from schools and many of the people reclassified as illegal immigrants or second class citizens.
After demonstrations in 1990, tens of thousands of people were forced to leave, many on the basis of ethnicity alone.
The government has outlawed political parties they formed as anti-national terrorists, and says many of the refugees are not genuine Bhutanese.
"We are holding elections for the Bhutanese in Bhutan," said Chief Election Commissioner Kunzang Wangdi, who says exiled parties will not qualify. "As far as the Bhutanese government is concerned, I don't think they exist."
Those ethnic Nepalis who remained behind face widespread discrimination, human rights groups say. Some have been classified as non-nationals and denied the right to vote, others struggle to send their children to school or get government jobs.
"Bhutan may be claiming it wants to embrace democracy, but it is violating the most basic principles," said Meenakshi Ganguly of Human Rights Watch.
There are other refugees too, mountain people from central and eastern Bhutan who say their culture and Nyingmapa strand of Buddhism was repressed by people from the west. They, too, welcome the idea of democracy in Bhutan but not the practice.
"The process of democratisation is a total sham and a farce," said Thinley Penjore, leader of the exiled Druk National Congress who fled in 1997.
"The regime must come out with an inclusive rather than an exclusive democracy, where all the people are included."
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