Ethnic Nepali political prisoners in Bhutan await justice after decades behind bars

Rai spent 21 years in jail after being arrested and convicted for being an “extremist and antinational” who was involved in an anti-government revolution in 1996. By the time he was freed in 2017, his house in Sipsu Gola Bazaar, near the Indian border, had been demolished.

“I had no citizenship, money or a place to live,” Rai, now in his late 50s, told This Week in Asia. “I wanted to stay in Bhutan but there was nothing left for me there. So I came to Nepal, even if I would be a refugee.”

Human Rights Watch said in a 2023 report that it had collected information on 37 political prisoners in Bhutan detained between 1990 and 2010 – the number could be much higher. Of those, 24 were serving life sentences while others were jailed between 15 and 43 years.

The Bhutanese authorities should “urgently remedy the situation,” she added.

Ram Karki was part of a primary teacher training programme in Bhutan in 1990 during the initial human rights demonstrations by thousands of ethnic Nepalis in southern Bhutan, where most of the Lhotshampas lived.

“Those who were in the streets were identified and given 24 hours to leave the country,” said Karki.

In the 30 years since Bhutan’s ethnic cleansing of its Nepal-speaking population, the country had introduced political reforms including its transformation into a constitutional monarchy and holding its first National Assembly elections in 2008. With a liberal leadership heading a new government in January, activists and families of political prisoners hope it would initiate steps to free the inmates.

Susan Banki, an associate professor at the University of Sydney, told This Week in Asia that Bhutan still portrays its political prisoners as criminals and the government’s refusal to release them