Unfortunately, as of now, many consider Bhutan’s democracy to be a pseudo-democracy because the Bhutanese people have not been allowed to vote freely and fairly, and the elected representatives were deprived one way or the other of serving people as per their conscience. With too much interference from outside, specifically from extra-constitutional bodies, the democratic process in Bhutan was never allowed to function independently. Parliament is still working as a rubber stamp rather than a sovereign law-making body. Thus, such undemocratic interferences have given the impression that democracy in Bhutan is fake, introduced solely to showcase on the international stage and ultimately to fulfill a few people’s selfish interests.

The right to vote is a very sacred and expensive right that a citizen gets in a democracy. Thus, if utilized very carefully, freely, reasonably, and with great confidentiality, it can bring prosperity to the country, but if misused, it can be disastrous to the nation.

Therefore, I request that all Bhutanese people take this election as an opportunity to cast their vote for suitable candidates without fear, lust for money, or whatever unfair means the concerned pressures you to vote for them. This action will not only lead to the country’s prosperity but also help to show practically and gain confidence from the outside world that Bhutan’s democracy with a constitutional monarchy is genuine, vibrant, and inclusive, as mentioned in the constitution of Bhutan. Let the new parliament release and honor all the country’s political prisoners and formulate and implement the policy of including all sections of the population in the building process through democratic means.

Finally, my best wishes go to all the Bhutanese people. I fully hope that they exercise their rights as per their conscience and that those elected are the most honest servants of the people. 

Ram Karki is a Bhutanese Human Rights Activist based in The Hague. He also leads Global Campaign to release Political Prisoners in Bhutan (GCRPPB).

With due respect, on behalf of the Global Campaign for the Release of Political Prisoners in Bhutan (GCRPPB), taking the auspicious occasion of 75th Human Rights Day, I am writing to submit my sincere request for your kind consideration.

It is a universal fact that Bhutan has become a democratic country with a constitutional monarchy in place. I commend you for your leading role in this. And yet, despite these political changes, more than 50 political prisoners are languishing in Bhutan’s various prisons. 

Many of these political prisoners’ family members have already resettled in eight Western countries after spending many years in refugee camps in Nepal. Besides few, most of them have successfully gained citizenship in the countries they relocated to, and others are in the process. Some such families are still in Nepal’s refugee camps and desperately hope to reunite with their family members who are still serving sentences as political prisoners in Bhutan.

Despite living in economically developed countries and enjoying all necessary life amenities, the resettled families of the political prisoners feel incomplete and emotionally desolate. For decades, their loved ones have been serving prison terms in Bhutan, and they have remained disconnected for several years. The agonies of these families are more miserable and are challenging to describe.

The political prisoners are their dear husbands, fathers, sons, brothers, uncles, and friends. It has become increasingly difficult for them to live a modest life, no matter where and how they live.
The parents of those political prisoners have started dying without their wishes to see the face of their beloved son being fulfilled. And the children of those prisoners who were just born when their father was arrested have great desires to see them. They have been waiting for decades for opportunities to live the rest of their lives peacefully together.

With a heavy heart, I request that your good office gracefully use the constitutional Royal Prerogatives (per Article 2.16.c of the Constitution of Bhutan) to provide amnesty to their beloved family members. I would be ever grateful to Your Majesty if my honest and sincere appeal is duly considered.

I humbly look forward to Your Majesty’s positive response to my appeal.

Sincerely yours, 

Ram Karki

Coordinator

Global Campaign for The Release of Political Prisoners in Bhutan (GCRPPB)

The Hague, The Netherlands. 

karkiram90@gmail.com

Here is the list of Human Rights Watch verified 35 political prisoners and their details.

As we began talking, she broke into tears, saying that her only brother is in prison and that she has been waiting unsuccessfully for 15 years to get her brother back so that she can offer him Bhai Tika. “I desperately miss my only brother, especially during Bhai Tika, and I cried the whole day remembering him,” she said.

“We heard from Madhukar Magar daju that my brother is very sick and has been struggling to survive for many years due to rigorous torture,” said Dhan Maya. She further said, “In May 2023, after years of struggle, the ICRC arranged for my mother to visit my brother in Chemgang prison in Thimphu, but as she travelled, the Indian Immigration office in Jaigoan denied her entry into Bhutan, citing an error in her papers.” Though ICRC has given words to re-arrange her travel, nothing has been done as of now, said Dhan Maya on her mother’s desperate wishes to meet her ailing son in Chemgang prison.

“My mother is determined to stay in the camp until brother Omnath Adhikari returns. So, she did not opt for resettlement, and I could not dare to leave my lonely mother behind and go for resettlement”, said Dhan Maya.

Omnath Adhikari was born in Dagapela in 1985 and was a resident of Bhutanese refugee camp Beldangi II sector C subsector III hut number 104.  As per a report published by Human Rights Watch, he was arrested in February 2008 from Sarbhang, Bhutan while distributing pieces of political literature and imprisoned in Chemgang Central Prison for life.

As per the available information, in total, 36 political prisoners are still languishing in various prisons inside Bhutan, mostly at Chemgang Central Prison in Thimphu and Rabuna Prison in Wangdi.

Despite repeated appeals from the families, the Global Campaign for the Release of Political Prisoners in Bhutan (GCRPPB), Human Rights Watch (HRW), Amnesty International, the European Union and other civil society bodies to Bhutan to release all its political prisoners without further delay, Bhutan continues to ignore such appeals.

In the outside world, Bhutan claims that everyone in the country, including the street dogs, is happy. But on the contrary, in reality, inside Bhutan, even human rights and political activists have been thrown to life imprisonment for the reason that they advocate for political change and human rights in the country.

 It is high time the Bhutan King gave them justice, released them all, and took full responsibility for their proper rehabilitation into everyday living to end human miseries.

Let every unfortunate family get their beloved safely, and sisters like Dhan Maya get her only brother to offer Bhai Tika during Diwali next year.

Ram Karki is the coordinator of the Global Campaign for the release of Political Prisoners in Bhutan (GCRPPB).

I am thrilled that the author’s profile was heightened overnight in the concise span of his early career, even to the extent of getting easy access to one of the most inaccessible Royal Palace of Bhutan. Getting rewarded with expensive rewards from the queen just for denying her offer of a cup of tea is fascinating.

While perusing pages 86-78, I was reminded of the thrilling incident that took place with my friends and me at the Shikhar Hotel in Birtamode on that particular day. The book recounted the arrival of five prominent Bhutanese civil servants in Nepal in May 1991, a time when approximately 91 vulnerable Bhutanese refugees were grappling with life-and-death situations at Maidhar. Meanwhile, Gauri Shankar Nirola, Bhim Khapangi, and I were working in a war footing manner to find food for their survival.

One fine morning, we were invited to Kakarivitta’s baundagi to collect some food items by the local leaders there. As I and four other friends reached Birtamode, we saw five cars with Bhutan number plates parked together on the right side of the highway. We decided to leave our bus and find out who travelled in those cars. As we reached the parked empty vehicles, we were confronted by a strong-bodied man with a bandaged left hand. When we requested him to allow us to meet with those visitors, he escorted us towards Shikhar Hotel and introduced us to five men sitting at a large table a bit deeper in the darker part of the hotel’s restaurant. One of them, later introduced as Rakesh Chhetri, was too agitated with me and became aggressive, asking me who I was and why I was following them and other questions. 

Feeling threatened, I returned to call other friends standing below the stairs waiting for me. As we entered, one of us, Rom Bista, recognised one of those five men as Mandhoj Tamang and immediately greeted him Namaskar. We were introduced to each other via him, and the environment became calm. We were offered some cold drinks, and we returned to our day’s work after inviting them to Maidhar to meet our people there, which they did after two or three days and later, they departed for Kathmandu.

The author has written in 86-87 pages of his book about the escape of those high officials to Nepal from the clutches of Bhutan security agencies pursuing them at their temporary location in Kalimpong’s Guru Ama’s house. Reading this book now, I realise how insecure and threatened they felt then, and it is logical for them to treat a stranger follower like me aggressively. We were on the verge of human catastrophe in Maidhar, and on top of that, seeing Bhutan’s number of cars in our close location made us panic, remembering the earlier incident of Tek Nath Rizal and his friends’s abduction from the same town and extradition to Bhutan.

This book is worth reading for everyone, irrespective of former Bhutanese refugees or anyone else. It inspires people not to lose hope when they lose everything but to continue struggling, and success is bound to return in another form and atmosphere.

As a member of an elite bureaucracy in Thimphu, the author has a privileged background; his story is elitist and cannot be compared with the stories of ordinary Bhutanese refugees. Still, this memoir of Om Dhungel, “Bhutan to Blacktown”, serves as a strong testimony of Bhutan’s suppression of the minorities and the victims of Bhutan Ethnic Cleansing, their non-violent means of struggle for Human Rights in Bhutan from exile, their hard-working capacity, sincerity, commitment to work for the general welfare of not only their community but also the overall development of the humanity wherever they live.

Moreover, this memoir helps to encourage not only every former Bhutanese but also everyone with similar background to write their stories, which ultimately enlightens the host communities and brings positive changes in their opinions towards the refugees and the immigrants.

During my last several conversations before that unfortunate night, you used to ask me to record your voice. “Ram bhai, please record everything I am speaking to you because these are my vision and advice, and if anything happens to me, you need to uphold it”. You further said, “Ram bhai, please continue working and voicing against the injustice done to us by the Bhutanese regime and advocating for the dignified return of our people in the camps”. “I see you are continuously campaigning for the freedom of Bhutanese political prisoners and raising your voice for the people in camps and inside Bhutan, and for that, you always have my blessing”.

Despite all such verbal advice, Dr Saheb, you even sent me a written letter of appreciation on 26 December 2021, six months before you departed for heaven. Your departure created a permanent vacuum in the movement against injustice in Bhutan and for the dignified repatriation of Bhutanese refugees.

Within no time of your departure, a very shameful fake Bhutanese refugee scandal surfaced. Thousands of Nepali citizens were enrolled as Bhutanese refugees to send them to America for resettlement, which was officially closed by UNHCR on 31 December 2016. Your absence and this scandal left genuine Bhutanese, for whom you sacrificed your entire life, in great limbo.

With your departure, Dr Saheb, we lost our only formidable guardian, a guru to look upon, and the feelings of warmth. Still, due to your blessings and immortal guidance, I feel motivated to work for the cause you always lived for.

Despite all such shameful news, I am sharing one good piece of information: our campaign to release Bhutanese political prisoners got boosted due to its success in bringing on board two major International Human Rights Groups, Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Amnesty International (AI), to undertake our campaign. Human Rights Watch (HRW) published a comprehensive report on Bhutanese political prisoners on 14 March 2023 which created a huge impact on our campaign. A lot has progressed after that concerning our political prisoners’ campaign.

Finally, I am concluding my letter by reiterating my continued commitment to pursuing ahead towards fulfilling your dream of establishing justice for our people. I expect to have more good news to share with you next year Dr Saheb.

I bow my head to receive your blessings, Dr Saheb. Please rest in peace and continue guiding us to fulfil the mission for which you lived, Dr Saheb.

Ram Karki

To add fuel to such doubts, KP Oli, Former Prime Minister of Nepal, while addressing his party workers during the first week of May, said that around 350-400 Nepali nationals turned fake Bhutanese refugees were already taken for resettlement before the closure of Bhutanese refugees resettlement project in December 2016. Oli’s revelations further raised the doubt that the current scandal was not its first kind but had happened since the start of Bhutanese refugees’ resettlement in 2008.

The unfolding of this notorious Bhutanese refugee scandal reminded me of a government official’s inhuman action in Jhapa a few weeks after the first group of Bhutanese refugees arrived in Nepal in February 1991. 

During the early week of 1991, a group of 91 most vulnerable evicted Nepali-speaking Bhutanese under the leadership of Bhutanese activists Ram Karki, Gauri Shankar Nirola and Bhim Khapangi, despite repeated denial, could successfully enter Nepal via Kakarvitta border after the intervention by the local leaders and people. After staying for more than one week at a local Dharamshala, those 91 people finally settled in a thatch-roofed cowshed at Maidhar, Kotihom, near Surunga in Jhapa, in early 1991.

[Related: Issue identity cards to genuine Bhutanese refugees]

As those 91 most vulnerable Bhutanese refugees struggled to survive begging around the nearby villages, the official arrived with many policemen accompanied by the DSP and several police vans and ordered us to return from the same route through which we came to Nepal. When I protested, he ordered the police to arrest me. Thereafter, a huge gathering of local people started shouting slogans against his deportation order, and the Surunga police station where I was imprisoned was surrounded by people.

Corruption relating to Bhutanese refugees is suspected to have started even before UNHCR began its presence in the Bhutanese refugee camps in Nepal.

As a result, I was set free after more than three hours in police custody, and his plan to deport us failed. Later thousands of evicted Bhutanese poured in, and the location was converted into a full-fledged refugee camp. Had we not been supported by the local people under the leadership of local leader Kamal Mainali and others, Nepal’s refugee camps would have never been established. The official was suspected of being bribed by Bhutan, but as of now, no one has dared to expose his nefarious action. Therefore, corruption relating to Bhutanese refugees is suspected to have started even before UNHCR began its presence in the Bhutanese refugee camps in Nepal.

Thousands of Bhutanese refugees arrived, and UNHCR started aiding and establishing seven refugee camps in the various places of Jhapa and Morang districts. Establishing Nepal Home Ministry’s Refugee Coordinating Unit (RCU) with its officials stationed in each refugee camp in 1993 to look after law and order of the camps was a turning point in introducing a channel of bribery system to provide services to the Bhutanese refugees. Such officials got involved in a series of crimes. RCU used to demand a considerable amount of money as a favor to do their essential duties like birth registration and allocation of ration. They used to suspend ration if they did not find refugees at their huts when they visited and to restore the suspended ration one had to provide thousands of rupees as a bribe.

[Related: US-based Bhutanese Diaspora community writes a collective letter to Nepal’s Home Minister] 

For Bhutanese refugee activists to travel outside Nepal for their advocacy purpose, there was a provision to provide a refugee travel document by the Nepal government but to apply for that one had to start the process from camp-based RCU, which forwarded the application to the Chandraguri RCU office which in turn forwarded it to RCU headquarters at Singha Durbar and from there finally to Foreign Ministry in Sital Niwas from where a refugee travel document used to be issued. But to reach Sital Niwas, one had to bribe thousands of rupees starting from camp-based RCU.

Even peons, typists, and guards in those offices threatened a Bhutanese refugees that if they did not get a bribe their applications would not be forwarded to senior officials. I still remember one Chandraguri-based RCU section officer asking me 25000 rupees to forward my application to the Home Ministry in Kathmandu. I was humiliated to see him not considering we Bhutanese refugees as human beings.

The Nepal Police personnel were stationed to provide security to the Bhutanese refugees. These personnel used to be caught red-handed engaging in sexual exploitation of helpless refugee girls. I remember seeing the hut owner catching a police officer red-handed while he was mishandling a minor girl, but he escaped. Unfortunately, his belt was snatched, which we handed over to the CDO of Jhapa at his office, requesting him to take action against the named police. No action was ever taken against him. Instead, he was seen reposted in the same camp. Most policemen stationed in the camps used to take advantage of the vulnerable situations of the refugee women and girls and used to exploit them even during the daylight. Complaints filed at the camp management committee were never listened to. 

At the highest level, the then Nepal Home Minister, Sher Bahadur Deuba, heartily accepted the notorious proposal from Bhutan to categorize Bhutanese refugees into four categories–those who left the country voluntarily, those who were forcibly evicted, those with criminal records and “non-Bhutanese” instead of just Bhutanese and non-Bhutanese. He agreed to this while he was leading the first Nepal-Bhutan bilateral talks to resolve the Bhutanese refugee crisis in 1993 at Thimpu. There was widespread speculation that the Nepal side was under undue influence by the Bhutanese side to accept the proposal. With categorisation closed permanently, the hope of Bhutanese refugees to return home was dashed.

Speculation of undue influence by Thimpu was also directed toward former Prime Minister late Girija Prasad Koirala.

The current scandal vividly reminds the victimized Bhutanese refugees about the inhuman treatment they had to suffer from the Home Ministry-appointed officials at its Refugees Coordinating Unit (RCU) offices in the refugee camps and its district office in Chandaguri and Singh Durbar. Most of the Bhutanese refugee community leaders now resettled were of the opinion that corruption in the name of Bhutanese refugees was not at all a new phenomena. Bhutanese refugees were considered very low-graded people, and even if any of them wanted to report the crime, they were chased away by law-enforcing officials. 

The situation is different today because Nepali citizens are themselves the victims, and thanks to vibrant Nepali media, the cases have been exposed. They have unearthed the corrupt nexus involving the politicians and  senior officials. 

Having said all that, Bhutanese refugees received good treatment in Nepal by Nepali people at large. Nepali people were open-hearted and helpful, especially those from  near the refugee camps. They deserve much respect from the Bhutanese refugees. Local leaders like Kamal Mainali in Kotihom and others always supported our effort to establish refugee camps there. Media, journalists, civil society organizations and their leaders and political and student leaders across the various political parties still support our movement. 

Like a Kathmandu-based radio journalist, a retired European diplomat asked me the other day whether any Nepali government authorities ever communicated directly or indirectly to the Bhutanese refugees’ representatives and expressed their regret for getting their name connected in the ongoing shameful scandal. As a former Bhutanese refugee still active in reclaiming our rights to return to Bhutan, unaware of any such communication, I immediately contacted a few camp-based Bhutanese refugee leaders and asked if such things ever happened. They said that there was no such communication. In contrast, they expected the Nepal government not to prolong their crisis any more but instead involve UNHCR and other international agencies and find a lasting solution to the refugee crisis. 

The Nepal government should immediately engage UNHCR to provide justice to remaining Bhutanese refugees living in the camps in eastern Nepal by undertaking the following steps. First, they should register all those genuine unregistered Bhutanese refugees. Second, they should issue refugee identity cards to all genuine Bhutanese refugees. And third, they should implement all three options of durable solutions without further delay.

Until permanent solutions are not reached, proper relief assistance, including medical, education and other necessary support, should be resumed for the camps-based Bhutanese refugees. 

Ram Karki is Bhutanese Human Rights Activist based in The Hague, the Netherlands.

Initially, he was sentenced to 25 years and three months imprisonment but later seven years and three months were added as punishment for being in contact with another dissent prisoner. Rinzin was shifted to a prison in Mongar from Chemgang Central Prison in 2012 and is currently serving his sentence at Mongar prison. 

During the political uprising in eastern Bhutan in 1997 at his village Dramatse, in Mongar, his family members were forcefully exiled. His father, Sangay Dorji, was arrested for participating in a peaceful demonstration, and his father was released only in 2005 after serving an eight-year sentence. His mother and sister are in a refugee camp at Beldangi camp in Jhapa in eastern Nepal.

In November 2022, Global Campaign for the Release of Political Prisoners in Bhutan (GCRPPB), as part of its financial support program, distributed financial support to Rinzin’s family, besides other families of the serving political prisoners and the recently released political prisoners living in the camps. The photo below shows how happy Rinzin’s mother and sister became while receiving financial support from GCRPPB. His sister also expressed gratitude to all the donors for the financial support she needed to treat her ailing mother. 

GCRPPB, since its formation in 2019, has been consistently campaigning to release all the Bhutanese political prisoners languishing for several decades in various prisons of Bhutan. As of now, GCRPPB has been successful in compiling the details of 55 political prisoners, of which six were released in April 2022. Five were released for completing their 15 years’ sentences, and the King granted amnesty to one former sub-divisional officer Chewang Rinzin who was serving a life sentence.

Though the majority of those remaining 49 political prisoners are from ethnic Nepali-speaking Bhutanese community, quite a few are still from other ethnic communities of Bhutan, such as Naglong and Sharchopas. 

Ram Karki is Coordinator of Global Campaign for the release of Political Prisoners in Bhutan (GCRPPB).

Cases of malpractices and corruption in issuing refugee identity cards to Nepali citizens are being reported in Nepali press.

Among those most unfortunate deprived includes Mon Bahadur Rai, a former Bhutanese political prisoner with ICRC number BTN-000256-01 who was released on July 28, 2017 after serving rigorous and torturous 20 years in Chemgang Central Prison at Thimphu, Bhutan. Rai and his 10-member family were refugees at Beldangi-1 Sector F Sub Sector 3, Hut Number 231. Still, when he returned, he found that all his family members had left for resettlement. 

Despite producing all the previous records, Rai struggled until June 26, 2019 to register his name with the Nepal government’s Refugee Coordination Unit (RCU) in the camp. His name has reportedly been sent by the RCU office in Chandraguri to the Ministry of Home Affairs in Kathmandu for approval of a refugee identity card. To this day, Rai has received no response from Kathmandu for his application. Thus till today, he has been living a miserable life with his brother at hut number 444 of sector C of Beldangi camp without any facilities. Without a refugee identity card, they are not entitled to any facilities in the center. 

Rai’s elderly mother and other family members wanted him to be reunited with them in their country of resettlement. However, due to the concerned official’s rampant negligence and lack of human feelings, Rai continues to suffer despite being released from prison in Bhutan after undergoing inhuman torture for 20 years. 

Therefore, I would like to request the concerned office of the Nepal Government to kindly issue refugee identity cards to all the genuine and deserved Bhutanese refugees. They are still suffering in the camps. 

Nepal has given us shelter, saved our lives, and allowed tens of thousands of us to be resettled in eight developed countries. And now, at the far end, it is not humane to let a few hundred people like Mon Bahadur Rai suffer in the camp without a refugee identity card. Nepal has nothing to lose when it issues identity cards to all genuine Bhutanese refugees so they can receive the facilities entitled to them. When all such deserved Bhutanese refugees are given refugee identity cards, we do not feel pain even if we have to see the news mentioned above.

Ram Karki is Bhutanese Human Rights Activist based in The Hague, the Netherlands.

The news for me was too sudden and shocking, and I had never imagined it. I dared to write a short status on my Facebook page. Feeling empty, I imagined how the Bhutanese refugees’ movement without its untiring guardian sustains. I found it very difficult to believe, and the shock in my mind still made me feel suffocating. Four days have passed, but my mind is still in shock. I feel empty and valueless without my living leader at Damak. 

Late Rai was too determined and firmly believed that he would return to Bhutan, and only after that he would die at his village in Bara, Bhutan. 

My last communication with him was on June 16, 2022, when he said he was feeling better after an operation and requested me to convey to friends worldwide his gratitude for wishing him his recovery. It was a very brief conversation. It came to be the last one forever.

We used to talk via Facebook messenger almost twice or thrice per week, and during each talk, he used to repeat several times that we should not forget our cause and work till our issues are amicably resolved. 

I have just reread an official letter that the late Dr Saheb wrote to me as the Bhutanese Refugees Representative Repatriation Committee (BRRRC) chairman in December 2021. The wording of his letter is self-explanatory to show how generous and truthful a leader he was. He treated everybody equally and always appreciated the good works done by others without undermining their work because they were less educated or junior. 

For him, work is work, and it should be appreciated and respected irrespective of who does that work. In this letter, he blessed me and directed me to continue the Bhutanese refugee movement till it is resolved. The letter is posted here for all to see. 

With his demise, we lost our only guardian, whom we used to look up to when we were in trouble or in doubt of anything. I used to feel his blessings whenever I organized activities on the Bhutanese refugee or political prisoners’ issue. 

With his demise, I feel we have a massive responsibility toward him: to work together to make his dream come true. His vision was to work till all willing Bhutanese refugees were repatriated to their homes in Bhutan with honor and dignity. His goal was to fight against all the injustices meted out to the Bhutanese of Nepali origin.  

A permanent vacuum has been created in the leadership position after Bhampa Rai’s departure. His soul can only rest in peace when his goal of repatriating the willing fellow Bhutanese refugees to Bhutan with honor and dignity is fulfilled. 

During my numerous interactions and meetings with late Rai, I never heard him saying anything against any Bhutanese citizen. He was just against that regime which created the refugees and did injustices to the Bhutanese citizens. Late Rai was a very learned leader who used to keep himself updated on current global issues. He was a straightforward, honest, determined, principled leader full of zeal to work for the welfare of the sick and the needy. As a doctor, he used to treat all the sick people no matter whether they were Nepali or Bhutanese, for free of cost. 

With Dr Bhampa Rai’s departure, the Bhutanese refugee movement has lost its only sincere and dedicated leader. A permanent vacuum has been created in the leadership position. His soul can only rest in peace when his goal of repatriating the willing fellow Bhutanese refugees to Bhutan with honor and dignity is fulfilled. For that, we, the globally scattered former Bhutanese refugees, should come under one platform and work dedicatedly towards fulfilling late Rai’s vision.  

I want to appeal to all my fellow Bhutanese worldwide to convert this sorrow into a strength by joining hands together and working towards realizing the vision of our tallest leader late, Dr Rai. I think that would only be the best reward we can give the late Rai for his lifelong selfless service to all of us. 

Long live late Doctor Bhampa Rai. Long live his fight against injustice in Bhutan. 

Ram Karki is Bhutanese Human Rights Activist based in The Hague, the Netherlands.