Bhutanese refugee newspaper dying for want of funds

A unique initiative in Nepal is dying for lack of funds. The Bhutan Reporter is one of the most uncommon media ventures in South Asia. It's a monthly paper brought out by Bhutanese refugees who have been struggling to survive for nearly two decades in seven camps in eastern Nepal.

The monthly, a source of sustenance for the over 100,000 refugees and their only voice, is produced by refugee journalists living in the camps in Morang and Jhapa districts of Nepal, near the Indian border. It's the labour of love and sacrifice by the refugees, nearly 90 percent of who have no means of livelihood and no means of receiving education beyond high school.

Though Nepal's government has consented to allow the Bhutanese stay in the kingdom, they are not allowed to work or go to a third country for settlement.The camps are managed by the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Nepal that is now running out of funds as donors have begun to withdraw with the impasse showing no signs of resolution even after 16 years.

Entire families live in single rooms without a bathroom, toilet or kitchen. There is no electricity or running water. The food and fuel is provided by the UNHCR and the camp inmates say it suffices for two meals a day. Often, fuel is scarce and the refugees venture out of the camps to gather fireweed, when they are challenged by the locals.

Such a quarrel last week left a 21-year-old camp resident dead and at least six injured. Prostitution among the women is rising along with alcoholism and domestic violence.

The Bhutan Reporter, a monthly with a print run of 1,000, was started in 2004, providing a lifeline to the camp residents. It is is published by the Bhutan Media Society, the publishing house of the Association of Press Freedom Activists (APFA)-Bhutan.

The camp residents fund the paper themselves, working unpaid. However, after two hard years, they are at the end of their tether.

Media Helping Media web site reported that now the team says it can't afford the NRS 2,000 it costs to print hard copies of the newspaper each month.

TP Mishra, editor of the unique paper, says it is important the paper survives. "The media situation inside Bhutan is strictly under government threat," Media Helping Media quoted him as saying. "Organisations like APFA-Bhutan, established in the refugee camps, are trying to bring Bhutan's suppressed media in the international arena."

The editorial team says if they can raise NRS 14,000 a month they would publish TBR weekly instead of monthly. They are asking the Bhutanese community overseas and international media organisations for help to continue to print the newspaper.

The refugees were forced to leave Bhutan in the 90s after the government began evicting southern Bhutanese of Nepali origin. Since then, Bhutan and Nepal have held 14 rounds of talks over the repatriation of the refugees but Thimphu has been dragging its feet.

(Sudeshna Sarkar can be contacted at sudeshnasarkar21@hotmail.com)

(IANS)

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