The roughly 100,000 Bhutanese who have lived for the past 12 years as refugees in Nepal are hoping that next week's summit of South Asian leaders will draw attention to their plight. SB Subba, chairman of the Bhutanese Refugee Repatriation Committee based on Jhapa, Nepal has written to leaders of India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and the Maldives asking them to talk to Bhutan about a speedy repatriation. Nepal and Bhutan have been holding bilateral talks to settle the refugee issue since 1993 and have made little headway. Earlier this year the two sides began verifying refugees have completed screening 12,071 individuals from one camp. The process had begun on 26 March and at the present rate, it may take over five years only to get the verification completed. The two countries have also been unable to agree on how to proceed: start the repatriation process for those that have been screened as Nepal would want, or first complete the verification of remaining refugees-which could take over five years-as Bhutan has been insisting.