Bhutani refugees certainly deserve better treatment both from Nepal and the international community as Kanak Mani Dixit argues in his Southasia Beat column ('Lhotsampa chargesheet', #238) The refugee problem has been Nepal's most glaring foreign policy failures. Despite being top priority on the foreign policy agenda, Nepali mandarins never pursued the matter competently. Take the results of the Joint Verification Team. Even a four-year-old child was categorised as a criminal. Our own sins won't be lessened by blaming Bhutan which was never committed to take its people back anyway. What it has always wanted is to buy time and delay any meaningful discussion on refugees that would bind Bhutan for a mandatory repatriation. And Nepalis played right into Bhutani hands, first by agreeing to four categories for verification, and then subsequently by agreeing to Bhutan's outrageous verification and repatriation conditions.

John Narayan Parajuli,
Columbia, South Carolina, USA

. I totally disagree with Ugyen Tshewang (Letters, #239) in response to Kanak Mani Dixit's factual recounting of the events of 1991. In fact, it is Tshewang who needs to hear the other side of the story. I have visited the refugee camps in Jhapa twice and you don't have to ask the Bhutanis how they are doing. You just need to look around at the dead-end lives of stateless people. All have tears when they talk about home and their hope that one day they will return.

It's not an issue of nationality, it's an issue of humanity. The Bhutani refugee question needs to be internationalised and the truth told about the world's worst refugee crisis in per capita terms.

Name withheld,
UK

. I would like to thank the HMG for its decision to declare public holidays for those holding different religious beliefs and ethnicities. It is an acknowledgement by the government that Nepal is a pluralist country. I am particularly happy that 25 December has, for the first time, been declared a public holiday. With my prayers for peace in Nepal.

Bhaju Ram Shrestha,
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