Flight from Sarbhang

According to Kuensel (23 May 1992), a gang of terrorists gunned down Chimi Dorji, the Dungpa, or sub-district officer, of Geylegphug, as he was returning home from Taklai village. Dorji, 36, was shot several times on the chest. Four military guards accompanying Dorji in the Hilux, jeep were unharmed, "A well known and popular official had been gunned down in cold blood." Dorji's death was treated as a cause celebre in Bhutan, He was declared a martyr and given a highly publicised state funeral in Punakha, with the Je Khempo, the Chief Abbot, the Crown Prince, and ministers present.

The Government had no doubt that Lhotshampa "ngolops" killed Dorji, but peasant refugees new in camps in Nepal are not so sure. They wonder how the killers managed to shoot Dorji thrice in a moving jeep, without also hitting the army men with the Dungpa and the jeep itself. They say they had heard of bad blood between Dorji and the Army, and also wonder whether the assassins could be the well-armed Meches (Bodos) from India, a group of whom he had confronted earlier that day on the road to Taklai.

Tobgay Tshering was assigned to takeover as Dungpa of Geylegphug, a sub-division of Sarbhang district. Within a few day's of taking office, on 4 June, he called a meeting of the surrounding villages in Geylegphug. He first asked for a show of hands whether families of persons identified as "ngolops" should be told to leave Bhutan. Only one man raised his hand.

The following is what Tshering then told the villagers*, speaking in chaste Nepali:

"Do you still have the dead Dungpa's meat sticking to your teeth, you murderers? So you want to keep the ngolops. That makes all of you ngolops. We Drukpas fought the British, we fought the Tibetans. We spilt blood for this country, not you. This country is ours', and the Government is ours. You all were only guests, so now go back to your country. You definitely cannot stay here. You cannot pretend to be a citizen by just wearing the bakhhu. Better to go while there is still time, or you will suffer. You have three days to depart. It does not matter if you are F-1 or F-7. Better that weeds grow here than you plough your fields. Do not run away, fill the form of voluntary departure, take your compensation and go. The people of Samchi who went before you have got citizenship in Nepal and have come back and thanked, us for suggesting that they go. Go to Nepal, there the Koirala Sarkar will keep you in comfortable buildings and feed you. When you are all gone, we will come down here to hunt. Let it not be that we get some monkeys when we aim for the wild game,"

The exodus front Geylegphug villages and other villages of Sarbhang began. The flood of refugees at the border post of Kakarbhitta notched another high as an average twenty-five trucks with Assam number plate's entered Nepal. (According to, camp figures, refugee arrivals jumped from 5149 in June to 9152 in July, primarily peasants from Sarbhang.)

When the Sarbhang Dzongda (district administrator) sent a report on 9 June that more than 400 families, most of them from Geylegphug, had applied to leave, King Jigme sent a high level team to meet the families. On 14 July, he came down for a meeting with the migrant families. According to Kuensel the King said, "All of you are bonafide citizens who have been issued with Bhutanese Citizens hip Cards, It is very important that I understand your problems and know the reason why you want to leave your country."

The King then said: "Short of literally going down on my knees with folded hands, I have tried everything possible to resolve the serious problem we have today in southern Bhutan, I am therefore deeply pained that all of you here today who are genuine citizens have not only applied to leave your country but even declared that you would not wait for more than two days to have your applications processed. I have come here from Thimphu to ask you all not to migrate and leave your country. I have every hope, that you will reconsider your decision and not abandon your country when it is going through a very difficult time.

"I have done everything I could think of to make you responsible citizens. I can now only hope and pray that you will stay back so that we can all live together like members of one household and make our country strong…"

Questioned by Kuensel how it could be that almost every migrant said they were leaving because he had asked them to, Dungpa Tshering said it was a frame-up. He said it was hardly possible that he could have said all those things when he had just joined office.

Kuensel reported on 19 July that after King Jigme's lecture, a number of Lhotshampas decided to stay back. The newspaper has a front-page picture with a caption that reads: "A woman from Surey who had applied to migrate agrees not to leave after His Majesty spoke to her." The person has now been identified as Dhana Maya Baral. According to co-villager Khagendra Neupane, who arrived at Kakarbhitta by truck on 21 July, immediately after the King went back to Thimphu, the villagers were shown a "list" that included Dhana Maya's name. Within two days, she was out of Bhutan, and a week later, like many others, at the 14 July meeting who had agreed to stay, Dhana Maya was at Goldhap camp as a refugee.

The Cabinet met in Thimphu on 17 July and constituted a team to enquire into the complaints made by the Nepali-speakers against Tobgay Tshering, the Dungpa, The team was appointed by Home Minister Dago Tshering, rather than by the King. The team might have searched for the persons the King spoke to on 14 July. Instead, the Bhutan Broadcasting Service reported that the team had found the allegations against the Dungpa were baseless.

This is a composite quote as verified from independent interviews with the following refugees arriving in mid-July at Goldhap refugee camp: Padma Lal Timsina, Tulsi Pam Neupane, Thakur Prasad Luitel, Chet Nath Timsina, Meghnath Khadka and Narapati Pokhrel.