According to Tanka Dhital of the Bhutanese Community Resource Center, Krishna L Dhital (21), Dilli Ram Bhattarai (28) and Krishna Dhakal (17) have been missing.

The boys, who were said to be in one of the parks in Spokane when they were last contacted, have remained out of contact since 9 pm of the Saturday evening, informed Dhital.

According to their family sources, 5.2-feet-tall Dhital was wearing a jean pant and white t-shirt, and Bhattarai is 5.7 feet tall. The family do not have exact information for the description of the third at large.

It is also learnt that Bhattarai was on a black Acura LP 933ZGH, 2003 model car.

Both Dhital and Bhattarai hail from Tukwila and had travelled to Spokane for a family visit on the same day.

The family awaited their return until Sunday evening and reported to the police. According to the Spokane police, the search has been underway. According to Dhital, the families are in deep sorrow and have no clue on how to precede the search.

Contributed by Yug Dabadi from WA for BNS

Editors: If anyone has any kind of information about the missing boys, their families can be contacted at 206-372-8969 and 360-918-4869.

First of all, please accept greetings from the Bhutanese refugees in various camps of Nepal.

I had an opportunity to go through an article in the Kuensel written by Rinzin Wangchuk on May 10, 2011, where you commented regarding Bhutan, its ruthless rulers and so-called political and illegal immigrants.

Besides you, there are a number of people, politicians, diplomats and journalists who are highly paid by the demagogic rulers of Bhutan on various occasions just to praise and appreciate their way of ruling the nation.

Dr Bruce, you must be knowing that Bhutan remained as one of the poorest countries of the world until late 1970s. So the question of our fore-fathers migrating to Bhutan due to economic cause is more than super lie of Bhutanese rules as they were there in Bhutan even before the Treaty of Sinchula inked on November 11,1865 between Bhutan and British-India. Of course, political migration from Tibet to Bhutan was there time to time, even founder of modern Bhutan Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyal had to immigrate Bhutan as refugee in 1616 from political strife in Tibet.

Is it your own census record that reflects population of Bhutan to be about 670,000? You must know the total population of Bhutan was 1.2 million, according to the Bhutanese authority, that was declared in United Nations in 1971 while Bhutan became the member of United Nations Organizations. The same number was suddenly reduced to somewhere 500,000 in 1990 after evicting the southern Bhutanese of Nepalese ethnicity. And, 25 million population of Nepal and 17 million population of Nepalese ethnicity of Indian states of Assam and West Bengal is nothing to do with the bonafide Bhutanese of Nepalese ethnicity. The Bhutanese refugees in eastern Nepal are from Bhutan and not from those countries. You are welcome to clear your doubt, if any, by visiting the camps and verifying their documents. So we request you, for God sake not to carry the childish version of the perpetrator rulers of present Bhutan.

Dr Bruce, we do agree that our country Bhutan is really pristine where we lived and like to live but due to ruthless rulers thousand of bonafide Bhutanese were evicted to become refugees for so long. So how can you say the rulers are taking care about their people? Are you talking about only for ruling elites and their ‘yes people’? There are still personalities of our ethnicity in high-ranked positions inside Bhutan, which we always accept. However, their inside and outside are different. As you look at the faces of some Nepali-speaking ministers in the Jigmi Y Thinley’s cabinet, you may see them as people of southern Bhutan, but they have Jigme Singye inside them since they were compelled to act in that manner.

As an outsider to Bhutan, you must know that the border of Bhutan was closed long before the eviction of bonafide southern Bhutanese. Can Bhutanese ruler able to protect northern border with China? Do you also know that the descendants of the citizens since much before 1958 were declared to be so-called illegal immigrants, as they did not possess the land tax receipt as their parents did because the land was not in their own name? How can you say this is not an ethnic issue when more than 100,000 of Bhutanese of Nepali origin were evicted from southern Bhutan?

Tricky Bhutanese rulers seem smarter than diplomats of US because only with formal relationship they were made to agree to resettle unjust Bhutanese in the refugee camp in eastern Nepal in support of Bhutanese regime. I think, this must be very much clear to you. Someone, non- Bhutanese briefing Bhutanese history is really going to be history of Bhutan because such a person can only brief the history that briefed by the rulers of Bhutan without the true history in the content.

Further, it should be known to you that the autocratic regime turned into a constitutional monarchy in the name of unique democracy where people are not allowed to practice their democratic rights. Consequently, more than one hundred thousand of bonafide Bhutanese were not allowed to say anything on this democracy.

The much trumpeted gross national happiness in Bhutan, if any, depends on supply of India and is not only loving street dogs, finding snarling dogs as smiling in Thimphu and neglecting the cry of more than exiled Bhutanese for returning to their homeland, but creating happiness to a few elites inside the country. Ever agonized Bhutanese will never be happy merely with nationwide road constructions, electricity supply and car loan.

Yes, the Government of Bhutan will keep on organizing such talk programs and seminars just to make the organizers and the speakers to say the rulers of Bhutan are unique but the subject of Bhutan are economic migrants, disgruntled terrorists, anti-national and illegal immigrants, and even Indians.

Thank you for giving me an opportunity to write this letter.

Dr Bhampa Rai
Chairman
Bhutanese Refugee Representative Repatriation Committee

Veteran DK Karki, who demonstrated his political caliber in the early stage of camp settlement in Nepal as an active cadre of the Bhutan People’s Party was never willing to leave camp to settle in western countries.

When most of his contemporary friends involved in the party-politics in exile vanished one after the other grasping such opportunities in various occasions, Karki remained rigid with the opinion that Nepal would be the best place to fight against the Bhutanese suppression.

“I got several opportunities to leave Nepal and get settled in western countries. But, I chose to remain in camps,” Karki says.

But, the year 2009 became worst for him when he was first diagnosed of complications in his liver by the AMDA Hospital that treats refugee patients in UN-monitored camps of Jhapa and Morang of Nepal.

Following a series of treatments at the AMDA Hospital and Life Line Hospital, Karki also spent months in the Indian city of Siliguri fighting against his liver cirrhosis. His friends and relatives financially supported him for his expensive treatment.

When he got discharged, he changed his mind and decided to resettle in America for getting better treatments as AMDA Nepal informed him that his treatment was beyond its criteria considering the cost.

And, accordingly he was processed under an emergency status for resettlement. When his family waited at the International

Karki in the hospital following his liver transplantation/Sanita Guragain

Organization for Migration( IOM) transit camp in Kathamndu, he was admitted in the Norvic Hospital for weeks.

48-year-old Karki, who waited at Beldangi-I camp for 18 years to return to Bhutan with dignity and honor was eventually resettled in St. Louis of Missouri in July last year.

A private doctor from the IOM escorted Karki from Kathmandu to America. Upon landing in Missouri, he was directly admitted to the Barnes Jewish Hospital.

Last December, a team of doctors at the Barnes Jewish Hospital undertook a liver transplantation surgery that lasted for almost six hours, according to his family.

“Now he is in a stable condition and has already gained weight of 52 pounds (approximately 20kg) ,” mentions one of his family members. According to the Karki family, the hospital has not yet disclosed the details of the person who donated the organ.

Karki, who has been recuperating says he has no proper words to thank the liver donor and the hospital team that have renewed his life.

“I have no words to thank everyone who helped me to come to this stage”, adds Karki with tears in his eyes.

“He is a lucky person to get his liver transplanted within a six months of his entry into the United States,” says Dr Lakshmi Prasad Dhakal, President of the Bhutanese Community in the Netherlands.

He adds, “In the Netherlands, the waiting time for this type of surgery is minimum a year, provided a patient fulfills transplantation requirements. In addition, a patient needs to prove through blood test, an alcohol abstinence of minimum six months”.

According to Dr Dhakal, life long medications to prevent rejection of a transplanted liver is recommended to all patients who undergo such medical conditions, otherwise, the immune system, the defense mechanism of the body recognizes the transplanted liver as “foreign to the body” and tries to expel it.

Most commonly, the technique is orthotopic transplantation, in which a donor liver replaces a native liver.

As of today, Dr Dhakal highlights that liver transplantation is the only option for an end-stage liver disease accompanied by failure of liver functions.

As his resettlement proceeded, Karki kept his hope high that he would be getting better treatments in the United States. However, he never thought that he would one day undergo liver transplantation.

“I never thought that I would live so long. The transplantation was out of my imagination since I knew no patients like me could manage the cost,” he says.

It is not that all end-stage liver patients can manage the operation cost although it varies from countries to countries.

Karki says he has been getting better each day with new liver in his body/Sanita Guragain

“Surgery in India and Nepal, if a compatible organ donor is found, costs less than 100,000 rupees; in USA only surgical costs would climb around 300,000 dollars and in Europe the cost is nearly two times than that of USA,” says Dr Dhakal.

But, Karki is certainly a select few to get the proper diagnosis and treatment on time. He is also lucky enough to have all of his expenses borne by his Medicaid, the health insurance provided to the refugees by the government. The U.S. government has defined this facility as “a government health program that is available to qualified people for a limited time after their arrival in the U.S.”

“However, bitter part of this procedure is the follow up cost that increases every year,” says Dr Dhakal. As per him, in Nepal this cost would be not less than Rs 15,000 annually.

“Born in Bhutan, spent my youth in Nepal, now I am living with a donated liver in America,” says Karki in the hope to live longer with the transplanted liver.

With inputs from Sanita Guragain, Missouri, USA.

Ram/John Suchocki

After living for more than 20 years in a refugee camp in Nepal, Ram Rai is very happy to be settled here.

“We had nothing there. I want to thank America for giving us a chance to start a new life,” the 30-year-old man said during a recent interview at Lutheran Social Services of New England, where he is a caseworker. “We are struggling, but hopefully we can pass through this phase and make a contribution to America.”

Rai, whose family moved from Nepal to Bhutan four generations ago, was among the ethnic Nepali driven from Bhutan about 20 years ago. The government was bent on having a “one people, one nation policy,” he says.

Rai and his family were among about 120,000 ethnic Nepali living in seven refugee camps in Nepal. Rai was truly a man without a country as Nepal would not grant citizenship to the ethnic Nepali driven out of Bhutan.

Bhutan is a small, landlocked country wedged between India and China. It has a population of little more than a half million people.

The camp in which Rai lived had about 10,000 people living in huts. At first, the inhabitants used the jungle as bathrooms, but after people became ill and died, latrines screened by bamboo were provided. There was one water tap for 115 to 125 families. The wait in line for water could take as long as three hours. Sometimes the lines were too long to get any water at all, Rai said.

Despite the hardships he has endured, Rai, a slightly built, soft-spoken man with glasses, is quick to flash a wide smile.

He was educated at a school in the camp and went on to get a degree in English and sociology from Mahendra Morang College in Birathnagar, Nepal. Rai went on to teach English in Katmandu, all the while having to go back and spend weekends in the camp.

Since moving to West Springfield about a year-and-a-half ago, he has learned about such conveniences many Americans take for granted, like driving a car and using credit and ATM cards. “At first I was confused about how to use the cards,” Rai said.

His work at Lutheran Social Services of New England lets him help other refugees get resettled in the area.

“For me, it is OK, but I worry about my people who have no English at all,” he said. “Some refugees don’t even know how to write their name.”

Lutheran Social Services, a nonprofit group loosely affiliated with the Lutheran Church, works with about 300 refugees a year to get them settled in this country. It helps with everything from learning English to filling out employment applications. It is now working mainly with refugees from Bhutan, Iraq, Nepal, Somalia and Burma, the country now known as Myanmar.

Despite all the challenges of adopting a new country, Rai said the refugees have been wise to come to the United States.

“They made the right decision to come here,” he said.

(The writer can be reached at sconstantine@repub.com.)
Courtesy : Masslive, USA

After almost two decades in a refugee camp, Kahri and Indra Prahdan are starting over. A two bedroom Spokane apartment is where Pradhans and their four children will begin their new life.

“They came here to make their children’s future bright,” said translator Devika Giri.

Kahri and Indra Pradhan were exiled from their home country of Bhutan 18-years-ago. Since then, they’ve raised four children in a refugee camp in Nepal.

The Prahdan’s say they have spent nearly two decades dreaming of the day when they would sleep in a bed outside the bamboo walls of their refugee hut, that day arrived Wednesday night.

They left everyone and almost everything they own in Nepal, taking just two bags of belongings with them to the United States. That’s where Ms. Zamora’s Spanish class comes In.

“I can’t imagine what it would be like to just come here and have nothing,” said Izzy Taylor, one of Zamora’s students.
In less than a month, the class has gathered everything from couches to beds, all donated. Even clothes and toys have been provided, all for a family the students had never met until Wednesday.

“Furnishing their house was a little overwhelming,” said Zack, another student in the class.

For the class, the experience has been a real eye-opener.

“It opened your eyes to how people live,” said Nick, another one of Zamora’s students.

Through the project, Zamora hopes to teach her students the intangibles of acceptance and understanding.
“It is an incredible achievement,” said Zamora. “Students need to be more sensitive and tolerant and more multi-culturally aware.”

Zamora understands well the struggles of immigrating to a new country, she immigrated from Mexico 17-years-ago.
It’s a lesson that will likely stick with Zamora’s students much longer than the vocabulary she’s taught them in class.

Courtesy: www.kxly.com

We strongly condemn the murder of Nepal and the shooting was a ghastly action, said the HUROB release.
“Whatever may be the motive behind, it is a cowardly act and the law should punish the culprit.”

“It also came to our notice that those who are arrested are innocent just arrested on suspicion of past misunderstanding occurred sometimes ago especially with the said two girls”, said S.B. Subba, the chairperson of HUROB. “Those arrested are being tortured in the police custody.”

The rights body has requested the concern authorities to appropriately deal the case with due respecting individual human rights and pin the right culprit.

The Armed Police Force deployed in the camp yesterday arrested two young ladies and three boys in connection with Nepal’s murder.

Nepal is survived by his wife, four daughters and a son. The eldest daughter and her family have already been resettled in America.