Bhutan is Talibanizing its Christian Population:
Bhutan is still Continuing Persecution of Christian population
Dateline: 20 June , 2001: Place: Samtse district in southern Bhutan on the Indo-Bhutan border
Weeks after Bhutan made international headlines for its persecution of the minority Christian population and the following international pressure, the regime has again directed its focus on the persecution of Christians especially in southern Bhutan. The fresh persecution of Christians has been started in southern Bhutan. One Bhutanese Christians said that the government is out there to take revenge against the Christians, as a backlash on exposure of the persecution of Bhutanese Christians on Palm Sunday 08 April, 2001 in international media and international pressure/criticism of the government on account of the persecution of Christians. The government implements its coercive policies from the southern Bhutan to showcase for other districts in the north and east to follow.
Since early June, the government has started identifying the local Christians with the help of village headmen in two ways. First they observe whether a particular married woman puts the Sindoor (vermilion mark) on her forehead according to Hindu tradition and wears the Potey on her neck or not. All Hindu married women put vermilion mark on her forehead. A potey is a colourful necklace of fine glass beads worn by a Hindu married woman whose husband is living. Any southern Bhutanese woman visiting/attending government offices without Sindoor (vermilion mark) on her forehead is humiliated and harassed to the point of embarrassment in public by the government authorities. This mandatory wearing of potey by women in southern Bhutan is to distinguish a Hindu from Christian. Which will make it easier for the police and authorities to persecute Christians. This mandatory ( but not officially declared as many of the government restriction is hardly published) requirement of wearing of potey is no different from the etiquette imposed by Taliban militia on Hindus in Afghanistan, where Hindus have to put yellow cloth to distinguish them from Muslims.
Second, they observe whether people would be wiling to donate money, often collected forcibly for the construction of “GUMBA” or Buddhist monastery in the villages. A local Christian, who refused to donate for construction of Gumba at Sibsoo was immediately arrested and imprisoned by the Sub-district Officer of Sibsoo, initially for three years but later released on the request his relatives, on condition that he would not practice the Christian religion in Bhutan. Most of the Bhutanese Christians live in southern Bhutan and hence, persecution currently is focused mostly on the southern Bhutanese believers. Nepali-speaking citizens of Bhutan, living in Southern foothills are officially called as Lhotshampas. Many Sharchhokpa speaking Nyingmapa Buddhist people of eastern Bhutan have also been converted into Christianity. They have made Jesus Film and International Audio/Radio Version in Sharchhokpa language.
Before the onslaught on the southern Bhutanese Christians, Mr. Tshering Wangda, the Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Home Affairs visited the four southern districts to monitor resettlement, security, explosives and proselitysation in the second week of December 2000. That was before the annual census enumeration began. He visited Samtse district on 18-19 Dec.2000 and held meeting with the Village Headmen and Census officials and formally instructed them to terrorize and harass the Christian believers during census, which started in Samtse district from the first week of January 2001.
Armed with the order and encouraged by the support of the Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Headman of Samtse, a convicted criminal, Mr. Dorji Wangdi started beating the Christian believers of Mandreni, Budhuney, Gairigaon and Saureni villages. He took undertaking from them not to preach the gospel and not even to assemble for worship. Similarly, the Headman of Gomtu village Mr. Lokmani Gurung tied the believers around the electrical pole and tortured them in front of all the people who had come to attend the census. One believer from Khanabhurty village got admitted in the Gomtu hospital. When the victims reported the matter to the Dzongda or Chief District Officer of Samtse in writing, their applications were simply turned down.
The Sub-District Officer of Phuntsholing Mr. Sherab Dorji called the believers from Dhamdara, Pasakha and Bhalujhora villages of Chhukha district to his office and asked whether they knew the fate of Christians in Orissa, India. Then he took undertaking from them not to assemble for worship nor preach the gospel, threatening them of dire consequence for failing to comply. Later he has been heard saying that he had been acting solely on the directions from Thimphu, the capital and he personally repented for what he had done.
The believers are threatened or terrorized of census complications. The Village Headman writes a remark on the individual census slip saying they are Christians. Their only crime is that they are Christian Thus, the young Christian are not being issued the Citizenship Identity cards. They have been denied the right as a citizen of Bhutan. They have become refugee/ internally displaced people in their own country.
The citizens in southern Bhutan are required to produce “No Objection Certificate” (NOC) or Police Clearance Certificates (PCC) from the police authorities for admission of children to schools, acquiring travel document, bank loans, trade and business license, promotion in the civil services, recruitment and getting jobs, stating that that a person of his family is not involved in the activities not like by the government. The authorities do not issue the NOC/PCC to the Christian believer’s family. The government has used the NOC to effectively coerce the citizens to submission. This requirement of NOC/PCC bars the Christian from acquiring any facilities available through the State. This NOC/PCC are required for admission of children to schools, acquiring travel document, scholarship, medical treatment outside Bhutan, bank loans, trade and business license, promotion in the civil services, recruitment in the government and other jobs. Which means that the Christians are denied all of the above. The Rural Credit Officer of Samtse has been reportedly heard confessing that southern Bhutanese are not entitled for any rural credit facilities.
Of late, the government has ordered all the private firms, companies, corporations in Bhutan not to appoint any Christians from southern Bhutan henceforth. Mr. Jigme Tshultrim, the Dzongda after his transfer to Mongar District from Samtse arrested or drove away most of the southern Bhutanese entrepreneurs on the pretext that they did not belong to this particular district. The aim is to deprive southern Bhutanese of economic opportunities leaving them with three very hard choices, either give up their religion, become the regime’s slave or leave the country to become refugees.
The government is resettling people of other ethnicities from the north and eastern district of Bhutan in the lands of refugees in southern Bhutan. The southern Bhutanese villagers are required to help resettlement take place from other districts in their own lands. They must clear away the jungles, plough the land with their own oxen, and erect the settlers’ house. Forced labour still exists in southern districts despite the government’s claim of having abandoned it since early 2000.
The Village Headmen collect Rs. fifty per head from each household to feed the census team, over and above providing free firewood, cooking and cleaning services, failing which they risk omission of their names in the census enumeration. The collection amounts to a tune of Nu/Rs. 200,000 from a single Block of villages. No wonder, the Samtse Village Headman, Mr. Dorji Wangdi had bought a new Maruti Car and built a big house at Budhuney costing not less than Nu/Rs. 300,000 within two years of his election to the post. There is no limit to corruption and exploitation.
On 26th April, the government denied the persecution of Christians in its weekly news bulletin Kuensel. But the fact is otherwise that the persecution is systematic and on sustaining basis.
We pray for God’s perfect will for the safety and well being of Bhutanese Christians.
Yours very sincerely in Christ
Bhutanese Christians Information Network (BCIN)
Mailing address in exile: GPO Box # 3485, Kathmandu, Nepal
Visit: Sanepa, Lalitpur, Kathmandu, Nepal