Friday 13 November 2009

Suffering opposition leader

Tek Nath Rizal, Torture Killing Me Softly (Kathmandu: Human Rights Without Frontiers Nepal & Group for International Solidarity, 2009)

The book is an authoritative, rich and compelling narrative of the man who represents the movement for democracy and human rights in Bhutan. It might once again remind the rulers of the present day Bhutan that there is no sustainable alternative to national reconciliation between the monarchy and the opposition forces. Bhutanese need national unity, and the new king has a meaningful role to play in this regard.
Bipin Adhikari

BOOK REVIEW http://www.nepalnews.com/contents/2009/englishweekly/spotlight/nov/nov13/review.php


Tek Nath Rizal needs no introduction in Nepal. An opposition leader of Bhutan, sentenced in 1993 to life imprisonment, Rizal has been associated with human rights movement in his country for more than three decades. He was imprisoned by the Bhutanese establishment from 1989 to 1999 at the Chemgang detention centre, about eight kilometers east of Thimpu.

According to Amnesty International, Rizal was held "for the peaceful expression of his political beliefs, in particular his campaign against government policies unfairly affecting members of the Nepali-speaking community in southern Bhutan." After 10 years of imprisonment, following national and international pressure, he was granted amnesty by King Jigme Singye Wangchuk on 18 December 1999, the Silver Jubilee year of his accession to the throne.

The book Torture Killing Me Softly is a tale of suffering Tek Nath Rizal lived with when he was in detention. In his preface to the book, Rizal explains: "Spending ten years of my life in the most degrading and inhuman conditions of the Bhutanese prisons, I made a considered decision to share my experiences with the rest of the world. The primary objective behind writing this text is to reveal the other side of the so called last Shangri-La, where ethnic cleansing is being practiced as a state policy, in the name of maintaining cultural purity."

The book is not just about his personal experience, but also "the nature, extent and magnitude of mental and physical tortures inflicted upon hundreds of citizens in the Bhutanese prisons and virtually throughout the nation on a daily basis." It is also related with the thousands of Bhutanese refugees in Nepal and other places of the world.

There are sixteen small chapters in the book including an epilogue. The introductory chapter familiarizes readers with three main ethnic, linguistic and religious groups of Bhutan - Ngalongs, Sharchhokpas and Lhotshampas. The author emphasizes here that all these groups lived in perfect communal, religious and ethnic harmony through centuries, until the fourth king of Bhutan, Jigme Singye Wangchuk ascended the throne in 1974, and started a discriminatory regime in the country. These arrangements were especially aimed at the Lhotshampas - the Bhutanese people of Nepalese origin. This chapter also explains how circumstances forced Rizal to leave his motherland into exile in Assam and Sikkim, and then in Nepal. In Chapter II, Rizal states:

"The [Bhutanese] king was enraged at my political activities and requested his counterpart, the then king Birendra of Nepal, to extradite me to Bhutan. On November 16, 1989, I was arrested in the midnight from my bedroom by Nepal police from Birtamod in Eastern Nepal, along with two of my colleagues, Mr Jogen Gajmer and Mr Sushil Pokhrel. The next day we were taken to Kathmandu and handed over to the ADC of the king of Bhutan, Colonel V. Namgyel, who is at present Ambassador to Nepal and India. He was waiting for us in the Druk aircraft kept on standby at the Tribhuvan International Airport. The three of us were forcefully taken to Bhutan."

The author does not adequately explain what must have transpired between the King of Nepal and King Jigme, when the former agreed to extradite him to Bhutan, but the future development showed, the goodwill shown by Nepal King had no encouragement on King Jigme to sort out the problem inside the country and restore a regime of justice and nondiscrimination. With this starts the regime of torture, which is the main theme of the book.

The next six chapters deal with Rizal's account of the living hell in Rabuna prison, conditions at Dradulmakhang prison, Rizal's protests when he was in Chamgang, his final week in prison, and the last suffering there. Here and there, he highlights the sadistic mind control torture used alongside other physical torture tactics in these places.

"Torture was not confined to primitive physical assault by using whips, clamps, chains, ropes and giving electric shocks but also involved application of various scientific devices like light sensitivity, very high sound decibels, microwaves on my conscience. The objective was clear: destabilize the mind, induce anomalous behavioural changes and create dissociation. A combination of sensory isolation and beaming different kinds of energy in the brain were used to procure the desired result. Systematic efforts were made to destroy completely my senses but my deeper sub-conscious remained alive inside me. This has been instrumental in my post-torture mental reconstruction process, owing to which I have recollected myself to share my experiences with the world."

In Chapter IX, Rizal explains the situation leading to his release in 1999, the first day of freedom in Thimpu, efforts towards battling in Thimpu as a human rights and political activist, and the pain of fleeing his homeland for the second time. At this stage, he shares his thoughts in bold terms once again: "I thought for a moment that the declaration of my innocence might bring a change in Bhutan's deplorable politics and governance. I also thought that the problems of the innocent inmates and the discrimination against Lhotshampas would finally be addressed. Sadly, I was totally wrong."

This is more or less the conclusion that has been corroborated in the rest of the chapters as well. King Jigme has already abdicated his throne, passing the discriminatory regime to his son, the new king of Bhutan. There is no change even though Bhutan has a leader of a new generation. The two decade long refugee crisis is still without graceful solution.

The book is an authoritative, rich and compelling narrative of the man who represents the movement for democracy and human rights in Bhutan. It might once again remind the rulers of the present day Bhutan that there is no sustainable alternative to national reconciliation between the monarchy and the opposition forces. Bhutanese need national unity, and the new king has a meaningful role to play in this regard.

lawyers_inc_nepal@yahoo.com

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